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, 8 April 2022: A Lesson Plan on the Denominations of U.S. Paper Currency from The Order of Things

Posted on April 8, 2022 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the denominations of paper currency in the United States from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s excellent reference book, The Order of Things. For students, here is the combined reading and comprehension worksheet to use for this lesson.

Nota bene please that I conceived of and prepared this material for students who find it a challenge to navigate and manipulate two symbolic systems–that is, numbers and letters–at the same time. This is a comfortable way to ease into more complicated work like word problems in math–or at least I like to think it is.

But what do you think?

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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Cultural Literacy: Superconductivity

Posted on April 1, 2022 | Leave a comment

OK, moving right along here at the crack of doom on this Friday morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on superconductivity. This is a half-page document with a reading of two compound sentences that yield three comprehension questions. I understand (I think–I am not a science teacher) that this is not a concept that is part of the general science curriculum in primary and secondary schools. But for the right student? In my experience this is a very useful short piece of work.

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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Common Errors in English Usage: If (conj), Whether (conj)

Posted on April 1, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the use of the conjunctions if and whether in both casual speech and formal prose. The distinction, as Professor Paul Brians points out (this and all other materials under the heading above are based on his book Common Errors in English Usage, to which he allows access at no charge at the Washington State University website) is stylistic. Anyway, this is a full-page worksheet with ten sentences for analysis.

But, like practically everything on this blog, this document is formatted in Microsoft Word. You can do what you want with it–it is, as I believe the term of art has it, open source.

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, 1 April 2022: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Spelling Bee”

Posted on April 1, 2022 | Leave a comment

On this April Fool’s Day, this week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Spelling Bee.”

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the rhetorical question (it’s a reading of one compound sentence that nonetheless yields three comprehension questions). You’ll need this PDF of the illustration of the crime scene with its attendant investigatory questions. Finally, you’ll want this typescript of the answer key to arrest the offender and bring him or her to the bar of justice.

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, Lesson Plans, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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Cultural Literacy: Willa Cather

Posted on March 25, 2022 | Leave a comment

She’s not much read today (though I have loved the books of hers I’ve read), but I think this Cultural Literacy worksheet on novelist Willa Cather ought to have some currency in our secondary classrooms in the United States (at least!). This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one compound sentence with two comprehension questions.

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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Cultural Literacy: Greta Garbo

Posted on March 25, 2022 | Leave a comment

If you can use it, which I suppose is another way of saying if you have a student with an interest in her, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Greta Garbo. This is a half-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. A simple, but effective introduction to this famously reclusive woman.

May I presume to recommend a viewing of Ninotchka? I doubt anyone would be sorry he or she watched this fine film.

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, 25 March 2022, Women’s History Month 2022 Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Julia Child

Posted on March 25, 2022 | Leave a comment

For the final Friday of Women’s History Month 2022, here is a reading on Julia Child along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Whatever one thinks of French cooking, which Ms. Child brought to American cuisine, she was by any measure an accomplished woman.

I confess ignorance where both French cooking and Ms. Child are concerned–my own palate, alas, is undeniably plebeian. In researching this post, I learned that she stood six feet, two inches tall; her height disqualified her from World War II service in the Women’s Army Corps (WACs) or the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services). She joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to today’s Central Intelligence Agency, where she worked directly with OSS founder General William J. (“Wild Bill”) Donovan. According to Ms. Child’s Wikipedia page, in her service to the OSS, she took on the task of solving the problem of curious sharks setting off underwater explosives placed by the OSS. She experimented with recipes that would serve as shark repellent; her method is still in use today.

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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Cultural Literacy: Victorian Period

Posted on March 16, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Victorian Period. The era is named, of course, for Queen Victoria and her outsized influence on British mores during her reign. This full-page worksheet leads with a four-sentence reading which includes two long compounds, and six comprehension questions. In other words, a decent summary of an important social, economic, diplomatic, and political period in Great Britain,

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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Cultural Literacy: Queen Victoria

Posted on March 16, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Queen Victoria. This full-page document contains a five-sentence reading with one longish compound, and six comprehension questions. It’s suitable, therefore, to use as independent practice, aka homework; it would make a suitable piece of classwork, or even make-up work, as well. Or, because it is a Microsoft Word document, you can export it to a word processor of your preference, or edit it as is, for the needs of your 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.

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The Weekly Text, 18 March 2022, Women’s History Month 2022 Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Queen Elizabeth I

Posted on March 16, 2022 | Leave a comment

For the third week of Women’s History Month 2022, here is a reading on Queen Elizabeth I with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Her reign was long–44 years. Queen Elizabeth II currently reigning, has held her throne for 70 years and 33 days as of this writing.

Elizabeth I was a powerful monarch, and the achievements of her age earned her the honorific of her era’s name, the Elizabethan Age. Like Elizabeth II, who had dealt with her share of family dysfunction: she was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn; after Henry executed Anne (and I didn’t know this until I prepared the material above), Elizabeth I was declared “retroactively illegitimate.”

In my experience, and speaking generally, the salacious details of upper class idiocy, shame, and hypocrisy tends to interest secondary school students. After all, as the great Los Angeles punk band X (featuring Exene Cervenka) so elegantly put it, that’s “Sex and Dying in High Society.”

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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