Category Archives: Worksheets

Classroom documents for student use. Most are structured and scaffolded, and most are pitched at a fundamental level in terms of the questions they ask and the work and understandings they require of students.

Solstice (n)

Posted on October 29, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun solstice. This noun was almost certainly at some point a Word of the Day at Merriam-Webster, which explains this document’s existence. This isn’t a high-frequency word in English, but might be useful nonetheless at least two days a year–the winter and summer solstices.

If you find typos in this document, 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.

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The Weekly Text, 29 October 2021: A Lesson Plan on the Basic Rights of All Children

Posted on October 29, 2021 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is another lesson plan drawn from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s indispensable reference book The Order of Things, this one on the basic rights of children. This is a basic lesson for emergent and struggling readers, as you’ll see from its list as reading and comprehension questions: the reading is a list of ten basic rights, and I’ve prepared five basic comprehension questions.

You, however, may do with this as you like. Because both lesson plan and worksheet are formatted in Microsoft Word (as are most of the documents you will find on this website–and if you’re a regular user of this site, I’ll bet you are tired of hearing me say that), these are what I believe are called, using the term loosely, “open source” documents. Whatever the nomenclature, these materials can be exported and manipulated freely.

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.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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Common Errors in English Usage: Gratis, Gratuitous

Posted on October 27, 2021 | Leave a comment

Last and possibly least this afternoon, here is a worksheet on using gratis and gratuitous properly in English prose. This is a half-page worksheet with ten modified cloze exercises to guide students toward understanding and use of these words. They are both adjectives: gratis means “without charge or recompense” and free”; gratuitous, on the other hand, means “given unearned or without recompense,” “not involving a return benefit, compensation, or consideration,” “costing nothing,” “free,” and “not called for by the circumstances.” This final sense of gratuitous is the definition this worksheet deals with.

If you find typos in this document, 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.

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Cultural Literacy: Constitutional Convention

Posted on October 27, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Constitutional Convention in the nascent United States. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three compound sentences and three comprehension questions that are in two or three parts each. As I looked at this document prior to posting it, it occurred to me that if probably would be better as a full-page worksheet with the questions broken up. Since this is a Microsoft Word document, you can alter it for the needs of your classroom.

If you find typos in this document, 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.

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Word Root Exercise: Cycl-o

Posted on October 27, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Greek root cycl-o. It means circle and wheel. So you won’t be surprise that this productive root yields  commonly used words in English such as bicycle, cycle, and cyclone, and for some reason, encyclopedia. Does anyone with linguistic skills know why encyclopedia ends up on this list? How do reference books stem from a root that means circle and wheel?

If you find typos in this document, 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.

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Scarce (adj)

Posted on October 27, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective scarce. I’m sure I wrote this for use in the economics-themed high school in which I previously served. It goes without saying that this word is in sufficiently common use in English that high school students should know it prior to their graduation.

If you find typos in this document, 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.

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The Sopranos

Posted on October 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

OK, continuing with items from the I-don’t-know-why-or-when-I wrote-this shelf in the warehouse at Mark’s Text Terminal, here is a reading on The Sopranos (which I loved, so that may figure into this) along with its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I expect that this will have, more than 14 years after the final episode of the show aired, very little relevance to students–if ever it did. I must have put this together for a student who asked for it, but I cannot for the life of me remember who that would have been.

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.

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Cultural Literacy: Conscientious Objector

Posted on October 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a conscientious objector to war. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three compound sentences and three comprehension questions. The first question is in three parts, and it may be necessary to break it up for emergent or struggling readers. Once again, this is  Microsoft Word document, so you are free to do with it what you want or need.

If you find typos in this document, 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.

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Common Errors in English Usage: Graffiti (n)

Posted on October 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

From Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage (to which he allows no-cost access on the Washington State University website), here is an English usage worksheet on the noun graffiti. The mild irony here, of course, is that graffiti is an Italian noun, and a plural at that; the singular is graffito. In any case, the worksheet consists of a relatively short (four sentences) reading passage with ten modified cloze exercises.

This is not a vital area of usage, but the worksheet does supply students with an opportunity to do usage analysis, which is more or less the point of these worksheets–and the meet the standard (see “English Usage” in the About Posts & Texts page on this blog, which you can reach by clicking on that title on the masthead of the site) that animated them in the first place.

If you find typos in this document, 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.

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Word Root Exercise: Flori

Posted on October 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Latin root flori. As you probably know, because you have probably visited a florist at least once in your life, this productive root in English (it gives us, in addition to florist, flora, efflorescence and its verb effloresce, as well as the relatively commonly used adjective florid) means flower.

If you find typos in this document, 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.

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