First thing on Monday morning, the first of the summer break, here is a reading on puberty and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.
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 concept of a system appears throughout the social and natural sciences and has generated a body of literature of its own (‘general systems theory’). A system is any pattern of relationships between elements, and is regarded as having emergent properties of its own, over an above the properties of its elements. The system is seen as possessing an inherent tendency towards equilibrium and the analysis of systems is the analysis of mechanisms which maintain equilibrium, both internally and externally, in relation to other systems.
The functionalism of Talcott Parsons offers the fullest employment of systems theory in sociology (see especially The Social System, 1951). In Parsonsonian terms, social system can refer to a stable relationship between two actors, to societies as a whole, to systems of societies, or indeed any level between these. All are analyzed principally in terms of their so-called cybernetic aspects; that is, as systems of information exchange and control, where equilibrium is maintained through symbolic exchanges with other systems across boundaries, In economic systems, for example, the exchange is not usually direct but mediated by money. Power is the medium of exchange in political systems.
More recently Anthony Giddens, (Central Problems in Social Theory, 1979) has criticized this conception of the social system on the grounds that systems do not possess emergent properties over and above the social actors who comprise them, but are rather produced and reproduced by structured and routine social practices. The systematic properties of social systems thus stem from the nature of social action rather than the system itself.”
Excerpted from: Matthews, Gordon, ed. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
“He who opens a school door, closes a prison.”
Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.
This morning seems as good a time as any to post this reading on anxiety and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. If you work with anxious kids, and if the statistics on anxiety in kids are true, I suspect you’ll find a use for this in your classroom.
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.
Moving right along: here are a reading on alcohol and its attendant vocabulary building and comprehension worksheet if your practice and students would benefit from 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.
While it is far from a light topic of discussion, I nonetheless suspect that more than one teacher or guidance counselor will find a use for this reading on anorexia and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it.
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.
Here is a reading on acne, the bane of every teenager’s social existence, and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I’ve tagged this as an item of social and emotional learning–acne can be tough on kids, and understanding its chemistry and physiology can help kids feel less alone.
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.
“How did you spend your time on earth? * How did you earn your living? * How did you spend your youth? * What did you do with the knowledge I gave you?
This is a traditional Sufi teaching about the passage of the soul after death, which is ushered before the throne of God and asked just these four questions. I first saw it on a poster in the office of Moroccan travel agent in Tangiers, but having failed to remember it properly was delighted to stumble across it thirty years later in Elif Shafak’s novel Honour.
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“All understanding is ultimately self-understanding…. A person who understands, understands himself…. Understanding begins when something addresses us. This requires…the fundamental suspension of our own prejudices.”
Truth and Method
Excerpted from: Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 1998.
In response to student demand, I’ve been producing a lot of new reading and comprehension worksheets on health-related topics. In the course of this work, I typed up this reading on developmental delay and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I haven’t had any specific requests for the topic. However, once I write one of these, a student, to my persistent surprise, will ask to read the text and complete the worksheet. Indeed, it never ceases to amaze me that kids will take an interest in the very last thing I expect them to.
In any case, this is also a potential topic for a professional development roundtable of some sort, so I tagged it accordingly.
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.
Posted in Essays/Readings, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets
Tagged building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge, cognition/learning/understanding, diction/grammar/style/usage, health, high-interest materials, professional development, questioning/inquiry, readings/research, social-emotional learning
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