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: Anal Personality

Do you hear kids bandying about the word “anal” to describe their more fastidious or compulsive classmates? I think I have heard it at least once a year since I became a teacher. It’s mostly used properly, but when it isn’t, this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the anal personality might help to clarify things. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two compound sentences and three comprehension questions.

There’s no mention of Sigmund Freud here, which is an interesting omission considering that the anal stage is the second part of his theory of psychosexual development. This worksheet, again, just explains the basics of the anal personality’s characteristics as (from the text) “…excessive orderliness, extreme meticulousness, and often suspicion and reserve.”

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.

Common Errors in English Usage: Individual, Person

Adapted from Paul Brians‘ excellent book Common Errors in English Usage (to which he allows access at no charge under this hyperlink), here is a worksheet on the use of the nouns individual and person in declarative sentence. This is a full-page worksheet with only the short reading from Mr. Brians’ book: the actual work for this document is a free-write using both individual and person in sentences, and then assessing which word sounds better in prose.

And that is pretty much 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.

Robert Oppenheimer

Moving along on this run I’m on this morning, here is a reading on Robert Oppenheimer along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. He’s always been a figure who interested me–mostly for the crisis of conscience he suffered for what he unleashed on the world.

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: Trans

Here is a worksheet on the Latin word root trans. It means, variously, across, through, change, and beyond. You recognize it, I am confident, as the root of such words–all included on this document–as transact, transcribe, transfer, and transit. And of course you’ll find it in all kinds oc commonly used English words like transport and transcend, both of which indicates one of this roots connotations: not just across, but to move across.

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: The Bad Workman Always Blames His Tools

It’s not much used anymore, I think (and I don’t know if I’ve ever heard it beyond a couple of farms I worked on in the late 1970s), but here, nonetheless, is a Cultural worksheet on the proverb “the bad workman always blames his tools.” This is a half-page worksheet with a two-sentence reading. Short and sweet–but perhaps a nice little exercise in thinking abstractly.

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.

Common English Verbs Followed by Gerunds: Enjoy

Here is a worksheet on the verb enjoy as it is used with a gerund. I’m not sure I enjoyed writing a group of worksheets of dubious value.

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.

Benjamin Franklin

Here, on the Fourth of July 2022, is a reading on Benjamin Franklin along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. And that’s about it: a couple of Microsoft Word documents you can adapt to the needs of your students.

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: Syn-, Sym-, Syl-, Sys-

Alright, here is a worksheet on the Greek word roots syn-,sym-,syl-, and sys-. They mean, simply, together and same. These are fertile roots in English, and they give us words like symbiosis, symmetry, synchronize, synergy, and synthesis. All of those words are included in this document. Other common words growing from this root, such as synonym, are not here–but as students learn roots, they will recognize syn means together and same, and will be most of the way to defining the word.

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: Republic

It’s Independence Day in the United States, so I can think of no better time to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the republic as a form of government. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences–all of them compounds–and six comprehension questions. The reading, incidentally, does a nice job of differentiating republics and democracies.

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.

Common English Verbs Followed by Gerunds: Endure

Finally this morning, here is a worksheet on the verb endure when used with a gerund. I cannot endure composing another series of instructional materials of dubious value.

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.