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.

Satnami Sect

Posted on May 10, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Satnami sect: Religious community in India that challenges political and religious authority by worshiping the supreme god Satnam. Combining practices from Islam and Hinduism, Satnamis typically reject both the worship of images and the caste system, while retaining an underlying orthodox Vedanta philosophy. Modern Satnamis are confined almost entirely to the low-status Camar caste, and they advocate social equality as well as ethical and dietary self-restraint.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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The Weekly Text, 10 May 2024, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Week II: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Nebuchadrezzar II

Posted on May 10, 2024 | Leave a comment

For the second Friday of Asian American Pacific Islander Month 2024, your Weekly Text is this reading on Nebuchadrezzar II along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. There seems to be a couple of different ways of spelling the name of this Babylonian tyrant’s name; if you click on that preceding hyperlink, you will see his name spelled as Nebuchadnezzar. This reading, from the Intellectual Devotional series, notes that Nebuchadnezzar is an alternate spelling of his name.

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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Ho Chi Minh’s Anti-Colonial Imperative

Posted on April 30, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Men and women, young and old, regardless of creeds, political parties, or nationalities, all the Vietnamese must stand up to fight the French colonialists and save the fatherland. Those

Ho Chi Minh, Proclamation, 19 Dec. 1946 (translation by Peter Wiles)

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

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Cultural Literacy: Russo-Japanese War

Posted on April 30, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Russo-Japanese War. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences and three comprehension questions. Once again, for its brevity, this is a surprisingly thorough summary of this conflict from the editors of The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.

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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Cultural Literacy: Zhou En-Lai

Posted on April 30, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Zhou En-Lai. This is a half-page document with a reading of three sentences ranging from simple to relatively simple, and three comprehension questions. It is, therefore, the sparest of biographies on a founder of the Chinese Communist Party and ally of Mao Zedong.

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 Weekly Text, 3 May 2024, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Taoism

Posted on April 30, 2024 | Leave a comment

Today begins Asian American Pacific Island Heritage Month 2024, and hence the observance of it on this blog. The first Text for this month is this reading on Taoism along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Like all Weekly Texts this month, this material is drawn and adapted from the Intellectual Devotional series of books.

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 Doubter’s Companion: Aspen Institute

Posted on April 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

“Aspen Institute: A supermarket of conventional wisdom for middle-level executives. Corporate life, particularly for those not on the fast track, has all the bureaucratic pitfalls of directionless boredom. To distract these confused but loyal servants from what Thoreau called their ‘lives of quiet desperation,’ they are periodically shipped off to rest camps where, over the period of a few days, they are taught important things which can change their lives, their company, the world. Failing that, the experience may help them hold on a bit longer.”

Excerpted from: Saul, John Ralston. The Doubter’s Companion. New York: The Free Press, 1994.

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John McCain on Hypocrisy

Posted on April 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

“If hypocrisy were gold, the Capitol would be Fort Knox.”

John McCain

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

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Cultural Literacy: Sociopath

Posted on April 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the sociopath and a concept and figure. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two relatively simple sentence and two comprehension questions. Given the tone of our current election cycle as I publish, this is probably timely material.

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: Social Maladjustment

Posted on April 16, 2024 | Leave a comment

“social maladjustment: A vague term for a child’s chronic misconduct in the absence of emotional disturbance. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act specifically prohibits the classification of children as handicapped because of social maladjustment, although social maladjustment may occur together with legally defined handicaps.

In the past, it was a common practice for schools to place children into special education classes based on their misconduct rather than in the presence of a handicap. Many alleged that public school special education classes became ‘dumping grounds’ for the children whom no one wanted to teach, such as juvenile delinquents and those who defied authority.”

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

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