Tag Archives: questioning/inquiry

Archie Bunker

Posted on August 15, 2022 | Leave a comment

He came up in conversation with a couple of friends after an evening at Jazzmobile in Harlem the other night, so here is a reading on Archie Bunker along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I remember All in the Family when it was in broadcast–I was 11 when it started its run; I was not, alas, old enough to understand, let alone appreciate, the bitter irony of the superb writing and acting. I hadn’t realized the show ran until 1979. I stopped watching television in 1975. preferring to run the streets of Madison, Wisconsin with my friends in search of the sort of kicks that Archie Bunker would have frowned upon.

Now is a good time to congratulate All in the Family’s legendary producer, Norman Lear, on his centenary birthday. He turned 100 on July 27 of this 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.

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Stephen Hawking

Posted on August 12, 2022 | Leave a comment

I don’t know how germane they are to the high school curriculum in general (I prepared these documents for two students several years ago, and haven’t used them since), but here are a reading on Stephen Hawking along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Professor Hawking has always been in my mind something in the line of Nietzsche’s ubermensch, especially in that terms expectation of self-overcoming.

In any case though, a certain kind of student (e.g. the two for whom I developed this material) finds Stephen Hawking, appropriately enough, a fascinating figure. This material is for that student.

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: Battle of Britain

Posted on August 12, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Battle of Britain. This is a half-page document with a reading of three relatively involved compound sentences and three comprehension questions. It explains the Battle well, and so is a good general introduction to this epochal event in World War II.

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 Weekly Text, 12 August 2022: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “The Gentle Breezes”

Posted on August 12, 2022 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “The Gentle Breezes.” I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on motif; it’s a half-pager with a three-sentence reading and three comprehension questions in what looks to me like a nice symmetry. To investigate the wrongdoing in this case, you will need this PDF of the illustration and questions that serve as evidence of the crime. Finally, to apprehend and charge a suspect, you and your students will need this typescript of the answer key.

And that’s it for another week. I hope yours was pleasant and fulfilling.

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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Isaac Newton

Posted on August 3, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on Isaac Newton with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This is a solid introduction to Newton; I have used it as a prelude to framing the Enlightenment in global studies classes in New York City. Otherwise, editorially, I assume I need not belabor the importance of Isaac Newton in the history of the world, let alone the intellectual history of Western Europe.

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: Bastille

Posted on August 3, 2022 | Leave a comment

It may be too brief, but if you can use it, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Bastille. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences, one a longish compound separated by a semicolon, and three comprehension questions. Despite (or may because of) its brevity, it is a good general introduction to this hated edifice. It might therefore be a useful tool in introducing the French Revolution.

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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Guy Fawkes

Posted on July 29, 2022 | Leave a comment

OK, here is a reading on Guy Fawkes along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Chances are good, especially in the high school population, that students have heard of Fawkes through the graphic novel V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, the book’s filmed version, or the ubiquitous Guy Fawkes masks that show up at various protest rallies.

In any case, Guy Fawkes remains of sufficient importance–if only as a bogeyman–in British history that the Brits observe Guy Fawkes Night to commemorate the Gunpowder Plot in which Fawkes was intimately involved.

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: Balkan Peninsula

Posted on July 29, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Balkan Peninsula. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three compound sentences and three comprehension questions. Nota bene, please, that the compounds in these sentences contain lists of geographical particularities and the many nations and nationalities that crowd this relatively small piece of real estate. If you’re looking for something to begin a lesson on this region–particularly just about anything on World War I, empires, colonialism, or the horrorshow that ensued in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union–this short worksheet might be a good place to start.

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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Euclid

Posted on July 22, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on Euclid along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This is, as so many of the readings from the Intellectual Devotional series tend to be, a nice one-page conspectus on the author of The Elements, and the influences that led to the creation of this, essentially the world’s first first geometry textbook–which is, unsurprisingly, available across the internet in a variety of PDFs. The first one that pops up (under that hyperlink) is from a physicist named Richard Fitzpatrick at the University of Texas; it’s free of advertising clutter and, to the extent of my limited knowledge of the subject, well organized.

Also, in researching this post, I learned that the first of the five volumes in the Intellectual Devotional series is available as a free e-book under that hyperlink (at least at the time of this post’s publication), should you be interested.

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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Pragmatism

Posted on July 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on pragmatism and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I don’t imagine there will be a lot of demand for these documents; I wrote them for one student about 15 years ago. Preparing them for this post was the first time I’ve looked at them since then.

It’s probably worth mentioning that pragmatism is form of philosophy born in the United States. Its parents, Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), William James (1842-1910), and John Dewey (1859-1952), are given first-class treatment in Louis Menand’s book on them and their philosophy, The Metaphysical Club (2001).

Aside: last summer, I spent some time interviewing for jobs in Albany, New York and environs, known as the Capital District or the Capital Region; I saw signs directing me to the village of Menands, seven miles north of Albany. As someone interested in place names and their origins, I assumed that the town was named for Louis Menand’s family. As it turns out, Louis Menand’s great-grandfather, also named Louis Menand, and himself an important 19th-century horticulturist, first arrived in the Village in 1842. So yes, once again, an old American family’s name becomes a place name, as so many have–think of the Astors: If you happen to live in New York City, their name is all over the place.

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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