Last week I posted a complete lesson plan on mercantilism, which you’ll find three posts below this one. This week’s Text is a lesson plan on laissez-faire capitalism , which is the free-market orthodoxy that arose, mostly due to Adam Smith, to challenge mercantilist trade policy.
As I mentioned in last week’s companion post, it often takes students in my classes up to three days to complete an assignment of this length. To that end, here are three context clues worksheets on merchant, merchandise, and mercantile. These are meant to reinforce the lesson on mercantilism by providing context for the examination of laissez-faire; they also provide teachers and opportunity to familiarize students with the relatively productive Latin word root merc. In addition to forming the basis for the three words in these context clues worksheets, merc (it means “trade”) is found in words like mercenary and commerce.
This lesson, like almost everything I develop, aims to promote literacy. particularly reading comprehension. Here is the intellectual devotional reading on laissez-faire that is the mainstay of this lesson. Finally, you’ll need this reading comprehension worksheet on laissez-faire.
School is started, and I’m already much busier than I want or need to be. I hope your year is off to a good start.
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.
Mark's Text Terminal 