Tag Archives: readings/research

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.

Triumphal Arch

“Triumphal Arch: Originating in Rome by the 2nd century B.C., these freestanding monumental gateways were erected to commemorate victorious generals. Sometimes serving as city gates, these arches were often merely decorative and richly adorned with sculptural elements. The two main types include one with a single archway and another flanked with smaller arches to the sides. The triumphal arch form was popularized anew during the Italian Renaissance.”

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

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.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

“The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter: A novel (1940) by Carson McCullers (1917-1967) of the ‘Southern grotesque’ school. It features a deaf-mute, to whom the other main characters wrongly attribute the faculty of inner serenity that they lack. The title is from the poem ‘The Lonely Hunter’ (1896) by Fiona Macleod (pen-name of William Sharp; 1855-1905):

My heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill.

 A rather pale film version (1968) was directed by Robert Ellis Miller.

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

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.

Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz on Evolution

 “The eye of the trilobite tells us that the sun shone on the beach where he lived; for there is nothing in nature without a purpose, and when so complicated an organ was made to receive the light, there must have been light to enter it.”

Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz

Geological Sketches (1866)

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

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.

A Lesson Plan on Manic-Depressive Disorder

Here is a lesson plan on manic-depressive disorder as well as the short reading and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that are the work of this lesson. (If you’d like a reading and worksheet that are a little longer than these, you’ll find one under this hyperlink).

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.

Term of Art: Rationalism

Rationalism: 1. The doctrine associated especially with the French philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650), the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632-77), and the German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von. Liebniz (1646-1716) that it is possible to obtain knowledge by reason alone, that there is only one valid system of reasoning and it is deductive in character, and that everything is explicable in principle by this form of reasoning…. 2. The more general view that everything is explicable in principle by one system of reasoning. 3. A general commitment to reason as opposed to faith, religious belief, prejudice, tradition, or any other source of belief that is without foundation in reason. Rationalist: one who believes in or practices rationalism (1, 2, 3). Rationalistic.

Excerpted from: Colman, Andrew M., ed. Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

A Lesson Plan on Steroids

OK, health teachers, maybe you can use this lesson plan on steroids and its work, this short reading and this vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. If you’d like a slightly longer version of the materials for this lesson, 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.