Category Archives: Reference

Here is a lesson plan on civilizations and their characteristics.

I open this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the compound noun city-state; in the event this lesson enters a second day, here is a second context clues worksheet on the noun industry–a characteristic of civilizations, even if such industries (e.g. metalworking) were small in scale and primitive in technological accomplishment. This reading and comprehension worksheet is at the center of the unit. I write the reading passage myself, synthesizing a variety of readings from encyclopedias, because I wanted to make sure that I touched all the conceptual bases of civilizations as they appear (or, at this point, perhaps, appeared) on the New York State Regents Examination for Global Studies. Finally, even though I never annotated it (feel free!), here is the teacher’s copy of the worksheet.

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.