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: Impeachment

Posted on January 6, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Impeachment: (ME, deriv. Lat., to catch) In England, special arraignment, usually before parliament or some other high tribunal, of a person charged with offenses against the state. Customarily, impeachment was made in the Commons and the trial occurred in the Lords. The first impeachment was that of Lord Latimer in 1376; others were those of Francis Bacon, the Lord High Chancellor in 1621, the Earl of Stafford in 1641, Archbishop Laud in 1645 and Warren Hastings in 1788. Lord Melville was the last person to be impeached in 1805. In the USA, impeachment is initiated by the House of Representatives and tried by the Senate. The most famous impeachment was that of President Andrew Johnson for dismissing his Secretary of War in May 1868.

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

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Cultural Literacy: Ugly American

Posted on January 6, 2020 | Leave a comment

Although I never read the book, my travels abroad gave me an instinctual undersanding of the Ugly American as a type. Our students may have not had such a chance to learn about his first hand: for them, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of the “Ugly American.”

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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Word Root Exercise: Phot/o

Posted on January 6, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the Greek root phot-o. It means, simply, light, and as you will perceive, this is a very productive root at the base of many English words. It’s very productive in the life and physical sciences, giving us words like photosynthesis and photon.

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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The Magna Carta on an Independent Judiciary

Posted on January 6, 2020 | Leave a comment

“To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay, right or justice.”

[Magna Carta] Clause 40 (1215)

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Immunity

Posted on January 6, 2020 | Leave a comment

OK, health and science teachers, maybe this reading on immunity and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet might find a place in your classroom.

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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An Omnibus of Rotten Reviews: Philip Roth

Posted on January 6, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Portnoy’s Complaint (1971)

This looks and sounds like a Jewish novel. It isn’t. Or, if it is, it is not a good one, a true one…it is finally a definitive something or other. I regret that it is not a definitive something.

America

The best that can be said of Roth’s accomplishment is that Mama Portnoy is a caricature drawn by a master cartoonist, but she’s not more than that…the main trouble with the Jewish family theme is that it has been overwritten.

The Nation

Our Gang (1971)

Nixon’s rough treatment at Roth’s hands may very well invite more sympathy for him than anything since the Checkers speech.

Saturday Review

The Great American Novel (1973)

Roth has, unfortunately, got into such a shouting match with his readers that some of us are going to have to start shouting back.

Encounter

My Life as a Man (1974)

…a totally solipsistic novel, which may well make it a perfect expression of the times.

Commentary“

Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.

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Term of Art: Mental Age

Posted on January 6, 2020 | Leave a comment

“mental age n.: A child’s performance on a test of mental ability expressed as the average age of children who achieved the same level of performance in a standardization sample. Thus a 10-year-old child who achieves the same score as the average 12-year-old child in a standardization sample has a mental age of 12. The concept was introduced in 1905 by the French psychologists Alfred Binet (1857-1911) and Theodore Simon (1873-1961). See also Binet-Simon scale, IQ. Compare chronological age, social age. MA abbrev.”

Excerpted from: Colman, Andrew M., ed. Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

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A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Bang, Bang!”

Posted on January 6, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is a complete lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Bang, Bang!”

This Cultural Literacy worksheet on the historical idiom “Let Them Eat Cake” opens this lesson. This PDF of illustration, reading and questions, scanned directly from the Crime and Puzzlement book, drives the lesson. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key to solve this heinous crime.   

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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The Tripartite Revolutionary Values of the French Revolution

Posted on January 3, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Liberty * Equality * Fraternity

Nothing has ever quite matched the elan of idealism expressed in these tripartite watchwords of the French Revolution, which became the national motto of the nation. They are attributed to a Parisian printer, Antoine-Francois Momoro, though at the time of the Revolution there were several variants, and lists might include Amitie (Friendship), Charite (Charity) or Union–and there was often a qualifier–ou la Mort (or death). The latter was discreetly dropped after the Reign of Terror.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

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Steve Wozniak on the Digital Age

Posted on January 3, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Never trust a computer you can’t throw out of a window.”

Stephen Wozniak

Quoted in Newsbytes, 26 Sept. 1997

Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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