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, 10 May 2024, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Week II: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Nebuchadrezzar II

For the second Friday of Asian American Pacific Islander Month 2024, your Weekly Text is this reading on Nebuchadrezzar II along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. There seems to be a couple of different ways of spelling the name of this Babylonian tyrant’s name; if you click on that preceding hyperlink, you will see his name spelled as Nebuchadnezzar. This reading, from the Intellectual Devotional series, notes that Nebuchadnezzar is an alternate spelling of his name.

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 May 2024, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Taoism

Today begins Asian American Pacific Island Heritage Month 2024, and hence the observance of it on this blog. The first Text for this month is this reading on Taoism along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Like all Weekly Texts this month, this material is drawn and adapted from the Intellectual Devotional series of books.

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, 26 April 2024: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Roots Scrib and Script

This lesson plan on the Latin word roots scrib and script stands for this week’s Text at Mark’s Text Terminal. These mean, as you might have already inferred, mean “write” and “to write.” You’ll find these two roots in such high-frequency English words describe, manuscript, prescribe, and scribble.

I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the verb compose. The context in this document supports a definition of the verb compose, used transitively, as meaning “to create by mental or artistic labor” and “to formulate and write.”

Finally, you’ll need this scaffolded worksheet, replete with cognates from the Romance languages, to execute 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, 19 April 2024: The Second of Two Lesson Plans on Painting and Sculpture from The Order of Things

This week’s Text is this the second of two lesson plans on painting and sculpture from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s The Order of Things. You’ll need this worksheet with a list as a reading and comprehension questions. If you want the first lesson as well, published on 24 January of this year, you’ll find it under this hyperlink.

I just want to note, again, that the lessons from The Order of Things posted on this blog are aimed at students with low levels of literacy or learners of English as a new language.

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, 12 April 2024: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Batteries

This week’s Text is this reading on batteries along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Since most if not all students now carry a smart phone, this reading, to my surprise, has become a high-interest item; thus, I have tagged it as such.

Students want to know, apparently, how to keep these high-tech toys going.

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 April 2024: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Root Retro

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the word root retro. It’s of Latin origin and means, as you might have already guessed, “back,” “backward,” and “behind.” The commonly used English words retrofit, retrograde, retroactive, and retrospect grow from this root.

I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the adjective vintage. This scaffolded worksheet, replete with cognates from the Romance languages, is the principal 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, 29 March 2024, Women’s History Month Week 5: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Emmeline Pankhurst

For this, the final Friday of Women’s History Month 2024, here is a reading on Emmeline Pankhurst with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This is a surprisingly thorough account, for a single page of text, of the legendary suffragist and social reformer.

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, 22 March 2024, Women’s History Month Week 4: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Mrs. Dalloway

On this, the penultimate Friday of Women’s History Month 2024, here is a reading on Mrs. Dalloway, the novel by Virginia Woolf, and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I rather doubt anyone is teaching this book at the secondary level. I confess I have found this book, at which I’ve taken several passes, more than a bit of a challenge. Still, these materials introduce the novel, and in so doing introduce Virginia Woolf herself, a significant figure in women’s 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.

The Weekly Text, 15 March 2024, Women’s History Month Week 3: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Patti Smith

On this, the third Friday of Women’s History Month 2024, here is a reading on Patti Smith with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I’d really like to think at this point that this extraordinary artist requires little introduction on this blog, so 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.

The Weekly Text, 8 March 2024, Women’s History Month Week 2: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Anne Bradstreet

For the second Friday of Women’s History Month 2024, here is a reading on Anne Bradstreet with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. She was, as you may know (and I didn’t, I think, because I thought she was a key figure in North American Protestantism somehow, so a theocrat of some sort I suppose) a poet; in fact, she was the first person to publish a volume of poetry in Great Britain’s North American Colonies.

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.