Tag Archives: questioning/inquiry

Independent Practice Worksheet: Peter the Great

Here is an independent practice worksheet on Peter the Great that I use in sophomore global studies classes. It’s a short reading with a few comprehension questions. Make sure to use it on days when you’re studying Russian history.

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: Rembrandt

A couple of days ago, on June 15th, Rembrandt’s birthday passed while I was away from my computer. Since the day gave me an opportunity to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Rembrandt, I observe it now both retrospectively and retroactively.

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 Internet

Here is a reading on the birth and growth of the Internet with a comprehension worksheet to accompany it. For the right student, I suspect, this will be some relatively high interest material. In fact, it might work well with this material on the ARPAnet, which was the precursor to Internet we all use today.

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.

The Weekly Text, July 13, 2018: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Boudoir”

This week’s Text is a lesson plan, one of many, that I worked up to use with Lawrence Treat’s series of kid’s books, Crime and Puzzlement. I came across these materials in two books last year, to wit George Hillocks Jr.’s  otherwise unremarkable Teaching Argument Writing Grades 6-12: Supporting Claims with Relevant Evidence and Clear Reasoning (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2017), but also in two separate papers contained in Keith J. Holyoak and Robert G. Morrison’s (eds.) The Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005). All three of these texts extolled the Crime and Puzzlement books as exemplary instructional material for teaching students to assess, analyze, and synthesize evidence in support of an argument and contention.

I ordered the first volume, broke it up and scanned texts for several of the “cases,” and tried them out in my classroom. My freshman English students jumped right into these, and clearly enjoyed them. So I knew I had to build a unit to rationalize the use of this material in my classroom.

Now, about four months later, that unit is nearing completion, and I have 72 lessons in the unit. This week’s Text offers you the first lesson plan in the Crime and Puzzlement Unit Plan. To teach this lesson, you’ll need this worksheet on the case entitled Boudoir. To “solve” the “case,” you’ll need the answer key. Depending on how you begin your class period and its duration, you may want to start the lesson with a do-now exercise, which for this lesson is this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Marie Antoinette’s probably apocryphal statement “Let them eat cake.”

Unfortunately, the Crime and Puzzlement books (there are three in total) appear to remain in copyright, so I don’t think I can ethically or legally post many of these lesson plans. If you choose to contrive your own material based on these books, I can post the unit plan (it’s not quite ready as of this writing) for you; it will contain the standards met, a lengthy, discursive justification for using these methods and materials, and other supporting documentation.

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.

Ibn Rushd

Here is a reading on Ibn Rushd, also known as Averroes: he was a Muslim philosopher who commented extensively on Aristotle. He is prominently featured in Raphael’s famous painting The School of Athens. This reading comprehension worksheet accompanies the reading.

See above for related materials.

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: The Dreyfus Affair

Last year, for the first time, I taught sophomore global studies in an integrated co-teaching (ICT) classroom here in New York City. This cycle of social studies instruction covers the period, roughly, from the beginning of the Enlightenment to the present day. In this maelstrom, I found it a bit odd that the curriculum didn’t at least touch on The Dreyfus Affair, if for no other reason its role as a precursor to the anti-Semitic horrors of the twentieth century.

Superficial though it may be, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Dreyfus Affair. It is a modest attempt to rectify what I consider to be a significant gap in the New York State sophomore global studies curriculum.

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.

Beginnings of the Civil War

If you teach United States History, than you might find useful this reading on the beginnings of the Civil War as well as the reading comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. It serves any number of purposes which will be contingent, ideally, on the student to whom it is assigned.

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

The Algonquin Wits: Heywood Broun Completes a Questionnaire

“One morning, finding a self-analysis questionnaire on his desk, Broun included some of the questions in that day’s column:

What is my occupation? Newspaperman.’

‘Am I making a success of it? There seems to be a decided difference of opinion.’

What is my character and reputation? Unreliable and charming.’

What do other men think of me? Unreliable.’

What do I think of myself? Charming.’

Am I cleanly? Very much so in the summer.’

‘Punctual? No.’

Courteous? To a fault.

Have I any object in life? Yes, I want to be a writer.’

‘Am I on my way? Not precipitately.'”

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.

Babe Ruth

Here is a reading on Babe Ruth and the comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. Not much to say about this other than it tends to be high-interest material.

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: Fractal

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on fractals for math teachers and students alike.

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.