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: Winston Churchill

Posted on June 17, 2020 | Leave a comment

OK, moving right along this beautiful June morning in Vermont, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Winston Churchill. Unlike most of the Cultural Literacy worksheets you’ll find on Mark’s Text Terminal, this one is a full page; it can be used for independent practice (homework, to the layperson), or even in the 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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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3 Furies

Posted on June 17, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Megaera * Tisiphone * Alecto

The furies (Erinyes) were also known in Athens by the cautious euphemism of the Eumenides—‘the kindly ones’—and were worshipped in a cave below the Parthenon. Megaera the jealous, Tisiphone the blood avenger and Alecto the unceasing were elemental figures of human power—the relentless winged spirits of Conscience, Punishment and Retribution hunting down the guilty.

Later traditions identified them as the daughters of Gaia, inseminated when the bloody testicles of the ancient god Uranus, who was castrated by his son Cronus, fell to the earth. They are sometimes depicted like a winged spirit of victory, sometimes like a Medusa figure dripping with gore and a scalp sprouting a mane of thrashing serpents.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Worksheets

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A Lesson Plan on the Longest Rivers on Earth from The Order of Things

Posted on June 17, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is another lesson from The Order of Things, this one on the longest rivers in the world. You’ll also need the list and comprehension questions that are the 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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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Boss Tweed

Posted on June 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

OK, for my colleagues in New York City, the next time a student asks you why the Tweed Courthouse (still home to the New York City Department of Education, as far as I know) is so named, you might find useful this reading on Boss Tweed and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. William Marcy Tweed (“Boss”) incidentally, is buried under a relatively ostentatious stone in Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Tweed’s middle name suggests that he is a member of, or at least a scion of, the same Marcy family that gave us William L. Marcy. Chances are good that this is how Marcy Avenue in Brooklyn got its name.

Perhaps making the connections in this lineage of people and place names would be a worthy endeavor for an inquisitive student? I’m just asking.

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, New York City, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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Siege (n), Besiege (vt)

Posted on June 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here are pair of context clues worksheets for words used regularly in social studies classes that always caused my students, particularly English language learners, a lot of confusion. The first is on the noun siege and the second is on the verb besiege. The verb is only used transitively, so you’ll need a direct object–something has to be besieged–a fort, a city, a building–you get the picture. And once one of these things has been besieged? Then it is under siege.

OK? Any questions?

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, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “At the Fair”

Posted on June 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

This lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “At the Fair” is the last one in the second unit I wrote for this material; I have a third unit of twenty-four lessons, so if you like these and use them, I’ll be posting most if not all of those in the next three or so months.

I open this lesson after a class change with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the literary genre of the epic. You’ll need the PDF of the illustration and questions to investigate what did happen at the fair. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key to help you and your students will need to solve this heinous crime and arrest a suspect for its commission.

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, Worksheets

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Geoffrey Chaucer

Posted on June 9, 2020 | Leave a comment

When I taught high school in Lower Manhattan, The Canterbury Tales was in the English Language Arts curricular cycle. I have always assumed that one of the big ideas in teaching this book was continuity and change, particularly where language is concerned. After all, this book is a significant moment in the evolution of English as a vernacular language.

I worked up this reading on Geoffrey Chaucer and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet to assist the kids in my classes to prepare to read and at least gain some understanding of the own of Chaucer.

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: Subjunctive

Posted on June 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

Several grammarians I follow have suggested, for reasons I don’t fully understand, that the subjunctive mood of verbs is obsolescent. I don’t see how that can be, but I’m only a lowly school teacher. For that reason, I think it’s important that we continue to help students use the subjunctive properly. I hope this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the subjunctive can assist such an endeavor.

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, Independent Practice, Worksheets

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Capricious (adj)

Posted on June 6, 2020 | Leave a comment

It’s Merriam-Webster’s word of the day today, so here is a context clues on the adjective capricious.

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, Worksheets

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The Weekly Text, June 5, 2020: A Lesson Plan on the Verb To Be

Posted on June 5, 2020 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the verb to be used in the present progressive tense. I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “Bone to Pick,” as in “I’ve got a bone to pick with you.” In the event the lesson spills over into a second day, here is a worksheet on the homophones prophet and profit.

You’ll need the worksheet at the center the lesson to do the work; you’ll probably also want (but you don’t necessarily need) this word bank as a learning support. Finally, here is the teacher’s copy 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.

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

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