Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

Independent Practice: The Black Death

Posted on April 12, 2019 | Leave a comment

As far as I’m concerned, spring break begins as soon as a publish a few more blog posts this afternoon. You’ll hear not a peep from me next week–I hope you will be, as I will, enjoying the spring weather.

Here is a short independent practice worksheet on the black death. I’ve formatted it to fit on one page of paper, but depending on your students, you may want to spread it our over two pages. Like almost everything on Mark’s Text Terminal, this is a Microsoft Word document, so you can manipulate it to suit your students’ needs.

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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Learning Support: Citing Sources

Posted on April 11, 2019 | Leave a comment

This learning support on citing sources is part of an entire lesson plan on the subject that I thought I’d previously posted in these pages. I couldn’t find it when I searched. I’ll take a stroll through the archive soon and get that material out here for teachers’ use.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Reference, Social Sciences

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Magic Realism

Posted on April 11, 2019 | Leave a comment

Here are a reading on magic realism and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet if they are of any interest to your students or you.

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: Cosmo

Posted on April 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

Finally, on this very productive Wednesday morning, here is a worksheet on the Greek word root cosmo. It means, as you probably assumed, both universe and world. It’s at the root of many English words, especially those related to astrophysics and astronomy; but you also find it under such words in the social sciences like cosmopolitan.

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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Learning Support: English Language Arts Posters Text

Posted on April 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

For a variety of reasons, I have always found the kinds of classroom decorations available for purchase in “teachers’ stores” (what the heck is a teachers store, anyway?) to be insincerely cheerful and annoyingly inauthentic. For that reason, I developed a short unit on making classroom posters. One component of this exercise is this raw text for making classroom posters on English Language Arts topics.

Observing students as they work on creating posters helps me assess a wide range of student abilities, including organizing and executing a task as well as persisting to finish that task, following directions, reading, writing, and spelling, and understanding the basic concepts the text outlines.

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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Independent Practice: The Fall of Rome

Posted on April 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

This independent practice worksheet on the Fall of Rome does a nice job, in only a few sentences, of laying out the concept of imperial overreach. That’s a key concept in historiography, so students would be well served to understand it.

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: Bowdlerizing

Posted on April 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

If you happen to need it, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Thomas Bowdler and the act–essentially a form of censorship–that bears his name, bowdlerizing.

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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Word Root Exercise: Deca, Dec, Deka, Deci

Posted on April 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

This worksheet on the Latin roots deca, dec, deka, and deci can assist students in a number of ways I think. These mean, as you probably already recognized, ten; be aware though, that deci actually means tenth. In any case, this is a vocabulary builder, but contains words primarily from  mathematics, so it’s probably best used there to assist students in developing their own understanding and using words growing from these  roots.

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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Psychiatrists and Psychologists

Posted on April 9, 2019 | Leave a comment

Health care has been something of a hot potato in the United States for a very long time; and certainly the debate around what looks to me like a basic human right has grown extremely contentious with the passage of the Affordable Care Act. I want the students I serve to know something about health care. And as many young people today require the services of mental health professionals, they should know what they’re looking for and buying.

So here is a short reading on the difference between psychiatrists and psychologists and 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.

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A Learning Support on Questions in the Classroom

Posted on April 9, 2019 | Leave a comment

Here’s a short reading I whipped up several years ago when I tired of having students preface inquiries with “I know this is a stupid question, but….” Wherever do kids get the idea that their questions are stupid? If you are a teacher who warns students against asking stupid questions, could you cease, uh, forthwith?

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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