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.

The Weekly Text, 22 April 2022: A Final Assessment Lesson Plan on Prepositions

Posted on April 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is this final lesson plan of the prepositions unit that I have posted piecemeal over the years. That means there is a complete unit of seven lessons on using prepositions in prose on this blog. To find them, search “prepositions lesson plans” in the little box just to your right. Your search should yield all seven lessons.

Anyway, I open this lesson with this Everyday Edit worksheet on the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The work for this lesson will extend into a second day, so here is another Everyday Edit on Sarah Chldress Polk, First Lady. If you and your students find Everyday Edits useful–I’ve had a few students over the years who have found these documents so intellectually satisfying that they asked for more of them–you can click over to Education World, where the proprietors of that site generously supply a yearlong supply of them at no cost.

Finally, here is the worksheet and organizer upon which the work of this lesson, and the entire unit, really, is inscribed.

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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Common Errors in English Usage: Impassible (adj), Impassable (adj)

Posted on April 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on differentiating the use of the adjectives impassible and impassable in prose. Actually, this isn’t a problem, I expect, most primary and secondary students will encounter. In the event they do, however, let me summarize this full-page document, with a three-sentence reading and ten modified cloze exercises: impassible is a non-standard version of impassive, which means, variously, “giving no sign of feeling or emotion,” “unsusceptible to or destitute of emotion,” and “unsusceptible to physical feeling.”

Impassable, on the other hand, simply means “incapable of being passed, traveled, crossed, or surmounted.” If nothing else, this is a simple usage exercise capable, I think, of helping students understand why good usage makes good writing, and also meets the Common Core Standard: “(L.11-12.1b)-Resolve issues of complex or contested usage, consulting references, (e.g., Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, Garner’s Modern American Usage) as needed.” Professor Brians’ book (which, incidentally, he allows access to at no cost at the Washington State University website) works well for this task or practice, I think, particularly where emergent or struggling readers are concerned.

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: Phyto/o, -Phyte

Posted on April 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Greek roots phyt/o and –phyte. They mean “plant” and “to grow.” If you teach in the hard sciences, particularly biology, this might be a useful document for you: these roots yield words such as chrysophyte, hydrophyte, and phytochrome among others.

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: Oxymoron

Posted on April 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the oxymoron as a rhetorical device. This is a half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading, a relatively uncomplicated compound, with three comprehension questions. A simple introduction to this commonly used rhetorical move, even in everyday conversation.

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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Assiduous (adj)

Posted on April 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective assiduous. It means, as you probably know, “marked by careful unremitting attention or persistent application,” e.g. “an assiduous book collector,” “tended her garden with assiduous attention.” I stipulate that this isn’t exactly a high-frequency word in English. It is, however, a useful one.

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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Time

Posted on April 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on time as a philosophical concept, along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. The reading invokes Kant, Leibniz, and Newton; as I recall, I wrote this about ten years ago for a student interested in philosophy. I don’t know that I or anyone else as looked at it since. Here it is for your use. Remember that like everything else on Mark’s Text Terminal, these are Microsoft Word documents, so you can tailor them to your students’ needs.

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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Word Root Exercise: Ram, Rami

Posted on April 15, 2022 | Leave a comment

On the first day of a very badly needed spring break, here is a worksheet on the Latin word roots ram and rami. They mean branch. This root does not produce a bumper crop of high-frequency English words: it gives us ramification, and therefore ramify–or vice versa, because there is a good chance the verb emerged first. This is a Latin root, and as we know from history, the Romans loved action. However, this root also sprouts biramous (“having two branches”) ramus (“a projecting part, elongated process, or branch,” “the posterior more or less vertical part on each side of the lower jaw that articulates with the skull,” and “a branch of a nerve”), which may actually have use for students interested in entering healthcare professions, and ramose (“consisting of or having branches”).

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 Errors in English Usage: Ignorant (adj), Stupid (adj)

Posted on April 14, 2022 | Leave a comment

From Paul Brians’ book Common Errors in English Usage, here is a worksheet on differentiating and using properly the adjectives ignorant and stupid. This is a full-page worksheet with a two-sentence reading and ten modified cloze exercises.

Given the current state of American culture and society, I would think this would be timely, and therefore useful, material. But that’s just the perspective of my currently jaundiced eye. On a brighter note, and to give credit where it is so amply due, you should know that Professor Brians allows access to his usage manual at no cost; you can find the webscript (can I coin that portmanteau?) at the Washington State University website.

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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Term of Art: Small School Movement

Posted on April 14, 2022 | Leave a comment

“small schools movement: A movement initiated in the 1970s, mainly in New York City, to establish small schools. Some of these schools were alternative schools for adolescents in need of intensive remediation, whereas others set out to demonstrate that students would get a better education in schools containing fewer than 500 students. Interest in the small schools movement was propelled by pioneers Deborah Meier and her Central Park East schools in East Harlem in New York City and Theodore Sizer and his Coalition of Essential Schools. The movement continued to grow during the 1980s and 1990s and gained momentum with the commitment of $1 billion by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the late 1990s. With funding from the Gates Foundation, many cities across the United States agreed to divide their high schools into small schools. Advocates claim that small schools offer a warmer, more personalized climate than do large schools and consequently boast higher achievement, attendance, and graduation rates. Critics contend that the small schools are unable to mount a strong curriculum with advanced courses and that the administrative costs of small schools are excessive, the burden on teachers is greater, and the academic results are uncertain.”

Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.

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The Weekly Text, 15 April 2022: A Lesson Plan on Using Prepositions

Posted on April 14, 2022 | Leave a comment

The Weekly Text on this Tax Day (actually, Tax Day this year is on Monday, 18 April) is the penultimate lesson, a sentence writing review, of seven-lesson unit on the use of prepositions. Without further ado, then, here is the lesson plan.

I open this lesson with this Everyday Edit worksheet on author Yoshiko Uchida; in the event the lesson stretches into a second day, here is another on Basketball’s Beginnings. (And to give credit where it is so deservedly due, the good people at Education World allow access at no cost to a calendar year’s worth of Everyday Edit worksheets, should you find these useful documents work well for your students.) Here is the sentence-writing review worksheet. If you need it, here is the learning support for commonly used prepositions that I work to keep by students’ sides throughout this unit. Finally, here is the teacher’s copy of the worksheet.

Next week I’ll publish as the Weekly Text the assessment lesson for this unit. Then Mark’s Text Terminal will be able to offer a complete seven-lesson unit on using prepositions in prose.

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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