Tag Archives: united states history

Separation of Church and State

Posted on September 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

While I don’t imagine I need to go on at length about it, I do hope this reading on the separation of church and state and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet serve as a gentle reminder of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is meant as a bulwark against theocracy.

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.

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Mark Twain on Social Choices

Posted on September 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail.”

Mark Twain in a Speech (1900)

Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.

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Cultural Literacy: Epidemic

Posted on September 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

The other day, I set aside a group of Cultural Literacy worksheets that I think are timely, and arguably ought to be in front of students–or at least something like them that present important concepts that might inform thinking about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in this difficult time.

Ergo, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of an epidemic. And that’s it.

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.

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Thorstein Veblen on Research

Posted on September 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

“The outcome of any serious research can only be to make two questions grow where one question grew before.”

Thorstein Veblen

“Evolution of the Scientific Point of View” (1908)

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

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Book of Answers: Mark and Carl Van Doren

Posted on September 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

“How were critics Mark and Carl Van Doren related? They were brothers. Both were members of the faculty of Columbia University. Carl from 1911 to 1930 and Mark from 1920 to 1959.”

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

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Bunkum (n)

Posted on September 9, 2020 | Leave a comment

It’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, and it is, I think you’ll agree, a strong abstract noun for our time. Therefore, I wrote this context clues worksheet on the noun bunkum. It means “insincere or foolish talk” and “nonsense.” The context clues I provided are relatively solid, if a bit trite.

This word was a favorite of legendary iconoclastic newspaperman H.L. Mencken; indeed, a posthumous collection of Mencken’s is titled A Carnival of Buncombe. That spelling of the word, incidentally, indicates its etymology, which is a circuitous tale involving Buncombe County, North Carolina, and Felix Walker, the United States Representative who served the district from 1816 to 1822.

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.

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Boston Tea Party

Posted on September 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

Slowly but surely I am figuring out the new Block Editor on WordPress. So, let me try to add this reading on the Boston Tea Party and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. I imagine these materials will find a home someplace in a United States history course. 

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.

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Cultural Literacy: Faction

Posted on September 2, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here’s another word students, I submit, should know now, so I therefore submit, also, this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a faction. Given the extent to which politics in the United States, has become factionalized (I’m talking to you, Qanon nutcases, among others), and the fact that the federal government in this nation is arguably in the hands of a faction, it is imperative that students understand this word and the concept it represents.

Fortunately, the definition is strong and objective at the same time.

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.

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Cultural Literacy: Consent of the Governed

Posted on September 1, 2020 | Leave a comment

If there was a better time to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of the consent of the governed, I can’t imagine when that would be. Don’t forget that this conception of political power and governance comes to us from John Locke. It is at the center of the grievances aired in the Declaration of Independence and epitomizes the political philosophy behind both the Declaration and the United States Constitution—Liberalism.

Liberalism arrives in English almost intact from the Latin liberalis, meaning “suitable for a freeman.” It is also the stem of a portmanteau I wouldn’t mind seeing disappear from the vernacular, “libtard.” Users of this noun appear quite pleased with themselves when they use it; they shouldn’t be.

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.

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Empire State Building

Posted on August 27, 2020 | Leave a comment

It’s pouring rain and I want to drive over to the other side of this state to visit friends. So, I’ll write one more post before taking my chances with the mountain roads between here and there. So, here, especially for my erstwhile colleagues in New York, is a reading on the Empire State Building and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

One thing to consider when teaching students about this building is that it went up in record time at the very beginning of the Great Depression. I think there is something interesting about that, but translating it into conceptual terms has so far evaded me.

What say you?

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.

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