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: African Geography

Here is an independent practice worksheet on African geography. As I looked at it just now, I realized it’s pretty dry stuff. Perhaps it can be part of a bigger endeavor for students.

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 Weekly Text, February 1, 2019, Black History Month 2019 Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Frederick Douglass

Hey! Black History Month 2019 begins today. I’m always excited for this month to roll around. In 16 years of teaching in inner-city schools, I have served students of predominantly (recent) African Descent. (I modify that locution with recent because as it turns out, we all–humans, I mean–started out in Africa. As the late, great Richard Pryor put it, “So Black people we the first people had thought. Right? We were the first to say, ‘Where the f**k am I? And how do you get to Detroit?’”)

Because I have, from childhood, been enamored of syncretic African cultural forms in this country–particularly jazz–the history of Black people in the United States has always been a deep interest of mine. As a matter of fact, I consider the seven years I lived in Harlem a post-graduate exercise. I really was thrilled to read about the locations of famous nightclubs, or the addresses of famous Harlem residents (Billie Holiday’s first apartment was on was on 138th Street, just off Lenox Avenue; A’Lelia Walker’s Dark Tower was on 136th Street in Sugar Hill–I could go on at length starting with 555 Edgecombe Avenue or The Dunbar Apartments–there are just so many of these august addresses in Harlem) and then stroll by to look at them.

Because David Blight, a historian at Yale,  has recently published a new biography of him (you can read Ta-nehisi Coates’ review here), let’s start the month with this short reading on Frederick Douglass and its 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.

A Learning Support on the Parts of Speech

Here is a supported glossary on the parts of speech that, if you teach them, could accompany any lesson on English usage or the parts of speech.

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 the Crime and Puzzlement Case “A Matter of Diamonds”

Ok, dawn just arrived here in the Northeast. I seem to be getting away with it so far, so let me offer up another lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “A Matter of Diamonds.”

I open this one with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the noun phrase and concept of pecking order. You’ll need the illustration, text, and questions for the case, which I’ve scanned directly from the book. Finally, here is teacher’s copy and answer key to solve 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.

A Learning Support on Transition Words

Here is a learning support for transition words instruction if you do that sort of thing with your students. This was a hot item at the school in which I worked for ten years in Lower Manhattan. These are tricky words to teach, especially to English language learners.

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.

Looney Tunes

Their characters are American icons at this point, and people (well, at least I do) still watch them, so here is a reading on Looney Tunes and its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. For some reason, it still surprises me that this particular reading is of very high interest to students. In the ten years I’ve used this material in the classroom, kids regularly ask for 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.

Palate (n), Palette (n), and Pallet (n)

I’m not sure how fine any teacher wants to parse out vocabulary instructions, or what that same teacher considers an adequate high school lexicon. If your instructional plans call for sorting out the myriad homonyms in the English language, and you want to assist your students in building their own broad vocabularies, then these five worksheets on the nouns palate, palette, and pallet  may be of some utility to 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.

Word Root Exercise: Circum-

Here is a worksheet on the Latin word root circum. It means, unsurprisingly, around. This root is at the base of at least two key words–circumference and circumstance–from the high school lexicon. Moreover, because it derives from the Latin, it forms the basis of a number of cognates in the Romance languages, particularly Spanish.

-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: Burn the Midnight Oil

As students head off to college, teachers probably should explain to them the cognitive science research on “cramming” as a method of studying, i.e. that it is basically useless and mostly exhausting. Perhaps this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom burn the midnight oil would serve as an elegant way to kill two birds with one stone: teach students a new idiomatic expression, and urge them to pace themselves when studying.

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.

Graphic Novels

OK, moving right along, here are a reading on graphic novels and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Kids in my classrooms over the years have always asked for these documents, so I think based on my experience with them, I’ll designate this high interest material.

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.