The Privileged Poor, once the blog site of a now defunct clothing store, is now the site of the Alive Juice Bar tutoring service.   We’ll be posting daily lesson plans to help students get through indefinite school closures.

Why Drills are Important
They make a lot of work routine and effortless so you can focus on creative problem solving.  Is there an NFL player who doesn’t do drills, from weight training to yoga to sprints?  Do we let someone who is out of shape play an NFL game?

Then why do we let students who’ve rarely been drilled in fundamentals learn geometry and read Chaucer? And then educators complain that most hate geometry and few do their reading. Well, lack of drilling is like sending the football team out to play without helmets, it’s going to be a bloodbath.

Drilling also helps students develop patience (aka delay of gratification) and discipline, arguably the two most important traits to have to do well in life.

Division Drills
This link takes you to four division worksheets (do 1-3 and 5, from left to right): https://www.math-drills.com/division.php

It’s important to give yourself no more than 100 seconds to finish each worksheet. Time yourself, stop when time goes off.  Do all four.  Then grade all four.  Repeat process until you score 100 percent on all four.

Intermediate Vocabulary Drills — Nuances

You need to know the following 10 words if you want to score >600 on the SAT verbal.

• Surly
• Adamant
• Adjacent
• Nuance
• Mitigate
• Ardor
• Austere
• Adept
• Tactful
• Tentative

Look up the meaning of the words, take as long as you want.  Don’t try to memorize them.  Below are ten words, each with a meaning similar (yet slightly different) to one of the words above.  Pair each of the words below with one of the words above most similar in meaning.

• Next
• Stern
• Zeal
• Lessen
• Talented
• Grumpy
• Stubborn
• Unconfirmed
• Shade
• Considerate

Once you’ve matched the words — take as long as you need, this isn’t timed — for each pair, write two sentences, each sentence using one of the paired words. Aim to write sentences that highlight the slight difference in meaning between the paired words.  Example:

Adjacent – Next
The store is adjacent to the gym.  Next one in line, step up!

“Adjacent” refers to something that’s physically next to another thing.  “Next” refers to what follows.

Another example:

Adept – Talented
He’s adept at playing the piano because he practiced 6 hours a day everyday for 10 years.

Ila is a talented ice skater, she wins competition despite practicing less than her competitors.

“Adept” connotes mastery developed by practice.  “Talented” refers to God given skill.

Now you try!  Do all 10, take your time, it’s not timed.