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.

Bellevue Hospital

Working in New York City, I often use this reading on Bellevue Hospital and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet as make-up work for students who had fallen behind due to extended absences. To some, it was high-interest material, particularly those whose health needs had occasioned visit to that venerable  institution.

Did you know it was the first hospital in the United States to offer ambulance services? I always tried to ask students a couple of Socratic questions that would lead them to an understanding of the intransitive verb ambulate (i.e. “to move from place to place; WALK”), so that they understood that a person in need of an ambulance could not ove under their own power–hence the need for an ambulance.

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.

Converse (vi)

Last but not least this afternoon, since it’s on my desktop, here is a context clues worksheet on the (intransitive only) verb converse.

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: Gon, Gonio

Moving right along on this chilly Sunday afternoon, here is a word root worksheet worksheet on the Greek roots gon and gonio. Math teachers, you know these roots–which mean angle–because they show up in words like pentagon and polygon. These are, needless to say, very productive roots in English.

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.

Everyday Edit: Ida B. Wells

Here is an Everyday Edit worksheet on Ida B. Wells, the estimable journalist and civil rights activist. If you like this, and would like to use Everyday Edits in your teaching practice, head on over to Education World, where the good people who operate that site give away a twelve-month supply of them.

If you find typos and errors in this document, don’t notify me, because I can’t do anything with this PDF. Instead, fix them! That’s the purpose of the document.

Elicit (vt), Illicit (adj)

Depending on what region of the country whence you hail (if you’ll forgive me that locution), these might not necessarily be homophones, but these five homophone worksheets on the homophones elicit and illicit might also serve as vocabulary-building worksheets. Nota bene that elicit as a verb has only transitive use–so don’t forget your direct object!

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.

Cultural Literacy: Maya Angelou

OK, last but not least this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Maya Angelou to begin this blog’s observance of Women’s History Month 2020.

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.

Aesop’s Fables: “The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg”

OK, here is a lesson plan on “The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg” along with the fable itself with a couple of comprehension questions. This is some relatively new material I’ve worked up to serve the needs of some younger middle-schoolers I teach.

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.

Contrive (vi/vt)

Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb contrive if you can use it. It seems to me a component of well-rounded vocabulary. It’s used mainly transitively, but it also has intransitive use in the sense of “to make schemes.”

f 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.

Everyday Edit: Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Today begins Women’s History Month 2020. Let’s kick it off with this Everyday Edit worksheet on Elizabeth Cady Stanton. If you like this material, you can find a yearlong supply of it for free at the Education World website.

And, of course, you will find error in this document–that is the reason, after all, it exists.

The Weekly Text, February 28, 2020, Black History Month 2020 Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Shaka Zulu

OK, here, for the final Friday of Black History Month 2020, is a reading on Shaka Zulu and its accompanying 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.