Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

The Weekly Text, December 20, 2019: A Lesson Plan on the Demonstrative Adjective

Tomorrow is the winter solstice; the day sure seems to come up fast this year. After tomorrow, the days will begin to lengthen, which means warmer weather and more light is on the way. And who doesn’t want that? I like a few deep, dark winter nights, but a little, in the end, goes a long way.

This week’s Text, the last of 2019, is a lesson plan on the demonstrative adjective. I open this lesson with this Everyday Edit on worksheet on “Edison’s First Movie Set” (and if you and your students like working with Everyday Edit worksheets, the good folks at Education World give away a year’s supply of them under that hyperlink). If the lesson runs into a second day, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on slang. Finally, here is the scaffolded worksheet on the demonstrative adjectives that is the gravamen of this unit.

That’s it. Happy Hanukkah, Happy, Kwanzaa, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I’ll be back on Friday, January 3 with the first Weekly Text for 2020.

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.

Gregor Mendel

Science teachers, can you use this reading on Gregor Mendel 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.

Word Root Exercise: Scrib, Script

As I prepare to post this worksheet on the Latin word roots scrib and script–they mean, which you’ve already determined, to write–it occurs to me that I have a full lesson plan somewhere to go with this document. Stay tuned, I guess…

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: Short-Term Memory

Moving right along on this frigid morning (two degrees when I left my building at 6:03 a.m.), here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on short-term memory.

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.

Descent (n), Dissent (vi/n)

This set of five homophone worksheets builds vocabulary and helps students differentiate between the noun descent, and dissent, which is used both as a verb (intransitively only, apparently) and a noun.

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.

Godfrey of Bouillon

Here is a reading on the crusader Godfrey of Bouillon and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it.

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: Phag, Phage

Here is a worksheet on the Greek roots phag and phage; they mean to eat. This is a word that shows up in words related to healthcare like esophagus. So, nota bene!

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: Pyrrhic Victory

Because it is a metaphor that remains in common use in the United States, particularly in good journalism, I think this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the term Pyrrhic victory and the concept it represents could find a place in the high school classroom.

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 Greatest Game Ever Played

Here is a reading on “The Greatest Game Ever Played,” which, in the opinion of many, apparently, was the December 1958 contest in Yankee Stadium between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants. This vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet  accompanies the reading. This short reading characterizes this football game as the birth of the modern NFL.

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: Retro

Here is a worksheet on the Latin root retro. It means back, backward, and behind–but you probably already figured that out. You probably also already understand that this is a very productive root in English, giving us words like retroactive and retrofit.

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.