Tag Archives: learning supports

The Weekly Text, 11 September 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 14, What Is a Subordinating Conjunction and How Does It Introduce a Dependent Clause?

OK, here is the fourteenth lesson plan of the Introduction to Writing Sentences Unit, this one on using subordinating conjunctions to compose complex sentences. This Cultural Literacy worksheet on conjunctions opens this lesson, and bears some explaining. First: this is a full-page worksheet with a five-sentence reading and eight comprehension questions. In other words, this do-now may end up turning this lesson into a two-day affair. Why? Well, I think students, to be able to write well whatever the demands of their writing happen to be. And to handle increasingly complex ideas, one must be able to write increasingly complex sentences. Conjunctions–particularly the subordinating conjunctions addressed in this lesson–are key to writing complex sentences that convey complex ideas. So, I would argue, in defense of this do-now document that is really more of a lesson in itself, that this is the right opening for this lesson.

And here is the scaffolded worksheet on writing complex sentences that is the principal work of this lesson. Your students–and you–will probably benefit from this general learning support on conjunctions as well as this one specifically on subordinating conjunctions. Finally, here is the teacher’s copy of the lesson 14 worksheet to ease your cognitive load while delivering 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.

The Weekly Text, 4 September 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 13, The Relative Clause; What Is a Relative Pronoun and How Does It Introduce a Relative Clause?

Let’s continue this website’s slog through the Introduction to Writing Sentences unit with the thirteenth lesson plan, this one on writing sentences with relative clauses. This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the regular verb. This is a half-page document with a two sentence reading and three comprehension questions. If I am not mistaken, I recently published this document in a standalone post.

Here is the scaffolded worksheet on relative clauses and their use–and punctuation–in declarative sentences. Students will probably benefit, while working on this material, from the presence of this learning support on the use of that and which when working with relative clauses, and this one on restrictive and non-restrictive clauses which offers a broad overview of these kinds of clauses and their role in a declarative sentences.

Finally, here is the teacher’s copy of the worksheet to ease your cognitive load while executing 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.

The Weekly Text, 21 August 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 11, The Parenthetical Element Part I; Using The Appositive Noun

This week’s Text continues the distribution of the Introduction to Writing Sentences Unit. So here is the eleventh lesson plan, this one on using the appositive noun in declarative sentences. This lesson opens with this worksheet on parsing sentences to find adjectives.

This scaffolded worksheet on using the appositive noun in declarative sentences is the center of this lesson. Your students might find useful this learning support on using appositive nouns and this one on punctuating appositive nouns in declarative sentences.

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, 7 August 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 9, Writing the Exclamatory Sentence

This week’s Text is the ninth lesson plan (in a 17-lesson cycle) of the Introduction to Writing Sentences unit. This one, as the header above heralds, is on writing the exclamatory sentence. This worksheet on parsing sentences to find verbs opens the lesson. This scaffolded worksheet on writing exclamatory sentences is the principal work of this lesson.

And if you and your students need it, here learning support on writing exclamations that goes some distance in explaining what one does in prose when one exclaims–and why one almost always needs an exclamation point at the terminus of one of these sentences.

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, 31 July 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 8, Writing the Imperative Sentence

Another Friday, another Weekly Text from Mark’s Text Terminal: this one, as the header indicates, is the eighth lesson plan from the Introduction to Writing Sentences unit, on writing the imperative sentence. This worksheet on parsing sentences worksheet to find nouns opens this lesson as a do-now exercise.

This scaffolded worksheet on writing the imperative sentence stands as the principal work of this lesson; students will benefit in their work on this material by using learning support on the concept of an imperative.

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, 24 July 2026: Introduction to Writing Sentences Lesson 7, Writing the Interrogative Sentence

This week’s Text is the seventh lesson plan of the Introduction to Writing Sentences Unit, this one on writing interrogative sentences. This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the transitive verb; this is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences and three comprehension questions.

This scaffolded worksheet is the centerpiece of this lesson. However, to complete it, and to understand interrogative sentences, students will need this learning support on the concept of interrogation and this one on modal and auxiliary verbs to perform the work for 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.

A Learning Support to Aid Writing on Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

Are you familiar with Lawrence Kohlberg’s  Theory of the Stages of Moral Development? My excellent co-teacher in the years I worked in his senior English Language Arts class, Jason Zanitsch, developed a clever unit in which students apply their understanding of Kohlberg’s framework to assess a character from the fiction and dramatic texts–the characters in August Wilson’s magisterial play Fences were favorites for this work–that we had dealt with in this class.

I developed this learning support for a mid-term examination, which was the composition of an essay on the above, for students to use. I don’t know how useful it would be for you. But if you’re dealing with Kohlberg in any way, this document is in Microsoft Word (like practically everything else on this blog) and can be easily manipulated for your classroom 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.

A Learning Support to Accompany Stephanie Ericsson’s Essay “The Ways We Lie”

One of the most consistently downloaded items since I published it in 2021 is this set of documents on Stephanie Ericsson’s essay “The Way We Lie.” Last year, I developed this learning support to abet deeper thinking (I hope) and further written work on this essay.

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 Lexicon of Igbo Words to Accompany a Reading of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Novel Purple Hibiscus

I don’t know why, but for some reason, when I published this blog post several years ago, with a trove of materials I developed to accompany a reading of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel Purple Hibiscus, I didn’t include this lexicon of Igbo words, names, and phrases. So here it is now.

This is where I usually ask for feedback on a document, especially for alerts on typos. But since I know nothing of Igbo orthography, I must ask you to trust, as I do, the unnamed author or authors of this document.

A Learning Support on the Concept of Solipsism

Here is a learning support on the concept of solipsism that I worked up for a student in the excellent Senior English Language Arts class I’ve co-taught with Jason Zanitsch during these final years of my teaching career. There are more differentiated materials and learning supports from this course forthcoming.

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.