Independent Practice Worksheet Answer Key: Fill & Download for Free

Good Lessons: Start at the EndYou can design your lesson backward: Begin with the intended result.TSWBAT (the student will be able to) create a compound sentence and a complex sentence.This is a good summative assessment because creation is a higher order thinking skill than mere identification, according to bloom’s taxonomy.Now, list about two or three skills (also known as objectives) students will need to master in order to be successful with the assessment:Skill 1) TSWBAT Create an independent clause.Skill 2) TSWBAT Create a dependent clause.In order for students to be able to master these two skills, they will probably need to be provided with some background information consisting, at least in part, of a few key definitions: clause, subject, verb, coordinating conjunction, and subordinating conjunction. The best way to present background information and key terminology is a mini-lesson (shouldn’t take much more than 15 to 20 minutes, before attention spans dry up). I prefer PPT presentations with guided notes that I grade on the spot as I walk around the room. But let’s back up a bit.Having worked backwards, we have created a general outline for the day’s lesson.According to the famous Mastery Teaching Model (or MTM), effective lessons consist of “I do” (modeling), “We do” (Guided Practice), and “You do” (Independent Practice).More specifically however, a good lesson has 5 parts: 1) Do Now/ Hook, 2) Direct Instruction (the mini-lesson), 3) Modeling, 4) Guided Practice, and 5) Independent Practice (the aforementioned assessment we started off with).Do Now/ HookEvery lesson should begin with an engaging hook that captures the students interests and hopefully sparks an emotional connection to the content. Short films work well for this. Sometimes content-related pictures projected as bell-ringers can be quietly journaled about as a Do-Now. But remember that best practice suggests that anything you have students do in class be reciprocated by your provision of some form of closure for the activity, whether that means they turn something into the basket, they discuss their work as a group or class, or they receive a simple star sticker in their journal for the day’s entry.Mini-LessonThe Mini-Lesson should engage with visuals and interesting background information, but must contain terminology or concepts needed for mastery of those skills that are to be assessed. Guided notes graded right in class will ensure that students are following along.ModelingHere is where you demonstrate the desired skill by performing it yourself. Talking yourself through it by asking yourself obvious questions can aid understanding and make students more comfortable. During this process it is ok to seem vulnerable and unsure (even if this is just an act—teaching is partly acting after all).Here’s your script:In our mini-lesson we learned the difference between a compound sentence and a complex sentence. Using our notes, Let’s determine whether or not the following sentence is compound or complex:“The house sits high on the hill, but it’s garage lies far below in the valley”Well I know the word “house” in this sentence is the subject because it does the action of the verb, which I’m pretty sure is “sits”. So, the first part says “the house sits high on the hill”. It has a subject and a verb… in fact, it sounds pretty good the way it is… I think it’s an independent clause, but let me check the definition of independent clause in my notes here… It says here that independent clauses have a subject and a verb and thae they can stand on their own, yep its an independent clause. Now the second part has a subject, “garage,’ and a verb, ‘lies,’ so the whole second part “but it’s garage lies far below in the valley” might be an independent clause too, and if I check my notes, I can see here that a compound sentence is “two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction,” so what is connecting these two independent clauses…. Hmmm…let me see.. it’s the word “but”. I know it’s a conjunction, but is it coordinating or subordinating.., wait let me go back to my acronym FANBOYS, yes, (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)… yeah there it is, but. It’s coordinating! This sentence is a compound sentence.”Guided PracticeNow that you’ve modeled distinguishing between compound and complex sentences, your students should be ready to practice that skill with a little help from their friends. During Guided Practice, students are paired up, put in small groups, chorale respond as a class, or have a class discussion predicated upon practicing the skill that was just modeled by the teacher. In our case, students would be working together to identify compound and complex sentences. I usually provide some form of worksheet, at the very least, to record the answers provided for this activity, so that I may provide remediation for certain individuals or groups that may not have mastered a concept, or so that I may provide whole class remediation (in the form of direct instruction) of certain concepts that for whatever reason, where not grasped by anyone. One of the most valuable mantras of teaching consists of three little words: “Monitor and adjust”. The idea of Group work is based on a sort of “rising tide lifts all boats” pedagogical theory developed by Lev Vygotsky. Vygotsky’s theory touts a hypothetical “zone of proximal development,” where learners close to mastery of a skill are paired with learners who’ve already mastered it, with the intention that some mysterious social phenomena associated with the group dynamic will allow the less advanced student to make the final connections needed to grasp the full picture simply by interacting with a student whose already got it down. The practice seems to work very well, but it can make it difficult if not impossible to pinpoint an individual deficiency, so just keep that in mind.Independent PracticeThis is the final step of the learning process, where the student can prove mastery of a skill all on his own. This is also your assessment. You have previously tasked your students with identifying compound and complex sentences in groups but now they are charged with creating them all on their own. Their ability to do this will prove their mastery of the two skills we listed earlier as our objectives. This particular assessment is known as an authentic assessment, because it charges students with applying learned concepts to the creation of something applicable to, useful for, and valid within the context of the real world. It also provides the opportunity for something called “transfer,” which is often depicted as a sort of holy grail of education. Transfer allows skills learned in one discipline or domain to carry over into others. Transfer is idealized in education, not simply because it allows one skill to be used in various ways and for various purposes, but significantly because it has allowed great minds to solve otherwise-impenetrable mysteries since the dawn of recorded history. Archimedes worked long and hard to develop a formula for accurately measuring the volume of any irregularly-shaped object. After exhausting all calculations and at a loss, he retired for the day in disappointment. Trying to put it out of his mind, he decided to relax in a hot bath. As he sank into the tub, he watched the water placidly rising about him. He shot up out of the tub, immediately recognizing that the risen water was displaced by his submerged body, and that such a rise in water must correspond directly to whatever is pushed down below its surface. He knew at once that this process provided an easily verifiable measure of the total volume of any irregular object. He ran naked through the streets shouting “Eureka!” The chemist who discovered the molecular structure for the chemical compound benzene labored for months to describe in physical space how this compound’s molecules might be arranged. One night, exhausted from work, he fell into a deep sleep. In a dream that came upon him like fate, the chemist saw an archetypal vision, the universal symbol for eternity, a serpent devouring its own tail. A paradoxical image of simultaneous creation and destruction, the serpent forever grows and forever consumes itself, taking the form of a never-ending ring. Known to the Greeks as the uroborus, the image burned itself into the chemist’s brain. He awoke and quickly sketched the physical structure for benzene as six carbon atoms configured in a ring.For the last task of the lesson, the independent practice, students can use their notes or prior work, but they must work alone. This kind of activity is often called an exit-ticket. Be sure that students turn this activity in to you so that you may take the time required to give it thoughtful and considerate feedback. Feedback should be timely and productive (i.e. students should be able to use the corrections you are to improve future attempts). I spot-check or quick grade fill in the blank, matching, or multiple choice type work, but student writing is something I like to devote a little time to. The effort and time I put into grading is usually on par with the effort and time the student puts into the completion of the particular assignment. Many educators advocate ending class with some form of closure, a kind of restatement or recap of the general “theme” of the lesson. This is a good idea but often hard to work into a lesson that from the very beginning is building in crescendo to a highly focused period of quiet time called independent practice. It’s probably best to at least rehash main ideas after the guided practice and prior to the final assessment of independent practice.A Word About UnitsA unit is comprised of several lessons. It lasts anywhere from 1–4 weeks on average. A unit should cover several interrelated skills. Some typical units might include: Parts of Speech, The Civil War, Ballads, Public Speaking, Modernism, Evaluating Sources, The Baroque Period, The Noble Gases, Alice Walker’s novel The Color Purple, The Writing Process, Serfdom, Conducting Research, The Pythagorean Theorum, The Puritans, Native American Literature, Invertebrates, or Ancient Mesopotamia.Backward design is applicable to units too. The desired end result would be for all students to pass some type of end of unit assessment. There would be objectives, or displayed skills tied to this assessment of course, and many lessons would contribute to providing neccesary information and ways to practice the skills that will ultimately be assessed.Proponents of backward design also suggest reinforcing your content with “big ideas”. These are one or two word phrases that are 1) easily understandable and 2) readily transferable to any discipline. These big ideas are to act as the thematic foundation of your unit. I once did a unit about Romantic Literature. My big idea for the unit was “balance”. Every day, in every lesson, I came back to this idea of “balance”. I read Romantic poems about balance. I made students balance on one leg. I created worksheets that allowed students to balance a scale by answering questions correctly. This was because the ultimate concept of the unit that I wanted them to be able to describe, defend, and speculate deeply about was that the Romantic period was extremely emotional as a balance to the unfeeling rationalism of the enlightenment. The big idea helped illustrate the defining concept of the period while being commonplace enough to transfer its meaning to any context or to any other discipline, from the sophisticated titrations of chemistry that use balanced equations to turn base to acid to water and back again, to the practical matter of balancing a checkbook in a personal finance course, to the mundane, but essential balancing of a set of car tires in the auto tech shop.

A2A.Dyslexia refers to a cluster of symptoms, which result in people having difficulties with specific language skills, particularly reading. Students with dyslexia usually experience difficulties with other language skills, such as spelling, writing, and pronouncing words.Some problems experienced by people with dyslexia include the following:Learning to speakLearning letters and their soundsOrganizing written and spoken languageMemorizing number factsReading quickly enough to comprehendKeeping up with and comprehending longer reading assignmentsSpellingLearning a foreign languageCorrectly doing math operationsThis does indeed present a huge challenge for a teacher who does not have formal training in teaching students with special needs.To help students with dyselexia, for the classroom, I would try to build a positive environment in the classroom byListening to children’s feelings. Anxiety, anger and depression can be daily companions for children with dyslexia. However, their language problems often make it difficult for them to express their feelings. Therefore, adults must help them learn to talk about their feelings.Rewarding effort, not just “the result.” For students with dyslexia, grades should be less important than progress.When confronting unacceptable behavior, do not inadvertently discourage the child with dyslexia. Words such as “lazy” or “incorrigible” can seriously damage the child’s self-image.Helping students set realistic goals for themselves. Many students with dyslexia set perfectionistic and unattainable goals. By helping the child set an attainable goal, teachers can change the cycle of failure.Try to implement academic accommodations and modifications to help students with dyslexia succeed. For example, a student with dyslexia can be given extra time to complete tasks, help with taking notes, and work assignments that are modified appropriately. Teachers can give taped tests or allow students with dyslexia to use alternative means of assessment. Students can benefit from listening to books on tape and using text reading and word processing computer programs.In addition, there should be some accommodations for the child with dyslexia. These accommodations may involve learning materials, instructions, and assessments.Accommodations Involving Learning MaterialsLearning Material accommodations may include one or more of the following:Clarify or simplify written directions. Some directions are written in paragraph form and contain many units of information. These can be overwhelming to some students. The teacher can help by underlining or highlighting the significant parts of the directions. Rewriting the directions is often helpful.Present a small amount of work. The teacher can tear pages from workbooks and materials to present small assignments to students who are anxious about the amount of work to be done. This technique prevents students from examining an entire workbook, text, or material and becoming discouraged by the amount of work.Block out extraneous stimuli. If a student is easily distracted by visual stimuli on a full worksheet or page, a blank sheet of paper can be used to cover sections of the page not being worked on at the time. Also, line markers can be used to aid reading, and windows can be used to display individual math problems. Additionally, using larger font sizes and increasing spacing can help separate sections.Highlight essential information. If an adolescent can read a regular textbook but has difficulty finding the essential information, the teacher can mark this information with a highlight pen.Use a placeholder in consumable material. In consumable materials in which students progress sequentially (such as workbooks), the student can make a diagonal cut across the lower right-hand corner of the pages as they are completed. With all the completed pages cut, the student and teacher can readily locate the next page that needs to be corrected or completed.Provide additional practice activities. Some materials do not provide enough practice activities for students with learning problems to acquire mastery on selected skills. Teachers then must supplement the material with practice activities. Recommended practice exercises include instructional games, peer teaching activities, self-correcting materials, computer software programs, and additional worksheets.Provide a glossary in content areas. Students often benefit from a glossary of content-related terms.Develop reading guides. A reading guide helps the reader understand the main ideas and sort out the numerous details related to the main ideas. A reading guide can be developed paragraph-by-paragraph, page-by-page, or section-by-section.Use an audio recording device. Directions, stories, and specific lessons can be recorded. The student can replay the tape to clarify understanding of directions or concepts. Also, to improve reading skills, the student can read the printed words silently as they are presented on tape.Use of assistive technology. Assistive technology products such as tablets, electronic readers/dictionaries/ spellers, text to speech programs, audio books, and more can be very useful tools.Accommodations regarding instructionsWhen trying to communicate with the student with dyslexia, one or more of the following could be used in the classroom.Use explicit teaching procedures. Teachers can include explicit teaching steps within their lessons (i.e., present an advanced organizer, demonstrate the skill, provide guided practice, offer corrective feedback, set up independent practice, monitor practice, and review).Repeat directions. Students who have difficulty following directions are often helped by asking them to repeat the directions in their own words. The student can repeat the directions to a peer when the teacher is unavailable.If directions contain several steps, break down the directions into subsets.Simplify directions by presenting only one portion at a time and by writing each portion on the chalkboard as well as stating it orally.When using written directions, be sure that students are able to read and understand the words as well as comprehend the meaning of sentences.  Maintain daily routines. Many students with learning problems need the structure of daily routines to know and do what is expected.Provide a copy of lesson notes. The teacher can give a copy of lesson notes to students who have difficulty taking notes during presentations.Provide students with a graphic organizer. An outline, chart, or blank web can be given to students to fill in during presentations. This helps students listen for key information and see the relationships among concepts and related information.Use step-by-step instruction. New or difficult information can be presented in small sequential steps. This helps learners with limited prior knowledge who need explicit or part-to-whole instruction.Simultaneously combine verbal and visual information. Verbal information can be provided with visual displays (e.g., on an overhead or handout).  Write key points or words on the chalkboard/whiteboard. Prior to a presentation, the teacher can write new vocabulary words and key points on the chalkboard/whiteboard.Use balanced presentations and activities. An effort should be made to balance oral presentations with visual information and participatory activities. Also, there should be a balance between large group, small group, and individual activities.Use mnemonic instruction. Mnemonic devices can be used to help students remember key information or steps in a learning strategy.Emphasize daily review. Daily review of previous learning or lessons can help students connect new information with prior knowledge.Assessment:Some accommodations to the assessment methods may include one or more of the following:Change response mode. For students who have difficulty with fine motor responses (such as handwriting), the response mode can be changed to underlining, selecting from multiple choices, sorting, or marking. Students with fine motor problems can be given extra space for writing answers on worksheets or can be allowed to respond on individual chalkboards/whiteboards.Use cues to denote important items. Asterisks or bullets can denote questions or activities that count heavily in evaluation. This helps students spend time appropriately during tests or assignments.Design hierarchical worksheets. The teacher can design worksheets with problems arranged from easiest to hardest. Early success helps students begin to work.  Allow use of instructional aids. Students can be provided with letter and number strips to help them write correctly. Number lines, counters, calculators, and other assistive technology can help students compute once they understand the mathematical operations.Display work samples. Samples of completed assignments can be displayed to help students realize expectations and plan accordingly.Use flexible work times. Students who work slowly can be given additional time to complete written assignments.Provide additional practice. Students require different amounts of practice to master skills or content. Many students with learning problems need additional practice to learn at a fluency level.Use assignment substitutions or adjustments. Students can be allowed to complete projects instead of oral reports or vice versa. Also, tests can be given in oral or written format.As you can see, a student with dyslexia learns differently from a typical student. They may face a lot of challenges in learning.To help that child succeed academically, it can be tough on the teacher as the teacher must make some accommodations for the said student. Some of the accomodations are simple, but others require planning in advance. With minor changes, it is possible for students with dyslexia to learn effectively.

That answer varies a lot. I know plenty of students who went to the Ivy League or schools of comparable/better quality for their intended field of study. I also recently received a 'likely letter' from one I applied to, but I will have to wait until Tuesday to know for sure. Some were among the most dedicated students I've seen and some were definitely not. For those who were dedicated, yet still had somewhat of a social life, they tended to vary their note-taking/studying depending on the class.A class is easy? Turn in the work on time and maintain a good relationship with the teacher (along with minimal note-taking). Don't slack off because it's an easy class, but spending hours perfecting your handwriting on a worksheet takes a lot of time away from studying for much harder classes.A class is hard? Don't let the stress of a single bad grade completely destroy your confidence. Devote a few hours to extra study every weekend or half-an-hour to an hour every other day. Participate in class (unless the teacher is one of those types that prefers students to simply be silent). Also, don't be so prideful about your ability to be an independent student. Form study groups and ask for tutoring from the teacher and students who are doing better than you. If your parents can afford to get you a professional tutor, thank your stars and take advantage of that.Your note-taking should also vary depending on classes.Most dedicated (and high-achieving) students I know prefer to have notebooks for each class (just go to Wal-Mart. Paper is paper, but college-ruled definitely trumps wide-ruled. They have great prices at the start of every school year). Date and headline them with the topic of the lesson. Then, bullet point all the key points, star anything that seems like essential information, put small lines next to anything that may/may not be essential but is just fun to know. There's interesting aspects to every course if you know where to look. Most importantly, go over your notes at home after your get home from school the same day. Add anything from your textbook that the teacher may have missed (teachers are human, it happens). If you happen to need to study extra for a class, find a Barron's prep book or an online textbook different from yours.... something that teaches the subject differently. Sometimes, a particular textbook just isn't the best for you, though you should still look over it for tests.Finally, specifically for math classes, find practice sets. High school math is all about practice... some students just have a natural aptitude, but for those who don't, there's a pretty good correlation between the amount of practice sets completed and achievement. This applies to chemistry, physics, and etc. as well. Get comfortable in writing for English and learning how to develop your ideas by reading a lot of papers and writing more.Also, find an activity you are really passionate about. For me, that happened to be Music/Dance. This isn't just for getting into an Ivy League, but just for life. You can love academia will all your heart, but it's extremely stressful at certain points. For me, music and dance allow me to express everything words can't say and I don't know how I would have gotten through some very trying points in my life without them. That might not be the same for you, but I can guarantee there is an activity out there that will draw you in, heart and soul.