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: Prior Knowledge

“prior knowledge: The totality of an individual’s experience and knowledge at any given time—that is, what a student brings as background information to a new learning experience. The more prior knowledge a person has, the more prepared he or she will be to learn new ideas. Almost everything that a person learns or can learn depends on the extent of his or her prior knowledge. One of the major missions of school is to build students’ fund of background knowledge so they have a foundation for future learning.”

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

Renaissance Art

“Renaissance Art: Strictly, art of the period from ca. 1400 to ca. 1520, but sometimes traced back to the time of Giotto, ca. 1300. During the 14th century, Italian art, especially painting, increasingly took account of scientific perspective and moved toward realism. During the 15th century, early Renaissance development was spurred by the rediscovery of ancient classical art. Reached its climax in the first decades of the 16th century with High Renaissance Art.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

Coda: A Lesson Plan on Raphael’s “The School of Athens”

While working on posting the eleven lessons below, I came upon this lesson plan on The School of Athens, the painting by Raphael. I have no idea how it ended up there, or even when I wrote it, but I think it may have been for a professional development obligation of some sort. Here also is the bare-bones worksheet template I started to go with it.

So, if you’re interested in developing this further, there it is. Keep in mind that there are all manner of excellent websites–like this one–to point you in the right direction for completing this lesson.

If you do in fact develop this further, and you are so inclined, I’m interested in hearing about where you took it.

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.

Term of Art: Oral Tradition

“Oral Tradition: Poetry belonging to this tradition is composed orally, or made up as the poet goes along. As a rule, it is the product of illiterate or semi-literate societies. It is usually sung or chanted (often to musical accompaniment) and is the earliest of all poetry, in the sense that it precedes written poetry. It is still alive in many parts of the world, and in some regions of Europe: for instance, Sicily, the remoter parts of Greece, and in the central Balkans (especially Bosnia, Serbia and Macedonia). In the upland districts of Yugoslavia it is still possible to find a guslar (q.v.) reciting verses on recent events. See also BALLAD; BYLINA; EPIC; FOLKSONG; NARODNE PESME”

Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.

A Lesson Plan on the Greco-Roman Social

This lesson plan on the Greco-Roman social is the eleventh–see below–or an eleven-lesson unit on the origins of religion and philosophy. I grabbed this from a social studies teacher with whom I worked for several years in Lower Manhattan. The raw documents, which I typed and formatted Microsoft Word, looked like they came from someplace on the Internet similar to Mark’s Text Terminal.

In any case, I attached this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Aesop’s fables as wells as this one on the idiom “When in Rome, Do as the Romans Do” as openers for this lesson, which can easily go for two or even three days. In order to get this activity started, you’re students will need this list of participants in the social and the student worksheet and organizer that will serve as their dance card, so to speak, in this activity. I’ll include this teacher’s copy of the list of participants in the Greco-Roman social as well. I regret that the page numbers given for the readings are for a long-forgotten textbook that my co-teacher and I used for this enterprise. It shouldn’t be hard to replace my page numbers with those from whatever textbook your district uses for globals studies and geography.

As I worked my way through posting this unit,  I realized I wanted these lessons to span two days so I could get a look at kids’ short-term memories, whether something they’d read the day before remained with them, and if they could apply that knowledge the next day. This guided my planning and suggested to me what I might do in the way of support for the students I served. Let me reiterate once more than these lessons are the basis for a series of lessons that I recut every year to fit the fashions of the New York State Global Studies and Geography Regents Examination.

In the final analysis, I see a lot of room for improvement in these lessons. You probably will too. Remember that just about everything you download from Mark’s Text Terminal is in Microsoft Word, so you may alter this material to your students’ and your own needs.

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.

Historical Term: Auto da fe

“Auto da fe (auto da fe Span., act of faith). The ceremony accompanying the execution of condemned heretics during the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal. Pope Sixtus IV first authorized the Spanish monarchy to name inquisitors in a bull of 1478.  The Inquisition lasted until 1813, when it was suppressed by the Cortes de Cadiz. Restored by Ferdinand VII in 1814, it was suppressed again in 1820, only to be reinstated three years later. The last auto da fe took place in 1826; the Inquisition was finally abolished in 1834.”

Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.

A Lesson Plan on Theocracy and the Divine Right of Kings

This lesson plan on theocracy and the divine right of kings is the penultimate (i.e. number ten) of eleven in a unit (see above and below) on the origins of religion and philosophy.

This lesson opens with this context clues worksheet on the noun theocrat. If the lesson continues into a second dayand you want a second context clues worksheet, here is another on the adjective infallible. The mainstay of this lesson is this two short readings with comprehension questions to help students understand the way that religion undergirded royal power for centuries in Europe.

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.

The Devil’s Dictionary: Truth

“Truth, n. An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance. Discovery of the truth is the sole purpose of philosophy, which is the most ancient occupation of the human mind and has a fair prospect of existing with increasing activity until the end of time.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000. 

A Lesson Plan on Aristotle

Moving right along, this lesson plan on Aristotle is (as above and below) the ninth lesson of eleven in a global studies unit on the origins of religion and philosophy.

This lesson opens, if you are so inclined, with this context clues worksheet on the noun democracy, and another on the noun rigor should the lesson continue into a second day. Finally, here is the short reading on Aristotle with comprehension questions that is the central work of this lesson.

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.

Aegis

“Aegis: (fr Gr, aix, ‘goat’) Variously interpreted as a shield made of goatskin or as the awesome thundercloud of Zeus. Homer depicts the aegis as an impregnable shield made by the god Hephaestus. On occasion Zeus lent the aegis to other gods; particularly Athene and Apollo. The aegis symbolized the gods’ special powers. Hence the term has come denote authority and protection.”

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