Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

The Weekly Text, 28 August 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 12, The Parenthetical Element Part II; The Aside

This week’s Text, you won’t be surprised to hear if you’re a regular user of this blog, is the twelfth lesson plan of the Introduction to Writing Sentences unit. This is a second lesson on using parenthetical element, in the case of this lesson, the aside. Here is the worksheet on parsing sentences to find adverbs that opens this lesson. And, finally, here is the scaffolded worksheet on writing asides into sentences that constitutes the primary work of this lesson–writing parenthetical asides into declarative sentences.

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.

Common Errors in English Usage: Mislead/Misled

Adapted from the pages of Paul Brians’ superlative manual Common Errors in English Usage (which, as I like to remind readers of this blog, he allows free and unfettered access to at his Washington State University web page), here is use of the verb mislead and its past tense, misled. This is a full-page document with a four-sentence reading and ten modified cloze exercises. The principal usage problem this worksheet addresses (as you can see, you have both the present tense and the past tense of the verb mislead here) is making sure one is using properly the present tense (mislead), the past tense (misled) and the past participle (also misled).

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: Bibliography

OK, I am confident that this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the bibliography in form and function (which is a half-page long with a three-sentence reading and three comprehension questions and is straightforward enough to present to any student) has already been published elsewhere on this blog, most likely as a do-now in unit on writing research papers.

So here it is as an easy-to-search-and-find standalone post.

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.

Albion

“Albion: An ancient and poetical name for Great Britain. It is thought to have been so called from the white (Lat, albus) cliffs that face Gaul, but possibly from the Celtic ailp, “rock; cliff; mountain.” It was Napoleon who called England Albion Perfide (Perfidious Albion).”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

The Weekly Text, 21 August 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 11, The Parenthetical Element Part I; Using The Appositive Noun

This week’s Text continues the distribution of the Introduction to Writing Sentences Unit. So here is the eleventh lesson plan, this one on using the appositive noun in declarative sentences. This lesson opens with this worksheet on parsing sentences to find adjectives.

This scaffolded worksheet on using the appositive noun in declarative sentences is the center of this lesson. Your students might find useful this learning support on using appositive nouns and this one on punctuating appositive nouns in declarative sentences.

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.

Common Errors in English Usage: Militate/Mitigate

They’re not the most common or high-frequency words in English, but they’re worth knowing (especially mitigate), so here is a on the use of the verbs militate and mitigate. This is a full-page document with a reading of two sentences and ten modified cloze exercises.

This material, as I expect you’re tired of reading, but in the case of Paul Brians’ and his book Common Errors in English Usage (to which, I am always astonished to report, he allows free access at his Washington State University web page), I like to give credit where it is always due. All of the materials under the header above (i.e. Common Errors in English Usage) come from Professor Brians’s book.

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: Direct Object

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the direct object of verbs. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and three comprehension questions.

You might want to take a look at the second sentence of this two-sentence reading: it is long and contains a plethora of colons, semicolons and quotation marks–exactly the kind of thing that, in my experience, trips up emergent or struggling readers, or students who are learning to use English as a second language. A light editing–breaking this sentence up into two independent clauses with some supporting explanation should do the job.

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, 14 August 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 10, Avoid the Passive Voice!

Phew: It has been a lot of work (with more to come), but with this tenth lesson plan (of 17) of the Introduction to Writing Sentences unit published, I finally feel like I’ve made some progress on this endeavor. This lesson, as the header reports, is on avoiding using the passive voice in sentences. In my experience, students enjoy this lesson as it is about as straightforward an exercise in editing as they are likely to encounter. So it is satisfying. Also, students learn to write declarative sentences in the active voice, the gold standard for expository prose.

This lesson opens with this worksheet on parsing sentences to find pronouns. Finally, here is the scaffolded worksheet on dealing with the passive voice in sentences that is the gravamen of this lesson.

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.

Common Errors in English Usage: Might Ought, Might, Ought

This week’s adaptation from Paul Brians’ excellent reference manual Common Errors in English Usage (which, amazingly, he allows no-cost access to at his Washington State University web page) is this worksheet on the use of might and ought. In this reading, Professor Brians steers students away from the solecism might ought toward the proper use of these two auxiliary verbs; the worksheet calls upon students to write, extemporaneously, sentences using these auxiliaries properly.

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: Jurisprudence

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of jurisprudence. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three relatively comprehensible sentences and two comprehension questions. I must admit, until I reviewed this document prior to publication on this blog, I didn’t have quite the grasp of this concept that I thought I did.

Any student looking down the road at law school might benefit from a look at this material.

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.