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.

Brewer’s Curious Titles: The Master and Margarita

“The Master and Margarita: (Russian title: Master i Margarita). A novel by Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940), combining dark humor, satire, fantasy and philosophy. It was completed in 1938, but not published in Russia until 1966-7 (in serial form); the English edition was published in 1967. In the 1930s the Devil visits Moscow, and, with the aid of a naked girl and a gun-toting, cigar-smoking, man-sized cat, spreads chaos and mayhem and shows up the moral inadequacies of Soviet society. Standing apart from all this is the Master, a novelist of great integrity, and his beloved, Margarita. He is writing a book about the appearance of Jesus before Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem, long sections of which are included by Bulgakov. The book is prefaced by quotation from Goethe’s Faust.”

Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.

Term of Art: Team Teaching

“team teaching: An instructional method in which two or more teachers collaboratively teach a group of students. Teaching teams may teach one subject to multiple classes or teach all the core subjects to a single cluster of students for the school year. In the former arrangement, teachers may take turns instructing the entire group or divide the class into smaller sections that rotate between the teachers. In the latter arrangement, teachers meet frequently to plan curriculum and address student strengths and weaknesses.”

Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.

A List of Consciousness-Raising Questions for Students

One of the great pleasures of the institution in which I now serve is the seriousness with which professional development is conducted. I won’t belabor the point about the hasty superficiality with which this responsibility was fulfilled in other schools (I’ve done this elsewhere on this blog) and its reduction to a pro forma bureaucratic ritual. We’ve been asked to read Dr, Gholdy Muhammad’s recent–and excellent–book Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy.  It’s a welcome relief from the usual pabulum that passes as professional development in the school system in which I serve.

In any case, here is a list of consciousness-raising questions I grabbed from page 72 of the edition of the book supplied me. I wrote this for my planning book; however, it could easily (like about 99 percent of what you’ll find on Mark’s Text Terminal, this is a Microsoft Word document that you may, if I dare to say so, bend to your will) be converted into a worksheet or a series of worksheets.

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.

Lyndon B. Johnson

Here is a reading on Lyndon B. Johnson along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet . I was a child when Johnson was president; I remember seeing on live television his announcement that he would not stand for reelection in 1968. The newscast impressed my parents, but at at the age of seven, it meant very little to me.

Over time, and all the published volumes of Robert Caro’s magisterial biography of Johnson, The Years of Lyndon Johnson, I have come to appreciate the fascination with Johnson. He was, it seems to me, the last great president the Democratic Party produced. He accomplished great things, more often than not through dubious and even devious means. In any case, these documents are a solid introduction to Johnson’s accomplishments–both the triumphs and the failures.

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.

Analogy

“Analogy (noun) A theoretical comparison or point-by-point correspondence between particulars of two different things, rather than a categorical likeness; resemblance in certain parallels; logical inference that if two things are alike in some respects, they will be alike in others. Adj. analogical, analogous; adv. analogously; n. analogousness; v. analogize.”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

Cultural Literacy: Continental Congress

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Continental Congress. This is a half-page worksheet with a four-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. For its brevity, this document is a solid general introduction to the term and concept of the Continental Congress of North America. Users can, if so inclined, alter this Microsoft Word document to their classroom’s needs.

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.

Joyce Sequichie Hifler on Poverty and Ignorance

“We can get over being poor, but it takes longer to get over ignorance.”

Joyce Sequichie Hifler

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

Term of Art: Abstinence Education

“abstinence education: An educational program premised on the view that family life and sex education courses should teach students that sexual intercourse is inappropriate for young, unmarried people. Advocates say that adults must communicate an unambiguous that sex outside marriage is dangerous because of the risks of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS. Critics of abstinence-only programs say the programs ignore the reality of widespread sexual activity among teenagers and deprive teens of information they need to protect themselves physically and emotionally.”

Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.

The Weekly Text, 29 October 2021: A Lesson Plan on the Basic Rights of All Children

This week’s Text is another lesson plan drawn from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s indispensable reference book The Order of Things, this one on the basic rights of children. This is a basic lesson for emergent and struggling readers, as you’ll see from its list as reading and comprehension questions: the reading is a list of ten basic rights, and I’ve prepared five basic comprehension questions.

You, however, may do with this as you like. Because both lesson plan and worksheet are formatted in Microsoft Word (as are most of the documents you will find on this website–and if you’re a regular user of this site, I’ll bet you are tired of hearing me say that), these are what I believe are called, using the term loosely, “open source” documents. Whatever the nomenclature, these materials can be exported and manipulated freely.

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: Token Economy

“token economy: A behavior therapy procedure in which tokens (such as coins or poker chips) are given for desired behavior. The tokens can then be exchanged for privileges or treats.”

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