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, June 22, 2018: A Lesson Plan on Developing Thesis Statements

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on postulating theses, i.e developing thesis statements, I wrote for somewhat more advanced students in our Wednesday afternoon institute class. Here is the worksheet that attends the lesson and the teacher’s copy of the worksheet. I wrote this last fall, and used it once; if ever you felt inclined to comment on Mark’s Text Terminal, I would enthusiastically welcome your comments on these documents. The unit of which they are a part is still in the developmental stage.

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, June 22, 2018: A Lesson Plan on Using Adverbs to Modify Verbs

Today’s Text is a complete lesson plan on using adverbs to modify adverbs. I start this lesson with this short exercise on the idiom “money burning a hole in one’s pocket.” Should this lesson go into a second day, here is a second short exercise, this one a on the homophones pore, poor, and pour. The mainstay of this lesson is this scaffolded worksheet on using adverbs to modify adverbs. Depending on the students you’re serving, they may need this learning support, which is a word bank to use with the cloze exercises on the worksheet. Finally, here is the teacher’s copy-answer key 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.

The Weekly Text, June 15, 2018: Two Context Clues Worksheets on the Noun Prologue and Epilogue

This week’s Text is a quick one, after a week of testing. Here are two context clues worksheets on the nouns prologue and epilogue.

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, June 8, 2018: A Lesson Plan on Using Adverbs to Modify Adjectives

This week’s Text is a complete lesson plan on using adverbs to modify adjectives.

I begin this lesson with this short Cultural Literacy exercise on the idiomatic expression If the shoe fits, wear it. I like to keep a second do-now ready in the event that this lesson, for whatever reason, runs into a second day, so here is a second Cultural Literacy on the concept of avatar. This structured, scaffolded worksheet on adverbs modifying adjectives is the mainstay of this lesson, and you will probably want the teacher’s copy of it as well. Finally, here is a learning support in the form of a word bank that will help your students identify the best words to use in the cloze exercises in the first section of the worksheet.

That’s it. See you next week, if not before.

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, June 1, 2018: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Roots Ann and Enn

The end of the school year is right around the corner, and it couldn’t come a moment too soon for me. After next week, we here in New York City (and the state as well, I guess) are looking at two weeks of high-stakes testing, which is akin to slow-motion nightmare.

Anyway, one of the things I’ve noticed when I analyze the page-view statistics here at Mark’s Text Terminal is that people fairly heavily traffic the word root worksheets I have posted over the past three years. As it happens, last summer, after several months of deliberation, I took some of those worksheets and formed them into a year-long, one-instructional-period-per-week unit for building basic academic vocabulary in the students it is my privilege to serve.

So, here is the lesson plan that accompanies this worksheet on the Latin word roots ann and enn–they mean year. Finally, here is a context clues worksheet on the adverb yearly. One of the things you’ll notice about these word root lessons, if you choose to use the do-now exercise to start the lesson, is that the do-now worksheets contain a hint to the meaning of the root. I wrote all the context clues worksheets for these lessons specifically for them, to show students, even within the confines of a 44-minute long class period, that prior knowledge (i.e. that gained from work on the do-now exercise) is useful in understanding the mainstay of the lesson (i.e. the word root worksheet itself).

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, May 25, 2018, Asian Pacific American History Month 2018 Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Ho Chi Minh

Here, for the final Friday of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month of 2018, is a reading on Ho Chi Minh along with this reading comprehension worksheet that accompanies it.

It’s Memorial Day Weekend! I hope you have fun plans with your friends and loved ones. Don’t forget to remember ancestors as well as good and just people we’ve lost in the past year.

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, May 18, 2018, Asian Pacific History Month 2018 Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Buddha, Siddartha Gautama

It has been raining for three days in New York City, so it’s a good time to work inside. Here, for this week’s Text, is a reading on Siddartha Gautama, the Buddha along with this comprehension worksheet to accompany 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, May 11, 2018, Asian Pacific American History Month 2018 Week II: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Novelist Amy Tan

It’s Friday again, as the weeks and years spin by. Mark’s Text Terminal continues to observe Asian Pacific American Heritage Month by offering, as This week’s Text, a reading on novelist Amy Tan with this comprehension worksheet to accompany it. Also, her is an Everyday Edit exercise on Hiroshima (and if you like it, you can get a yearlong supply of them from the extremely generous proprietors of the Education World website.

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, May 4, 2018, Asian Pacific American History Month 2018 Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Chinese Exclusion Act

For the first text of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I offer a materials on one of the most ignoble pieces of legislation ever to pass through our legislative and executive branch, the Chinese Exclusion Act.

So, here is a reading on the Chinese Exclusion Act along with this comprehension worksheet on it. Finally, here is an Everyday Edit on the late Senator Daniel Inouye (and if you want or need more Everyday Edit worksheets, I highly recommend visiting the Everyday Edit page at Education World, where you will find the generous proprietors of the site give away away a yearlong supply of them for free!).

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, April 27, 2018: A Lesson Plan on Using the Personal Pronoun in the Possessive Case

It’s Friday again, so it’s time for another Weekly Text.  This week I offer a complete lesson plan on using the personal pronoun in the possessive case. I begin this lesson with this short exercise on the homophones to, too, and two; in the event the lesson runs into a second day, I keep this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the rhetorical question in reserve. The mainstay of this lesson is this structured, scaffolded worksheet on using the personal pronoun in the possessive case. Here, also, is the teacher’s copy of the worksheet to help you get through the lesson. Finally, here is a learning support on pronouns and case that both your and your students might find useful for this lesson–and elsewhere.

That’s it. It finally feels like spring here, so it’s one of the best times of year her in the Big Apple. On second thought, though, aren’t all the seasons marvelous here?

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.