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.
“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.
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.
“Jane Austen: (1775-1827) English novelist, often regarded as the greatest of women novelists. The seventh child of a country parson, Jane Austen passed her days, like many English ladies of the time, almost entirely within her family circle. The only dramatic event of her life was an attachment to a clergyman who died before they could become engaged, but this was an obscure and doubtful episode, producing little outward change in her life. She never married, had no contact with London literary life, and spent all her time, when not writing, on ordinary domestic duties, among her numerous nephews and nieces. Out of the materials of such a narrow world, in fact precisely by sticking scrupulously to that narrow world, she made great literature. Her completed novels, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion, are distinguished by their satirical wit and brilliant comedy, complex and subtle view of human nature, exquisite moral discrimination, and unobtrusive perfection of style. These qualities elevate her small world of struggling clerical families, husband-hunting mothers and daughters, eligible clergymen and landowners, country fools and snobs, into an enduring microcosm of the world.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
For the second Friday of Women’s History Month 2026, here is a reading on Anne Hutchinson along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.
She wasn’t exactly the Gloria Steinem of her day, but Puritan officials did bounce her out of the Massachusetts Bay Colony because she would not stop holding religious meetings in her home.
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.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the National Organization for Women. This is a somewhat crowded half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences and three comprehension questions. This might be better, if for no other reason than clean design, as a one-page worksheet: I notice I wrote the questions in such a way that they would fit into a half page. The reading supports more than three questions–and that’s without asking critical questions about the material.
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.
“Alice Childress: (1916-1994) U.S. playwright, novelist, and actress. She grew up in Harlem and studied drama with the American Negro Theater, where she wrote, directed, and starred in her first play, Florence (produced 1949). Her other plays, some featuring music, include Trouble in Mind (produced 1955), String (1969), The African Garden (1971), and Gullah (1984). She was also a successful writer of children’s books, including A Hero Ain’t Nothing But a Sandwich (1973).”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Minerva; she is, as you probably know, the Roman goddess of wisdom, therefore the Roman version of Athena.
This is a half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading and one comprehension question.
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.
“Audre (Geraldine) Lorde: (1934-1992) U.S. poet and essayist. Born in New York City to West Indian parents, she worked as a librarian until 1968, when he began to write full-time. She is best known for her passionate writing on lesbian feminism and racial issues, including Cables to Rage (1970), New York Head Shop and Museum (1974), and The Black Unicorn (1978), often called her finest work. Her battle with cancer inspired The Cancer Journals (1980) and A Burst of Light (1988, National Book Award).”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
We’ve now turned the corner into Women’s History Month 2026. Mark’s Text Terminal opens its observance of this month with this reading on Zora Neale Hurston along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.
Whether or not one teaches Hurston’s novels, it seems to me that students, by the time they graduate high school, ought to know about this important figure in United States cultural and intellectual 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.
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