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: Republic

Posted on November 16, 2020 | Leave a comment

Now seems like a good time to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the republic as form of government. This is a full-page worksheet, so it might be useful as an independent practice (i.e. homework) assignment. There is, like most if not all of the Cultural Literacy worksheets on this blog, plenty of room to expand this document; and, as are the lion’s share of documents here, this one is in Microsoft Word, so it is easily exportable, transferable, and reviseable.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , , , ,

The Weekly Text, November 13, 2020: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Seeing Double”

Posted on November 13, 2020 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Seeing Double.” Judging from my download statistics, these are always a crowd pleaser.

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “Have. an ax to grind,” (which might also be usefully employed when introducing students to the methods of writing a research paper–especially scholarly disinterest). This PDF of the illustration and questions is the evidence you’ll need to conduct this investigation. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key so that you may bring the culprit to the bar of justice.

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.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged , , , , , , ,

United Nations

Posted on November 13, 2020 | Leave a comment

Now seems like a perfect time to post this reading on the United Nations and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Every person on this planet would benefit, I not so humbly submit, to consider themselves members of the United Nations–all species on earth would similarly benefit, I think.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Obelisk (n)

Posted on November 13, 2020 | Leave a comment

It’s not a word in particularly common use in English even if one of our most recognizable pieces of public art and architecture–the Washington Monument–is indeed such a monument. In any case, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun obelisk. If you’re teaching about ancient Egypt (where it came up when I taught global studies, which is, I assume, why I wrote this in the first place), this might be a useful document.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,

A Short Exercise on the Greek Word Root Icon/o

Posted on November 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

Last but not least on a rainy Thursday afternoon, here is a short worksheet on the Greek word root icon/o–it means image. But you already knew that because of the word icon itself is so commonly used in the English language.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , ,

Common Errors in English Usage: Sensual (adj), Sensuous (adj)

Posted on November 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

The minute I started writing this English usage worksheet on the adjectives sensual and sensuous worksheet I worried that I had waded into dangerous waters–and I expect I don’t need to explain why. In any case, these are a couple of frequently used words in English, do it’s up to us to find, uh, a suitable way to present them. As you will see, sensual, which as the worksheet’s reading tells students, …”often has a slightly racy or even judgmental tone lacking in ‘sensuous,’” caused me some problems when writing cloze exercises for it.

As with just about everything else at Mark’s Text Terminal, this is a Microsoft Word document, so you can alter it to suit your circumstances and needs.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , ,

Michel de Montaigne

Posted on November 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

Several years ago I developed this reading on Michel de Montaigne and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet to use with a unit I was working on to support students in their various essay-writing endeavors around the school and across the common branch curriculum.

What I discovered in the course of this project was that students really didn’t understand what an essay is (then, as often happens, I discovered as well that my own grasp of the essay form wasn’t what it should be for someone in my position). Hence these documents: Montaigne, as you may know, is really the father of the essay form–particularly the kind of discursive composition which is often characteristic of essay writing.

In any case, I’m not sure I ever used this in the form you have it here–i.e. in its entirety. Depending on the needs and abilities of the students I served, I’ve chopped the reading up in pieces, but also edited the material I considered most salient in it into one paragraph. I’ve used parts of the worksheet and none of it at all. It’s a solid conspectus of Montaigne’s life and work, therefore a good introduction to him for high school students

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,

Bailiwick (n)

Posted on November 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

Because it’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, and because it is used in educated discourse with sufficient frequency, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun bailiwick. The context clues on this document are a bit dense; it’s hard to avoid that when dealing with abstract nouns like this one, which means “the sphere in which has one superior knowledge or authority: a special domain.” This is exactly the kind of word that challenges certain struggling learners, so beware 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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , ,

Cultural Literacy: Czar

Posted on November 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the term czar. This noun, of course, describes the absolute rulers of Russia (and, incidentally, like the German Kaiser, originates in ancient Rome with the Latin Caesar). But it also has been used, as the reading on this document explains, to describe public officials with wide-ranging powers. For example, the conservative writer and political activist William Bennett served as the director of the Office of National National Drug Policy under President George H.W. Bush, in which capacity he was known as the “Drug Czar.”

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , ,

Reprove (vi/vt)

Posted on November 9, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here, once again, is Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day rendered as a context clues worksheet on the verb reprove. It’s used both intransitively and transitively. It means “to scold or correct usually gently or with kindly intent,” “to express disapproval of : CENSURE,” and “to express rebuke or reproof.”

It’s a solid verb, but perhaps not one students must know. In any case, I’ve done one of my jobs for the day.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , ,