Tag Archives: readings/research

A Lesson Plan on the Roman Empire

This lesson plan on the Roman Empire, as above and below, is the fifth part of a ten-lesson unit on ancient Rome.

This context clues worksheet on the noun patriarch opens this lesson, and here is another on the adjective supreme for this lesson’s second day, should you choose to take it beyond one day of instruction, which I basically recommend. The primary work of this guided-reading lesson (as all ten of them are, incidentally) is this worksheet with its  reading and comprehension questions.

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 Roman Religion

OK, let’s move along to this lesson plan on Roman religion, part four of a ten-lesson unit, as above and below, on ancient Rome and its role in shaping, and therefore shaping our understanding of, the world in which we live today.

This lesson opens with this context clues worksheet on the noun justice; here is another worksheet on the noun magistrate to complement the first, as the lesson continues into a second day. Finally, here is the worksheet with reading and comprehension questions that is at the center 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.

A Lesson Plan on the Roman Republic

Continuing with the current set of posts, here is a lesson plan on the Roman Republic. As above and below, this is the third lesson of ten in a unit on Rome.

This lesson opens with this context clues worksheet on patrician as a noun and an adjective; in the event the lesson goes into a second day (I think, again as above and below, I designed all these lessons to last across two days so that I could use the time to assess students’ working and long-term memory), here’s another on the adjective plebeian. Both of these worksheets, needless to say, introduce students to a couple of words that are both germane to the study of ancient Rome, as well remaining in general usage in educated discourses.

And here is the worksheet with its readings and comprehension questions that is the primary 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.

A Lesson Plan on Rome in History and Geography

Here is the second lesson plan on Rome in history and geography, as above and below, of a ten-lesson unit on Rome. I opened this lesson with this context clues worksheet on the adjective byzantine, with a small b, which means, “of, relating to, or characterized by a devious and usually surreptitious manner of operation” and “intricately involved.” Should the lesson continue over two days (if I remember correctly, and I’m fairly certain I do, I intended this lesson to take two days to complete), then here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the proverb (which comes to us, apparently, from Saint Augustine), “When in Rome, Do as the Romans Do.”

And here is the reading with comprehension questions that is the primary 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.

A Lesson Plan on the Founding Myth of Rome

This post begins, continuing for ten documents posts above (for a total of twenty posts including the interstitial quotes between each lesson), a ten-lesson unit on ancient Rome. Because the history of Rome offers so many opportunities to teach basic concepts in social studies, I dedicated an entire unit to it. I wanted students, when coming away from these ten lessons, to understand that when we talk about “the West” or “Western Civilization,” we are by and large talking about the world the Romans created.

So, this unit kicks off with this lesson plan on the founding myth of Rome, which is to say that this is a lesson about Romulus and Remus. I start this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “All Roads Lead to Rome.” Here is one more on another idiom based in Roman history, “Rubicon” as in “Crossing the Rubicon.” Finally, here is the reading on Romulus and Remus with a series of comprehension questions.

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.

The Weekly Text, July 31, 2020: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Watch Out”

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Watch Out!” I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Shakespeare’s famous line, from The Merchant of Venice, that “The quality of mercy is not strain’d.”

To conduct your investigation, you’ll need the PDF of the illustration and questions that constitute the evidence of the crime. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key so that you can solve the 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.

Hard-Edge Painting

“Hard-Edge Painting: A term used by critic Jules Langsner in 1959 in speaking of paintings executed in broad, flat areas of color delineated by precise, sharp edges. It developed as a reaction to the spontaneous and painterly handling typical of abstract expressionism. Explored by Ellsworth Kelly, Ad Reinhardt, and Alexander Liberman, among others.”

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

A Lesson Plan on the Highest Mountains on Earth from The Order of Things

Here’s another lesson from The Order of Things, this one on the highest mountains in the world. You’ll need the reading list with analytical and comprehension questions to complete this short 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.

Rocky Marciano

This reading on Rocky Marciano and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet were of high interest to number of my students over the years.

Do you have students who are interested in the sweet science?

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.

Cato the Elder with a Pithy Statement for Our Time

“I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one.”

Cato the Elder, Quoted in Plutarch, Parallel Lives

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.