Category Archives: English Language Arts

This category contains domain-specific material–reading and writing expository prose, interpreting literature etc.–designed to meet the Common Core standards in English language arts while at the same time being flexible enough to meet the needs of diverse and idiosyncratic learners.

Cultural Literacy: Arthur Ashe

Posted on February 10, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Arthur Ashe, the great tennis player and humanitarian.

Have you, by any chance, read Mark Mathabane’s memoir of life in apartheid-era South Africa, Kaffir Boy? Mr. Mathabane also played tennis–quite well–and came to the attention of tennis legend Stan Smith at the 1977 South African Championship in Johannesburg. Mr. Smith worked with Mark Mathabane to secure a tennis scholarship, and in 1978 Mr. Mathabane matriculated at Limestone College in South Carolina, aided by a tennis scholarship.

However, in November of 1973, Arthur Ashe traveled to South Africa to play and in so doing broke the color line in sports in the apartheid state. I remember at the time–I was pre-high school–thinking Mr. Ashe was an American hero. Today, there is little doubt of that. In any case Mark Mathabane devotes chapter 38 of Kaffir Boy to the deep impression Arthur Ashe made upon him. You’ll find a nice, uncluttered summary of that chapter at Lit Notes.

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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Stephen Biko on the Oppressor’s Weapons

Posted on February 9, 2021 | Leave a comment

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.”

Stephen Biko

“White Racism and Black Consciousness” (paper presented at a workshop sponsored by Abe Bailey Institute of Interracial Studies), Cape Town, South Africa, Jan. 1971

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

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Cultural Literacy: Dred Scott Decision

Posted on February 9, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here’s a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Dred Scott Decision, an ignominious moment among several in the history of the United States Supreme Court. This is a full-page worksheet with seven questions; it can be used, therefore, as an independent practice worksheet. But it can also be easily adapted to the needs of your classroom and its students.

What this worksheet does not cite or invoke, and which students really ought to know, is Chief Justice Roger Taney’s infamous statement in the decision, to wit, that Dred Scott, like other Americans of African descent, possessed “…no rights which the white man was bound to respect….” This is a key moment of racist rhetoric in this nation’s history, and one students should be bound to understand. Put another way, anyone who says that racism isn’t a fundamental element of United States history really ought to have his or her nose rubbed in Justice Taney’s statement.

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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African Religions

Posted on February 8, 2021 | Leave a comment

“African religions: Indigenous religions of the African continent. The introduced religions of Islam (in northern Africa) and Christianity (in southern Africa) are now the continent’s major religions, but traditional religions still play an important role, especially in the interior of sub-Saharan Africa. The numerous traditional African religions have in common the notion of a creator god, who made the world and then withdrew, remaining remote from the concerns of human life. Prayers and sacrificial offerings are usually directed toward secondary divinities, who are intermediaries between the human and sacred realms. Ancestors also serve as intermediaries. Ritual functionaries include priests, elders, rainmakers, diviners, and prophets. Rituals are aimed at maintaining a harmonious relationship with cosmic powers, and many have associated myths to explain their significance. Animism is a common feature of African religions, and misfortune is often attributed to witchcraft and sorcery.”

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

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Cultural Literacy: Ethiopia

Posted on February 8, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Ethiopia. This is a full-page worksheet with 14 questions, which the subject clearly merits. But like everything else at Mark’s Text Terminal, you can modify this Microsoft Word document for the needs of your students.

Incidentally, while the reading does mention that Ethiopia is one of the oldest Christian nations on earth, it does not mention the extraordinary rock-cut, monolithic churches in the town of Lalibela. These structures and their history probably ought to accompany any teaching about Ethiopia.

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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H. Rap Brown on Violence

Posted on February 5, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Violence is as American as cherry pie.”

H. Rap Brown

Press conference at Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committed headquarters, Washington, D.C., 27 July 1967

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

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The Weekly Text, February 5, 2020, Black History Month 2021 Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Huey P. Newton

Posted on February 5, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here, for the first Weekly Text in observance of Black History Month 2021, is a reading on Huey P. Newton along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

In the mid-1970s, among my crowd in high school, Huey P. Newton was a bona fide hero. He co-founded, with Bobby Seale (another of our heroes), the Black Panther Party, (a heroic organization), which among many other things, fed breakfast to impoverished children and challenged the kind of police brutality that brings us events like the patently racist and sadistic murder of George Floyd in 2020.

It’s quite possible that your students may know Huey’s name. A panoply of rappers, including Tupac Shakur, Dead Prez, The Flobots, Public Enemy, Ab-Soul, Buddy and A$AP Ferg, and the great Kendrick Lamar have alluded to Huey in their rhymes. Pop artists like St. Vincent, Ramshackle Glory, Bhi Bhiman, and the Boo Radleys have also mentioned Huey in their songs. The character of Huey Freeman in Aaron McGruder’s brilliant comic strip and television show The Boondocks, a favorite of many students I’ve served over the years, is named for Huey P. Newton.

My own personal favorite pop-culture reference to Huey occurs in the 1979 film Richard Pryor: Live in Concert, which Eddie Murphy regards as the greatest stand-up comedy performance ever captured on film. At the 1:06:54 mark (thanks to Wikipedia for that) of Mr. Pryor’s performance, he calls out to raise the house lights and introduces the audience to Huey P. Newton–who, alas, does not appear on camera.

Finally, I found Spike Lee’s production of Roger Guenveur Smith’s celebrated solo performance in A Huey P. Newton Story to be utterly riveting. Mr. Smith uncannily captures Huey’s deep intellect and abiding compassion, but also his essential shyness and even diffidence. I highly recommend this film.

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, Essays/Readings, Independent Practice, Social Sciences, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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Sterling Allen Brown

Posted on February 4, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Sterling Allen Brown: (1901-1989) American poet, folklorist, editor, and critic. Brown was one of the first writers to identify folklore as a vital component of the black aesthetic and an important form of artistic expression. His first collection of poems, Southern Road (1932), was a critical success, fusing elements of ballads, spirituals, work songs, and the blues into narrative poems generally written in a Southern dialect. Two of Brown’s works written in 1937, Negro Poetry and Drama and The Negro in American Fiction, are major books of criticism on African-American studies. In 1941, Brown, along with colleagues Arthur P. Davis and Ulysses S. Lee, edited the The Negro Caravan, which was considered by many “the anthology of African-American literature.” With the publication of The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown (1980), Brown won the 1982 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and received widespread and deserved recognition.”

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

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Cultural Literacy: Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)

Posted on February 4, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). CORE was founded in 1942, and pioneered the use of nonviolent direct action in the struggle for civil rights and simple justice for Americans of African descent. It is impossible to underestimate the importance of CORE, which is why your students should learn about it. This is a half-page do-now exercise that serves as a general introduction to the organization. Needless to say there is a great deal out there about CORE and its founders.

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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Richard Pryor on Marriage

Posted on February 3, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Marriage is really tough because you have to deal with feelings and lawyers.”

Richard Pryor, quoted in Robert Byrne, The Third and Possibly the Best 637 Things Anybody Ever Said (1986)

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

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