Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

Two Worksheets, with Answer Keys, on the Associative Property of Addition

Here are two worksheets on the associative property of multiplication with their answer keys attached. When you click to download, you should have a single, four-page-long document. Any problems, please advise.

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: Valley of the Kings and Tutankhamen

It’s Friday, and we will release students early on account of winter weather today in this district. In other words, I’ll have a few minutes today to post some materials for Black History Month 2020.

So here is an independent practice worksheet on both Tutankhamen and the Valley of the Kings; the two short readings seemed to me to fit together naturally.

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.

The Weekly Text, February 7, 2020, Black History Month 2020 Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Alex Haley

OK, for week one of Black History Month 2020, here is a reading on Alex Haley 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.

Cultural Literacy: Deep South

William Faulkner, Truman Capote, Harper Lee and Flannery O’Conner notwithstanding, I confess to this prejudice: I have always thought of the Deep South, from the earliest age I was able to understand it as a place and a culture, as a deeply backward place. It wasn’t a coincidence that white nationalists chose Charlottesville, Virginia, as the place to hold their “Unite the Right” rally, nor is it a coincidence that the the Neo-Confederate movement finds adherents in this region of the United States.

I assume I needn’t belabor the the fact that Americans of African descent have suffered the worst oppression and indignity in the Deep South. For that reason, I include this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Deep South in this year’s observation of Black History Month. I think if we as a nation are to face our history without delusion, we have to admit that the mentality that used the color of a person’s skin to commodify him or her is alive and well in this country–especially in the Deep South.

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.

Everyday Edit: Booker T Washington

Moving right along, here is an Everyday Edit worksheet on Booker T. Washington for Black History Month 2020. If you’d like more worksheets like this one, head on over to Education World, where the good people who operate give away a year’s supply of them.

You will find typos in this document–that’s the point of it. Copyedit and repair faults!

Desert (n/vi/vt) and Dessert (n)

Here are five worksheets on the homophones desert (a noun and a verb, in the latter case used both intransitively and transitively) and dessert, which is only a noun. These are two very commonly confused words even though, when carefully and properly pronounced, they aren’t really homophones.

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.

Erie Canal

United States history teachers, here is a reading on the Erie Canal and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet if you need 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.

Word Root Exercise: Volv, Volu, Volut

Let’s begin this day with this worksheet on the Latin word roots volv, volu, and volut. They mean roll and turn (you know, as in revolve, etc). This is a very productive root in English, and it forms the basis of a lot of commonly used words.

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.

Independent Practice: African Slave Trade

Wrapping up for today, here is an independent practice worksheet on the African slave trade. I find myself struggling to post this catalogue of indignities that Americans of African descent have endured. I’m down to the last few of them, and I begin to see why I have hesitated to post them over the years.

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.

Everyday Edit: Thurgood Marshall

Here is an Everyday Edit worksheet on Thurgood Marshall. If you want more of these, check with the eleemosynary spirits at Education World, who give away a year’s supply of them at their site.

My usual caution and entreaty on typos doesn’t apply here: there are a number of spelling, grammar and punctuation errors on each of these worksheets; the task is to fix them.