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: Him, Her, and He, She

From Paul Brians’ highly useful book Common Errors in English Usage, here is a worksheet on the pronouns him, her, he, and she. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of a carefully explanatory paragraph and ten modified cloze exercises. Essentially, this is a worksheet on pronouns and case, dealing with the nominative and objective cases, but not the possessive, in English pronoun declension.

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: Gon/o,

Here is a worksheet on the Greek roots gon/o and -gony. They mean reproduction, origination, and generation. Unsurprisingly, then, you’ll find gon/o at the base of gonad. Otherwise, besides cosmogony, (and, alas, gonorrhea ) the words on this worksheet are all new to me. If the book from which they are drawn is believable, these are words that will turn 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: Cupid

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Cupid. This is a half-page worksheet with a five-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. I think this is a relatively well-balanced reading in terms of the amount of content it contains. Whether or not three comprehension questions are sufficient to understand the reading in its fullness is up to you. As this is a Microsoft Word document, you can do with it as you wish.

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.

Minimum Wage

Here is a reading on the minimum wage and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. In three paragraphs, this reading does an admirable job (the guys who wrote and edited the Intellectual Devotional series are clearly masters of the art) of exposing the history of the minimum wage in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s broad array of New Deal legislation, the rationale for the law, and its practical effects on American social and economic history.

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: Hero (n), Protagonist (n)

Once again, with material adapted from Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage, here is a worksheet on understanding the difference between a hero and a protagonist in a work of drama, fictional prose, or poetry. This is a full-page worksheet with a paragraph of reading from Professor Brians’ book followed by ten modified cloze exercises to help students distinguish these two words and the important concepts in English language arts that they represent.

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: Ig, Il, In, Im, Ir

Here is a worksheet on the Latin roots ig, il, in, im, ir; they mean not and without. These are though of in English language arts classes as prefixes, which they are for the purposes of this worksheet. You’ll find these root at the beginning of many high-frequency words in English adjectives in English such as ignorant and illegal. And while words like illegible, immutable, incongruous, and irrefutable (all present in this document) are less frequently used in common discourse, they are quite useful in academic prose.

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: D-Day

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on D-Day. This is a half-pager, with a three-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. The sparest of introductions, I imagine this document has only specific uses in a classroom. Review? It’s a Microsoft Word document, so you can copy and paste out of it as you like.

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.

Ku Klux Klan

Here is a reading on the Ku Klux Klan along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I have almost posted these documents a number of times over the years, but always hesitated and returned them to the warehouse. I think, or at least hope, that the entirety of this blog exposes my attitude toward the KKK–I think they are a dangerous group of racists and hatemongers who bear watching–hence this reading.

Once again, the editors of the Intellectual Devotional series have not equivocated and in one page detailed the crimes of the Klan and its threat to the civil rights of people it hates. I think students really deserve the plain facts of this hate group’s existence and its aims. This short reading serves as a good general introduction to the KKK.

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.

J.P. Morgan

Here is a reading on J.P. Morgan along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehensionn worksheet. By the standards of other readings from the Intellectual Devotional series, this one is relatively short. But it is a solid general introduction to the biography of the financier and includes the basic information about his role in United States economic history.

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: Crusades

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Crusades. This is a half-page worksheet with a five-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. While it is a good general introduction to a complex series of events whose legacy remains very much with us today, it is obviously inadequate to the topic. Because, like almost everything else available for download at Mark’s Text Terminal, this is a Microsoft Word document, it can (and certainly should, in my estimation) be altered 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.