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, May 4, 2018, Asian Pacific American History Month 2018 Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Chinese Exclusion Act

Posted on May 4, 2018 | Leave a comment

For the first text of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I offer a materials on one of the most ignoble pieces of legislation ever to pass through our legislative and executive branch, the Chinese Exclusion Act.

So, here is a reading on the Chinese Exclusion Act along with this comprehension worksheet on it. Finally, here is an Everyday Edit on the late Senator Daniel Inouye (and if you want or need more Everyday Edit worksheets, I highly recommend visiting the Everyday Edit page at Education World, where you will find the generous proprietors of the site give away away a yearlong supply of them for free!).

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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U Thant (1909-1974)

Posted on May 3, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Third secretary-general of the United Nations (1961-1971), the first Asian to hold the post. Born in Myanmar (Burma), he was educated at the University of Yangon but had to leave before graduating. He taught high school before entering government service. Posted to the U.N. in 1952, he became Burma’s U.N. ambassador in 1957. In 1961 he became acting secretary-general after Dag Hammarskjold’s death; he became permanent secretary-general in 1962. In his two full terms (1962-1971), he played a diplomatic role in the Cuban missile crisis, devised a plan to end the Congolese civil war (1962), and sent peacekeeping forces to Cyprus (1964).”

Stevens, Mark A., Ed. The Merriam Webster Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Posted in Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

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Independent Practice Worksheet: Buddhism

Posted on May 3, 2018 | Leave a comment

Here, on a Thursday morning, is a short independent practice assignment on Buddhism. In other words, this is homework; I don’t use the word in my classroom because it is loaded. In any case, consistent with Alfie Kohn’s book The Homework Myth, which exercises a large influence on my thinking on this issue, I try to help students understand the difference between homework qua homework and independent practice, which calls upon them to practice that day’s classwork on their own.

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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Posted in Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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Cultural Literacy: Genghis Khan

Posted on May 2, 2018 | Leave a comment

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, May 1st begins Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Initially, I was concerned that I lacked significant materials to observe the month properly; however, upon review of the Text Terminal Archives, I find that I have an abundance of materials to offer in observation of it.

So, let’s start with this Cultural Literacy Worksheet on Genghis Khan. As a college professor of mine once put it, he was an “industrious fellow.”

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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A Short Exercise on the Greek Word Root Oste/o

Posted on May 1, 2018 | Leave a comment

This worksheet on the Greek word root oste/o–it means bone–is another of those Greek roots that produces a lot of words used in the health professions, e.g. osteopathy.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Reference, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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The Alexandrian Library

Posted on April 27, 2018 | Leave a comment

“The most famous library of antiquity. Located in Alexandria, it was the principal center of Hellenistic culture under the Ptolemies, and contained hundreds of thousands of rolls. Among its earliest librarians were Callimachus and Apollonius of Rhodes. G[eorge] B[ernard] Shaw treats humorously the burning of the library by Julius Caesar. It was burned and partly consumed in 391; in 642, according to a dubious legend, the caliph Omar seized the city and used the library’s books ‘to heat the baths of the city for six months.’ It is said that it contained 700,000 volumes, and the reason given by the Muslim destroyer for the destruction of the library was that the books were unnecessary in any case for all the knowledge that was necessary to man was contained in the Koran and that knowledge that was contained in the library that was not contained in the Koran must be pernicious. Most modern experts, however, agree that the story of the library’s destruction by Omar is probably apocryphal.”

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

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Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Independent Practice, Reference, Social Sciences

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Ptolemy

Posted on April 25, 2018 | Leave a comment

Maybe you can use this short reading on Ptolemy as well as the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet to accompany it. He’s someone students need to know about for the Regents Examination in Global History here in New York.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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A Short Exercise on the Greek Word Root Nephr/o

Posted on April 19, 2018 | Leave a comment

Here is a word root worksheet on the Greek root nephr/o. It means kidney. Hence, the medical specialist who deals with kidneys is a nephrologist.

This is, in other words, another vocabulary-building worksheet for students interested in the health professions.

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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A Short Exercise on the Greek Word Root My/o

Posted on April 13, 2018 | Leave a comment

Ok, it’s just before the final period on a Friday afternoon, and as I work to clear off my computer desktop before shutting down and leaving, I find that I left this worksheet on the Greek word root my/o (it means muscle) lying around, so I’ll throw it up for your use.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

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Leo Tolstoy, the Sage of Yasnaya Polyana, Hadn’t Seen Anything Yet

Posted on April 12, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.”

Leo Tolstoy

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

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