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.

Complicity (n)

Posted on June 24, 2022 | Leave a comment

OK, if you’ve been listening, even passively, as I have mostly, to the House January 6 Hearings, you’ll understand why now is a good time to post this context clues worksheet on the noun complicity. For the purposes of inferring meaning from context in this document, complicity means “association or participation in or as if in a wrongful act.”

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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The Weekly Text, 24 June 2022: Summer of Soul Lesson 4

Posted on June 24, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is the fourth and final lesson plan of the Summer of Soul unit I wrote earlier this year. This lesson opens with this short reading with three comprehension questions on the concept of “a seat at the table,” i.e. joining in decision-making processes, particularly where those decisions concern oneself. The mainstay of this lesson is this reflection and assessment guide for discussion and note-taking at the end of this unit.

Because this is it. You now have access to all four lessons in this unit. If you expand this, or otherwise change it, I would be very interested in hearing what you did. I wrote this unit quickly to capitalize on student interest (Summer of Soul won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the 94th Academy Awards in 2022). Even as I presented the unit, I recognized that there is a lot of room to expand and improve this 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.

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

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Term of Art: Visual-Motor Coordination

Posted on June 22, 2022 | Leave a comment

“visual motor coordination: The combination of visual perception with motion; the ability to see something and react with a movement.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

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Word Root Exercise: Spiro

Posted on June 22, 2022 | Leave a comment

OK, finally on this cool and cloudy Wednesday morning in Brooklyn, here is a worksheet on the Latin word root spiro. It means breathe, which is why you’ll find it at the base of commonly used English words such as perspire and aspirate, and less commonly used words in general discourse, but common in the health professions, like respire (breathe to the layman), suspire, and spirometer.

In fact, this is another one of those roots essential to students interested in pursuing careers in health care, so I’ll tag it as a career and technical education document.

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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Archimedes

Posted on June 22, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on Archimedes along with its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

Is there anything more I need to say about this polymath from Syracuse? He gave us the lever, and shouted “Eureka” (Greek for “I have found it”) when he solved the problem of the Golden Crown.

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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Cogent (adj)

Posted on June 22, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective cogent. It’s not a word one hears much, which is too bad as it is a solid, useful word which means “appealing forcibly to the mind or reason,” “convincing,” “pertinent,” and  “relevant.” Merriam-Webster also makes a point of emphasizing the synonym “valid” for cogent.

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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Cultural Literacy: Fractal

Posted on June 22, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the fractal as a concept of mathematics, which turns out to be something different than I thought it was. I’d confused the basic concept of fractals with a Mandelbrot set, which is a type of fractal–but not the only one, apparently.

In any case, this is a full-page worksheet with a four-sentence reading and five comprehension questions.

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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Common English Verbs Followed by Gerunds: Detest

Posted on June 21, 2022 | Leave a comment

Finally this morning, here is a worksheet on the use of the verb detest when it is used with a gerund. I detest listening to gasbags on the radio.

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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Word Root Exercise: Scop, Scope, Scopy

Posted on June 21, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Greek word roots scop,-scope, and scopy. They mean to view, examine, and to observe. And I doubt you’ll be surprised to hear that you’ll find these roots at the base of such high-frequency English words as (and yes, these are on the worksheet itself) horoscope, kaleidoscope, and periscope. Microscope isn’t here, but if you want to add it you can; this, like almost everything else on Mark’s Text Terminal, is a Microsoft Word document that you can alter to your classroom’s needs.

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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Cross of Gold Speech

Posted on June 21, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold speech,” delivered to the audience at the 1896 national convention of the Democratic Party. Bryan is often used as a metaphor for the 19th-century American Populist movement–known as the People’s Party–and indeed the party nominated Bryan as its candidate in the 1896 presidential election.

The speech itself is both a representative ideological screed of populism, but also one of the classic pieces of American rhetoric. Bryan was a gasbag, so this speech is a stem-winder. As an illustration of certain tendencies in American political discourse, this speech is nonpareil.

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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