Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

Cultural Literacy: Leaves of Grass

Posted on April 13, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Leaves of Grass ; the book actually went through numerous editions, depending on how one counts them. That count, in any case, includes the famous “deathbed edition,” which had grown to almost 400 poems from the 12 in the first edition.

Walt Whitman is a central figure in American letters and Leaves of Grass a milestone in American poetry. I can’t imagine why high school students shouldn’t learn something about him. Moreover, Whitman can serve as a means of introducing students to the concept of free verse–again, something high school students should understand, and be able to understand.

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.

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Joe DiMaggio

Posted on April 13, 2020 | Leave a comment

While Major League Baseball remains on hiatus and debates with itself on how to proceed in these extraordinary circumstances, perhaps this reading on Joe DiMaggio and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet will go a short distance toward engaging young minds in the national pastime, or at least its history.

It isn’t much, I concede, but I suppose it’s better than nothing. I’m definitely ready to watch some baseball.

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.

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The Weekly Text, April 10, 2020, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Week II: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Zen Buddhism

Posted on April 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

OK, last but not least this morning, this week’s Text, in this blog’s ongoing observation of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2020, here is a reading on Zen along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension 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.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Independent Practice, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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Independent Practice: The Mauryan Empire

Posted on April 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is an independent practice worksheet on the Mauryan Empire.

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.

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Cultural Literacy: James Joyce

Posted on April 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

It’s hard to imagine there will be much demand even at the high school level for this Cultural Literacy worksheet on James Joyce. But who knows? More startling things have happened in my classrooms, to be sure.

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.

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A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Roots Deca, Dec, Deka, and Deci

Posted on April 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is a lesson plan on the Latin word roots deca, dec, deka, and deci. The first three mean ten, but deci means tenth. As you have probably already inferred, especially you math teachers, this is a very productive root in English, and will lead students to understand a wide variety of words for transfer across the curriculum.

I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the noun cipher. This word root worksheet is the mainstay of this lesson.

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.

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A Lesson Plan on the Compound Noun

Posted on April 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

Alright, moving right along, here is a lesson plan on the compound noun and its use in declarative sentences. I open this lesson with the Everyday Edit worksheet on National Public Radio (and as I will never stop saying every time I post an Everyday Edit worksheet, the generous proprietors of Education World will let you walk away from their site with a yearlong supply of these worksheets free of charge). This scaffolded worksheet at the center of the lesson will take most of your time in helping students master this point of grammar and usage. I made this teacher’s copy of the worksheet to make sure I taught the material consistently. Finally, here is the learning support, a word bank, to help move the work along.

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.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, Reference, Worksheets

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A Lesson Plan on Historic Ages and Eras from The Order of Things

Posted on April 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

From the pages of Barbara Ann Kipfer’s The Order of Things, here is a lesson plan on historic ages and eras along with its reading and comprehension worksheet. As I note in the “About Posts & Texts” page, these worksheets are something I began developing this year as short exercises to take advantage of teachable moments and to help students develop an understanding of working with two symbolic systems (i.e. words and numbers) at the same time.

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.

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Homosexuality

Posted on April 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

When I started working with troubled adolescents in 1990, I was surprised to see that the the clinical professionals with whom I worked, tread very lightly, if at all, around the issue of sexual identity in the kids we saw. In fact, on the only occasion I saw it addressed directly, one of the more highly placed professionals in the program angrily denied that it was a precipitant to or a factor in other clinical issues.

I’m not qualified to speak deeply about clinical pathology, but at the same time I knew that gay kids coming of age in a deeply homophobic society faced challenges that I clearly hadn’t experience and therefore didn’t understand. I did know that gay kids suffered a very high rate of suicidality.

Things have changed, fortunately. Here is a reading on homosexuality along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This has, along the way in my time as a teacher, become a high-interest item, so I have tagged it as such.

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.

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Word Root Exercise: Sphere

Posted on April 9, 2020 | Leave a comment

OK: finally, on this rainy April morning, here is a worksheet on the Greek word root sphere. It means ball. I’ll assume I needn’t belabor the point that students should know this root, which is also, per se, a noun in the English language as well as combining to make a variety of nouns in the sciences and mathematics.

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.

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