Tag Archives: questioning/inquiry

The Weekly Text, October 16, 2020: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Blot It Out”

It’s Friday again. I don’t know about you, but I am experiencing time in some very strange ways during this pandemic. Anyway, Hispanic Heritage Month 2020 has come and gone.

So, this week’s text is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Blot It Out.” I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the phrase “Art for Art’s Sake” (incidentally, when you watch movies, new or old, produced at the Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) studio, you’ll see the Latin phrase “Ars Gratia Artis” above the roaring lion’s head as the film begins to roll, well, you can now explain that phrase to students and children). You’ll need this scan of the illustration and questions in order to conduct your investigation. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key so that you can make allegations and bring your suspect to the bar of justice.

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 Federalist Papers

Last but not least today, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on The Federalist Papers. This is only the merest introduction to these foundational documents to our republic, but sometimes that’s what a teacher needs. If so, help yourself.

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.

Charles Manson

Charles Manson’s death in late 2017 prompted a flurry of questions from the students I was serving at the time. As I do whenever students demonstrate an interest in something, I worked up some new materials, to wit, this reading on Charles Manson and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

And while I’m neither proud of or happy with the fact, these documents quickly became high-interest materials in my classroom. Ergo, they appear here. Did I mention I’m not exactly happy about students’ interest in this monster?

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.

A Lesson Plan on Data Storage from The Order of Things

As you get older, you take it for granted, but it’s still fun to experience synchrony. A friend of mine and I land on synchrony quite often while texting–often using the same words simultaneously. In this case, the same day I interviewed with some very nice, clearly talented, unusually engaged and deeply committed folks at a computer-themed career and technical education high school in the North Bronx, I pulled out this lesson plan on data storage, adapted from text I grabbed from Barbara Ann Kipfer’s The Order of Things. I expect this would work well at a school such as theirs. I hope they find their way to it.

For your students, here is the list as reading and comprehension questions, which is the work of this lesson.

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.

Mendelian Genetics

In general, I don’t teach science. But I’ve spent sufficient time in the company of the discipline, especially that middle-school and high-school level, that I know this reading on Mendelian genetics and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet are the foundations of a broader inquiry into genetics.

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: Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Because a our legislative branch is interviewing a candidate for a job on the United States Supreme Court, now seems like a good time to publish this Cultural Literacy worksheet on cruel and unusual punishment, more specifically the fact that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution forbids it.

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.

Gay Rights

Again, and as below, hearings on Amy Coney Barrett’s elevation to the United States Supreme Court are in session as I write this. Judge Barrett’s presence on the high court could be consequential indeed, especially for the LGBTQ community.

So you’ll understand why I think now is a good moment to post this reading on Gay Rights along with its accompanying 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.

Cultural Literacy: Ex Post Facto

Alright, moving right along on this rainy day, during which the very consequential confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court of the United States are underway, it seems like a perfect time to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Latinism ex post facto.

The worksheet introduces the term–it means, just as it sounds, “after the fact”–but then quickly moves on to its conceptual meaning in law. An ex post facto law, as the worksheet explains to its readers, “makes illegal an act that was legal when it was committed, or changes the rules of evidence to make conviction easier.” The United States Constitution forbids the making of ex post facto laws.

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.

Jet Travel

National Public Radio ran a story this morning on airlines–among them Qantas and Royal Brunei–are offering “Flights to Nowhere.” People suffering travel withdrawal can board a plane and fly…back to the airport where they started!

I can’t pretend to understand anyone’s desire to do something like that, but at the same time, to each his or her own. In any case, I found this reading on jet travel and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet in the warehouse. You can see why I post it now.

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: Class Structure

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on class structure to complement another post, seven below this, on class consciousness. My guess? This stuff wouldn’t fly in most schools and school districts. We Americans actually believe all the nonsense we tell ourselves about opportunity and the American meritocracy; we fancy ourselves above or immune to class distinctions.

I have bad news: we’re not. I think poor kids have a right to know that, and I think teachers have a moral and intellectual obligation to help students understand the way the edifice of class circumscribes students’ lives.

Just sayin,.

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.