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.

Currency (n)

Because I work in an economics-and-finance-themed high school, I found it necessary to write this context clues worksheet on the noun currency. Perhaps it will have some utility in your classroom.

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.

Independent Practice: Roman Law

Because it is the basis of most Western legal codes, I wrote this independent practice worksheet on Roman law to reinforce the conceptual understanding in the students I serve.

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 Septuagint

“The Septuagint is the name for the Greek translation of the Hebrew Testament made in Alexandria in Egypt in the fourth century BC. Believed to be either a miraculous harmony of scholars working separately to produce an identical textual translation, or a body of seventy scholars working together to produce a single agreed text—which is arguably an even more miraculous occurrence.”

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.

Cultural Literacy: Alexandria

If you teach world history or global studies (or whatever your school, district or state calls this subject), you might find this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Alexandria useful.

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.

Egyptian Revival Style

“In American architecture, this style occurred twice: ca. 1830-1850 and 1920-1930. Used mostly for public monuments and commercial buildings, the forms are heavy, often pylon-like. Reeded columns, palm capitals, and other ornaments are distinctively Egyptian.”

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

Anachronism (n)

“A term used to distinguish anything out of its proper time. Shakespeare’s references to cannons in King John, a play which takes place before cannons came into use, to clocks in Julius Caesar, and to billiards in Antony and Cleopatra, are examples of anachronisms. In literature, anachronisms are sometimes used deliberately as comic devices to emphasized universal timelessness.”

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

Rene Dubos on Leading a Rational Life

“In most human affairs, the idea is to think globally and act locally.”

Rene Dubos

“The Despairing Optimist,” American Scholar, Spring 1977. The Motto “Think Globally, Act Locally” first appeared as the title of an interview with Dubos in the EPA Journal, Apr. 1978.

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

Covenant (n)

Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun covenant, for which I can think of a variety of uses. I wrote it to help students understand it as an agreement, specifically the restrictive or racial covenants that racism wears in real estate transactions.

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 Algonquin Wits: Heywood Broun on Political Orientation

“In 1935 Broun made this statement: ‘Nobody need worry any more that Washington is going left. Indeed, nobody need worry that the Washington of today is going anywhere.'”

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.

Independent Practice: Latitude and Longitude

Here for all you social studies teachers, if you can use it, is an independent practice worksheet on latitude and longitude that I assign early on in the freshman global studies cycle. If students are to read maps, they need these words and the concepts they represent.

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.