Tag Archives: readings/research

A Lesson Plan on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

OK, wrapping up on a Wednesday afternoon, here is a lesson plan on obsessive-compulsive disorder. You’ll need this short reading and this vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet to teach this material. If you want slightly longer versions of the reading and worksheet, they’re under that hyperlink.

Nota bene that this has tended to be high-interest material among the students I’ve taught over the years, which is why I tagged it as such.

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.

Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

Go Tell It on the Mountain: The first novel (1953) of the black US writer James Baldwin (1924-1987). The book has autobiographical undertones, and the climax is the religious conversion of a 14-year-old Harlem boy. At the center of the book are the boy’s troubled relations with his stepfather, a preacher of the storefront Temple of the Fire Baptized. Aspects of the slave era and of life in a dysfunctional family are recounted in flashbacks. The phrase ‘Go Tell It on the Mountain’ appears in the refrain of an African-American spiritual:

‘Go, tell it on the mountain,

Over the hills and everywhere

Go, tell it on the mountain,

That Jesus Christ is born’”

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

Term of Art: Analysis

“Analysis: A detailed splitting up and examination of a work of literature. A close studies of the various elements and the relationship between them. An essential part of criticism. As T.S. Eliot put it, the tools of the critic are comparison analysis. Analytical criticism helps to make clear an author’s meaning and the structure of his work. It is argued that analysis spoils an intuitive and spontaneous response to a work of literature. Those in favor of “deep” analysis content that, on the contrary, it enhances the reader’s enjoyment.”

Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.

The Lumiere Brothers

Here is a reading on the Lumiere Brothers with the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it.

The Lumieres, as you may know, are pioneers of filmmaking technology and cinema. At my current posting I serve a couple of students highly interested in photography; yesterday I developed a series of research worksheets for learning about still photographers. In other words, there is more material related to photography forthcoming and Mark’s Text Terminal.

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.

Richard Wright, Metaphorically, on Seismic Cultural Shifts

“Who knows when some slight shock, disturbing the delicate balance between social order and thirsty aspiration, shall send the skyscrapers in our cities toppling.”

Richard Wright

Native Son, bk. 1 (1940)

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

Cultural Literacy: The Dred Scott Decision

Until 1954 (i.e. Brown v. Board of Education), the United States Supreme Court was a reliable upholder of white supremacy. This Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Dred Scott decision helps students understand the precedent behind this illogical jurisprudence. It’s worth remembering that this was the case in which Chief Justice Roger Taney made some particularly trashy, racist comments in his decision.

For God’s sake….

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 “Tread Lightly”

Since they are clearly popular, here is another  lesson plan from the pages of Crime and Puzzlement, this on on the case “Tread Lightly.”

I open this lesson on this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Josephine Baker–an exemplary American, by the way. The illustration and questions drive the lesson. Finally, here is the answer key to 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.

Karl Kraus on the Myth of the Enlightenment

“Progress celebrates Pyrrhic victories over nature and makes purses out of human skin.”

Karl Kraus

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

Romanesque Art

“Romanesque Art: Art of the period ca. 1000 to ca. 1150 in the Ile-de-France, until the early 13th century elsewhere in Europe. Its chief creations were massive monastic churches built with stone vaults reminiscent of Roman architecture.”

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

Aesop’s Fables: “The Hare and the Tortoise”

Last week I started working on a unit on Aesop’s fables for some of the younger learners I currently serve. So here, hot off the press, is a lesson plan on the fable “The Hare and the Tortoise” along with the reading and worksheet that constitutes the work of the lesson.

I figured it wasn’t a bad idea to start with one of the chestnuts.

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.