Tag Archives: questioning/inquiry

Cultural Literacy: Allies

Posted on September 17, 2020 | Leave a comment

Given the rise of tyranny around the world, and given the dismal state of United States’ foreign policy, I think now is the time to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Allies in both World War I (opposed, in that conflict, to the Central Powers that arose in turn out of the Triple Alliance in Europe) and World War II (opposed, in that global war, to the Axis powers).

This might make a handy learning support for students with less than adequate funds of memory. Questions about the members of alliances are the kinds things that pop up on standardized tests. In any case, you might find these two context clues worksheets on ally as a noun and a verb complements the Cultural Literacy document above.

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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Two Independent Research Projects on the Bloods and the Crips

Posted on September 16, 2020 | Leave a comment

Some time ago, I put up a series of independent research assignments I’d developed for students whom I sought to reach with differentiated instruction. This work had everything to do with motivating students by supplying them with high interest material. All of these documents represent my first efforts at developing differentiating instruction for as many students as possible.

However, I held back two from that original release of documents, to wit this independent research assignment on the Bloods as well as this one on the Crips. I can’t remember now why I didn’t throw them up with the rest, and that leads me to believe I had some misguided notions of propriety. So, let me say that one of the things that animated the development of these documents was the 2008 Independent Lens documentary Crips and Bloods: Made in America. The film does an excellent job of tracing the history of the Crips and the Bloods, explaining along the way the complex sociological and economic forces that move young men to join gangs.

These assignments are structured to follow closely the Wikipedia articles about the Bloods and about the Crips.

Another thing that moved the creation of these documents was the fact that I was working with some students who were themselves either considering joining either the Crips or the Bloods, were already involved, or had family members involved in either group. In any case, if one lives or works (or both) in a tough neighborhood in one of New York City’s Five Boroughs, there is a good chance one sees members of the Crips or Bloods operating daily in one’s neighborhood.

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: Colonialism

Posted on September 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

Today begins National Hispanic Heritage Month 2020. For the next four Fridays, for The Weekly Text, Mark’s Text Terminal will observe the month by posting readings and comprehension worksheets related to the history of LatinX people in the United States and Elsewhere.

Here is Cultural Literacy worksheet on colonialism to start off the month. As I said to an interview committee the other day, we live in a pregnant moment that can, with (if you’ll allow me to play out this metaphor ad nauseum) proper prenatal care, yield real social change. If we are going to talk seriously about the injustices visited on non-white people the world over, we need to discuss colonialism seriously. In just about every respect, we are all dealing with the legacy of colonialism–and the time has come–now–to reckon with it. We neglect to do so at our intellectual and moral peril.

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 Lesson Plan on the Big Bang Sequence from The Order of Things

Posted on September 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

OK, folks, there is a lot of traffic on Mark’s Text Terminal today (which is cool!), so I’ll publish one more post before moving on to other things for the afternoon. From Barbara Anne Kipfer’s fascinating book (to me, anyway), The Order of Things, here is a lesson plan on the Big Bang sequence along with its reading and comprehension worksheet.

This is a relatively short exercise. However, like just about everything here, these are Microsoft Word documents, so you may manipulate them for your students’ needs.

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 Monkees

Posted on September 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

Are you old enough to remember when The Monkees television show was broadcast between 1966 and 1968? I saw it in those years, and if memory serves it was one of the last things up in the Saturday-morning cartoon lineup (though I think this was a rebroadcast and the show debuted in primetime), right before The Jetsons. By Christmas of 1967, I had my own copy of The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour, which only confirmed my tender-aged skepticism of the The Monkees as both thespians and musicians.

Here is a reading on The Monkees along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I haven’t tagged this as high-interest material, because I’m not sure it is–but it might be, depending on the student who receives it. There is a fair amount of conceptual inquiry implicit in the story of The Monkees, including the difference between commerce and art, the continuum between the popular and the rarefied in the arts, as well as the coarse and the fine in culture.

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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Donald Trump

Posted on September 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

While I know I harp on this far too often, I want to remind users of this blog that it is not political in nature. 

Also, I understand that there has been no deficit of reporting on President Donald Trump. That said, when I read this article on Donald Trump (here’s the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it) in David S. Kidder and Noah Oppenheim’s. The Intellectual Devotional Modern Culture: Converse Confidently about Society and the Arts (Emmaus PA: Modern Times, 2008), from which I have developed a large number of readings and worksheets, I decided to work it up because of its historical interest. Nota bene the publication date, which is not before Mr. Trump first indicated an interest in running for president–that was 1999, as the article reports–but well before he ran. The article takes a bemused tone as it characterizes Trump, essentially, as a clown and a product of celebrity culture.

It also contains some information about Trump’s assets and his management of them that may well turn out, in the very near future, to be false. The Trump Organization returned from the edge of collapse, in the 1990s, it is clear, by taking in money from some dubious figures. Moreover, at least one of its lenders flagged some of his (as well as his those of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner) transactions as suspicious. This article argues that Trump emerged from his various bankruptcies by dint of his own genius. It has become increasingly difficult, under the circumstances, to believe that.

All of this is under investigation by both the Southern District of New York and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. So this reading may turn out to be an interesting avenue for historical inquiry concerning the Trump presidency. He kept his own mythology alive for far longer than the facts supported it. The question for students is this: how did Trump accomplish that? How are the news and entertainment media in particular and our culture in general culpable in this man’s lies?

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: Power Elite

Posted on September 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

If comes to us from the sociologist C. Wright Mills, and if there is a better time to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of the power elite, and to develop and inculcate a critical awareness of the power elite, I don’t know when that would be–although I could say that about so many moments in my own lifetime.

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, September 11, 2020: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Piggy Bank”

Posted on September 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

Because they’ve been a popular item on this site, I’ve engaged in idle speculation about the social and educational characteristics of the users of the many Crime and Puzzlement lessons I’ve posted here. I must assume these are particularly useful for homebound, younger kids and their parents.

In any case, here is another, a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Piggy Bank.”

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “beyond the pale.” To investigate this case, you’ll need the PDF of the illustration, reading, and questions. To make sure you bring the accused to the bar of justice, here is the typescript of the answer key.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text

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Separation of Church and State

Posted on September 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

While I don’t imagine I need to go on at length about it, I do hope this reading on the separation of church and state and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet serve as a gentle reminder of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is meant as a bulwark against theocracy.

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: Epidemic

Posted on September 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

The other day, I set aside a group of Cultural Literacy worksheets that I think are timely, and arguably ought to be in front of students–or at least something like them that present important concepts that might inform thinking about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in this difficult time.

Ergo, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of an epidemic. And that’s 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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