Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

Aesop’s Fables: “The Milkmaid and Her Pail”

Here is a lesson plan on the Aesop’s Fable “The Milkmaid and Her Pail.” Of course you’ll need the reading with its comprehension questions to teach this short passage on hopes and reality.

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 Latin Word Roots Graph and Graphy

OK, last but not least this morning, before I head out to the grocery store (aside: don’t forget to thank the brave workers staffing our grocery stores–if there is any justice in this world, they will emerge from this pandemic among–to use another word deriving from. the Latin root pan–among the pantheon of heroes), here is a lesson plan on the Latin word roots graph and graphy. These mean writing, written, recording, drawing and science; you will recognize immediately, even before looking at the scaffolded worksheet at the center of this lesson, that these are two very productive roots in English.

I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the verb record, which is used both intransitively and transitively.

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: Muhammad

Here, in the ongoing observation of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2020 at Mark’s Text Terminal, is an independent practice worksheet on Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.

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 Civil War Secession of States from The Order of Things

Here’s another lesson plan from The Order of Things, this one on the secession of states preceding the American Civil War. This worksheet with a list and comprehension questions related to it constitute the work for this lesson.

As I’ve previously mentioned, I was just beginning to develop these materials (in fact, as I write this, a pile of worksheets awaiting development sits before me on my desk) when the school I was working in closed for the year. In fact, I’ve already posted several lessons derived from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s book, including those on the readmission of seceded states after the Civil War. Needless to say, those logically ought to follow this one, not precede 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.

A Concluding Lesson Plan for the Nouns Unit Posted on this Site

OK, readers, I debated with myself about whether or not to publish this post. The documents below are the unit final assessment for my unit on nouns, which means I have posted all the previous lessons–12 of them, to be precise, since this one is lesson 13. You can actually find all the rest of this unit’s lessons underneath this hyperlink. In other words, for the first time, in almost 3,300 published posts, I have managed to get a complete unit published from my parts of speech units. Stay tuned, because there are more to come–and depending on how long social distancing lasts, and schools remain closed, these lessons will continue to appear here every couple of days.

So, here is the lesson plan for this final assessment; nota bene please that I built into this lesson some organizational activities for students who deal with executive skills and attentional challenges. The first do-now exercise for this lesson is this Everyday Edit worksheet on Aquarius, the Water Carrier (and please don’t forget that you can help yourself to a yearlong supply of these worksheets at Education World). The second do-now is this worksheet on the homophones there, their, and they’re. Finally, I’ll assume that this four page assessment speaks to the need for two do-now exercises for this lesson; in fact, in my experience (this is the first of seven units on the parts of speech), this assessment takes at least two days to complete, and may take a third. If that is the case, and you need another do-now, there are reams of them available on this site.

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.

Tonsillitis

When I was a kid, a couple of hundred years ago, it was a common childhood malady. I don’t know if remains so, but in any case, here is a reading on tonsillitis along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet if you can use them.

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 Crime and Puzzlement Case “A Case of Kippers”

Alright, last but not least this morning, here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “A Case of Kippers.”

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “burning the candle at both ends.” Here is the PDF of the illustration and questions you and your students will need to conduct this investigation. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key so that you and your class may bring the culprit to the bar of justice.

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: Islam

Here is an independent practice (i.e. homework) worksheet on Islam. It’s a short reading with a few questions. While I wrote it to send home as homework, it could be used as the basis for a lesson on the many conceptual aspects of Islam students should probably understand: monotheism, prophets and prophecy, obligation, religious and otherwise, intellectual and religious lineage, and sectarianism, just to name a few.

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.

Aesop’s Fables: “The Ass, The Fox, and The Lion”

For younger kids, or for English language learners, here is a lesson plan on Aesop’s fable “The Ass, The Fox, and The Lion” and its accompanying reading with comprehension and interpretive questions in worksheet form. If nothing else, I expect (though perhaps I project because I got such a kick out of this as a young reader) younger kids will enjoy hearing a donkey called an “ass.”

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: Limerick

Here’s a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the limerick as a poetic form. This might be something to use with English language learners.

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.