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.

Cultural Literacy: Fiscal Year

Posted on July 26, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the fiscal year in both concept and practice. It’s a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and three questions.

In other words, it’s a short, basic, but effective general introduction to the fiscal year. I wrote this because I worked in a economics-and-finance-themed high school in Lower Manhattan. But the truth of the matter is that I don’t think I ever had a need to use it. Maybe you will.

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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Phoneme (n)

Posted on July 25, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun phoneme. It means “any of the abstract units of the phonetic system of a language that correspond to a set of similar speech sounds (as the velar \k\ of cool and the palatal \k\ of keel) which are perceived to be a single distinctive sound in the language.”

Teachers best know this noun when it turns up as the basis of an adjective in the term of art “phonemic awareness.” Because of that, I have tagged this post as both a term of art and as material related to professional development. where reading instruction is concerned. At the same time, the context sentences in which I’ve embedded this word on this document is meant to lead students to its meaning. I ask for comments and peer review on every documents post on this blog. For this one, I would be especially interested in and grateful for your comments on this document–especially if you have used it with students.

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, 23 July 2021: A Lesson Plan on the Greek Word Root Neo-

Posted on July 23, 2021 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Greek word root neo–. As you most likely know, it means, simply, new. It can also mean recent, a slightly different temporal shade of meaning from new. This is a very productive root in English; it can be set as a prefix across a wide variety of nouns and adjectives.

I start this unit, to hint at were it’s going, with this context clues worksheet on the verb innovate (nov is the Latin equivalent of neo). You’ll need this scaffolded worksheet on neo 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.

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Antiglobalization

Posted on July 23, 2021 | 3 comments

Here is a reading on the antiglobalization movement in the United States along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

Because this relatively short reading focuses on the United States, it serves only as a general introduction to a movement that is, well, global in scale. If you scroll down from here to the sixth post below this one, you’ll find a reading and comprehension worksheet on the Bretton Woods Conference that might complement this reading–or vice versa.

I’d like to thank friend of the blog Adelaide Dupont, who called my attention to a typo in the reading in this post.

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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Persist (vi)

Posted on July 23, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb persist. It is, interestingly, only used intransitively. You can use an adverb with it, though most of them would be superfluous. But you’ll never place a direct object–i.e. a noun or noun phrase–after this verb. This is a nice strong verb, of Latin pedigree, in its own right.

It means, as we use it in conversational discourse, “to go on resolutely or stubbornly in spite of opposition, importunity, or warning.” So this context clues worksheet conveys meaning using that definition. The verb, however, can also mean “to be insistent in the repetition or pressing of an utterance (as a question or an opinion).” That, I assume, is how Senator Mitch McConnell meant it when he said of Senator Elizabeth Warren, “Nevertheless, she persisted” when Senator Warren refused to stop speaking during the confirmation hearing for Senator Jeff Sessions‘ for Attorney General of the United States.

It might be worth writing a second version of this document to reflect that second meeting. I’ll keep you posted.

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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A Learning Support on Verbs and Number

Posted on July 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

Last but not least on this perfect summer afternoon in Vermont, here is a learning support on verbs and number. This is about a half page of text that leaves enough open field in the document to contrive a worksheet with it. In fact, since this document is formatted in Microsoft Word, you can do pretty much anything you need or want to with it.

This one, too, comes from Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage. This one, too, does a very nice job of explaining its central piece of procedural knowledge, how writers lose track of subjects in complicated sentences and often commit subject/verb agreement lapses because of that.

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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Bretton Woods

Posted on July 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on Bretton Woods  along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

Bretton Woods, you may recall, is shorthand for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held in June of 1944, at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.  The hotel is right at the base of Mount Washington, a beautiful spot. This article, from the Intellectual Devotional series, serves as a good general introduction to a highly complicated subject–the post-World War II global economy.

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: For Want of a Nail the Kingdom Was Lost

Posted on July 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy Worksheet on the proverb For Want of a Nail the Kingdom Was Lost. It’s a half-page document with a short reading and three questions.

Because this is a classic proverb that originates in a Middle High German form as early as the 13th century, and has been a constant across the centuries. In its entirety, which is only seven lines, it’s a nice little chain of cause and effect. I think there is a lesson in all this about the consequences of omission and neglect.

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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Parry (vi/vt)

Posted on July 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb parry. It’s used both intransitively and transitively. For each of those uses, however, there are two meanings, virtually identical across the intransitive and transitive uses of this word.

To wit: transitively, parry means “to ward off (as a blow)” and “to evade especially by an adroit answer”; intransitively, parry means “to ward off a weapon or blow” and “to evade or turn aside something.” The document above provides context clues to define parry in the sense of “to ward off (as a blow) and “to ward of a weapon or blow.”

Recently, I had to good fortune to attend a professional development session on debate-centered instruction. For that reason, you will see here, sooner or later, another context clues worksheet that calls upon students to recognize the second of each of the two definitions above.

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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Barry Goldwater

Posted on July 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

Last but not least on this clement Wednesday afternoon, here is a reading on Barry Goldwater along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

This is a good general introduction to the late senator and presidential candidate. Senator Goldwater, relatively speaking, was a nuanced thinker and, in the end, no subscriber to the kind of rigid ideology conservatives today profess.

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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