Tag Archives: questioning/inquiry

The Weekly Text, July 26, 2019: A Lesson Plan on Citing Sources in Synthetic Research Papers

While I have used the materials in this week’s Text in a variety of configurations, including, most often in a unit on the procedural knowledge necessary to produce research papers, I also keep it around as a standalone, which I call the “Research Paper in Miniature Lesson Plan” I wrote this several years ago after observing, in the school in which I worked, that teachers assigned synthetic research papers without any explicit instruction on the how and, perhaps more importantly, the why of citing sources when preparing such a document.

Today’s Text is, then, basically, a lesson plan on citing sources. I have opened this lesson, for reasons I think I can safely assume are obvious, with this context clues worksheet on the noun evidence; if, for some reason, this lesson runs into a second instructional period, I keep nearby this second context clues worksheet on the noun bibliography in case I need it. Finally, the mainstay of this lesson is this worksheet on the why and how of citing sources.

As I’ve worked with this lesson over the years, I have come to regard it (and you might find this a useful way of thinking about it as well) as an outline or template for a series of such lessons. Depending on what you’re working on in your classroom, an hour or so of editing and reconfiguring would transmute this lesson for use with a variety of short readings. In other words, whatever your domain is, and whatever content you are teaching, it could be adapted to work with this lesson and vice versa.

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.

Independent Practice: Philip II

I don’t know what place he occupies in your world history or global studies curriculum, or whatever your district or school calls it, but if you can use it, here is an independent practice worksheet on Philip II of Spain.

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.

Cultural Literacy: George Santayana

George Santayana famously said–and this is one of those quotes that is often repeated erroneously or misattributed–“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” To my mind, this is one of the most cogent aphorisms (and I wrote my MA thesis on the Zeus of aphorists, Nietzsche) ever uttered, to it deserves verbatim repetition and proper attribution.

So I hope this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Santayana’s famous quote aids that modest cause. When I co-taught freshman global studies classes in Manhattan, my excellent co-teacher always started the year with a discussion of the implications of Santayana’s maxim.

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.

Gender Identity

Rounding out this morning’s labors will make this the tenth post I’ve published on this Monday in late July. So, here is a reading on gender identity and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it.

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.

Cultural Literacy: Quorum

Maybe you can use this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the quorum as a concept. I’d always assumed that the plural of this noun was quora, but as it turns out, and you can find this on the excellent question-and-answer website called, coincidentally, Quora, that the plural of quorum is more properly quorums. There is a fairly lively discourse on this; search “plural of quorum” if this is the kind of thing that interests you.

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: Justinian I

Here’s an independent practice worksheet on the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I if you happen to teach world history, global studies, or whatever your district calls this subdomain of social studies.

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, July 19, 2019: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “The Lunchroom Murder”

It’s Friday again, so again it’s time for the Weekly Text at Mark’s Text Terminal.

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “The Lunchroom Murder.” This Cultural Literacy worksheet on “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”, the first line of Shakespeare’s 18th sonnet. Direct from the pages of the first Crime and Puzzlement book, here are the illustration and list of questions that drive this lesson. Finally, you’ll need the answer key to solve this mystery.

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.

H.H. Richardson

One of the great pleasures of the last eight months I’ve passed in Springfield, Massachusetts, has been my walks along Mattoon Street. It was on my way to work and back, so it was rare that I didn’t pass along the block at least once a day. Springfield has wisely and carefully preserved the general area in which this residential street is located, the Quadrangle-Mattoon Street Historic District. The neighborhood is a gem in an otherwise–I use this word advisedly, and only because I’ve seen it in the local press, and indeed, even used by the City of Springfield itself, enough to take my own liberties with it–blighted city.

Earlier this year I learned a couple of things about the North Congregational Church on Mattoon Street. First, it was one of the earliest designs of the storied American architect H.H. Richardson, that it is rendered in his characteristic style, Richardson Romanesque, and contains Tiffany windows. Second, I learned that this amazing piece of United States history is actually for sale for an asking price of $600,000.

As this reading on H.H. Richardson explains, he remains one of the most important and influential architects ever to work in the United States. Here, if these materials are of any interest to your students, is the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that attends this short reading.

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.

Coney Island

An email from the NYCDOE this morning aroused my thoughts and feelings about New York City, and possibly returning there to teach. Here is a reading on Coney Island, one of my favorite places in Brooklyn, and its attendant vocabulary building and comprehension worksheet.

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.

Independent Practice: John Calvin

It’s a cool and overcast Thursday morning in southeastern Vermont. with thunderstorms in the forecast.

Here is an independent practice worksheet on John Calvin. It might pair (as they say in the hipper bistros) well with any of the context clues worksheets posted below on the words zeal, zealot, or zealous, if zeal is a concept you need students to understand. Calvin was, after all, a textbook zealot.

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.