This is a three-page checklist asking students to review and revise their writing for clarity and completeness, then proofread for spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar errors. The third (optional) page explains compound and complex sentences, to help students recognize and eliminate sentence fragments, run-ons, and some common errors with commas.

This simple explanation of science vocabulary (and of the scientific method) will help your students recognize important academic vocabulary and understand science and psychology news and research. The free packet includes: • Explanations and examples of vocabulary: bias, data, evaluate, factor, valid, and variable (with its variations) • A one-page explanation of the scientific method demonstrating those words and adding more vocabulary in context: conclusion, evidence, hypothesis, implications, interpret, relevant, and reproducible • A five-question multiple choice quiz based on that information • Answer key This packet is designed as a reading activity and discussion starter. Ask students for their experiences doing experiments and solving problems. Did they follow a similar procedure? What did they do differently? What were their results? What steps do they consider the most important? The quiz makes a good short review (or warm-up) for later in the week.

In this short lesson students watch a short TED Ed video about the value of sleep, read a PBS article about sleep and the teenage brain, and answer comprehension questions about what they have learned. (The questions can also be used as an anticipation guide to arouse student interest and find out how accurate their current ideas are.) They also complete a crossword puzzle based on vocabulary from the video and article. The materials were selected to be easy enough that most English language learners can follow what they say.

This free reading (or listening) comprehension worksheet can help students get the most from a very interesting short TED talk on a new approach to cancer research-- by a researcher barely out of her teens.

This packet includes a two-page article about the difficult search for the cause of scurvy, with comprehension questions, answer key, and links to videos on the search for causes and cures of other deficiency diseases. If you would prefer a complete thematic unit on the long battle to understand and control disease, including a web quest and optional student writing or presentation ideas as well as three reading selections (this one and two more), comprehension and discussion questions, and video links, see “Medical Mysteries” in this (EnglishHints) shop.

Suggestions for various games to practice irregular past tense verb forms, and Memory (Concentration) cards for 16 of the most common irregulars of all, so students can see them repeatedly while trying to guess the matching cards. This is a shorter (10 page) version of “Games to Practice Irregular Verbs.” It includes only two sets of cards, though you could make additional copies if you want more students to practice it at the same time. Verbs practiced: do, get, go, have, eat, feel, find, give, hear, see, know, think, leave, make, take, and write—with their matching pasts. 'To be' is not included in this set, as it requires four cards, can be confusing, and is probably already known. It IS included in the more complete sets in either the complete Games to Practice Irregular Past Tense Verbs or “Memory Games for Irregular Verbs.”

a 3(-4, with options) day investigation of the way scientists discovered germ theory and learned to control some of the worst epidemic diseases. The lesson plan for day 1 introduces epidemic diseases and research with 2 short videos and a reading selection. Day 2-3 gives instructions for a webquest: small groups of students each investigate and make a presentation on a specific scientist (starting with two provided links each on 11 suggested scientists.) The lesson finishes with an optional video on the current fight to eradicate polio, and then some suggested discussion questions to help students think critically about what they have learned. 12 pages including cover, 1 answer key, and credits page CCSS.ELA-Literacy R1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.1B and 4, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.9.a

This 17-page packet includes Memory (Concentration) cards for 47 of the most common irregulars (6 game sets of 16 cards each—‘to be’ gets two), along with instructions for preparing and playing memory games and a couple of other useful games to practice irregular past tense verbs. These games make great change-of-pace or end-of-class activities. Most are quite fast, once the materials have been prepared, and simple to learn. With six sets of cards, you can have the whole class play a memory game (make an extra few sets for a large class), then have them trade sets for a second game or another day. Memory also makes a great review if some students finish their work early (or even for one student who needs extra practice. It can be played by one player or up to four.) If you would like other irregular past tense games in addition to memory card games, consider getting "Games to Practice Irregular Past Tense Verbs" ($4.75) instead. It includes all these memory cards and game ideas, with two past tense sentence scrambles and a team gap-fill race as well.

Varied games to review irregular past tense verb forms, This packet includes instructions for several good games for practicing irregular past tense forms, including Bingo, Liar, and Memory (Concentration). It includes Memory cards for 47 of the most common irregulars (6 game sets of 16 cards each—‘to be’ gets two), three optional colored back designs, and a bingo board template. It also has several sentences to unscramble, and a team gap-fill challenge: choosing the right verb forms for a story on immigration in American history. These games make great change-of-pace or end-of-class activities. Most are quite fast, once the materials have been prepared, and simple to learn. With six sets of cards, you can have the whole class play a memory game (make an extra few sets for a large class), then have them trade sets for a second game or another day. Memory also makes a great review if some students finish their work early (or even for one student who needs extra practice. It can be played by one player or up to four.) This packet is my favorite, and the most complete for irregular verb games. If you are looking for a less expensive pdf, though, check out “Memory Games for Irregular Verbs” ($3—includes all the memory cards and instructions but no scrambled sentences) or “Games to Practice the Most Important Irregular Verbs” ($2.) For regular as well as irregular past tense explanations and varied practice, with a few game suggestions and memory cards for 16 of the most important irregular verbs, see “Past Tense Verb Worksheets”

13 pages (in addition to 3 answer keys.) *includes a table with all the most common prefixes and extensive practice with the prefixes most important for academic vocabulary (see below} *includes demonstration worksheets to practice ways the different prefixes make words when combined with Latin roots Contents: >Contents and Notes for Teachers >2-page Common Prefixes table with each prefix, its meaning, a couple of examples, space for students to add one or two more examples, and a See Also reference to other prefixes meaning the same thing >brief explanation of types of prefixes and a 4-page series of short practice exercises on Prefixes of Quantity, Time, Location (ex-, in-, sub-, & trans-), Relationships (Com-Sym-, Anti-, Contra-, & Ob-), and a page practicing Re- (with answer keys) >Negative prefixes: examples, practice, & answer key (1 page each) >Can You Choose the Best Prefix? (1 page mixed prefix and root practice or quiz and answer key) These brainstorming and practice activities require about two class periods, or two hours distributed over several days. I would normally teach them after a little work with suffixes (see Word-Building Suffixes in my store if you're interested) and before some practice with word roots. (see Using Word Roots to Teach Vocabulary.)

An introduction to the diseases that changed the course of history and made scientific research both urgent and difficult. This is a shorter version of Medical Mysteries. It includes most of the teacher notes and links, two reading selections on diseases in history and on the search for the cause of yellow fever (both written fairly simply but accurately, and designed to appeal to middle school or high school students). Each reading selection is followed by comprehension questions and answer keys. It also includes a glossary, a crossword puzzle to practice disease vocabulary, and links to excellent videos and resources on several major diseases, as well as a summary discussion activity. If you would like lesson plans for a complete thematic unit on the long battle to understand and control disease, including a cooperative web quest and optional student writing or presentation ideas as well as a reading and comp questions on scurvy (besides the two reading selections and video links in this packet), see “Medical Mysteries.” 18 pages.

This packet is designed for middle to high beginners or low intermediates, using mostly common vocabulary. (It introduces some of the more common words from the Academic Word List as well.) It explains basic suffix use step by step, providing practice with each new suffix type. Contents (16 pages in addition to the cover and answer sheets): · table of contents · notes for the teacher including lesson suggestions · Word Families (An explanation and demonstration of suffixes using ‘act’) and Parts of Speech in Sentences (2 pages.) · A list of the 8 most common Noun-building suffixes with a practice table with examples and boxes to complete showing their relations to the verbs, adjectives, or other nouns they were made from · 5 Noun-building suffixes for groups of people, with practice questions · 4 Verb-building suffixes and practice questions (on above page) ·15 Adjective-building suffixes with 2 practice questions ·1 Adverb-building suffix (on above page) · An answer sheet for those lists and practice exercises A 3-page Word Building Practice worksheet · Its answer sheets (2 pages) · a comprehensive alphabetical two-page List of Common Suffixes, including part of speech, examples, and a right column for students to complete with another example, either with partners, as a class, or independently. · a 2-page table for teachers with more examples for each suffix to use for games or in teaching (and to review the right column above with the class.) · a brief suffix quiz (considerably easier than the practices, and reduced to 1 page.) · Its answer sheet. · Suffixes for Plurals and Tenses and Suffixes for Comparison-- optional extra page explaining those basic suffix types. Use if your students need it, or adapt its ideas to your own review. You might introduce suffixes with the Word Families and Parts of Speech pages and a brainstorming activity. (Find out how much your students already know about suffixes-- they might be surprised!) Going over the alphabetical suffix list is a chance to highlight the various uses of suffixes and the relations between them. Completing the boxes on the right side of the list is another chance for students to think of one or two words for each type of suffix they may already know. It's a good partner or group activity, especially if you have a multi-level class where some students have a lot less English vocabulary than others. The noun-building (and to a lesser extent the verb and adjective practices) reinforce the word family relations between different suffixes (-ify, -ification, etc.)

Help intermediate English learners (or middle- high school English students) master academic vocabulary by learning some of the most useful word root and prefix combinations. Examples and practice with over 30 important Latin and Greek roots, including 3 pages on Greek roots, 2 on sensory roots (aud, vid, spect, etc.) and 1-2 pages each on words made from cedere (access, exceed, preceding, procedure, successive, etc.), and 2 other especially high-value roots, pointing out Spanish cognates (as well as warning about false cognates like sensible, which means sensitive in Spanish.) The packet includes suggestions for teaching roots and practicing them with several games, including 'memory' (or 'concentration')-- with 4 sets of memory cards to practice 24 words and meanings from the roots in the packet. It starts with a worksheet reviewing common prefixes and introducing several useful roots. Other practice activities include gap-fills, multiple choice, and matching exercises, beginning with root and prefix combinations that have easy-to-guess meanings based on the root meaning, and going on to important academic words that are not as easy to guess from the root-- with the needed explanations and examples given in the introduction before each practice. Teaching all the roots in this packet would take about 20 minutes to half an hour for 8-10 days, plus 15 minutes occasionally for review games. The Greek root examples and practice might take 45 minutes. Most of the rest of the worksheets will take 15 minutes to half an hour (or a little longer if you want to brainstorm with the class first). Most of the games need about 15 minutes, and the memory games can be played by early finishers (1-4 students per set of cards) without help once they've been introduced. CCSS L.5.4b, L.6.4b, L7.4b, L.8.4b, L.9-10.4b

3-5 days' worth of lessons on goal-setting, goal and achievement vocabulary, and integrated reading (and possibly listening/watching), discussion, and writing about success, failure, and what's most important in life. 16 pages of differentiated goal-setting and vocabulary activities and games, comprehension questions, and writing and discussion prompts (besides the cover and 4 answer keys.) The suggested readings (linked) are commencement addresses discussing the meaning of success and the value of initial failure. The key address is in clear. simple language. This pdf also includes scaffolding, with explanation of potentially difficult expressions and idioms, for the optional secondary addresses (only suggested for for higher level students.) Academic vocabulary that is extensively practiced: accomplish, achieve, attain, attitude, benefit, criteria, emphasize, energy, establish, factors, financial, focus, goal, identify, objective, priority, resolution, security, specific, success, target Contents (in Lesson Order) • Teaching notes including timing, vocabulary, differentiation, lesson suggestions and links, and possible discussion or writing prompts: pg. 3-7 • Vocabulary Notebook template (optional—or use your own system) pg. 8 • Vocabulary for Achievement: >Example Sentences pg. 9 >Practice Activities (Odd One Out, Matching, and Gap-fill) pg. 10 >Answer key pg. 11 • Words for Success pg. 12 • Answer key pg. 13 • Short video talking about some famous people who failed before they succeeded (link pg. 5) • Review Crossword on Success pg. 14 • Success Vocabulary Crossword answer key pg.15 • Marc Lewis Commencement Address (link & discussion pg. 6) • Comprehension Questions pg. 16-17 • Answer key pg. 18 • Optional follow-up for high-Intermediate or advanced ESL classes (or junior or senior English classes): -links pg. 7) • Learning from Failure: quotes from J.K. Rowling and Steve Jobs to discuss- pg. 19 • parts or all of Steve Jobs’ and J.K. Rowling’s commencement addresses (both with video and transcript.) links pg. 7 • Explanation of idioms and expressions in Jobs’s speech pg. 20-21 • class discussion or writing prompts pg. 7 • credits pg. 22

EnglishHints’ Past Tense Verb Worksheets offers students multiple ways to practice the past tense of regular and the most common irregular verbs. Much of the practice is in context (conversations or reading.) Most of the worksheets are simple enough for students to use on their own for homework or extra practice (or to give to early finishers or to leave for a sub.) Most games are for the whole class, but the memory cards can be used in a center, for a few early finishers or even as a solitaire activity The packet includes 18 pages of worksheets and game ideas (plus answer keys) to learn and practice regular and irregular verbs in the simple and continuous past tenses. Over 50 of the most common irregular past-tense verbs are practiced in sentences and again as gap-fills in longer text-- most of them at least three to four times. Contents: • Teaching Suggestions and Game Ideas (20 Questions, Bingo, Memory, and Liar) • 32 Memory Game cards to practice 16 common irregular past tense verbs (These can also be glued together as flash cards.) • The Simple Past Tense: Regular Verbs (examples and practice) • Practice ‘to be’ in the past & the Past Continuous Tense (including questions and negatives) • 20 Very Common Irregular Past Tense Verbs (practice in sentences) • More Simple Past Tense Questions and Answers • Past Tense Verbs ending in 'Aught’ and ‘Ought’ • Verbs that Don’t Change from Present to Past (& Practice Irregular Verbs for Accidents) • 20 More Common Irregular Verbs (with practice) • Review Irregular Verbs: American History • Review the Top 50 Irregular Verbs with Stories • Answer Keys

Medical Mysteries is a one to two week lesson unit pdf with readings and associated comprehension questions, a web quest, video links, optional writing assignments, and other resources on the impact of diseases on history and people’s efforts to understand and control them. It’s an introduction to the diseases that made scientific research both urgent and difficult, and to the human stories behind medical progress. It includes 3 reading selections followed by comprehension questions: The Impact of Disease on History, Solving the Mystery of Yellow Fever, and Scurvy and Sailing Ships. The first reading selection has a side bar explaining some key disease vocabulary, and a crossword puzzle provides additional practice. There is a web quest with instructions, suggested questions, and two useful links (not including Wikipedia) for each of 11 scientists so student groups can choose one to investigate and then introduce to the rest of the class. The contents and lesson plans also suggest links to excellent short videos on the Black Plague, smallpox, cholera and the London ghost map, the Spanish flu, and pellagra. Recommended for middle school up, as well as home schools and intermediate or advanced ESL students. 26 pgs including 4 answer sheets and a bibliography. If you would prefer a shorter unit and are not interested in a student web quest, see “The Impact of Disease on History” for the two main reading selections from this packet, with their comp questions and all the optional video links, or “The Mystery of Scurvy” for one two-page article, comp questions, and links to videos and information on the difficult search for the causes and treatments of what we now know are deficiency diseases. “Disease Detectives Webquest” has the introductory videos and yellow fever article leading up to the group webquest activity. 26 pages.

This pdf provides explanations, examples, and practice activities for 7 short (under 1/2 hour) lessons introducing just under100 very common phrasal verbs. It includes: • lesson suggestions, teaching notes, and a complete explanation of how to play the memory games included, • a brief explanation of the use of phrasal verbs in English, • three short conversations for student pairs to read aloud with follow-up matching activities for the meanings of the phrasal verbs used, • a brief explanation and practice with separable and inseparable phrasal verbs, • examples and practice with phrasal verbs using ‘up’ (both those with obvious meanings and non-obvious idioms), as well as ‘down,’ ‘on,’ ‘off,’ and ‘out,’ • classroom phrasal verbs, • an assessment using phrasal verbs that have been practiced, • answer sheets for all exercises, • and four memory games to reinforce 32 of the most useful phrasal verbs studied (probably introduced at the end of lessons 2,3,5, & 6.)

Help your English learners master the vocabulary of writing test prompts and the basics of English essay writing. Six lessons demonstrating and practicing essential academic vocabulary and essay writing skills (with brief readings on communication and essay organization, a vocabulary game and crossword puzzle and practice with transition words and proofreading before students try essay writing themselves.). This packet is a less expensive version of my Basic Academic Vocabulary packet. It contains most of the resources and practice activities except the task cards.

According to research, ELLs need help learning to recognize and work with cognates. Since both Spanish and a majority of English academic vocabulary are Latin-based, Spanish-speaking students of English have a huge head start on CALP (academic) vocabulary if they can learn some simple rules for these cognates. This EnglishHints packet of task cards, worksheets, and games (including a crossword puzzle and an adaptation of bingo for review) introduces some important English academic words that have clear Spanish cognates. By studying and practicing with them, students will become familiar with common patterns of the differences between the English and Spanish for these words. The patterns they learn will transfer, giving students the skills they need to recognize and understand many more words. It’s important that students not only recognize similarities in word meaning, but also the times when apparent similarities mask differences in connotation or meaning. This packet has a worksheet on false cognates, asking students to verify meanings with a dictionary and helping them understand that they should not rely on apparent similarities for words they want to use or need to understand accurately. There are two task cards for each of 16 important academic word ‘families.’ The first card gives the most common verb, noun, adjective, and adverb (if used) forms of each word and practice choosing the correct form to complete sample sentences. The second card gives one more example of use, but then asks students to determine which of four alternate sentences (not using the target word) accurately reflect its meaning. By practicing with both kinds of cards, students get to work with multiple examples of each word’s use. They should become familiar with the common suffixes like –tion, -able, -ed, -ive, and –ly, the ways they correspond with Spanish suffixes (-ción, -sión, -able—pronounced differently-- -ado, -ido, -ivo, -mente, etc.) and where words with those endings fit into sentences. There is also a page teaching the English stress and pronunciation of each word form- designed for teachers to go over with the class, so all can hear and repeat the correct forms and notice the changes in stress as verbs convert to nouns or adjectives. Revised 2018 to add more practice. 36 pages total including answer keys.

A week’s worth of engaging lessons to introduce middle or high school intermediate English language learners, or mixed classes with both native speakers and ELLs, to reading comprehension skills and some important academic vocabulary. Help students practice inferences, predicting, close reading, summarizing, and the use of context clues and word analysis (including recognition of some common roots and affixes.) Common Core Standards addressed: CCRA R-1,2, & 3—especially in the yellow fever reading and activities. The summary activity also addresses RH.6-8.2 & RH 9-10.2. CCSS.ELA-Literacy L6.4A-B, 6.6, 7.4A-B, 7.6, 8.4A-B, 8.6, 9-10.4A-B, 9-10.6—in the context clue and root and affix lessons. 5 detailed lesson plans that include * an introduction to detective work and inferences, using a retelling of Poe’s Murders in the Rue Morgue (with the original excerpt also provided at the end of the pdf for your possible use.) * ‘Be a Word Detective’ categorizing and gap-fill practice * a discussion of the Scientific Method and related vocabulary, followed by a short quiz * scanning, close reading, summarizing and a time line activity relating to “Solving the Mystery of Yellow Fever.” * a two-page excerpt from Treasure Island followed by a worksheet practicing context clues (and answer key)-- 4 pages (along with a modified version for students needing simpler text) * practice with roots, prefixes, and suffixes * Word Detective Quiz as well as a crossword and game ideas for practicing academic vocabulary. You can also get this packet (at a big discount) as part of the Word Detective bundle value pack (along with much more extensive root and affix practice: Word-Building Suffixes, Common Prefixes, Roots, Spanish cognates and games.)