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 Admission of States (and Readmission after the Civil War) to the Union from The Order of Things

As I mentioned the previous posts in which I published these documents (and you can learn more about these materials in the “About Posts & Texts” page on the homepage of this blog, just above the banner photograph), I began to contrive lessons from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s book The Order of Things just about the time I left public education last month. So, because I have only used these materials in the classroom a couple of times, they remain somewhat tentative.

Nonetheless, I wrote 30 of them, and have the document templates prepared to write 30 more–at least. If you’ve ever considered commenting on Mark’s Text Terminal, I would be very much obliged to hear what you think of these lessons. I intended them for emergent and struggling readers as a means to experience directly the task of reading and comprehending two symbolic systems (i.e. numbers and letters) at the same time.

So, here is a lesson plan on admission (and readmission after the Civil War) of states to the Union, along with its reading and comprehension worksheet. The worksheet is relatively short; like most other things on this blog, however, it is in Microsoft Word and therefore easily manipulable to your needs. I suppose, as I look at these, they have the potential for transfer into cross-disciplinary instruction.

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.

Larry Bird

OK, while Jimmy Rushing (“Mr. Five by Five“)  sings the blues in the background, let me offer this high-interest reading on Larry Bird along with its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Bird, in my experience over the years, remains of interest to students who are likewise interested in professional basketball.

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.

Origami V

This is the fifth of five posts on origami; as I said in the last one, blink, of you’ll miss it. I scanned the documents in these posts from two different origami books I bought for use in my classrooms. None of this intellectual property, needless to say, is mine to give away. Desperate times call for bold measures, which is why I’m here putting up one more of these posts.

First, here are the folding terms and directions for the documents in this and the previous (i.e. Origami IV) post. And here are the directions of the origami figures themselves:

origami 42 magnolia blossom; origami 43 rose; origami 44 leaf; origami 45 swan; origami 46 butterfly; origami 47 crane; origami 48 frog; origami 49 chinese wheel; origami 50 koi.

Here is a wikiHow article on how to make origami paper. Finally, once more, here are a trove of videos on origami from YouTube.

Word Root Exercise: Tom, -Tome, -Tomy, -Stomy

Here is a word root worksheet on the Greek roots tom,-tome,-tomy,-stomy. They mean, oddly, to cut. There are a lot of commonly used words from educated discourse that grow from this productive root–think, for example, of surgeries like hysterectomy, thyroidectomy, and tonsillectomy.

This is another of those words students aspiring to careers in the healthcare professions ought to know.

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 Possible Dreams Auction”

OK, moving right along, here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “The Possible Dreams Auction.”

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “Feather One’s Own Nest.” You’ll need this scan of the illustration and questions that drive the investigation in order to conduct it. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key.

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.

Hippocrates

Here is a reading on Hippocrates and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I assume I don’t need to explain why now might be a good time to read about the father of modern medicine and the historical embodiment of why politicians and half-wit journalists should not pronounce on medical issues like, oh let’s say chloroquine as a treatment for COVID19.

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: Edgar Allan Poe

Now is a good time to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Edgar Allan Poe. If you’re obsessively following news, then you may have seen this piece from Slate on Poe’s story “The Masque of the Red Death.” Somewhere in my iTunes library I have the story read by none other than William S. Burroughs, which is basically one of those perfect literary pairings. It looks like you can listen to Burroughs’ rendition of the story at no charge here at Open Culture.

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.

Origami IV

I sure hope it’s true that, as the old Roman proverb goes, that fortune favors the bold, because I fear I am pushing my luck with these origami posts. As the heading indicates this is number four–out of a total of five–of these posts containing PDF illustration of origami folding instructions. This batch is from a different book from the first three, so these folding terms and directions are different.

Anyway, here we go: origami 33 luna moth; origami 34 tortoise; origami 35 carp; origami 36 pinwheel; origami 37 lotus; origami 38 balloon; origami 39 wreath; origami 40 masu; origami 41 peacock.

Finally, don’t forget this article from wikiHow on making origami paper, and this trove of videos on YouTube on origami.

The Weekly Text, April 3, 2020, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2020 Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Kazuo Ishiguro

The Weekly Text for the first Friday of Asian Pacific American History Month 2020 is a reading novelist and Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I’ve read three of his novels over the years and can say confidently that he richly deserves the honors and plaudits he has received.

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.

Everyday Edit: Hawaii, the 50th State

Moving right along this morning, here is an Everyday Edit worksheet on Hawaii, America’s 50th State.

And as always, to give credit where it is so abundantly due, you should know that the good people at Education World generously offer at no cost to you a yearlong supply of these documents. I’ve used them for many years in my classrooms, and they are first rate.

And if you find typos in this document, for heaven’s sake fix them! That’s the whole point here….