Places in Women’s History: Shirley A. Chisholm State Office Building, Downtown Brooklyn, New York

Posted on February 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

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A Self-Assessment from Margaret Fuller

Posted on March 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

“I now know all the people worth knowing in America, and I find no intellect comparable to my own.”

Margaret Fuller

Quoted in Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, ed. Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke.

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

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Cultural Literacy: Esther

Posted on March 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Esther, the Old Testament figure and book in her name. People of the Jewish faith hold the festival of Purim in her honor.

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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Amy Beach

Posted on March 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Amy Beach originally Amy Marcy Cheney known as Mrs, H.H.A. Beach: (1867-1944) U.S. composer and pianist. Born in Henniker, New Hampshire, to a distinguished family, she was a precociously brilliant and mostly self-taught musician, and she performed as soloist with major orchestras in the U.S. and Europe. As a composer, she was devoted to German romanticism rather than American themes or sources. Her best-loved works were her songs. Her Gaelic Symphony (1894) was the first symphony written by an American woman. Other works include a piano concerto (1899), the choral pieces The Chambered Nautilus (1907) and Canticle of the Sun (1928), the opera Cabildo (1932), and a piano quintet.”

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

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Cultural Literacy: Betsy Ross

Posted on March 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

Frankly, I am hard pressed to imagine that there is any demand for this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Betsy Ross. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and one comprehension question. I think I learned in grade school about her–primarily through her association with sewing the first United States flag–for which, this reading asserts, there is no documentation.

Every once in a while, I post something that I think is filler. This might be one of those.

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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Radclyffe Hall

Posted on March 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Radclyffe Hall: originally Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall (1880-1943) English writer. Born to a wealthy family and educated at King’s College, London, Hall began here literary career by writing verses, which eventually were collected in five volumes. She won prizes for her novel Adam’s Breed (1926), a plea for animal rights. She was condemned for writing openly and sympathetically about lesbianism in The Well of Loneliness (1928), one of the first lesbian novels in English. It was judged obscene and banned in Britain; the ban was overturned on appeal after Hall’s death. Most of her five other novels express her strong Christian belief.”

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

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The Weekly Text, 20 March 2026, Women’s History Month Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Madonna

Posted on March 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

For a variety of reasons I have resisted posting, especially during Women’s History Month, this reading on Madonna and its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Why? I don’t know: maybe simple sexism? There is something about her that has always annoyed me. Maybe her apparent vanity? Maybe her ubiquity over a long span of time?

The fact remains that during the early 1990s, when I was an undergraduate at Hampshire College, a number of critics and scholars touted Madonna as a feminist icon. That’s not what I see when I look at her, but what do I know? In any case, Madonna at this point is unarguably a part of women’s history (however we all feel about that).

Does anyone still pay attention to her? On the chance that she still has an audience, I have tagged this as a high-interest item.

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

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Fran Lebowitz on the Wellsprings of American Culture

Posted on March 13, 2026 | Leave a comment

“If you removed all of the homosexuals and homosexual influence from what is generally regarded as American culture you would be pretty much left with ‘Let’s Make a Deal.’”

Fran Lebowitz

N.Y. Times, 13 Sept. 1987

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

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Cultural Literacy: Pride and Prejudice

Posted on March 13, 2026 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s “comic novel…about the life of an upper middle class family….” This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and two comprehension questions. A spare but effective introduction this this story.

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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Rita Mae Brown

Posted on March 13, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Rita Mae Brown: (1944-) American novelist, poet, and screenwriter. Brown’s first novel, Rubyfruit Jungle (1873), was a surprise best-seller, establishing her as an important voice of feminism and lesbianism. Rubyfruit Jungle and Brown’s second book, Six of One (1978) are humorous semiautobiographical works, praised for their wit and vitality. Sudden Death (1983), set in the world of women’s professional tennis, was a departure both in its subject matter and sober, plain style. Brown returned to comic novels about relationships with High Hearts (1986) and Bingo (1988), before trying her hand at a mystery novel, Wish You Were Here (1990). Brown rejects the label of ‘lesbian writer,’ preferring to be identified simply as a writer. Her volumes of poetry include Songs to a Handsome Woman (1973).”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

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Cultural Literacy: Mary Baker Eddy

Posted on March 13, 2026 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Mary Baker Eddy. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and three comprehension questions on the founder of Christian Science.

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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