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.

The Weekly Text, 14 July 2023: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Roots Patr, Patri, and Pater

Here is a lesson plan on the Latin word roots patr, patri, and pater. You may perceive–correctly–that these mean “father.” This is a productive root in English yielding such commonly used words as patriotism and paternity, as well as some less common, but quite useful, words like patrimony and patrilineal.

I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the noun founder. It means, in the context of the sentences in the document, “one that founds or establishes.” Finally, here is the scaffolded worksheet on these Latin roots that serves as the mainstay of this lesson’s work.

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, Friday 23 June 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 16, Concluding Assessment and Reflection

Alright, here, finally, is the sixteenth and final lesson plan of the History of Hip-Hop Unit. I use this Cultural Literacy worksheet on racism as a do-now exercise. The work of this lesson, which I have allowed to play out over two or three days, is this concluding assessment and reflection and this metacognitive assessment worksheet.

And that, gentle reader, is that. There are now sixteen lessons available on the History of Hip-Hop at Mark’s Text Terminal.

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.

Blog Post Number 6,001

OK, here is another milestone on this blog, passing the six-thousandth post. I don’t have much to offer in the way of commemoration, but I did find some preliminary documents in a unit I planned to write on interjections. These are pretty basic; I didn’t proceed with developing the unit for a variety of reasons, though primarily because I didn’t think this relatively minor part of speech required a full unit. Put another way, I decided that if students knew (they did and probably still do) that Homer Simpson says “d’oh” and Peter Griffin says “crap” when something annoyed, vexed, or otherwise exercised them, then they understood that an interjection, mainly, was “a cry or inarticulate utterance (such as Alas! ouch! phooey! ugh!) expressing an emotion.”

So, without further ado, here are the unit plan in barest outline, with the similarly graphically configured first lesson plan and second lesson plan, and, finally, this interjections review worksheet.

That’s it. Now it’s on to 7,000.

This is the place where I usually plead for peer review and notifications about typos in documents. There’s nothing much to comment on with these documents, which are basically templates. Nonetheless, if you think interjections require their own lesson, or even unit, I would be interested in hearing about that thought.

The Weekly Text, Friday 16 June 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 15, Public Enemy Picks up the Baton

This week’s Text offers the fifteenth lesson plan of the History of Hip-Hop Unit, this one on one of the seminal groups in the genre, Public Enemy. The lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Marcus Garvey. This is a full-page document with a reading of four sentences, two of them relatively simple compounds, and seven comprehension questions. A bit longer, in other words, than the typical do-now exercise.

Because of Public Enemy’s importance to the genre, there are an inordinate number of materials to use with this lesson. I’ve tended to use them all, but obviously you can pick and choose. So, for starters, here is a reading on Public Enemy along with its comprehension worksheet. Secondarily–or primarily, if you prefer–here are the lyrics to “Fight the Power”, one of the group’s best known songs and the opening theme to Spike Lee’s film Do the Right Thing, along with the analytical reflection worksheet that accompanies 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.

The Weekly Text, Friday 9 June 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 14, The Message: Hip-Hop as Political and Social Manifesto

Don’t worry, after this, only two lessons remain to post in the History of Hip-Hop Unit. This week’s Text is lesson plan fourteen of the unit, on Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s seminal Hip-Hop recording, “The Message.” This lesson begins, after your class change, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a manifesto. The central work of this lesson is a reading, and a listening, for which I use this Official Video of the song on YouTube, and the lyrics to the song, to guide students toward completing these comprehension and analytical questions on these verses.

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, Friday 2 June 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 13, Breaking into the Charts: Hip-Hop as Party Music

This week’s Text offers the thirteenth lesson plan of the History of Hip-Hop Unit. This lesson opens, after a class change, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Nation of Islam. The principal work of this lesson are the lyrics to “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang and “The Breaks” by Kurtis Blow, and the comprehension and analytical questions about those lyrics. You can find both of these songs on YouTube–and in the case of “The Breaks” a live performance by Kurtis Blow on Soul Train. I’ve shown parts of both–and nota bene, please, that “Rapper’s Delight,” depending on which version you land on, can be a long song.

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, 5 May 2023, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Mencius

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. For the next four Fridays, Mark’s Text Terminal will feature Weekly Texts, documents posts, and quotes that call attention to the numerous contributions that the part of the world the Ancient Greeks, specifically Herodotus, named Asia.

So, let’s begin the month with this reading on Mencius along with its accompanying 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.

The Weekly Text, Friday 28 April 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 12, DJ Kool Herc Steps Forward to Sample in The Bronx

Continuing with the History of Hip-Hop Unit, here is lesson plan twelve, on Clive Campbell, aka DJ Kool Herc. This Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) begins the lesson. The centerpiece of this lesson is this reading on Clive Campbell  with its accompanying comprehension worksheet.

And that is that for another week.

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, Friday 21 April 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 11, Gil Scott-Heron: Black Power Griot of Harlem

This week’s Text, following in sequence, is the eleventh lesson plan of the History of Hip-Hop unit, this one on the late, great, Gil Scott-Heron. This lesson begins with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the National Association for the the Advancement of Colored People. The center of this lesson is this adapted reading on Gil Scott-Heron with its comprehension worksheet to accompany it.

This lesson also includes listening to two of Gil Scott-Heron’s songs, both of which are available on YouTube. Here are the lyrics to “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” and “The Bottle.”

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, Friday 14 April 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 10, The Last Poets, Harlem Griots

Moving along with the History of Hip-Hop unit, this week’s Text is the tenth lesson plan, on The Last Poets. I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Malcolm X. From there we proceed to the mainstay of the lesson, this adapted reading on The Last Poets and its attendant comprehension-building worksheet.

Incidentally, if you’re interested in the full text from which the reading above was adapted, here is a PDF of the master of the reading. I snipped this from a copy of Uncut magazine back when the Hip-Hop fanzines were still published in paper and available at the Borders on Lower Broadway (very near Wall), near the school where I served at that time and where I would pick them up. So, we’re talking, basically, about pre-2008, which is when Borders ceased to exist, a casualty of the financial crisis that year. I had a hell of a time finding the citation, but I am relatively confident of 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.