Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

Word Root Exercise: Quin, Quint, Quintu, Quinque

Here is a worksheet on the Latin roots quin, quint, quintu, and quinque. You probably already recognize the meaning of these roots as five and fifth. This root is very productive in English and probably quintessential to student vocabulary building.

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: Alien and Sedition Acts

Because it was an important topic, as I recall, in the United States History course I taught for a couple of years, I suspect this this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Alien and Sedition Acts will be useful to teachers of that subject. Indeed, when I briefly–but happily–co-taught United States History in Lower Manhattan, my esteemed colleague taught this with a thoroughness that persuades me this worksheet probably can only serve either as an introduction to the subject, or as an independent practice worksheet.

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 Depression

Moving right along, here is a lesson plan on depression with the work that comprises it, namely this short reading and vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. If you’d like to use slightly longer versions of these documents, they are available under this hyperlink.

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.

Sesame Street

I just whipped up this reading on Sesame Street and its accompanying 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 Attention Deficit Disorder

I’ve used this lesson plan on attention deficit disorder regularly over the years. While I cannot honestly tag it as high-interest material, I can say that it has helped kids gain some insight into why school seems so hard for them. Here are the short reading and vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that comprise the work for this lesson (and if you’d like slightly longer versions of these documents, you can click here).

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.

7 Seas

“North Atlantic * South Atlantic * Arctic * Antarctic * Indian Ocean * North Pacific * South Pacific

These vast oceans are the seven seas that we now list—however, the concept of the seven seas is ancient and also very variable. We know the Sumerians had a list (from a reference in the hymn of the Enheduanna) but not what was on it. By the time of the Phoenicians, there was a canonical list for the seven seas within the Mediterranean, upon which their black ships traded. Working west from their homeland, there was the Aegean, Ionian, and Adriatic, whilst west of Sicily stretched the Tyrrhenian, Ligurian, Balearic, and sea of Alboran (the straits of Gibraltar).

For a Muslim Arab trader the seven seas referred to that vital sinew of trade that took them east to the coast of China, beginning with the Persian Gulf, then the Gulf of Khambhat (Sind and Gujarat), Harkand (the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal), Kalah (the Malacca straits), Salahit (the straits of Singapore), Kardani (the waters of Siam) and Sanji (the South China sea). Medieval Christian traders, such as the Venetians and Genoese, made lists of seven that included the Adriatic, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Red Sea, Mediterranean, Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

A Lesson Plan on the Greek Word Root Auto

If you scroll down to the seventh post below this one, you will find a pair of context clues worksheets on the noun autobiography and the adjective autobiographical.

Perhaps this lesson plan on the Greek word root auto–it means self and same–might complement those worksheets, or vice versa. I probably don’t need to tell you how productive this root is in English; it is at the basis of huge number of words used across academic domains.

I open this lesson, hinting at the meaning of the root, with this context clues worksheet on the adjective identical. Finally, here is the word root worksheet that 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.

Soul (n), Sole (n, adj)

Can you use these five worksheets on the homophones soul (as a noun) and sole (as a noun and an adjective)? As I was pasting them together yesterday, I found myself wondering whether I should have named the species of fish as well in these worksheets.

As with virtually everything else at Mark’s Text Terminal, these are Microsoft Word documents, so it would be easy enough to add another word or two.

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: Zeitgeist

If there was ever a time for kids to learn this German noun, one of those abstractions that the Germans are good at contriving in compounds, it is now. To that end, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the word and concept zeitgeist.

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 Anxiety

Here’s a lesson plan on anxiety with its work, to wit this short reading and vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. If you’d like slightly longer versions of these documents, they are available here.

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.