Category Archives: Lesson Plans

This category identifies a post with several documents, which will include a lesson plan, and may include a short exercise to being the class (known in the New York City Department of Education as a “do-now”) a worksheet, often scaffolded, a teacher’s copy of the worksheet, and a learning support of some kind.

A Lesson Plan on the Readmission of Confederate States to the Union During Reconstruction from The Order of Things

OK, this lesson plan on on the readmission of the Confederate states to the Union during Reconstruction, as I look at the others like it I have posted, is most likely redundant in extremis. Nonetheless, here is the list and comprehension questions that drives this relatively short exercise.

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “The $40,000 Raffle”

Last but not least this morning, here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “The $40,000 Raffle.” You’ll need this PDF of the illustration and questions to conduct your investigation of this case. To solve it, in the final analysis, you’ll want the typescript of the answer key.

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “Carry a Torch for.” Older people will recognize this as an expression meaning, in today’s parlance, “having a crush on,” or more succinctly, “crushing on.” I’ll let the great Louis Jordan (lyrics by the equally great Jon Hendricks) explain it:

“I’m the man for you and so you better start to face it
If you ever lose my love you know you never can replace it
I think it’s time for you to start to givin’ me some lovin’
‘Cause I’m carryin’ a torch for you that’s hotter than a oven
It’s time for you and me to do a little turtle-dovin'”

Enough said!

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Roots Graph and Graphy

OK, last but not least this morning, before I head out to the grocery store (aside: don’t forget to thank the brave workers staffing our grocery stores–if there is any justice in this world, they will emerge from this pandemic among–to use another word deriving from. the Latin root pan–among the pantheon of heroes), here is a lesson plan on the Latin word roots graph and graphy. These mean writing, written, recording, drawing and science; you will recognize immediately, even before looking at the scaffolded worksheet at the center of this lesson, that these are two very productive roots in English.

I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the verb record, which is used both intransitively and transitively.

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Civil War Secession of States from The Order of Things

Here’s another lesson plan from The Order of Things, this one on the secession of states preceding the American Civil War. This worksheet with a list and comprehension questions related to it constitute the work for this lesson.

As I’ve previously mentioned, I was just beginning to develop these materials (in fact, as I write this, a pile of worksheets awaiting development sits before me on my desk) when the school I was working in closed for the year. In fact, I’ve already posted several lessons derived from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s book, including those on the readmission of seceded states after the Civil War. Needless to say, those logically ought to follow this one, not precede it.

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.

A Concluding Lesson Plan for the Nouns Unit Posted on this Site

OK, readers, I debated with myself about whether or not to publish this post. The documents below are the unit final assessment for my unit on nouns, which means I have posted all the previous lessons–12 of them, to be precise, since this one is lesson 13. You can actually find all the rest of this unit’s lessons underneath this hyperlink. In other words, for the first time, in almost 3,300 published posts, I have managed to get a complete unit published from my parts of speech units. Stay tuned, because there are more to come–and depending on how long social distancing lasts, and schools remain closed, these lessons will continue to appear here every couple of days.

So, here is the lesson plan for this final assessment; nota bene please that I built into this lesson some organizational activities for students who deal with executive skills and attentional challenges. The first do-now exercise for this lesson is this Everyday Edit worksheet on Aquarius, the Water Carrier (and please don’t forget that you can help yourself to a yearlong supply of these worksheets at Education World). The second do-now is this worksheet on the homophones there, their, and they’re. Finally, I’ll assume that this four page assessment speaks to the need for two do-now exercises for this lesson; in fact, in my experience (this is the first of seven units on the parts of speech), this assessment takes at least two days to complete, and may take a third. If that is the case, and you need another do-now, there are reams of them available on this site.

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “A Case of Kippers”

Alright, last but not least this morning, here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “A Case of Kippers.”

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “burning the candle at both ends.” Here is the PDF of the illustration and questions you and your students will need to conduct this investigation. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key so that you and your class may bring the culprit 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.

Aesop’s Fables: “The Ass, The Fox, and The Lion”

For younger kids, or for English language learners, here is a lesson plan on Aesop’s fable “The Ass, The Fox, and The Lion” and its accompanying reading with comprehension and interpretive questions in worksheet form. If nothing else, I expect (though perhaps I project because I got such a kick out of this as a young reader) younger kids will enjoy hearing a donkey called an “ass.”

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Possessive Case of Nouns

Last but not least this morning, here is a lesson plan on the possessive case of nouns. I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the grim reaper, a subject which rarely fails to elicit student interest right at the beginning of a class period. Here is a learning support on this area of grammar and punctuation. This scaffolded worksheet is the centerpiece of this lesson; finally, here is the teacher’s copy of the 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.

A Lesson Plan on Hesiod’s Ages of History from The Order of Things

Here is a lesson plan on Hesiod’s Ages of History along with its reading and comprehension questions. As I’ve mentioned previously when posting these materials, this lesson (and at least 30 others like it) are something I started working on just before the COVID19 pandemic scaled up and closed schools, and I lost my job as a public school teacher.

To reiterate (and you can read more about these on the “About Posts & Texts” page linked to just above the banner photograph on the homepage of this site), these documents aim to give students an opportunity to work with, and develop their own understanding of, moving between two sets of symbols, words and numbers, in one lesson. The worksheet can be contracted or expanded as is appropriate for the attention spans of the students with whom you’re working. These are, as you will infer, literacy development exercises.

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Vineyard Gothic”

Here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Vineyard Gothic.”

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the metaphor “gilded cage.” You’ll need this PDF of the illustrations and questions of this case to conduct your investigation. Finally, as always, here is the typescript of the answer key to solve the case.

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.