Tag Archives: united states history

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “The Peek-a-Boo Girl”

Because I’ve been in the folder preparing some of them for a new job I am about to start, I’ll post this lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “The Peek-a-Boo Girl.”

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Harlem Renaissance. This scan of the illustration and questions drives the lesson. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key.

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.

Rotten Reviews: All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren

“Somewhere, Mr. Warren loses his grip on his backwoods opportunities and becomes so absorbed in a number of other characters that what might have been a useful study of an irresponsible politician whose prototype whe have had melancholy occasion to observe in the flesh turns out to be a disappointment.”

The New Yorker

“The language of both men and women is coarse, blasphemous, and revolting—their actions would shame a pagan hottentot.”

Catholic World

Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.

The Algonquin Wits: Alexander Woollcott to Eleanor Roosevelt

“Woollcott enjoyed a close relationship with Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and occasionally visited them at the White House. In a letter to Mrs. Roosevelt, the purpose of which was to solicit the First Lady’s hospitality for an approaching vacation, he wrote: ‘I would like to come for a week or so. If you haven’t room for me, there are plenty of other places for me to go. I prefer yours.’”

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

World War II on the Homefront

Here is a reading on World War II on the Homefront and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet if you teach this period of global 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.

Cultural Literacy: Alien and Sedition Acts

Because it was an important topic, as I recall, in the United States History course I taught for a couple of years, I suspect this this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Alien and Sedition Acts will be useful to teachers of that subject. Indeed, when I briefly–but happily–co-taught United States History in Lower Manhattan, my esteemed colleague taught this with a thoroughness that persuades me this worksheet probably can only serve either as an introduction to the subject, or as an independent practice worksheet.

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.

Al Capone

Alright, let’s finish out the day with this high-interest reading on Al Capone and its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. When I hand out my list of high-interest readings to students, this is one of the first things many of the boys choose.

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.

Brewer’s Curious Titles: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

“The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter: A novel (1940) by Carson McCullers (1917-1967) of the ‘Southern grotesque’ school. It features a deaf-mute, to whom the other main characters wrongly attribute the faculty of inner serenity that they lack. The title is from the poem ‘The Lonely Hunter’ (1896) by Fiona Macleod (pen-name of William Sharp; 1855-1905):

My heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill.

 A rather pale film version (1968) was directed by Robert Ellis Miller.

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

Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz on Evolution

 “The eye of the trilobite tells us that the sun shone on the beach where he lived; for there is nothing in nature without a purpose, and when so complicated an organ was made to receive the light, there must have been light to enter it.”

Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz

Geological Sketches (1866)

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

Book of Answers: Philip Freneau

“Who is known as the “poet of the American Revolution”? Philip Freneau (1752-1832), whose poems include “American Liberty” (1775) and “The Indian Burying Ground” (1788). He was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson’s.”

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

John Gotti

Over the time I’ve offered them, I’ve found this reading on John Gotti and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet to be relatively high-interest material among the students I serve.

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.