Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

War of the Worlds

The story of Orson Welles’ broadcast of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds fascinated me as a grade-schooler. I think I was first exposed to it in around fifth grade. But even at that tender age, I was surprised that people were taken in by it–but also sympathetic that they were. I remember trying to imagine myself in the place of the folks who thought Welles was delivering news, rather than a science-fiction story. I could, but only barely.

Any way, here is a reading on Orson Welles’ broadcast of War of the Worlds along with its attendant 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.

The Weekly Text, June 7, 2019: A Lesson Plan on Using Personal Pronouns in the Objective Case

On Tuesday of this week I posted a complete lesson on using personal pronouns in the nominative case. For this week’s, Text, let’s go to the other side of the sentence.

Here is a complete lesson plan on using the personal pronoun in the objective case. I begin this lesson, after a class transition in order to get students settled, with this Everyday Edit on Iqbal Masih, Child Activist (if you and your students like Everyday Edit worksheets, you can help yourself to a yearlong supply of them at no cost by clicking on that hyperlink); in the event that the lesson spills over into a second day, here is a worksheet on the homophones there, their, and they’re.

The center of this lesson is this scaffolded worksheet on using the personal pronoun in the objective case. Finally, here is the learning support on pronouns and case that I also included on the original post, last Tuesday, on using the personal pronoun in the nominative 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.

Cultural Literacy: Epic

Finally, on this warm and rainy Thursday morning in Springfield, Massachusetts, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the epic as a literary genre. If you’re teaching Homer, this might be just the squib for introducing the conceptual foundations of the epic genre.

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: The Hundred Years War

I’m not sure if it makes it into the social studies curriculum anywhere now, but if it does in your classroom, here is an independent practice worksheet on the Hundred Years War.

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.

Steroids

Here’s a reading on steroids and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet if you want them. I hope that there isn’t a real need for these documents–because that could mean kids are using steroids, a scary thought.

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 Learning Support on the Helping Verbs

These two learning supports on helping verbs have been a staple for for struggling readers and writers in my classroom. They’ll probably turn up again on Mark’s Text Terminal when I post lessons on this area of English usage.

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.

Blog Post 2000: A Trove of Learning Supports and Graphic Organizers

Here we are at Blog Post 2000. I have a number of documents to post, all from the first third of my career, when I was just figuring out how to assess students’ abilities and design instruction that challenged them, but didn’t frustrate them.

So, for starters, here is a learning support on the kinds of questions that drive research projects.

Next, here is a learning support on writing notecards for research papers. I don’t know if teachers still require students to keep analog note-cards in the real world, but the social studies teacher with whom I taught sophomore global studies in Manhattan at the beginning of this (2018-2019) school year still–to his credit–required them. Whatever you do in your classroom, perhaps this structured note-card blank will help students learn and master this task essential to the craft of research.

This sample outline learning support and this style sheet on using structured outlining blanks, you will notice, are basically the same material. The style sheet accompanies these structured outlining blanks.

Finally, here is a document I call the research paper in miniature. I use this document to show students, in essence, what a research paper is, why the authors of these kinds of papers must cite sources, and even ask them to infer the argument (i.e. the origins of rock and roll are in the blues and other African musical forms) from the paragraph they read. As I write this, I realize that I have a lesson plan to rationalize the research paper in miniature, so I’ll post that as a Weekly Text sometime over the summer when I have a chance to revise it.

That’s it. I emptied out the folder for Blog Post 2000. Now to start working on my next thousand posts.

A Lesson Plan on Using Personal Pronouns in the Nominative Case

OK: here, on a Tuesday morning, is a complete lesson plan on the personal pronoun in the nominative case.

I begin this lesson, after a class change, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Jargon; and if the lesson, for whatever reason (there are many in classroom, as we teacher know) continues into a second day, here is a second do-now, an Everyday Edit worksheet on Booker T. Washington. Incidentally, if you or your students find Everyday Edits useful or edifying, the good people at Education World offer a yearlong supply of them for the taking.

This scaffolded worksheet on using the personal pronoun in the nominative case is the mainstay of this lesson. Finally, here is a learning support on pronouns and case to help students navigate this area of usage and develop their own understanding–and mastery–of 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.

Ty Cobb

He was a nasty and irredeemably racist piece of work, but he was also one of the greatest baseball players in the history of the game.

For that reason, Mark’s Text Terminal offers, with some trepidation, this reading on Ty Cobb and its accompanying worksheet for vocabulary building and comprehension.

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: Martin Luther

It’s just about time I left for work, so let me leave off, on the first day of the penultimate week of the school year, with this independent practice worksheet on Martin Luther.

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.