Category Archives: Social Sciences

You’ll find domain-specific material designed to meet Common Core Standards in social studies, along with adapted and differentiated materials that deal with a broad array of conceptual knowledge in the social sciences. See the Taxonomies page for more about this category.

Term of Art: Socratic Seminar

Posted on July 24, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Socratic seminar: A class discussion in which the teacher advances a lesson on a specific topic or text by interacting with students, continually asking challenging questions about an assigned reading and responding to the students’ answers by posing more questions. This method, proposed by Mortimer Adler in the Paideia, is intended to encourage students to think rather than just look for the ‘right’ answer. Socratic seminars are based on primary-source works of literature, philosophy, and history instead of textbooks. See also developmental lesson; Paideia Program.”

Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.

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Concepts in Economics: Command Economy

Posted on July 24, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Command economy: An economy operated by central planning.”

Excerpted from: Black, John, Nigar Hashimzade, and Gareth Miles. Oxford Dictionary of Economics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

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Four Sets of Questions to Support Students in Preparing Research Papers

Posted on July 24, 2026 | Leave a comment

Last, but possibly not least (I hope), from the past couple of years as a co-teacher in Jason Zanitsch’s senior English Language Arts class, here are four documents to support Jason’s Multi-Genre Research Project Unit. In this series of lessons, students are called upon to choose a topic to research–they are provided a list of potential topics, but strongly encouraged to pursue something they prefer–and present it to the class in a genre they choose: a video, a paper, a skit, a panel discussion, and so forth.

Along the way in this course, I’ve developed supports to assist students in this assignment–the post on solipsism, a dozen or so posts below this one is something I developed for this work. For today’s post, here are lists of questions to arouse students’ thinking on Assata Shakur, the Scottsboro Boys Case, the West Memphis Three Case, and the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.

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.

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A Learning Support to Aid Writing on Lawrence Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development

Posted on July 21, 2026 | Leave a comment

Are you familiar with Lawrence Kohlberg’s  Theory of the Stages of Moral Development? My excellent co-teacher in the years I worked in his senior English Language Arts class, Jason Zanitsch, developed a clever unit in which students apply their understanding of Kohlberg’s framework to assess a character from the fiction and dramatic texts–the characters in August Wilson’s magisterial play Fences were favorites for this work–that we had dealt with in this class.

I developed this learning support for a mid-term examination, which was the composition of an essay on the above, for students to use. I don’t know how useful it would be for you. But if you’re dealing with Kohlberg in any way, this document is in Microsoft Word (like practically everything else on this blog) and can be easily manipulated for your classroom needs.

If you find typos in this document, 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.

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A Learning Support to Accompany Stephanie Ericsson’s Essay “The Ways We Lie”

Posted on July 21, 2026 | Leave a comment

One of the most consistently downloaded items since I published it in 2021 is this set of documents on Stephanie Ericsson’s essay “The Way We Lie.” Last year, I developed this learning support to abet deeper thinking (I hope) and further written work on this essay.

If you find typos in this document, 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.

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A Learning Support for Thinking and Writing About the Human Process of Socialization

Posted on July 21, 2026 | Leave a comment

Once again, from the annals of Jason Zanitsch’s senior English Language Arts class, which afforded me the professional pleasure of co-teaching with Jason for several years, here is a a learning support in the form of a series questions to drive thinking and writing about human socialization processes.

I don’t know how useful this will be to users of this blog, but this again was Jason’s successful attempt to elicit deep thinking and cogent writing from our students. Rather than toss this, I post it here to add to what still seems like an amount of data storage I will never use.

If you find typos in this document, 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.

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Term of Art: Reverbalization

Posted on July 21, 2026 | Leave a comment

“reverbalization: A strategy in which and individual restates a message out loud to enhance memorization and ensure understanding. Similar to paraphrasing, where individuals restate a message using their own words (usually in writing); in reverbalizing, the individual repeats information out loud to promote long-term memory.

For individuals with short-term memory or auditory processing difficulties, reverbalizing information can enhance learning through rehearsal.

Diagnostically, reverbalizing can be an effective way for instructors to monitor whether students have accurately received information.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

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Bay Psalm Book

Posted on July 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Bay Psalm Book: (1640) A metrical translation of the Biblical psalms by Richard Mather, Thomas Welde, John Eliot, and twenty-seven other ministers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The book—the first bound book printed in the English colonies—was published by Stephen Day in Cambridge in and edition of seventeen hundred copies. Its full title is The Whole Booke of Psalms Faithfully Translated into English Metre.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

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A Learning Support on the Concept of Solipsism

Posted on July 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

Here is a learning support on the concept of solipsism that I worked up for a student in the excellent Senior English Language Arts class I’ve co-taught with Jason Zanitsch during these final years of my teaching career. There are more differentiated materials and learning supports from this course forthcoming.

If you find typos in this document, 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.

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Concepts in Economics: Free Enterprise System

Posted on July 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Free enterprise system: A term with political overtones used to describe an economy in which the initiative for production and consumption decisions lies with individuals and companies, and there is limited government regulation. See also MARKET ECONOMY.”

Excerpted from: Black, John, Nigar Hashimzade, and Gareth Myles. A Dictionary of Economics. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.

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