Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

Gordie Howe

Posted on November 12, 2019 | Leave a comment

Last year, while working in Springfield, Massachusetts, I was interested to learn that many of my students were interested in and followed hockey. This was partly due, I guess, to the presence of the Springfield Thunderbirds, a minor league hockey team; it was also due to the fact that several girls I taught actually played the game themselves.

So, one of the things I developed for these students is this reading on hockey legend Gordie Howe and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I have several more hockey-related readings and worksheet, so if this sport is of interest to your students, be on the lookout 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.

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The Weekly Text, November 8, 2019: A Lesson Plan on the Art of Summarizing

Posted on November 8, 2019 | Leave a comment

Alright, this week’s Text is a lesson plan on the art of summarizing which is part of a bigger unit on argumentation that I wrote–but used only once–a couple of years ago.

This context clues worksheet on the verb concede (which is used transitively, but can be used intransitively, according to Merriam-Webster’s, by writing to make concession) opens the lesson. I use this exemplar of a summary, drawn from the book that informs this unit, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein’s They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing (New York: Norton, 2018) as a learning support and model text. This learning support on the verbs used in the rhetorical figures of argumentation supplies students with the vocabulary they require to postulate and write sound arguments. Here are the two exercises for summarizing that are at the center of this lesson. Finally, here is the worksheet for this lesson that contains the full text of the exemplar linked to above.

And that’s it for another week at Mark’s Text Terminal. Enjoy the weekend.

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, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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The Three Stooges

Posted on November 8, 2019 | Leave a comment

Because one seldom has a chance to see real genius at work, this reading on The Three Stooges and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet might be a salutary antidote to that deficit.

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: Nom-o and Nomy

Posted on November 8, 2019 | Leave a comment

This worksheet on the Greek roots nom-o and nomy can, if necessary, familiarize your students with this very productive root in English, particularly in the world of teaching and learning; it means law, system of laws, management, and rule. Taxonomy obviously grows from this root, and it is just as obviously a word learners really 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.

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Cultural Literacy: Sparta

Posted on November 8, 2019 | Leave a comment

If you can use it, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Sparta–you know, the ancient Greek city-state known for its, uh, Spartan characteristics.

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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Black Sabbath

Posted on November 6, 2019 | Leave a comment

In the early- to mid-1970s, they were all the rage among certain of my peers, but I mostly listened to Bob Dylan in those days. If you have students who are fans of heavy metal music, then this reading on Black Sabbath and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it will be, I expect, of high interest to those students. After all, Ozzy Osbourne still occupies a relatively prominent place in the culture.

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 Crime and Puzzlement Case “Snow Cover”

Posted on November 6, 2019 | Leave a comment

It has been a busy week already, but I’m forcing a few minutes of time this morning to publish this lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Snow Cover.”

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Apollo with which I open this lesson. The center of this lesson is, of course, this PDF of the illustration and questions that drive the case. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key that solves the case.

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, November 1, 2019: A Lesson Plan on the Use of Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

Posted on November 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on differentiating and using transitive and intransitive verbs. I think it’s important that students understand these kinds of words because if they decide to study an inflected language, they will need to understand how to decline the direct objects of verbs, which often take the accusative case in such languages. I ran into this while studying Russian all those years ago.

In any case, the first do-now exercise for this lesson is this Cultural Literacy worksheet on transitive verbs. If this lesson, for whatever reason, goes into a second day, then here is an Everyday Edit worksheet on Dr. Seuss; if you and your students like that document, then you can find a yearlong supply of them for free from the good people at Education World. Finally, here is the scaffolded worksheet at the center 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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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Word Root Exercise: Mono, Mon

Posted on November 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Greek word roots mono and mon if you can use it. They mean, of course, one, single, and alone. These are two very productive roots in English, and show up in words used across the domains of the common branch curriculum, e.g monocyte, monotheism, monosyllable, and monopoly, as well as in commonly used words in social discourse like monotony and monologue.

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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Vitamin C and Scurvy

Posted on November 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

For health teachers (and for social studies teachers who want, improbably, their students to understand what life on the high seas was like for English sailors, and how they came by the epithet “Limeys”), here is a reading on vitamin c and scurvy and 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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