Category Archives: Independent Practice

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

Blog Post 5,000: A Tentative Beginning to a Unit on Writing Reviews

In six years plus of this blog, I have finally reached the 5,000-post mark. Post Number 5,000 is a set of documents that I began toward developing a unit on writing reviews some years ago while working in an ill-fated middle school in the North Bronx.

For now, however, here are the basic, undeveloped documents for this unit. Here is a a tentative unit plan, which is still mostly in template form. Likewise this lesson-plan template and this worksheet template. Here is a a glossary of critical terms  for writing film reviews. This is a start on the first worksheet of the unit.

Finally, here is a list of aesthetic criteria for evaluating cultural products. Let me mention in passing that this is for teacher use; the one time I taught kids to write reviews, I made sure that they made, with proper guidance, their own lists of aesthetic criteria for the media or event they were criticizing.

You may want to check back here later, as I am in the process of developing this long-neglected unit.

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: Group

Once again, from Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage, here is a worksheet on subject-verb agreement when using the noun group. Did you know you know it is used as both a plural and singular, depending on what one needs to say about a group? I did not before preparing this worksheet.

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.

Lyndon B. Johnson

Here is a reading on Lyndon B. Johnson along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet . I was a child when Johnson was president; I remember seeing on live television his announcement that he would not stand for reelection in 1968. The newscast impressed my parents, but at at the age of seven, it meant very little to me.

Over time, and all the published volumes of Robert Caro’s magisterial biography of Johnson, The Years of Lyndon Johnson, I have come to appreciate the fascination with Johnson. He was, it seems to me, the last great president the Democratic Party produced. He accomplished great things, more often than not through dubious and even devious means. In any case, these documents are a solid introduction to Johnson’s accomplishments–both the triumphs and the failures.

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: Fus

Linguistically, I am at somewhat of a loss in trying to understand the Latin word root fus, which means “pour.” It’s a productive root in English, growing a number of high-frequency words such as confuse, as well as the less frequently used but arguably essential diffuse and transfuse (not to mention profuse). How these words relate or apply to the concept of pouring escapes me. Perhaps, kind reader, you can enlighten me and the other users of this blog.

Whatever the case, here is a worksheet on the Latin word root fus if you can use 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.

Cultural Literacy: Continental Congress

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Continental Congress. This is a half-page worksheet with a four-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. For its brevity, this document is a solid general introduction to the term and concept of the Continental Congress of North America. Users can, if so inclined, alter this Microsoft Word document to their classroom’s 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.

The Weekly Text, 29 October 2021: A Lesson Plan on the Basic Rights of All Children

This week’s Text is another lesson plan drawn from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s indispensable reference book The Order of Things, this one on the basic rights of children. This is a basic lesson for emergent and struggling readers, as you’ll see from its list as reading and comprehension questions: the reading is a list of ten basic rights, and I’ve prepared five basic comprehension questions.

You, however, may do with this as you like. Because both lesson plan and worksheet are formatted in Microsoft Word (as are most of the documents you will find on this website–and if you’re a regular user of this site, I’ll bet you are tired of hearing me say that), these are what I believe are called, using the term loosely, “open source” documents. Whatever the nomenclature, these materials can be exported and manipulated freely.

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: Gratis, Gratuitous

Last and possibly least this afternoon, here is a worksheet on using gratis and gratuitous properly in English prose. This is a half-page worksheet with ten modified cloze exercises to guide students toward understanding and use of these words. They are both adjectives: gratis means “without charge or recompense” and free”; gratuitous, on the other hand, means “given unearned or without recompense,” “not involving a return benefit, compensation, or consideration,” “costing nothing,” “free,” and “not called for by the circumstances.” This final sense of gratuitous is the definition this worksheet deals with.

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: Constitutional Convention

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Constitutional Convention in the nascent United States. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three compound sentences and three comprehension questions that are in two or three parts each. As I looked at this document prior to posting it, it occurred to me that if probably would be better as a full-page worksheet with the questions broken up. Since this is a Microsoft Word document, you can alter it for the needs of your classroom.

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: Cycl-o

Here is a worksheet on the Greek root cycl-o. It means circle and wheel. So you won’t be surprise that this productive root yields  commonly used words in English such as bicycle, cycle, and cyclone, and for some reason, encyclopedia. Does anyone with linguistic skills know why encyclopedia ends up on this list? How do reference books stem from a root that means circle and wheel?

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.

The Sopranos

OK, continuing with items from the I-don’t-know-why-or-when-I wrote-this shelf in the warehouse at Mark’s Text Terminal, here is a reading on The Sopranos (which I loved, so that may figure into this) along with its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I expect that this will have, more than 14 years after the final episode of the show aired, very little relevance to students–if ever it did. I must have put this together for a student who asked for it, but I cannot for the life of me remember who that would have been.

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.