Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

Robert Benchley on Homework

Posted on April 3, 2017 | Leave a comment

“Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he’s supposed to be doing at that moment.”

Robert Benchley

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

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The Weekly Text, March 31, 2017, Women’s History Month Week V: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Murasaki Shikibu

Posted on March 31, 2017 | Leave a comment

The last day of March is also the last day of Women’s History Month. This week’s Text is a reading on Murasaki Shikibu. Lady Shikibu wrote what is arguably history’s first novel, The Tale of Genji. Here is a comprehension worksheet to accompany the relatively short reading.

And that is the last Weekly Text for Women’s History Month. I hope they’ve been useful. Next week I’ll return to posting less theme oriented material; I think I have a grammar lesson queued up.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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The Weekly Text, March 24, 2017, Women’s History Month 2017 Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Posted on March 24, 2017 | Leave a comment

It seems to me safe to assume that Elizabeth Cady Stanton is a staple in any Women’s Studies Program. For this fourth and penultimate week of Women’s History Month, Mark’s Text Terminal therefore offers this reading on Elizabeth Cady Stanton as well as a comprehension worksheet to accompany it. I hope you find them useful.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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An Explanation of Mercantilism for Struggling Learners

Posted on March 21, 2017 | Leave a comment

As I’ve mentioned ad nauseum on this blog, I work at a business-themed high school in Lower Manhattan. Mercantilism, a key concept to any high school social studies curriculum, is especially important in this institution. I’ve posted elsewhere on Mark’s Text Terminal a a lengthy and supported lesson plan on the concept. At the same time, I have always sought to supply students with a thumbnail sketch of this relatively abstract concept, the mastery of which often eludes struggling learners.

The other day, struggling to explain mercantilism, once again, to a freshman global studies class, I came up this summary of mercantilism that calls upon prior knowledge that we can, I think, fairly safely assume all our students possess.

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, Lesson Plans, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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A St. Patrick’s Day Addendum: A Learning Support on Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns

Posted on March 17, 2017 | Leave a comment

While revising my pronouns unit in preparation for teaching it this spring, I determined that my current group of English Language Arts students would benefit from this learning support on reflexive and intensive pronouns. At some point in the future, I will no doubt post the entire lesson plan this document means to support. In the meantime, if you have ever been inclined to comment on a Text on Mark’s Text Terminal, this would be the one on which I would very much appreciate your remarks. I’m especially interested to hear whether or not you think I should have included columns for the objective and possessive cases of pronouns. I left them out for a variety of reasons, but it would be easy enough to add them.

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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The Weekly Text, March 17, 2017, Women’s History Month 2017 Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Posted on March 17, 2017 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text for week three of Women’s History Month is a reading on Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee, which may well be of higher interest to students than some of the readings posted this month. Here is a comprehension worksheet to accompany it.

And that’s it for this short (we had a snow day on Tuesday) but busy week.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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The Weekly Text, March 10, 2017, Women’s History Month 2017 Week II: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Cleopatra

Posted on March 10, 2017 | Leave a comment

It’s the second week of Women’s History Month. This week’s Text is a reading on Cleopatra. To accompany it, you will probably find this reading comprehension worksheet useful.

Cleopatra doesn’t require much explanation. That said, this reading does provide some detail on her suicide, which may be plainly inappropriate for some populations. The document, like most of the Texts here, is in Microsoft Word, so you can edit it for your own needs and purposes.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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The Weekly Text, March 3, 2017, Women’s History Month 2017 Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Billie Holiday

Posted on March 3, 2017 | Leave a comment

Last March, after Black History Month had concluded, I somehow missed the fact that the third month of the year is Women’s History Month. So, I neglected to post any work for the Month last year; I won’t overlook it this year. The next five Fridays at Mark’s Text Terminal will feature readings to honor Women’s History Month. You might also want to take a look at the National Women’s History Project website, and the U.S. Government’s Women’s History Month website, which is a joint project of The Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Gallery of Art, the National Park Service, the Smithsonian Institution, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Here at Mark’s Text Terminal, the month begins with a bridge reading between Black History Month and Women’s History Month. This week’s Text is on the sublime Billie Holiday. Lady Day, as is well known, led a tragic and abbreviated life, cut short by her own self-destructive excesses. For that reason, you might want to euphemize or otherwise edit this reading on Billie Holiday. Whatever you choose to do, here is a comprehension worksheet to accompany it. I teach high school, where this reading is appropriate. For lower grades, I expect that the reading would need redaction.

There is a case to be made that without the racism that made the lives of so many African-American musicians difficult if not miserable–and I’m thinking of Lester Young (who enjoyed a beautiful musical rapport with Billie Holiday), Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Dexter Gordon, among others–Lady Day would have been a superstar on the order of a Beyonce, or a nearer contemporary of hers, Frank Sinatra. After all, both Mr. Sinatra and Ms. Holiday were cultivating similar artistic ground in the Great American Songbook.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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The Weekly Text, February 17, 2017, Black History Month 2017 Week III: A Trove of Documents for Teaching Langston Hughes’ Poem “I, too, Sing America”

Posted on February 17, 2017 | Leave a comment

For the third week of Black History Month, Mark’s Text Terminal showcases Langston Hughes and his poem “I, too, sing America.” This week’s text is a reading which includes the poem itself with this comprehension and exegesis worksheet to analyze the poem. While this worksheet asks questions just slightly above the comprehension level of understanding, the reading does a nice job of presenting its exegesis of the poem in that way. Struggling learners and readers therefore have a chance to perform genuine exegetical work on this key literary monument of the Harlem Renaissance. Finally, because I believe in using every lesson as an opportunity to build students’ vocabularies, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun exegesis, another on the noun exegete, and a third on the adjective exegetical.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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The Suddenly Newsworthy John C. Calhoun

Posted on February 14, 2017 | Leave a comment

John C. Calhoun has been in the news lately–to wit because of Yale University’s (Calhoun is an alumnus of Yale) decision to rename its residential college named after Calhoun. Normally, I would say that Calhoun was one of the most odious politicians ever to walk the American stage. However, now that November 8, 2016, has come and gone, I might need to revise my estimation of him, painful though it may be, upward–though by displacement rather than a rise in regard. In any case, because it is Black History Month, I am somewhat loathe to post this Intellectual Devotional reading on Calhoun along with this reading comprehension worksheet to accompany it for reasons that are obvious to you if you are familiar with him, or will quickly become so as you look into his egregious political career. It wouldn’t be unfair, owing to his adherence to the Constitutional theory of nullification, and his participation in the Nullification Crisis, which was one of this country’s first step down to road to the Civil War, to call him a key proponent of the issues that drove that conflict.

Have I mentioned that Calhoun was from South Carolina and represented that state in the federal legislature? It is no coincidence that South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union. Would you be surprised to hear that he was an ardent racist who played no small role in perpetuating slavery?

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

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