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.

Cultural Literacy: Roosevelt’s Court Packing Plan

Moving right along this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Roosevelt’s court packing plan. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences–all longish compounds separated by commas–and three comprehension questions.

As I look at this document this morning, I find, apropos of its subject matter, I suppose, that the text is packed in a little too tightly. Moreover, the aforementioned three longish compound sentences might be better rewritten if you plan to use this document with emergent or struggling readers or students for whom English is a new language. Moreover, I think the comprehension questions could be improved, or expanded, with a couple of critical thinking questions added.

But what do you think?

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.

The Doubter’s Companion: Award Show

Award Show: Mechanism by which the members of a given profession attempt to give themselves the attributes of the pre-modern ruling classes—the military, aristocracy and priesthood—by assigning various orders, decorations, and medals to each other.

These shows are superficial expressions of corporatism. As with the pre-modern classes, their awards relate principally to relationships within the profession. Each time the words “I want to thank” are used by someone being decorated, they indicate a relationship based on power. The awards have little to do with the corporation’s relationship to the outside world—what you might call the public—or for that matter with quality.”

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

Cultural Literacy: Subsidy

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a subsidy. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one sentence and one comprehension question. Just the basics, but useful, I would think, for any introductory economics course as well as a range of topics in United States history.

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.

Cultural Literacy: Obscenity

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of obscenity. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences (the last a compound separated by a semicolon) and three comprehension questions. While obscenity as a legal concept doesn’t much appear in the press anymore, mostly because it appears to be a settled legal issue, it certainly was in the news a great deal when I was in high school.

So this may currently be irrelevant material–something I learned about in school because it was current in a way that it no longer is.

But what do you think?

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.

Cultural Literacy: Sumatra

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Sumatra. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences–the second of them is a fairly long compound which might need editing for emergent or struggling readers.

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.

Cultural Literacy: Zen

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Zen. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three longish sentences and three comprehension questions. When you open this, I wonder if you’ll find, like I did, that things are a bit crammed together and crowded in this document. It may need some work–perhaps like turning it into a one-page affair.

Of course I would be interested in hearing what you think.

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.

The Weekly Text, 31 May 2024, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Week V: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Genghis Khan

OK! For the final Friday of Asian American Pacific Island Heritage Month Week, here is a reading on Genghis Khan with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I think it’s safe to assume that I need not belabor the importance of this conqueror and empire builder.

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.

Cultural Literacy: Taipei

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Taipei. It is, of course, the capital of Taiwan. This is half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and two comprehension questions. Short and to the point, as the best of these documents tend to be.

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.

Cultural Literacy: Tajikistan

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Tajikistan. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences–and beware the first one, which is a doozy of a compound with with a series of geographical place names separated by commas. My guess? This will need to be modified for struggling and emergent readers.

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.

Mesopotamia

“Mesopotamia: Region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in western Asia, constituting the greater part of modern Iraq. The region’s location and fertility gave rise to settlements from c.10,000 BC, and it became the cradle of some of the world’s earliest civilizations. Its seat was the city of Mesopotamia, founded in the 4th millennium BC by the Sumerians. It was ruled by the third dynasty of Ur, and later by Babylon, which gave its name to the southern portion of Mesopotamia. The city declined under the Hurrians and the Kassites 1600-1450 BC. It was conquered by the army of Ashur. Mesopotamia was ruled by Seleucids from c.312 BC until the 2nd century BC, when it became part of the Parthian empire. In the 7th century AD the region was conquered by Muslim Arabs. The region’s importance declined after the Mongol Invasion of 1258. The Ottoman Turks ruled in the 16th-17th centuries. The area became a British mandate in 1920; the following year, Iraq was established there.”

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