Category Archives: The Weekly Text

The Weekly Text is a primary feature at Mark’s Text Terminal. This category will include a variety of classroom materials in English Language Arts and social studies, most often in the form of complete lesson plans (see above) in those domains. The Weekly Text is posted on Fridays.

The Weekly Text, 4 September 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 13, The Relative Clause; What Is a Relative Pronoun and How Does It Introduce a Relative Clause?

Let’s continue this website’s slog through the Introduction to Writing Sentences unit with the thirteenth lesson plan, this one on writing sentences with relative clauses. This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the regular verb. This is a half-page document with a two sentence reading and three comprehension questions. If I am not mistaken, I recently published this document in a standalone post.

Here is the scaffolded worksheet on relative clauses and their use–and punctuation–in declarative sentences. Students will probably benefit, while working on this material, from the presence of this learning support on the use of that and which when working with relative clauses, and this one on restrictive and non-restrictive clauses which offers a broad overview of these kinds of clauses and their role in a declarative sentences.

Finally, here is the teacher’s copy of the worksheet to ease your cognitive load while executing this lesson.

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, 28 August 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 12, The Parenthetical Element Part II; The Aside

This week’s Text, you won’t be surprised to hear if you’re a regular user of this blog, is the twelfth lesson plan of the Introduction to Writing Sentences unit. This is a second lesson on using parenthetical element, in the case of this lesson, the aside. Here is the worksheet on parsing sentences to find adverbs that opens this lesson. And, finally, here is the scaffolded worksheet on writing asides into sentences that constitutes the primary work of this lesson–writing parenthetical asides into declarative sentences.

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, 21 August 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 11, The Parenthetical Element Part I; Using The Appositive Noun

This week’s Text continues the distribution of the Introduction to Writing Sentences Unit. So here is the eleventh lesson plan, this one on using the appositive noun in declarative sentences. This lesson opens with this worksheet on parsing sentences to find adjectives.

This scaffolded worksheet on using the appositive noun in declarative sentences is the center of this lesson. Your students might find useful this learning support on using appositive nouns and this one on punctuating appositive nouns in declarative sentences.

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, 14 August 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 10, Avoid the Passive Voice!

Phew: It has been a lot of work (with more to come), but with this tenth lesson plan (of 17) of the Introduction to Writing Sentences unit published, I finally feel like I’ve made some progress on this endeavor. This lesson, as the header reports, is on avoiding using the passive voice in sentences. In my experience, students enjoy this lesson as it is about as straightforward an exercise in editing as they are likely to encounter. So it is satisfying. Also, students learn to write declarative sentences in the active voice, the gold standard for expository prose.

This lesson opens with this worksheet on parsing sentences to find pronouns. Finally, here is the scaffolded worksheet on dealing with the passive voice in sentences that is the gravamen of this lesson.

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, 7 August 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 9, Writing the Exclamatory Sentence

This week’s Text is the ninth lesson plan (in a 17-lesson cycle) of the Introduction to Writing Sentences unit. This one, as the header above heralds, is on writing the exclamatory sentence. This worksheet on parsing sentences to find verbs opens the lesson. This scaffolded worksheet on writing exclamatory sentences is the principal work of this lesson.

And if you and your students need it, here learning support on writing exclamations that goes some distance in explaining what one does in prose when one exclaims–and why one almost always needs an exclamation point at the terminus of one of these sentences.

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, 31 July 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 8, Writing the Imperative Sentence

Another Friday, another Weekly Text from Mark’s Text Terminal: this one, as the header indicates, is the eighth lesson plan from the Introduction to Writing Sentences unit, on writing the imperative sentence. This worksheet on parsing sentences worksheet to find nouns opens this lesson as a do-now exercise.

This scaffolded worksheet on writing the imperative sentence stands as the principal work of this lesson; students will benefit in their work on this material by using learning support on the concept of an imperative.

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, 24 July 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 7, Writing the Interrogative Sentence

This week’s Text is the seventh lesson plan of the Introduction to Writing Sentences Unit, this one on writing interrogative sentences. This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the transitive verb; this is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences and three comprehension questions.

This scaffolded worksheet is the centerpiece of this lesson. However, to complete it, and to understand interrogative sentences, students will need this learning support on the concept of interrogation and this one on modal and auxiliary verbs to perform the work for this lesson.

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, 17 July 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 6, Writing the Declarative Sentence

Mark’s Text Terminal offers you the sixth lesson plan, from the Introduction to Writing Sentences unit, as the Weekly Text for 17 July 2026, this one on writing the declarative sentence. This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the intransitive verb. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences and three comprehension questions.

And here is the scaffolded worksheet that is the primary work of this lesson.

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 July 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 5, Writing the Compound Sentence

This week’s Text is the fifth lesson plan (of 17 lessons) of the Introduction to Writing Sentences Unit, this one on writing compound sentences. This lesson begins with a do-now, if you’re so inclined, this one a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the compound sentence; this is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one longish sentence and two comprehension questions.

This scaffolded worksheet is the primary work of this lesson. Here is a learning support on coordinating conjunctions to help students understand their use in compound sentences.

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, 3 July 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 4, Writing the Simple Sentence

How’s your summer starting out? I’m retiring on 1 August. Enough said.

In the meantime, here is fourth lesson plan of the Introduction to Writing Sentences Unit, this one on writing the simple sentence. This lesson opens, in a rare feat of alignment at Mark’s Text Terminal, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the simple sentence; this is half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. A solid introduction to this sentence structure, with students called upon to write a simple sentence of their own using a mentor text as a model.

And here is the scaffolded worksheet that is the centerpiece of this lesson; it asks students to try their own hands at composing simple sentences as a process for developing their own understanding of this form.

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.