Category Archives: Independent Practice

This is material either specifically designed for or appropriate to use for what is more commonly known as “homework.”

A Lesson Plan on Using Linking Verbs

Here is a lesson plan on using linking verbs, which is the first part of two lessons on using these kinds of verbs with predicate adjectives. This is a very common syntactical structure in English, so I have a number of lessons, using a number of strategies and parts of speech, that aim to help students develop their own mastery over this kind of sentence.

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on intransitive verbs; in the event that the lesson goes into a second day, I keep this homophones worksheet on the adjectives hardy and hearty nearby. This learning support is a word bank of predicate adjectives to use with this scaffolded worksheet that is the center of the lesson. Finally, here is the teacher’s copy of the worksheet.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

A Lesson Plan on the Readmission of Confederate States to the Union During Reconstruction from The Order of Things

OK, this lesson plan on on the readmission of the Confederate states to the Union during Reconstruction, as I look at the others like it I have posted, is most likely redundant in extremis. Nonetheless, here is the list and comprehension questions that drives this relatively short exercise.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Cultural Literacy: Italics

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on italics that introduces this typeface to students. Given that MLA style in now calls for titles of books and journals to be placed in italics, this is a quick way to help students develop their own understanding of the use of italic fonts.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “The $40,000 Raffle”

Last but not least this morning, here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “The $40,000 Raffle.” You’ll need this PDF of the illustration and questions to conduct your investigation of this case. To solve it, in the final analysis, you’ll want the typescript of the answer key.

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “Carry a Torch for.” Older people will recognize this as an expression meaning, in today’s parlance, “having a crush on,” or more succinctly, “crushing on.” I’ll let the great Louis Jordan (lyrics by the equally great Jon Hendricks) explain it:

“I’m the man for you and so you better start to face it
If you ever lose my love you know you never can replace it
I think it’s time for you to start to givin’ me some lovin’
‘Cause I’m carryin’ a torch for you that’s hotter than a oven
It’s time for you and me to do a little turtle-dovin'”

Enough said!

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Erwin Schrodinger

Over the years there has been very little demand for this reading on Erwin Schrodinger and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. In fact, only one student in 17 years of teaching, who had somehow come across the concept of “Schrodinger’s Cat,” asked for it, which is why it exists. I wrote this for one particularly bright (and ineptly misplaced in a self-contained special needs classroom) and inquisitive student about 15 years ago, then forgot about it.

If you can use it, there it is.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

The Weekly Text, April 17, 2020 Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Hokusai

This week’s Text is this reading on the influential Japanese artist known simply as Hokusai along with a vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet to accompany it.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Independent Practice: Shogunate

Here is an independent practice worksheet on the shogunate, a form of governmental organization in Japan that lasted for almost 700 years. The word comes from shogun and indicates a military dictator.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Word Root Exercise: Mort

OK, moving right along this morning, here is a worksheet on the Latin word root mort, which means dead and death. This is an extremely productive root in English and includes many words, alas, in use at this very sad and trying moment in human history.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Cultural Literacy: Knee-Jerk Reflex

OK, moving right along this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of the “knee-jerk reflex.” This squib that drives this worksheet does a nice, succinct job of showing the relationship between the literal and the metaphorical in this expression–so that’s a concept you might be able to explore in greater depth consequent to this document.

Just sayin’.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Jesse James

Here, on a Friday morning, is a reading on Jesse James along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Somewhere along the line (for me it was probably consequent to seeing, when I was 12 years old, Philip Kaufman’s film “The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid“) Jesse James attained status as something of a folk hero. As this reading discloses, he was a nasty piece of work–a Confederate sympathizer, klansman, and cold-blooded murderer. In today’s Republican party, he could be a congressional candidate.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.