Tag Archives: questioning/inquiry

Cultural Literacy: The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882

Posted on May 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

Today begins Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2019. Mark’s Text Terminal, as it did last year, will feature posts on topics related to this theme for the entire month of May.

Now that xenophobia and bigotry have returned to a rolling boil in the United States, it’s worth remembering that, as ugly as all this is, the grotesqueries of nativism are hardly a new phenomenon in this country. So let’s start the month with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 to remind us of the ignominious places we’ve traveled as a nation.

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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Independent Practice: Ivan the Terrible

Posted on April 30, 2019 | Leave a comment

As I work to clear off my desktop for the start of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2019, which begins tomorrow, here is an independent practice worksheet on Ivan the Terrible. And since parts of Russia are geographically in Asia, this is a perfect place to conclude this morning’s publishing orgy.

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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Robert De Niro

Posted on April 30, 2019 | Leave a comment

Moving right along, I’ll close out this morning’s publication schedule with this short reading on Robert De Niro and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

This has been, to my surprise, high interest material for several groups of kids I’ve served over the years. Then again, on some level, De Niro is definitely a tough guy, a “gangsta,” as the young men I work with like to say.

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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A DBQ on Ancient Egypt

Posted on April 30, 2019 | Leave a comment

How the “document-based question” came by its unwieldy bureaucratic designation mystified me in the years I worked in New York City schools. Known to teachers by its initialism, “DBQ,” it always seemed to me to describe a cornerstone of any humanities curriculum. Indeed, much of what we asked students to do in history and English classes at the secondary level is to read and interpret a variety of documents.

In any case, in order to appease administrators, I developed a couple of social studies”DBQ” units that called upon students to read and interpret primary and key secondary documents. This worksheet on ancient Egypt endeavors to school kids in this practice. If you need or want it, here is the teacher’s copy of the same document.

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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Cultural Literacy: Dead Languages

Posted on April 30, 2019 | Leave a comment

Once upon a time I possessed sufficient ignorance and moral certainty to rail against “dead languages,” to wit Greek and Latin, and their valorization for their part in the “Western Canon.” On some level, I still think valorization of the “Western Canon” is mistaken, but so do I think that about the idea of “dead languages.” My own comments on dead languages ended when I discovered, to my surprise and chagrin, that Greek and Latin are very much alive in the roots of the English language.

Anyway, if you’d like your students to understand this, perhaps this Cultural Literacy worksheet on dead languages will help.

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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Trepanation

Posted on April 29, 2019 | Leave a comment

Unless I miss my guess, this reading on trepanation, the practice of brain surgery in the Incan Empire, ought to be of high interest to a fairly wide band of students. Here is 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.

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The Weekly Text, April 26, 2019: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Vaccines

Posted on April 26, 2019 | Leave a comment

Earlier in the week, I had begun work on this Text with the idea of posting a complete lesson plan of some kind. However, as the news of a national measles outbreak in the United States, I changed my mind.

Because I can think of no better time than now to post this reading on vaccines 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.

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Cultural Literacy: Curiosity Killed the Cat

Posted on April 25, 2019 | Leave a comment

Finally, on this cool but rosy Thursday morning, here is a Culture Literacy worksheet on the idiom “curiosity killed the cat.” The expression remains current in American English and therefore its discourse, and is probably something students ought to know.

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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Independent Practice: Clovis

Posted on April 25, 2019 | Leave a comment

At one point, Clovis had a role to play in the freshman global studies courses I co-taught in New York City; then he disappeared. He represents a number of key elements of early European history, not the least of which is the spread of Christianity into “barbarian” kingdoms.

In any case, I doubt this independent practice worksheet on Clovis has great utility in New York any longer. But perhaps someone, somewhere, might have a student keen to know more about this transitional figure. I’ve had more surprising and unusual requests for reading material than this.

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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The Clash

Posted on April 25, 2019 | Leave a comment

A couple of hundred years ago, when I was in my late teens and early twenties, The Clash liked to call themselves “the only band that matters“: indeed, it was emblazoned across the front of their towering record “London Calling.” Last week while on spring break, I listened to a podcast series on The Clash, hosted by Chuck D of pioneering Hip-Hop group Public Enemy (an inspired choice, by the way) on the streaming music service to which I subscribe. It brought back great memories of a very different time in this world of ours.

Here is a reading on The Clash and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. When I’ve given this to alienated students to read, it has aroused, almost to a one, their interest. Whatever you think of punk rock and The Clash, there is no doubt that their music carries a message of rebellion and its concomitant, hope and action to create a better, more just world.

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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