Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

Cultural Literacy: Rubicon

The expression “crossing the Rubicon” is a commonplace in educated discourse, in the sense that one has arrived at a point of no return. This is of course its figurative meaning, and here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Rubicon River that will help your students understand the literal meaning of this expression–you know, Julius Caesar and all that.

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.

Lou Gehrig

Lou Gehrig was born, to reiterate, on June 19, 1903–115 years ago. You may know that he was felled by the same disease that recently claimed Stephen Hawking, to wit Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which, not coincidentally, is known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.” Mr. Gehrig famously delivered what is known as “baseball’s Gettysburg Address” on July 4, 1939, making a dignified exit from the game, and cementing his legend with that simple, eloquent address.

Here is a reading on Lou Gehrig along with a comprehension worksheet to accompany 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.

The Weekly Text, June 22, 2018: A Lesson Plan on Using Adverbs to Modify Verbs

Today’s Text is a complete lesson plan on using adverbs to modify adverbs. I start this lesson with this short exercise on the idiom “money burning a hole in one’s pocket.” Should this lesson go into a second day, here is a second short exercise, this one a on the homophones pore, poor, and pour. The mainstay of this lesson is this scaffolded worksheet on using adverbs to modify adverbs. Depending on the students you’re serving, they may need this learning support, which is a word bank to use with the cloze exercises on the worksheet. Finally, here is the teacher’s copy-answer key of the 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.

Cultural Literacy: Meter

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on poetic meter that might be useful if you’re teaching students poetry.

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: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby (the appeal of which is squandered on this reader) remains a staple in high school English classes, so this short reading and comprehension exercise might serve well to introduce the book’s author.

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.

Coarse (adj) and Course (n)

Here are five homophone worksheets on the adjective coarse and the noun course that may well have a place in your classroom.

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: Napoleon Bonaparte

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Napoleon Bonaparte if you need something to introduce the little Corsican quickly.

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: War Crimes

It seems to me that if you’re teaching any sort of global studies or world history course that includes the twentieth century in its chronology, this Cultural Literacy worksheet on war crimes will be of some use to you.

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.

Parsing Sentences Worksheet: Pronouns

Here is, before I go off to proctor a high-stakes test, a parsing sentences worksheet for pronouns. It calls upon students to identify all the pronouns in a series of five sentences.

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 Short Exercise on the Greek Word Root Olig/o

Last week I thought I’d posted the last of the short word root exercises I had. However, this morning as I ran the heuristic Hoover around my archives, I found this worksheet on the Greek root olig/o. It is the basis of a word I consider very timely, to wit Oligarchy. Anyway, it means few and deficiency.

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.