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: Knee-Jerk Reflex

OK, moving right along this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of the “knee-jerk reflex.” This squib that drives this worksheet does a nice, succinct job of showing the relationship between the literal and the metaphorical in this expression–so that’s a concept you might be able to explore in greater depth consequent to this document.

Just sayin’.

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.

Convince (vt)

Here’s a context clues worksheet on the verb convince; it is only used transitively. I’m sure I don’t need to nag teachers on the importance of students fully understanding the meaning and use of this word.

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.

Jesse James

Here, on a Friday morning, is a reading on Jesse James along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Somewhere along the line (for me it was probably consequent to seeing, when I was 12 years old, Philip Kaufman’s film “The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid“) Jesse James attained status as something of a folk hero. As this reading discloses, he was a nasty piece of work–a Confederate sympathizer, klansman, and cold-blooded murderer. In today’s Republican party, he could be a congressional candidate.

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.

Aesop’s Fables: “The Milkmaid and Her Pail”

Here is a lesson plan on the Aesop’s Fable “The Milkmaid and Her Pail.” Of course you’ll need the reading with its comprehension questions to teach this short passage on hopes and reality.

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Roots Graph and Graphy

OK, last but not least this morning, before I head out to the grocery store (aside: don’t forget to thank the brave workers staffing our grocery stores–if there is any justice in this world, they will emerge from this pandemic among–to use another word deriving from. the Latin root pan–among the pantheon of heroes), here is a lesson plan on the Latin word roots graph and graphy. These mean writing, written, recording, drawing and science; you will recognize immediately, even before looking at the scaffolded worksheet at the center of this lesson, that these are two very productive roots in English.

I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the verb record, which is used both intransitively and transitively.

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.

Independent Practice: Muhammad

Here, in the ongoing observation of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2020 at Mark’s Text Terminal, is an independent practice worksheet on Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Civil War Secession of States from The Order of Things

Here’s another lesson plan from The Order of Things, this one on the secession of states preceding the American Civil War. This worksheet with a list and comprehension questions related to it constitute the work for this lesson.

As I’ve previously mentioned, I was just beginning to develop these materials (in fact, as I write this, a pile of worksheets awaiting development sits before me on my desk) when the school I was working in closed for the year. In fact, I’ve already posted several lessons derived from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s book, including those on the readmission of seceded states after the Civil War. Needless to say, those logically ought to follow this one, not precede 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.

A Concluding Lesson Plan for the Nouns Unit Posted on this Site

OK, readers, I debated with myself about whether or not to publish this post. The documents below are the unit final assessment for my unit on nouns, which means I have posted all the previous lessons–12 of them, to be precise, since this one is lesson 13. You can actually find all the rest of this unit’s lessons underneath this hyperlink. In other words, for the first time, in almost 3,300 published posts, I have managed to get a complete unit published from my parts of speech units. Stay tuned, because there are more to come–and depending on how long social distancing lasts, and schools remain closed, these lessons will continue to appear here every couple of days.

So, here is the lesson plan for this final assessment; nota bene please that I built into this lesson some organizational activities for students who deal with executive skills and attentional challenges. The first do-now exercise for this lesson is this Everyday Edit worksheet on Aquarius, the Water Carrier (and please don’t forget that you can help yourself to a yearlong supply of these worksheets at Education World). The second do-now is this worksheet on the homophones there, their, and they’re. Finally, I’ll assume that this four page assessment speaks to the need for two do-now exercises for this lesson; in fact, in my experience (this is the first of seven units on the parts of speech), this assessment takes at least two days to complete, and may take a third. If that is the case, and you need another do-now, there are reams of them available on this site.

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.

Tonsillitis

When I was a kid, a couple of hundred years ago, it was a common childhood malady. I don’t know if remains so, but in any case, here is a reading on tonsillitis along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet if you can use them.

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “A Case of Kippers”

Alright, last but not least this morning, here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “A Case of Kippers.”

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “burning the candle at both ends.” Here is the PDF of the illustration and questions you and your students will need to conduct this investigation. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key so that you and your class 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.