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: Write-In Candidate

Posted on July 21, 2023 | Leave a comment

There has been a lot of talk about civics education in my corner of the world of public education, but virtually no action. At a time when democracy around the world is under clear and demonstrable threat, it is clearly time to deal with revitalizing the political structure that Winston Churchill so wittily said is “…the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…”

I doubt whether this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a write-in candidate will do anything to buttress democracy, but I would argue that as we send our graduating high school seniors out in the world to exercise their franchise, this is a concept they should understand. This is half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading–38 words though, with an element in parentheses, which may require editing for some students–and one comprehension question.

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.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged , ,

Theodore Sizer on the Message Kids Get

Posted on July 21, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Unchallenged kids get the message. If adults expect little of them, expect that they must be reminded, hectored, hassled, expect them to be goof-offs, then they will goof off. Of course, some people will goof off no matter what expectations are set. But teachers should assume the highest standard of performance until they are shown that it is not forthcoming. This is the proper start for each young person’s education. If that standard is substantial and persuasive–if it symbolizes the dignity of a demanding expectation–more often than not, adolescents rise to the occasion.”

Excerpted from: Sizer, Theodore. Horace’s Hope. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.

Leave a comment

Posted in Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

Tagged , ,

Cultural Literacy: Woodrow Wilson

Posted on July 14, 2023 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Woodrow Wilson. This is a two-page worksheet with a reading of ten sentences (a full paragraph, in other words) and eight comprehension questions. As usual, the editors of The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy render with economy a complex biography of a public figure. The reading, you probably won’t be surprised to hear, neglects to mention President Wilson’s racism, which is a critical question well worth exploring.

Anything, I suppose, to strike a blow against the hideousness of American exceptionalism.

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.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged , , ,

Cultural Literacy: Friend of the Court

Posted on July 11, 2023 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a friend of the court. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences (the second of which is a compound–two clauses separated by a semicolon) and two comprehension questions. In other words, this is a basic introduction to an important concept in jurisprudence, particularly at the level of the Supreme Court. Right now, given the sleaze we’re seeing from at least two associate justices, i.e. taking lavish trips funded by individuals with business before the court, the Supreme Court needs all the friends it can get.

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.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged , , ,

The Doubter’s Companion: Participation

Posted on July 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Participation: Democracy is built and maintained through individual participation, yet society is structured to discourage it.

And ours is the most structured of civilizations. Forty-hour work weeks. Work breaks calculated to the minute. Weekends measured for recuperation. Various specific leaves for sickness and giving birth. Set holiday periods. Official days of celebration or mourning. When it’s all added up and the time to eat, copulate, sleep, and see families is included, twenty-four hours have been accounted for.

The only built-in space of time for individual participation is a fixed period for voting, which probably averages out to an hour a year. The only time society formally organizes extended participation is over matters of violence. (Military service or when a judge orders convicted criminals to do community service.)

Why is the function which makes democracy viable treated as if it were expendable? Or rather, why is it excluded by being reduced to a minor activity requiring the sacrifice of time formally allotted to other things?

Nothing prevents up from revising the schedule to build in four or five hours a week for public participation. Our failure to do something like this is a statement either about the state of the democratic ethic or about the real nature of power in our society.”

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

Leave a comment

Posted in Quotes, Social Sciences

Tagged , , ,

Cultural Literacy: Disenfranchisement

Posted on July 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

On an already, at 5:10 a.m., hot and muggy morning in northeastern Massachusetts, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on disenfranchisement. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one sentence–to wit, “Removal of the franchise, or right to vote”–and one comprehension question. A concise explanation of a relatively simple concept with big consequences for a democracy like ours in the United States.

And given what has happened in some of our state legislatures in the past several years, something that it is important, indeed vitally important, I would argue, that our students understand.

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.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged , , ,

The Weekly Text, 7 July 2023: A Pair of Context Clues Worksheets on the Nouns Deficit and Surplus

Posted on July 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

OK, this week’s Text, at the end of the the first full week of summer vacation, is a pair of context clues on the nouns deficit and surplus. For the purposes of these worksheets, deficit means “an excess of expenditure over revenue”  and “a loss in business operations”; surplus means “the amount that remains when use or need is satisfied” and “an excess of receipts over disbursements.” If you think it would be helpful, I prepared this lexicon on deficit and surplus for classroom use.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I served for ten years in an economics-and-finance-themed high school in Lower Manhattan. Therefore, the definitional range of these worksheets is narrow when viewed in the broader context of the meanings of these words. The lexicon is edited for simplicity (mostly by removing the etymology and some of the diacritical marks) but contains full definitions of both words. In any event, these documents are, like almost everything you’ll find on Mark’s Text Terminal, formatted in Microsoft Word. In other words, you can edit them for your classroom’s needs.

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.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged , ,

Cultural Literacy: Calvinism

Posted on June 28, 2023 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Calvinism. This is half-page worksheet with a reading of four simple sentences and four comprehension questions. A basic, symmetrical introduction to Calvin’s ideology, which the reading observes is today found primarily in Presbyterianism.

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.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged , , , ,

The Weekly Text, 30 June 2023: Free to Be You and Me

Posted on June 28, 2023 | Leave a comment

It seems to me that there are a lot of politicians in the United States, most if not all of them Republicans, who are belligerently opposed (I’m thinking of you, Ron DeSantis, above all others here) to the changing concepts of gender in our culture. Earlier in my life, these same troglodytes (is it fair to call them troglodytes? It seems to be a guy like DeSantis makes the average troglodyte look like Bertrand Russell) were exercised by Free to Be You and Me.  James Dobson, noted evangelist and right-wing scold, took particular offense and the changing gender roles in our society that this television show discussed–what a surprise!

This week’s Text is this short reading on Free To Be You and Me along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Nota bene, please, that the original sound recording for this television broadcast is available on the streaming music service I subscribe to, so I’ll bet it’s on yours as well.

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.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged , , , , , ,

The Weekly Text, Friday 23 June 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 16, Concluding Assessment and Reflection

Posted on June 23, 2023 | Leave a comment

Alright, here, finally, is the sixteenth and final lesson plan of the History of Hip-Hop Unit. I use this Cultural Literacy worksheet on racism as a do-now exercise. The work of this lesson, which I have allowed to play out over two or three days, is this concluding assessment and reflection and this metacognitive assessment worksheet.

And that, gentle reader, is that. There are now sixteen lessons available on the History of Hip-Hop at Mark’s Text Terminal.

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.

Leave a comment

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

Tagged , , , , , , ,