Tag Archives: questioning/inquiry

The Weekly Text, 6 August 2021: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Gambol”

Posted on August 6, 2021 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Gambol.” To open this lesson I use this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Latinism carpe diem (“seize the day”). This is a half-page worksheet with a two-sentence reading and three questions.

To conduct your investigation into this crime, you’ll need this PDF of the illustration and questions that serve as the evidence of it. To bring the miscreant in this case to the bar of justice, you’ll need this typescript of the answer key.

Incidentally the first time I ever heard another person use the word gambol, it was the legendary Dummerston, Vermont farmer Dwight Miller, while tending one March afternoon to lambs recently born on his farm. Gambol, as a verb (used intransitively only) and a noun, mean, respectively, “to skip about in play” and “a skipping or leaping about in play.” If you’ve ever seen the way lambs move around when they’re excited, this word describes it. I wonder if a context clues worksheet on this word would serve better as a do-now exercise for this lesson.

Addendum, August 8, 2021: Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb gambol (as above) if you think it would make a better do-now for this lesson.

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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Cultural Literacy: Ethics

Posted on August 5, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on ethics. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences.

I wrote two questions for comprehension. It’s worth mentioning, I think, that the first question, “What is ethics?”, looks a bit awkward because of the disjunct between singular verb (is) and plural predicate noun (ethics). Needless to say, I am treating ethics as a singular noun because it is a single field of inquiry and study.

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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Fundamentalism

Posted on August 5, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on religious fundamentalism along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

This reading from The Intellectual Devotional Modern Culture focuses tightly on the origins of Christian fundamentalism in reaction to scientific developments in the nineteenth century and the growth and development of this theological trend across time. If I have noticed anything across the span of my life, it is the growth of fundamentalism across the globe and its religions. Moreover, there has been a tendency toward moral absolutism and certainty, and misplaced faith in things like financial markets, that has not, in my opinion, benefitted human civilization. What I mean to say, I suppose, is that these documents might be a good place to start a discussion with students about conformity and rebellion, orthodoxy and heterodoxy, and intellectual freedom and bondage.

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 Unabomber

Posted on August 3, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on the Unabomber along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

This is one of the better articles from the Intellectual Devotional series. The writer recites the facts of the case while keeping the whodunit angle front and center. I only developed these documents recently, so I’ve never used them in the classroom. Still, having used successfully many articles from these books, I think I can predict that this one will be of high interest to students, so I have tagged it as such.

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: Fiscal Policy

Posted on August 3, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on fiscal policy. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading comprising three long and fairly dense compound sentences, with three comprehension questions.

As I revised this document for posting, it occurred to me that it is probably inadequate to the task of assisting students in developing an understanding of fiscal policy. So this might be a seed document from which others could and probably should grow. Also, the reading might better serve English language learners and emergent readers if it were broken up, and two or three more comprehension questions added. As always, I would be very interested to hear what you have done with 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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A Learning Support on Writing the Interrogative Sentence

Posted on August 3, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a learning support on writing the interrogative sentence. This is something I assembled myself using a variety of sources; it’s lengthy–two full pages of text with a number of examples.

In my experience, students struggle to write interrogative sentences. This points to a much bigger problem (and perhaps a fundamental failing in our educational systems and pedagogy) that I seek on a daily basis to solve in my classroom: students don’t really know how to ask questions. Since all learning begins with a question, this troubles me greatly, which is why I worked assiduously to create a support that would answer all students’ questions about, well, asking questions. I know I ask for this at the bottom of every documents post, but I would be especially grateful to you for your comments on this document.

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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Luddites

Posted on August 2, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on the Luddites along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

The noun and adjective Luddite, as you surely know, is tossed around in American English, occasionally as a pejorative, to signify someone opposed to innovation and technological advances. I’ll hazard a guess that most people using this word aren’t aware of its origins in Ned Ludd, who destroyed a pair of stocking frames (an early technological advance in textile manufacturing) in 1779. The Luddites, who destroyed textile manufacturing equipment in England from 1811 to 1816 to protest the depredations of the Industrial Revolution, took him as their namesake. I’ve vastly simplified the story of the Luddites for this blog post, this reading is a good general introduction to the subject of the Luddites, and emphasizes how their name entered the political and social lexicon of our time.

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: Euthanasia

Posted on August 2, 2021 | Leave a comment

It’s not exactly the most pleasant topic, but here, nonetheless, is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on euthanasia. This is a half-page worksheet with a one sentence (a compound) reading with two questions.

One need look very carefully to see this is an obviously a word derived from ancient Greek (i.e. eu, “good, well,” than, “death,” etc.), so people have been thinking about this concept and act for a very long time. Nonetheless, this a high-school word, it seems to me, as it its verb form, euthanize.

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, 30 July 2021: A Lesson Plan on the Reflexive and Intensive Pronoun

Posted on July 30, 2021 | Leave a comment

This week’s text is a lesson plan on the reflexive and intensive pronouns–i.e. myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves–and their use in declarative sentences and expository prose.

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the bibliography and its function in scholarly writing. In the event the lesson goes into a second day due to whatever classroom exigencies you encounter, you might want to use this Everyday Edit worksheet on Miranda rights (“You have the right to remain silent…” etc.) that the United States Constitution guarantees people when they are arrested. (Incidentally if you like Everyday Edit worksheets, don’t forget that the good people at Education World offer a year’s supply of them at no charge.)

Here is a learning support on reflexive and intensive pronouns that I distribute with this scaffolded worksheet that is the primary work of this lesson. Finally, here is the teacher’s copy of the worksheet that eases delivery of this 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.

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Cultural Literacy: Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining

Posted on July 29, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the proverb “every cloud has a silver lining.” This is a half-page worksheet with the barest of reading, one simple sentence, and three questions.

Two of the questions (namely two and three) ask students to apply their understanding of this expression by identifying an instance in their own life in which a cloud had a silver lining–or, as the reading as it, “Every misfortune has its positive aspect.” Then students are asked to compose a simple declarative sentence that includes this proverb.

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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