Tag Archives: questioning/inquiry

Mendelian Genetics

Posted on October 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

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.

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Cultural Literacy: Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Posted on October 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

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.

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Gay Rights

Posted on October 13, 2020 | Leave a comment

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.

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Cultural Literacy: Ex Post Facto

Posted on October 13, 2020 | Leave a comment

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.

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Jet Travel

Posted on October 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

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.

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Cultural Literacy: Class Structure

Posted on October 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

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.

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The Weekly Text, October 9, 2020, Hispanic Heritage Month 2020 Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Emiliano Zapata

Posted on October 9, 2020 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text, in the ongoing observation of Hispanic Heritage Month 2020, is a reading on Emiliano Zapata along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Any study of the history of Mexico, United States policy there or elsewhere, or revolutionary movements across the world probably ought to include something on this patriot and revolutionary.

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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Junk Sculpture

Posted on October 9, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Junk Sculpture: With Dada roots in the collages of Kurt Schwitters, which were created from trash collected from the streets, junk sculpture first appeared in the United States in the 1950s works of John Chamberlain and Robert Rauschenberg. It is a type of assemblage sculpture in which the sculptor uses materials cast off by modern urban culture and reassembles them with little or no comment. Junk sculpture has affinities to Arte Povera in Italy and similar movements in other European countries where it took on more nostalgic tones.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Cultural Literacy: Class Consciousness

Posted on October 9, 2020 | Leave a comment

It’s not something we talk about in school, because it offends people’s perception of our exceptional, egalitarian society in the United States. Of course that is nonsense: social class divisions, with unequal access to basic resources and economic privileges, has long been a part of American social life.

This Cultural Literacy worksheet on class consciousness is actually a good introduction to the idea of social class as well as, obviously, consciousness of one’s own social class.

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: The Birth of a Nation

Posted on October 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on The Birth of a Nation, the infamous 1915 film by D.W. Griffith. I think now is a good time for students to learn about this piece of racist propaganda.

There, I got that out on the page. I’ve been walking around this document, metaphorically speaking, for months. In fact, I have a good deal of material about this film–and know more about it than I care to admit. Suffice to say this: this film innovated production techniques and really represents the birth of the long-form, narrative cinema we take for granted today. Even the Marxist auteur Sergei Eisenstein admired D.W. Griffith’s advances in technique while deploring the racism of The Birth of a Nation.

Generally, this film in its “artistic” and commercial dimensions offers a lot of grist for the critical mill. I am still working up to posting more material about this hot-button issue. For now, this short exercise will have to suffice.

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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