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.

Euphemism (n)

Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun euphemism, which I think high school students, particularly in the media environment which we currently occupy, really ought to know and be able to use.

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.

Babe Ruth

Here is a reading on Babe Ruth and the comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. Not much to say about this other than it tends to be high-interest material.

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: Fractal

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on fractals for math teachers and students alike.

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.

You’re (pro/v contraction) and Your (pro)

Here, on a cool Saturday morning in July, are five worksheets on the homophones you’re and your. These are two words frequently confused.

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.

Prolific (adj)

Here, if you can use it, is a context clues worksheet on the adjective prolific. This is a word that comes up quite a bit in casual discourse, particularly in connection with the production of artists, writers, and musicians.

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.

Cultural Literacy: The Digital Divide

As I sit down to publish this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the digital divide, I wonder if it is still relevant. It looks like, to some extent, the availability of relatively cheap smartphones have done something to close this gap. At the same time, as net neutrality ends, the divide may reopen with different fissure lines. And as far as smartphones go, yes they are readily available; but neither smartphones themselves nor the data plans that make them useful are created equal. On could make the argument that the lines of the digital divide now run along the lines of smartphones and the plans that drive them.

If nothing else, this worksheet introduces students to the idea that social class determines what one has access to in our society, so this worksheet could be used to open a conceptual inquiry on social class and the extent to which it circumscribes life itself.

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.

Polymath (n)

While I doubt it’s a word that comes up much in any teacher’s classroom, I nonetheless wrote this context clues worksheet on the noun polymath. Because polymath is basically synonymous with Renaissance man, it seems like a word high school students ought to know to understand this important intellectual and cultural dimension of the Renaissance.

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.

The Weekly Text, July 6, 2018: A Lesson Plan on the Latin Word Root Agri-

It’s Friday again: this week’s Text is a complete lesson plan on the Latin word root agri. It means, crop, production, and field. I begin this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the noun farmer. And, last, this worksheet on the Latin root agri is the mainstay of this lesson. Nota bene, please, that I have previously posted this worksheet by itself without a lesson plan or accompanying short exercise.

That’s it. I don’t know about where you are, but it has been very hot here. If you live or work in New York City and environs, I hope you’re staying cool.

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.

The Weekly Text, June 28, 2018: A Lesson Plan on Using the Interrogative Pronoun

This week’s Text is a complete lesson plan on the using the interrogative pronoun. I start this lesson with this homophone worksheet on the contraction you’re and the possessive pronoun your. If for some reason (and there are often plenty of reasons for this) the lesson goes into a second day, I like to keep nearby this Cultural Literacy worksheet on plagiarism, which I use with other lessons as well (I find one cannot emphasize the issue of plagiarism enough). The center of this lesson this scaffolded worksheet on using the interrogative pronoun. 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.

Reify (v) and Reification (noun)

Over the years, and with several readings of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s Understanding by Design and related books, I have finally managed to din into my own head the importance of teaching students conceptual knowledge that transfers within a domain, and even across domains. I’ve come to think that teachers, whatever their subject and grade level, are in the business of reifying.

Here are two context clues worksheets on the verb reify and the noun reification. They are words, I am increasingly convinced, that students should learn as soon as it is developmentally appropriate. If nothing else, these words will help students understand that there are two basic cognitive categories, the abstract and the concrete. These two words may well help instantiate the difference between concrete and abstract nouns, something I find students with low level of literacy struggle to distinguish–and something that definitely gets in the way of learning on a broader scale.

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.