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.

A Document-Based Questioning (DBQ) Lesson on the Apology of Socrates

Posted on August 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

As above and below, this DBQ lesson on Apology of Socrates is the fifth of a ten-lesson global studies unit on document-based questions.

This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on allusion, and here is a second one on status quo in the event the lesson goes into a second day–or you just want the worksheet around to elucidate this Latinism so common in the English language.

You’ll need this reading and comprehension questions on Socrates’ Apology to conduct the essential 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.

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A Document-Based Questioning (DBQ) Lesson on Pericles’ Funeral Oration

Posted on August 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

Moving right along, and as above and below, this lesson plan on Pericles’ funeral oration as drawn from Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War, is number four of a ten-lesson unit of document-based questioning materials.

This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the epic as a poetic form and as a means of recording history; it the lesson goes into a second day–and that I included another on the Peloponnesian War suggests that I planned that it would–you can use that second Cultural Literacy worksheet. Like the first one on epics, the document on the Peloponnesian War is a half-page worksheet.

Finally, here is the reading and comprehension questions that is the primary 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.

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A Document-Based Questioning (DBQ) Lesson on the Analects of Confucius

Posted on August 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

As above and below, here is a DBQ lesson on the Analects of Confucius. The lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Aesop’s Fable “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” And here is the reading and comprehension questions that are the work of this lesson.

Also, if you are interested in going further with “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” here is a lesson plan on 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.

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A Document-Based Questioning (DBQ) Lesson on the 23rd Psalm

Posted on August 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

As above and below, here is a DBQ lesson on Psalm 23, taken from the King James Bible.

This lesson opens with this context clues worksheet on the noun psalm to assist students in developing their own understanding of this poetic–and musical–form. If you take the lesson into a second day (or if your students do!), here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a motif. Finally, here is the reading and comprehension worksheet that is the primary 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.

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A Document-Based Questioning (DBQ) Lesson on the Rig Veda

Posted on August 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is a DBQ lesson on the Hindu sacred text the Rig Veda, the first, as above and below, of a ten-lesson documents-based questions (DBQ) unit.

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of symbols; in the event the lesson requires a second day to complete, then here is another on another on the epic as a poetic form. As I write this, I think perhaps the reading on epics probably ought to come first in the delivery of this lesson. Finally, here is the reading and comprehension worksheet that is the chief work of this lesson.

Incidentally, you might find this reading and comprehension worksheet on Hindu Epics complementary to 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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Subterfuge (n)

Posted on August 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

This context clues worksheet on the strong abstract noun subterfuge. It’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, but as I want to reiterate, this is a very strong abstract noun and commonly used in educated discourse. It also stems from the Latin word root sub, which is incredibly productive in English.

If you search sub–just sub–on this site (the search bar is in the upper-right-hand corner), you will find all kinds of material to complement this worksheet.

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 Miracle on Ice

Posted on August 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

When I taught in Springfield, Massachusetts, (which hosts a minor league hockey team), a number of students in my literacy intervention class wanted to read about hockey. So I worked up this reading on the Miracle on Ice and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet for their consumption. If you’re not old enough to remember it, or are not a hockey or Olympics fan, the Miracle on Ice is the United States Olympic Hockey Team’s upset victory over the Russian team at the 1980 Olympics at Lake Placid, New York.

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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Word Root Exercise: Pro-

Posted on August 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

Alright, here is a worksheet on the Greek word root pro, which means before, forward, forth, in place of, and in addition to. This root is so productive in English–as this worksheet shows in summary–that I hardly need mention it. Interestingly, in Russia, this root shows up as a preposition meaning “about.”

Editorially speaking, let me just say this: adding pro to other words, such as active, a perfectly serviceable adjective per se, improves neither the root nor the word to which it added. It does, as Paul Fussell once commented, contribute to the average American’s mistaken perception of themselves as smarter for having added a syllable to a word. Proactive does not mean, alas, anymore than active does.

Let’s leave pro to words like prokaryote.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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Cultural Literacy: Jerusalem

Posted on August 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here’s a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Jerusalem, the center of the world’s monotheistic religions and a field of conflict for centuries. This is a full-page worksheet, so it might work well for independent practice–i.e. homework.

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: Than (conj/prep), Then (adv)

Posted on August 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is an English usage worksheet on differentiating than and then in prose and speech. This relatively minor area of usage is nonetheless sufficiently thorny to have warranted a surprisingly lengthy exchange on it between two characters on The Wire. As the state’s attorney explains to the detectives seeking a court order for a wiretap (as does this worksheet), than is a conjunction and then is an adverb.

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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