Tag Archives: questioning/inquiry

Sesame Street

I just whipped up this reading on Sesame Street and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet if you can use them.

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 Attention Deficit Disorder

I’ve used this lesson plan on attention deficit disorder regularly over the years. While I cannot honestly tag it as high-interest material, I can say that it has helped kids gain some insight into why school seems so hard for them. Here are the short reading and vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that comprise the work for this lesson (and if you’d like slightly longer versions of these documents, you can click here).

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.

7 Seas

“North Atlantic * South Atlantic * Arctic * Antarctic * Indian Ocean * North Pacific * South Pacific

These vast oceans are the seven seas that we now list—however, the concept of the seven seas is ancient and also very variable. We know the Sumerians had a list (from a reference in the hymn of the Enheduanna) but not what was on it. By the time of the Phoenicians, there was a canonical list for the seven seas within the Mediterranean, upon which their black ships traded. Working west from their homeland, there was the Aegean, Ionian, and Adriatic, whilst west of Sicily stretched the Tyrrhenian, Ligurian, Balearic, and sea of Alboran (the straits of Gibraltar).

For a Muslim Arab trader the seven seas referred to that vital sinew of trade that took them east to the coast of China, beginning with the Persian Gulf, then the Gulf of Khambhat (Sind and Gujarat), Harkand (the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal), Kalah (the Malacca straits), Salahit (the straits of Singapore), Kardani (the waters of Siam) and Sanji (the South China sea). Medieval Christian traders, such as the Venetians and Genoese, made lists of seven that included the Adriatic, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Red Sea, Mediterranean, Arabian Gulf and Indian Ocean.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

Cultural Literacy: Zeitgeist

If there was ever a time for kids to learn this German noun, one of those abstractions that the Germans are good at contriving in compounds, it is now. To that end, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the word and concept zeitgeist.

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.

A Lesson Plan on Anxiety

Here’s a lesson plan on anxiety with its work, to wit this short reading and vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. If you’d like slightly longer versions of these documents, they are available here.

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.

Al Capone

Alright, let’s finish out the day with this high-interest reading on Al Capone and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. When I hand out my list of high-interest readings to students, this is one of the first things many of the boys choose.

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 Developmental Delay

Now that I’ve written it, I am having a hard time imagining where I will use this lesson plan on developmental delay. If you can use it, here are the short reading and vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that drive this lesson. If you’d like a slightly longer version (more vocabulary words, and three more questions) of these documents, you can find them here.

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: Aborigines

This Cultural Literacy worksheet on aborigines probably ought to be paired with context clues worksheet on the adjective aboriginal so that students understand that these words are not isolated to the First Nation people of Australia, where this word is commonly used, but refers to the first inhabitants of any nation–be it the United States or Russia, or what have you….

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Stradegy”

One way to introduce students to Antonio Stradivari and his prized musical instruments would be by way of this lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Stradegy.”

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “Hit Below the Belt.” Here is the PDF of the illustration and questions that drive the investigation. Finally, 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.

A Lesson Plan on Alcohol

Here’s a lesson plan on alcohol. This short reading and this vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet comprise the work for this unit. If you’d like a slightly longer, and therefore more in-depth, set of these documents, click here and you’ll get to them.

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.