Category Archives: Independent Practice

This is material either specifically designed for or appropriate to use for what is more commonly known as “homework.”

Cultural Literacy: Doris Lessing

She’s not exactly primary or secondary school material, but here, nonetheless, is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Doris Lessing. This is a half-page document with a reading of two longish, but not insurmountable, sentences and two comprehension questions. Anyone at the level at which I teach with an interest in Doris Lessing shouldn’t have any problem with this document.

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.

Bella Abzug

“Bella Abzug originally Bella Savitsky: (1920-1998) U.S. lawyer and politician. Born in New York City, she studied law at Columbia University and subsequently took on numerous union, civil-liberties, and civil-right cases, representing several people charged by Senator Joseph McCarthy. She founded and chaired (1961-70) the antiwar Women Strike for Peace and later the National Women’s Political Caucus. In the House of Representatives (1971-77), she was known for her flamboyant style and outspoken support for the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion rights, and child-care legislation and opposition to the Vietnam War.”

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

The Weekly Text, 27 March 2026, Women’s History Month Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Agrippina

For the final Friday of Women’s History Month 2026, here is a reading on Agrippina with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. She probably doesn’t figure in curricula anywhere, but I can imagine that she must–because she was a real piece of work–be of interest to students of certain intellectual proclivities.

Because she did murder her husband, the Emperor Claudius.

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: Esther

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.

Cultural Literacy: Betsy Ross

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.

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

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.

Cultural Literacy: Pride and Prejudice

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

“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.

Cultural Literacy: Mary Baker Eddy

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.

The Weekly Text, 13 March 2026, Women’s History Month Week II: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Anne Hutchinson

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.