Tag Archives: united states history

The Greatest Game Ever Played

Here is a reading on “The Greatest Game Ever Played,” which, in the opinion of many, apparently, was the December 1958 contest in Yankee Stadium between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants. This vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet  accompanies the reading. This short reading characterizes this football game as the birth of the modern NFL.

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.

Historical Term: Yippie

Yippie: Close contemporary of the hippy, but more actively involved in political action, particularly in protests against American involvement in Vietnam and the methods of US police. The term was coined by one of the movement’s leaders, Jerry Reuben [sic], and is derived from the initials of the Youth International Party and hippy. The Yippie movement faded in the early 1970s, possible because of the cessation of US involvement in Vietnam. ”

Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.

Cultural Literacy; Rip Van Winkle

Monday morning again, and here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Rip Van Winkle. This character, from the pen of Washington Irving, is an essential piece of American mythology.

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.

Atom Bomb

Moving right along on this warm and oddly muggy December afternoon, here is a reading on the atom bomb 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.

Battle of Saratoga

If you need it, here is a reading on the Battle of Saratoga and the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it. This was an important moment in the American Revolution, and therefore am important moment in United States history.

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.

ARPAnet

This reading on ARPAnet, which it will tell you, was the precursor to the Internet, has invariably been a high interest item for the students with whom I’ve worked over the years. Here is 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.

Cultural Literacy: Bill Gates

Here, if anyone needs it, is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Bill Gates. Over the years, this has tended to be a relatively high-interest item, so I’ve tagged it as such.

But it isn’t as if this man languishes in obscurity. As a matter of fact, he is ubiquitous, and even (arguably) obnoxiously so.

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.

Justice Powell on the First Amendment

“Under the First Amendment there is no such thing as a false idea. However pernicious an opinion may seem, we depend for its correction not on the conscience of judges and juries but on the competition of other ideas.”

Lewis F. Powell., Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974)

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

Frederick Douglass on Education

“A little learning, indeed may be a dangerous thing, but the want of learning may be a calamity to any people.”

Frederick Douglass (1817?-1895)

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

Book of Answers: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

What are Jekyll and Hyde’s first names? In the 1886 work by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Henry Jekyll is the London doctor who creates the potion that turns him into Edward Hyde.

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