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.

The Weekly Text, September 20, 2019, Hispanic Heritage Month 2019 Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Bay of Pigs Affair

Last Monday, September 15, marked the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month 2019. Last year at this time I knew I was running out of materials to properly observe the Month Over the summer I struggled to assemble materials to publish. Unfortunately, finding a new job, moving, and the typical vagaries of life intervened; the section of the warehouse at Mark’s Text Terminal where the appropriate materials are stored is nearly bereft of goods. So I begin the month belatedly and with a regrettable deficit, which embarrasses me.

In any case, to kick off Hispanic Heritage Month for 2109, here is a reading on the Bay of Pigs invasion and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that attends it. These cover both Hispanic history and United States history. These documents have served, along with others, in my classroom, to start students thinking critically about the wages of imperialism.

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.

Term of Art: Acculturation

“acculturation: The adoption by one society of a trait or traits from another society. The term is usually employed in anthropological contexts, and considers the change from the point of view of the recipient society. cf DIFFUSION.”

Excerpted from: Bray, Warwick, and David Trump. The Penguin Dictionary of Archaeology. New York: Penguin, 1984.

Born (adj) and Borne (adj)

While I sit her waiting for a Time Machine backup to finish, here is a set of five homophone worksheets on the adjectives born and borne. These are useful words that students should know.

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.

Brewer’s Curious Titles: Annus Mirabilis

“A long poem (1997) by John Dryden (1631-1700). The annus mirabilis (wonderful year) was 1666, the year of the Fire of London and of continuing war with the Dutch. Queen Elizabeth II alluded to the phrase in a speech at the Guildhall, London, when she referred to 1992 and ‘annus horribilis’ (a coinage that had been suggested to her by a ‘sympathetic correspondent’); this was the year when fire caused extensive damage to the royal residence at Windsor Castle, Princess Anne was divorced, and the Duke of York separated from the Duchess of York, topless photos of whom appeared in the tabloids.”

Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.

Lord Russell on Patriotism

“Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.”

Bertrand Russell

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

Birthmarks

Health teacher, here is a reading on birthmarks and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. These documents have been of surprisingly high interest to most of the kids I’ve had the privilege to teach over all these years.

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.

Term of Art: Double Negative

“Double Negative: The use of two negatives in a sentence where one will suffice, e..g., ‘It doesn’t mean nothing’; reiterated denial that is tantamount to an affirmative of positive statement.

In substandard speech, however, double negatives often reinforce a strongly negative color in an assertion. ‘I don’t want nothing from nobody is a threefold declaration of independence, not a logical seesaw.” G.W. Turner, Stylistics“

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

A Glossary of Words Related to Decimals Math

Maybe you can use this basic glossary of fractions terms that I just whipped in preparation for teaching this material to my math class.

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: Dyscalculia

“Dyscalculia: Impairment of the ability to do arithmetic.

[From Greek dys– bad or abnormal + Latin calculare to count, from calculus diminutive of calx a stone + ia indicating a condition or quality]”

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

The Weekly Text, September 13, 2019: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Dropout”

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere on this blog, the lessons I prepared to attend the Crime and Puzzlement books are quite frequently downloaded. Because I am exhausted from trying to get the school year started, and therefore bereft of imagination and initiative, I offer, as this week’s Text, a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Dropout.”

I use this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the expression “Sword of Damocles” to open the lesson after a class change. You’ll need this PDF of the illustration and questions that drive this lesson to teach it. Finally, here is the answer key typescript; it’s in word if you need to differentiate it for your students.

And that makes ten posts for this week, so I’m done here for the moment. I hope your school 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.