Building a good worksheet is tricky.
It has to be useful. No busywork.
It has to guide students to do a lot of work in a little space.
It can’t be cheesy.
It can’t be ugly.
It can’t feel like something that’s ever been used in an elementary school.
It needs to be flexible, allowing students at different levels to be successful.
That’s a big ask of a single piece of paper.
As a new teacher, I made a lot of ugly worksheets. Over the years, I learned what did/didn’t work as the style and substance of my work improved. Last week after this TikTok, I received questions about how I make my grid worksheets and asking for templates.
These worksheets are mostly just lines on a page, but the questions reminded me that I didn’t know how to do this either until I learned how to do it.
So I did it for them – and for you.
Yesterday, I posted a collection of 14 worksheet templates designed for secondary students. The templates include both horizontal and vertical options and EVERYTHING is editable in Google Drive. You can use these pages just as they are (after you’ve added your own content questions, of course) or use them as a timesaving foundation to create your own customized classroom materials. Have fun and experiment with moving lines around to create new boxes, changing the font and line colors, and adding your own images/photos/clip art. I’m hopeful they’ll inspire some creative ventures or at the minimum save you buckets of time.
Okay, teacher friend, it’s summer slow down around here. What do you want me to build next?
One of my pet peeves is using “cutesy” graphics on a page–especially for those who struggle (Old days called remedial). Yeah… they may not be on grade level skill wise, but they ARE on grade level AGE wise! Thanks for your work that makes my job easier!
Absolutely, 100 percent agree. If anything about a worksheet even hints it was built for someone younger than their chronological age, teens are OUT of there, no matter how good the actual content is. I stick with clean and lean design and photos instead of clip art, whenever possible. It definitely helps!
Thank you so MUCH! This product is a dream come true! I have envied your graphic layouts on your worksheets for YEARS! I am thrilled to step-up the presentation of my assignments! Love you Randazzo!
Aw…you’re so sweet, Lynnly! Hope these save you a whole lot of time. I think you’re going to surprise yourself; worksheet design is not as difficult as you’ve probably imagined. Once you peek behind the curtain, you’re going to LOVE how easy these are to build!