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.

Stephanie Ericsson’s “The Ways We Lie”

When the English teacher with whom I work recently introduced Stephanie Ericsson’s essay “The Ways We Lie” late last week, I’d never previously seen it. If you search it, you’ll see that it is evidently in use in a number of schools around the country. It’s not especially profound, but it does touch on some of the philosophical issues that lying and truth-telling raise. Ms. Ericsson has enjoyed a successful career as a writer and and actor, the latter of which surprised me.

In any case, here is a copy of the essay itself along with a contextual and learning support that I composed to attend it. The essay is in Microsoft Word, though I didn’t render it so, so I cannot vouch for it accuracy or fidelity; the contextual and learning support I did write, and, as below, if you find any problems with it, please advise. I copy-edited it twice, which doesn’t mean it doesn’t contain lapses or errors. There is a reason why professional writers–which I am not, alas–use the services of their publishers’ copy-editing offices.

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.

Term of Art: Tactile Defensiveness

“tactile defensiveness: Being overly sensitive to touch; withdrawing, crying, yelling, or strking out when touched.

Some experts believe that that tactile defensiveness is related to disorganization in the midbrain, which is responsible for filtering incoming stimuli and—when abnormal—may not screen out all excessive tactile stimulation. As a result, a person would register even the most subtle sensations as irritating or painful, so that the person may respond to touch by grimacing or pulling away.

The central nervous system relies on different sensory nerve receptors in the skin to monitor the environment: light touch (surface), pressure (deep), temperature (hot and cold), and pain. It is quite possible for a person with tactile defensiveness to have one type of receptor that is oversensitive and the rest be normal. This explains why a person could tolerate light touch but pull away from a firm hug or prefer to run outside with a coat but be content with haircuts.

The tactile defensive individual can experience great distress in the course of daily life, constantly being bombarded with raw sensations. A person might insist on wearing only very soft clothes with large head openings or refuse to wear jewelry (especially around the neck). The slightest bump from another person may feel like a threat, and his or her defensive response may appear to be impulsive or aggressive. People with this condition may dislike group games such as tag or dodgeball, and holding hands with a partner can be physically agonizing. A person with this condition may shrink from being touched, which prevents him or her from being able to interact with friends in a normal way. Daily personal grooming, including bathing, washing hair, trimming nails, or brushing teeth can also be interpreted as uncomfortable.”

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

Vision Training and ADHD

“vision training and ADHD: Some people believe that visual problems such as faulty eye movements, focus problems, and light oversensitivity of the eyes cause reading disorders. However, there are few well-designed studies of this approach.

In 1972, a joint statement highly critical of the optometric approach to learning disability treatment was issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology, and the American Academy of Ophthalmology. In the absence of supporting evidence, most experts warn that this approach should not be used to treat learning disabilities.”

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

Annual Health Exam

OK, health teachers, if you can use them, here is a reading on the importance of an annual health exam along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. For a one-page reading, this document pack in a lot of information–perhaps all that one needs to understand why one should get a physical every year.

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.

Sociology (n)

If you can use it (I was pleased to see that the subject is taught in the Brooklyn school in which I currently serve), here is a context clues worksheet on the noun sociology. It means “the science of society, social institutions, and social relationships; specifically, the systematic study of the development, structure, interaction, and collective behavior of organized groups of human beings” as well as “the scientific analysis of a social institution as a functioning whole and as it relates to the rest of society.”

I guess there is not much more to say than that about this half-page document.

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, 5 November 2021: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “False Alarm”

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “False Alarm.” I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Gallicism enfant terrible.

To conduct your investigation of this misdemeanor, you’ll need this PDF of the illustration and questions that serve as evidence and interrogative in the case. And here is the typescript of the answer key. And that’s it for another week.

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.

13 Bars on the Union Flag

“Delaware * Pennsylvania * New Jersey * Georgia * Connecticut * Massachusetts * Maryland *South Carolina * New Hampshire * Virginia * New York * North Carolina * Rhode Island

These thirteen states rebelled against the British Crown in the eighteenth century and are represented by the thirteen parallel bars of the Union Flag. Curiously, the Founding Fathers adapted their design from a flag used by the East India Company, which had created its own version of the mercantile Red Ensign with thirteen red and white bars instead of a plain red field. On an early version, thirteen stars complemented the bars, then more and more stars were added as the American state expanded into Indian lands to their west.

Another curiosity is that, just as thirteen states rebelled against their royal motherland, it would be thirteen states that would later rebel against the republican union:

South Carolina * Mississippi * Florida * Alabama * Georgia * Louisiana * Texas * Virginia * Arkansas * Tennessee * North Carolina * Missouri * Kentucky

It is not always remembered that all thirteen of the Confederate states seceded from the Union between December 1860 and December 1861, after the process of a democratic vote, either a popular referendum or a vote from their House of Representatives. They had imagined the Union was a free compact, which they were entitled to leave, just as they had joined it. After four years of war, the northern armies of the Union had either destroyed or occupied all the territories of those who had attempted to secede.”

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.

The Mississippi River

Here is a reading on the Mississippi River along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This is a relatively short reading, but packs a lot of facts into a short introduction to the Mighty Mississippi, as do most of the one-page reading from the Intellectual Devotional series. It’s one of the reasons I developed so many of these, and why you find so many of them on this blog.

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.

Alan Turing Brings the Snark

[Loud comment about computer intelligence, made in an AT&T cafeteria:] “No, I’m not interested in developing a more powerful brain. All I’m after is just a mediocre brain, something like the President of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company.”

Alan Turing, Quoted in Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma of Intelligence (1983)

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

Cultural Literacy: Cossacks

Because I can’t ever remember hearing them mentioned once in 11 years of teaching global studies in New York State, I wonder if there exists any use at all, anywhere in the United States, for this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Cossacks. They are, or were, an important group of warriors and horsemen in Russia. Recently, they’ve made a comeback as part of a constellation of groups whose raison d’etre, as far as I can determine, is to extol the virtuous leadership Vladimir Putin and promote Great Russian cultural chauvinism.

This is a half-page worksheet with a symmetrical relationship between reading and comprehension questions: a three-sentence reading, and three comprehension questions.

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.