Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

Common Errors in English Usage: His and Her’s

To depart from the Latin/Roman emphasis in this morning’s posts, here is a worksheet on the possessive pronouns his and her’s. This is essentially a document to remind students that one never uses an apostrophe with possessive pronouns–just the s without punctuation. This is full-page worksheet that has no structured (i.e. cloze) exercises, but rather calls upon student to compose extemporaneously a series of five sentences using possessive pronouns without apostrophes. This, like almost everything else on this site, is a Microsoft Word document. Therefore, you may alter it to your needs.

And, because giving credit where credit is due is an essential operating principle at Mark’s Text Terminal, let me say once more that this material was adapted from Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage, to which Professor Brians offers access without charge at the Washington State University website.

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.

Word Root Exercise: Intra, Intro

Here is a worksheet on the Latin word roots intra and intro. They mean within, inward, inside, and into. You’ll find these roots at the base of words used in the medical profession like intradermal, intramuscular, and intravenous, but also in higher frequency English words like intramural and introduce–all included on this worksheet.

These roots should not be confused with inter which means between and among; if you seek a word root worksheet on inter, you can find that here.

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: Colosseum

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Colosseum in Rome. This is a half-page worksheet with a five-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. It’s a solid and concise introduction to the Colosseum and the spectacles that were staged in it. Perhaps three comprehension questions are insufficient; if so, this is (like almost everything that can be downloaded from this site) a Microsoft Word document which you can alter to you or your students’ needs.

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.

7 Hills of Rome

Aventine * Caelian * Capitoline * Esquiline * Palatine * Quirinal * Viminal

Rome was founded as a network of seven villages perched on seven hills, So that Sabines, Latins and Etruscans could all benefit from the markets usefully arranged in the low-lying in between them. The Palatine was the central hillock, the Capitoline overlooked the marshy field of Mars and the Aventine was hard against the banks of the River Tiber. In all honesty the other four hills are not so distinct, just a series of interlinked spurs, but it has always been immensely propitious to have a unit of 7 in your foundation myth, like the very first civilization born in Mesopotamia, Sumeria. Rome doubled up by honoring a list of its first seven kings, beginning with Romulus (753-716), Numa (715-674), Tullus Hostilius (673-642), Ancus Marcius, Lucius Tarquinius Priscus and Servius Tullius and finishing with Tarquinius Superbus.

The power of Rome further spread the allure of a city being founded on seven hills, so that most of the great cities of the world—say, Moscow, Lisbon, Jerusalem, Istanbul or Barcelona—have a story of seven hills. Others which have hardly a hill at all, like Mumbai, are said to be founded on seven islands.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

Marcus Junius Brutus

Here is a reading on Marcus Junius Brutus along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Yes, this is the Brutus who was in up to his neck on the assassination plot against Julius Caesar, and to whom Caesar said, in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, “Et tu, Brute?

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.

The Weekly Text, 10 December 2021: A Concluding Assessment Lesson Plan on Pronouns

This week’s Text is final lesson plan of the pronouns unit that I’ve been posting piecemeal for the past couple of years. This is the 13th lesson in the unit and the concluding assessment. Nota bene, please, that is is emphatically not a test, but rather a supported assessment that, as the plan will explain, aims to assist students in developing their own understanding of a number of pieces of discrete procedural knowledge. This lesson should take place over a couple of days, if not three.

Accordingly, I’ve lined up three Everyday Edit worksheets to serve as do-nows for this lesson: the first on Susan B. Anthony; the second on Harriet Tubman; and the third on Jane Goodall. Incidentally, if you and your students find these Everyday Edit worksheets useful, or even enjoyable, as students I have served in the past (to my considerable surprise) have, then I have good news for you: the good people at Education World give away a yearlong supply of them.

There are two supports for this lesson (which students used during earlier lessons, so they will be familiar with them if you too have used them), the first on pronouns and case (with the verb to be conjugated for contextual support), the second on the use of indefinite pronouns  (e.g. someone, anyone, everybody, all, etc).

Finally, here is the worksheet for this lesson, which is really more of a graphic organizer. It guides students through all the lessons they have completed for this unit.

And that, esteemed reader, is it. There is now a 13-lesson unit on pronouns available on this site; simply type pronouns into the search bar in the upper-right-hand corner of the home page, and you will find them all.

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.

12 Reading Comprehension Worksheets on the Rapper Eminem

In response to a student request, I produced these twelve reading comprehension worksheets on the rapper Eminem. These are pretty basic, and follow the sequence of about two-thirds of the Wikipedia page on Eminem. These documents, like most things you’ll find on this site, are formatted in Microsoft Word; in other words, you can download them and alter them to you or your students’ needs.

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.

Cultural Literacy: Cyclops

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Cyclops. This is a half-page worksheet with a four-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. It covers the basics of this one-eyed, mythical creature, including Odysseus’s encounter with Polyphemus in The Odyssey.

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.

Word Root Exercise: Inter-

Here is a worksheet on the Latin word root inter. It means between and among. As you have no doubt already recognized, this is an extremely productive root in English, growing such high-frequency words as interfere, intercept, and interim (all present in this document), among many others. Inter should not be confused with intra and intro, which mean within, inward, inside, and into (a worksheet on which is forthcoming).

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.

Otis Elevator

Here is a reading on the Otis Elevator company with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. As usual, David S. Kidder and Noah Oppenheim, the editors of the Intellectual Devotional series, ably synthesized Elisha Otis’s biography (he was, to my surprise, a farm boy from Halifax, Vermont) with the changes his invention wrought in American life–and in a one-page reading (!).

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.