Category Archives: Independent Practice

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Woodrow Wilson. This is a two-page worksheet with a reading of ten sentences (a full paragraph, in other words) and eight comprehension questions. As usual, the editors of The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy render with economy a complex biography of a public figure. The reading, you probably won’t be surprised to hear, neglects to mention President Wilson’s racism, which is a critical question well worth exploring.

Anything, I suppose, to strike a blow against the hideousness of American exceptionalism.

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.

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a friend of the court. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences (the second of which is a compound–two clauses separated by a semicolon) and two comprehension questions. In other words, this is a basic introduction to an important concept in jurisprudence, particularly at the level of the Supreme Court. Right now, given the sleaze we’re seeing from at least two associate justices, i.e. taking lavish trips funded by individuals with business before the court, the Supreme Court needs all the friends it can get.

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.

On an already, at 5:10 a.m., hot and muggy morning in northeastern Massachusetts, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on disenfranchisement. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one sentence–to wit, “Removal of the franchise, or right to vote”–and one comprehension question. A concise explanation of a relatively simple concept with big consequences for a democracy like ours in the United States.

And given what has happened in some of our state legislatures in the past several years, something that it is important, indeed vitally important, I would argue, that our students understand.

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.