Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

The Ozone Layer

Here is a reading on the ozone layer along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Given that the United States Supreme Court recently handed down a decision, in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency et al, limiting the EPA’s authority to regulate emissions of chemicals that pollute the air and use the atmosphere of this planet for, you know, a toilet, this material may be suddenly quite relevant.

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.

Term of Art: Symbol

“symbol: Something that represents or stands for an idea, object, or sound. In English, the alphabet is the symbol system for language. Individuals who have difficulty processing or naming symbols will have difficulty reading, since reading is the process of interpreting symbols.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

Cultural Literacy: Assembly Line

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the assembly line as a means of organizing production. This is half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and two comprehension questions. In other words, just the basics on this term and what it represents

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.

Photochemistry

This morning when I first pulled this reading on photochemistry and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet off the shelf, I assumed it would be about developing photographs in a dark room, an arcane art that I nonetheless learned in high school in the 1970s but that is now a niche skill, I suppose.

In fact, this is a nice introduction to the actual physics of light–which is, after all, what the Greek root photo means: light.

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: Verb

Moving right along this morning, here is a worksheet on the Latin word root verb. As you probably infer, this root simply means word. You’ll find this root at the base of just about any word in English related to language, for example (and all on this worksheet), adverb, proverb, verbalize, and verbatim.

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: Art for Art’s Sake

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of art for art’s sake. This is a half-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. In its brevity, this document does a fine job of introducing the concept of art for its own sake–that art needs no economic, political, or social justification.

If nothing else, students will now know what ars gratia artis means when Leo the Lion roars at the beginning of Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) films.

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: Finish

Here is a worksheet on the verb finish as it is used with a gerund. I have a ways to go before I finish posting these worksheets on gerunds and infinitives.

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.

Melody

For you music teachers, whose talents I envy, here is a reading on melody along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension 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.

Word Root Exercise: Tele, Tel, Telo

Here is a on the Greek word roots tele, tel, and telo. They mean distant, end, and complete. You’ll find this root, somewhat abstractly, at the basis of words like telegenic, telegraph and telegram (mostly obsolete nouns now, I suppose), and telemetry, all of which are included on this worksheet–which means, if the author of the book from which this work is drawn remains correct, these words are likely to show up on the SAT.

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: Antebellum

It’s a word used routinely in relation to the American Civil War in social studies textbooks, but in my experience never taught explicitly in social studies classrooms, so maybe this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the adjective antebellum. This Latinism, as this half-page worksheet points out in its two-sentence reading (with two comprehension questions), means “before the war.”

If you think it will help, here is a word root exercise on the Latin root bell-.

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.