Tag Archives: united states history

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Posted on March 21, 2020 | Leave a comment

In this time of public health crisis, it’s nice to know that at least in its past, this country produced leaders dedicated to public service and the common good–rather than grifters who see the Presidency of the United States as a side hustle.

So here is a short reading on Franklin D. Roosevelt along with its attendant 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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,

Book of Answers: John Dos Passos

Posted on March 20, 2020 | Leave a comment

“What are the books in John Dos Passos’ U.S.A. trilogy? They are: The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932), and The Big Money (1936). The three were first published together in 1937).”

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

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

Tagged , ,

The Algonquin Wits: Beatrice Kaufman Attends a Concert at Carnegie Hall

Posted on March 20, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Beatrice Kaufman, who held little appreciation for music of any sort, once accompanied Oscar Levant to Carnegie Hall to hear Stokowski conduct Bach’s B Minor Mass. While en route to the theater Beatrice realized they were going to be late and urged her escort, ‘In heaven’s name let’s hurry or we’ll miss the intermission.’”

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, New York City, Quotes, Reference

Tagged , , , , ,

The Weekly Text, March 20, 2020, Women’s History Month 2020 Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Flappers

Posted on March 20, 2020 | Leave a comment

Alright, I do want to remember that March is Women’s History Month. This week’s Text, in observation of the month, is a reading on flappers along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. The reading is short, but it allows for the possibility of asking a critical question about them: were they avatars of female agency, and thus an early paradigm of feminism?

This post on the cartoon character Betty Boop, which I posted almost exactly a year ago, might complement today’s Text, depending on how far you want to go with this. I can tell you that the Betty Boop material has been of relatively high interest to the students I’ve served over the years.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

Tagged , , , , , ,

The Invisible Man

Posted on March 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

“The Invisible Man: The title of two very different novels. The first is a work of science fiction by H.G. Wells (1866-1946), published in 1897. In this story a scientist finds the secret of invisibility, which lures him into temptation. The first film version(1933), starring Claude Rains, was highly regarded, but its several sequels less so.

The second novel with this title was by the black US writer Ralph Ellison (1914-94). Published in 1952, it won the 1953 National Book Award for fiction. The novel tells the story of a Southern black who moves to New York, participates in the struggle against white oppression, and ends up ignored and living in a coal hole.

I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fibre and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

 The Invisible Man, prologue.

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

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

Tagged , , , ,

Zora Neale Hurston on the Life of Men

Posted on March 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Ships at a distance have every man’s with on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others, they sail forever on the same horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the real life of men.”

Zora Neale Hurston

Their Eyes Were Watching God ch. 1 (1937)

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

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

Tagged , , , ,

Everyday Edit: Martha Washington

Posted on March 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is an Everyday Edit worksheet on Martha Washington for Women’s History Month 2020. And if you want more of these, to give credit where it is always and abundantly due, the good people at Education World will supply you with a year’s worth of these documents.

And if you find typos on this document, they are there because they need to be fixed….

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , , ,

Amelia Earhart

Posted on March 7, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Earhart, Amelia: (1897-1937) U.S. aviator, the first woman to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. Born in Atchison, Kansas, she worked as a military nurse in Canada during World War I and later as a social worker in Boston. In 1928 she became the first woman to cross the Atlantic in a plane, though as a passenger. In 1932 she accomplished the flight alone, becoming the first woman and the second person to do so. In 1935, she became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California. In 1937, she set out with a navigator, Fred Noonan, to fly around the world; they had completed over two-thirds of the distance when her plane disappeared without a trace in the Pacific Ocean. Speculation about her fate has continued to the present.”

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

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

Tagged ,

Everyday Edit: Jacqueline Kennedy

Posted on March 7, 2020 | Leave a comment

Cleaning out the Women’s History Month warehouse, I came upon this Everyday Edit worksheet on Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. As always, and in the interest of giving credit where it is richly due, let me remind you that the good people at Education World give away a year’s supply of these documents, many of them on high interest topics.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, Worksheets

Tagged , , ,

The Weekly Text, March 5, 2020, Women’s History Month Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Helen Hunt Jackson

Posted on March 5, 2020 | Leave a comment

For the first Friday of Women’s History Month 2020, here is a reading on indigenous rights activist Helen Hunt Jackson and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Her work, which resulted in the disastrously inappropriate Dawes Severalty Act, was nonetheless the first real real attempt–via her book A Century of Dishonor–to bring this country to a reckoning with its genocidal policies against the original inhabitants of this continent.

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.

Leave a comment

Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

Tagged , , , , , ,