Tag Archives: readings/research

Isaac Newton

Here is a reading on Isaac Newton with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This is a solid introduction to Newton; I have used it as a prelude to framing the Enlightenment in global studies classes in New York City. Otherwise, editorially, I assume I need not belabor the importance of Isaac Newton in the history of the world, let alone the intellectual history of Western Europe.

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.

Book of Answers: L’Encyclopedie

“Who edited L’Encyclopedie? Denis Diderot (17013-84), French philosopher. This compendium of knowledge was published in thirty-five volumes between 1751 and 1776. It was meant to cover all aspects of life and embodied the rationalistic ideals of the Enlightenment. Contributers included Voltaire, Montesquieu, and Rousseau.”

Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Guy Fawkes

OK, here is a reading on Guy Fawkes along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Chances are good, especially in the high school population, that students have heard of Fawkes through the graphic novel V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, the book’s filmed version, or the ubiquitous Guy Fawkes masks that show up at various protest rallies.

In any case, Guy Fawkes remains of sufficient importance–if only as a bogeyman–in British history that the Brits observe Guy Fawkes Night to commemorate the Gunpowder Plot in which Fawkes was intimately involved.

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: Balkan Peninsula

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Balkan Peninsula. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three compound sentences and three comprehension questions. Nota bene, please, that the compounds in these sentences contain lists of geographical particularities and the many nations and nationalities that crowd this relatively small piece of real estate. If you’re looking for something to begin a lesson on this region–particularly just about anything on World War I, empires, colonialism, or the horrorshow that ensued in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union–this short worksheet might be a good place to start.

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.

Douglas Sirk

“Douglas Sirk originally Hans Detlef Sierck: (1900-1987) German-U.S. film director. He was artistic director of several theaters in Bremen (1923-29) and Leipzig (1929-36) and made several films before fleeing Germany in 1937. He arrived in Hollywood in 1939 and received minor directing assignments until he joined Universal Pictures in 1950. There he directed comedy, western, and war movies but was best known for such popular melodramas as Magnificent Obsession (1954), There’s Always Tomorrow (1956), Written on the Wind (1956), and The Tarnished Angels (1957). After directing his greatest success, Imitation of Life (1959), he retired to Germany.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

The Weekly Text, 29 July 2022: A Lesson Plan on Correlative Conjunctions (Part 2)

This week’s Text is the second of two lessons on using correlative conjunctions. The first was published here last Friday. If you scroll down eight or so posts below this one, you’ll find it.

I open this lesson with this Everyday Edit worksheet on Charles R. Drew, the surgeon and researcher on blood transfusions. (And don’t forget that you can help yourself to a yearlong supply of Everyday Edit worksheets over at Education World.) If the lesson spills over into a second day, here is a second do-now worksheet on the homophones peace and piece.

This scaffolded worksheet is the center of this unit, and I expect that this teacher’s copy of the worksheet will make delivering the lesson a bit easier for you.

That’s it. I’ll post the final lesson in this unit–and the final lesson of all the Parts of Speech Units on this blog–next week.

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.

Euclid

Here is a reading on Euclid along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This is, as so many of the readings from the Intellectual Devotional series tend to be, a nice one-page conspectus on the author of The Elements, and the influences that led to the creation of this, essentially the world’s first first geometry textbook–which is, unsurprisingly, available across the internet in a variety of PDFs. The first one that pops up (under that hyperlink) is from a physicist named Richard Fitzpatrick at the University of Texas; it’s free of advertising clutter and, to the extent of my limited knowledge of the subject, well organized.

Also, in researching this post, I learned that the first of the five volumes in the Intellectual Devotional series is available as a free e-book under that hyperlink (at least at the time of this post’s publication), should you be interested.

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.

John Rawls

“John Rawls: (1921-2002) U.S. philosopher. Born in Baltimore, he taught at Cornell (1962-79) and later Harvard (from 1979). He has written primarily on ethics and political philosophy. In his Theory of Justice (1971), he offered an alternative to utilitarianism that led to very different conclusions about justice. He asserted that if people had to choose principles of justice from behind a ‘veil of ignorance’ that restricted what they could know about their own position in society, they would not seek to maximize overall utility but would instead both protect their liberty and safeguard themselves against the worst possible outcome, They would thus sanction only the kinds of inequalities (e.g. in wealth) that are to the benefit of the worst off (e.g. because the inequalities are necessary for incentives that benefit all).”

Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

Pragmatism

Here is a reading on pragmatism and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I don’t imagine there will be a lot of demand for these documents; I wrote them for one student about 15 years ago. Preparing them for this post was the first time I’ve looked at them since then.

It’s probably worth mentioning that pragmatism is form of philosophy born in the United States. Its parents, Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), William James (1842-1910), and John Dewey (1859-1952), are given first-class treatment in Louis Menand’s book on them and their philosophy, The Metaphysical Club (2001).

Aside: last summer, I spent some time interviewing for jobs in Albany, New York and environs, known as the Capital District or the Capital Region; I saw signs directing me to the village of Menands, seven miles north of Albany. As someone interested in place names and their origins, I assumed that the town was named for Louis Menand’s family. As it turns out, Louis Menand’s great-grandfather, also named Louis Menand, and himself an important 19th-century horticulturist, first arrived in the Village in 1842. So yes, once again, an old American family’s name becomes a place name, as so many have–think of the Astors: If you happen to live in New York City, their name is all over the place.

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: Spelling

“spelling: Word in the English language can be difficult to learn to spell because of many irregular spelling patterns. For example, do, due, and dew are all pronounced exactly the same way but differ in meaning. While English has 44 sounds, it has only 26 letters.

The letter-sound correspondence is essential for reading, as is the sound-letter correspondence for correct spelling. A difficulty in these relationships results in language disabilities.

Spelling a word id fare more difficult than reading a word for several reasons. First, passive (receptive) skills such as reading tend to be easier than active, expressive skills such as spelling. In addition, there are not contextual or structural cues to help with spelling as there are for reading. While spelling can be difficult for average learners, in is particularly difficult for individuals with a weakness in decoding.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.