Tag Archives: readings/research

Separation of Church and State

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.

X-Rays

Years ago, when I worked in a school that had a cooperative career and technical education (CTE) program, I served students either in such a program or on their way to one. I developed this reading on x-rays and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet for students interested in becoming x-ray technicians.

Then I never used it. For one thing, it is highly technical with a lot of relatively advanced scientific vocabulary. As the years went by the CTE program slipped away, and any modifications I might have performed to make this material more readable while making it more comprehensive went with the program.

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.

Socrates

Here is a reading on Socrates, history’s first teacher, and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet: this is a core reading in all four of the common branch subjects, and a way of thinking about teaching and learning, for students’ and teachers’ edification.

Incidentally, if you’ve been hanging with William “Bill” S. Preston, Esq. and Ted “Theodore” Logan, as it was my mild misfortune to do over the Labor Day weekend, this Greek philosopher’s name is not pronounced “So-Crates” but rather sock-ruh-tease. Just sayin’.

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.

Bunkum (n)

It’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, and it is, I think you’ll agree, a strong abstract noun for our time. Therefore, I wrote this context clues worksheet on the noun bunkum. It means “insincere or foolish talk” and “nonsense.” The context clues I provided are relatively solid, if a bit trite.

This word was a favorite of legendary iconoclastic newspaperman H.L. Mencken; indeed, a posthumous collection of Mencken’s is titled A Carnival of Buncombe. That spelling of the word, incidentally, indicates its etymology, which is a circuitous tale involving Buncombe County, North Carolina, and Felix Walker, the United States Representative who served the district from 1816 to 1822.

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.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A notorious horror movie (1974), written by Kim Henkel and Tobe Hooper, in which a family of chainsaw-wielding unemployed slaughterhouse workers terrorize a Texas community, desecrating the local cemetery and decorating their house with human and animal remains. The title proclaimed the film’s horror credentials, although it contains few scenes with much gore. It was loosely based on upon the atrocities committed in real life by deranged Wisconsin farmer Ed Gein, whose bloodthirsty activities also influenced Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.”

Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.

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

OK, moving along on a warm afternoon, here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Picnic.”

I open this lesson, to get kids settled after the class change, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the proverb “All’s Fair in Love and War.” You’ll need this PDF of the illustration, reading, and questions to conduct your investigation. Finally, to bring your suspect to justice, here is the typescript of the answer key for this case.

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.

Boston Tea Party

Slowly but surely I am figuring out the new Block Editor on WordPress. So, let me try to add this reading on the Boston Tea Party and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. I imagine these materials will find a home someplace in a United States history course. 

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 the Order of Tooth Arrival and Growth from The Order of Things

From Barbara Ann Kipfer’s The Order of Things, here is a lesson plan on the arrival and growth of teeth. You’ll need the reading with comprehension questions to complete this short reading and writing exercise, which, like all 50 of these lessons that I will eventually post here, is intended to help struggling learners experience mastery and therefore build self-confidence and competence in school.

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.

Soft Sculpture

“Soft Sculpture: Sculpture made of pliable and sometimes impermanent materials, such as latex, vinyl, feathers, rope and string, hair, etc. Seen since the early 1960s, soft sculpture defies the tradition of hard and permanent material as the only suitable medium for sculpture. Artists from various movements, including Arte Povera, Pop Art, and Surrealism, have experimented with soft sculpture.”

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

Slinky

For the bulk of my teaching career thus far, I worked at a economics-and-finance-themed high school in Lower Manhattan. Students, naturally, sat for a required course in entrepreneurship. One of the expectations of that class was that students would come up with an idea for a business, then draft a business plan. The teachers for this course were excellent. One student won a national competition and was honored with a visit to President Obama in the Oval Office.

Many of the students I served struggled with beginning their work for this course. I wrote up this reading on the Slinky, a favorite childhood toy of people of a certain age, and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I wanted students to understand that sometimes inventors, innovators, and entrepreneurs stumble into ideas, and that students could pretty easily do the same–but they should not miss the opportunities of this kind of stumbling presents–often unclearly.

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.