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.

Systemic Painting

“Systemic Painting: Described as a branch of Minimal Art and sometimes expanded to incorporate Color-Field Painting, it is a special form of abstract painting based on an organization—or system—of images, e.g., a painting which is a pure, single field of color, or a series of such paintings; or a painting based on the repetition of a single visual motif, such as a circle, chevron, etc. The term describes certain works by Kenneth Noland and Frank Stella. Closely related to, but not identical with, Serial Art.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

Cultural Literacy: Tour de Force

Alright, I’ve run out of steam for today. I’ll return here tomorrow with another raft of documents that will, I fervently hope, keep young, homebound minds engaged in something other than anxiety about our current dystopian state. So here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept tour de force.

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.

Word Root Exercise: Mar, Mari

Here is a worksheet on the Latin word roots mar and mari. They mean sea. These are very productive roots in English that yield commonly used words like maritime and mariner, to name just two. If you live near water of any kind, chances are good you have a marina offering its goods and services in your community.

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.

Sandy Koufax

By now, as most people who care surely–and sadly–know, the opening day of Major League Baseball has been pushed out to mid-May at least. Sniff. Team owners hope for a full schedule, but that seems optimistic at best.

In the meantime, for kids at home as the COVID19 pandemic runs its course, here is a reading on Sandy Koufax and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension 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.

Denude (vt)

In a time where the wanton destruction of this planet’s habitat has become a commonplace “market force,” this context clues worksheet on the verb denude ought to be able to find a place in somebody’s classroom. It is used only transitively.

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 Crime and Puzzlement Case: “A Comedy of Errors”

Here is yet Crime and Puzzlement lesson plan, this one on “A Comedy of Errors.” I open this lesson, in order to get students settled after a class transition, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the expression “Touch and Go.” Here is the scan of the illustrations and questions needed to conduct the investigation–and here is the typescript of the answer key.

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.

Heal (vi/vt), Heel (n)

Here are five worksheets on the homophones heal and heel, used respectively as an intransitive and transitive verb, and a noun.

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.

Virus

Here is an extremely timely reading on viruses along with its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Enough said.

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 Nouns as the Subjects of Sentences

OK, I need to go to the laundromat at some point today, but first I’ll post this lesson plan on nouns as the subjects of sentences. I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on subject as a grammatical term. Finally, here is the scaffolded worksheet at the center 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.

Derogatory (adj)

Here’s a context clues worksheet on the adjective derogatory. The verb, incidentally, is derogate and is used both intransitively and transitively. In any case, the adjective is relatively commonly used.

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.