Category Archives: The Weekly Text

This week’s Text is a series of four documents on DNA. You’ll find all four of them–they’ll download to your computer–if you click on that hyperlink. I’ve also posted each individually below. These require a brief explanation.

I’d long understood that I needed something like a basic introduction to DNA. The entry in The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy seemed like the place to start, but then things got complicated. The head worksheet, so to speak, is on DNA. However, like many of the entries in The Dictionary I’ve encountered as I’ve begun producing more worksheets from it, the DNA article contained a number of “see this or that” elements inside parentheses. I understood that without accompanying articles on these scientific concepts, to wit genetic code, nucleotides, and mitosis, the original article on DNA would only be so useful.

So here, in the order in which they appear in the aggregated document in the first paragraph, are the four worksheets, each based on a reading from The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. I think I should point out here that I am not a science teacher, and my brief experiences co-teaching science classes did little to improve my ability to teach science. Because of my own education, I understand science more philosophically as a mode of inquiry, and tend to understand the epistemology of the domain rather than actual scientific practice. I have tended to use science teaching as means of building literacy–hence reading comprehension exercises like these. Anyway, let’s get these document up and out.

First, of course, is this worksheet on DNA, which began this whole procedure. This is a two-page document with a reading of eight sentences (three of which contain parenthetical elements in their respective terminations, and which the following documents seek to address) and ten comprehension questions.

Second is this worksheet on the genetic code. At the end of the first sentence in the DNA reading above, the reader receives instructions, in parentheses, to “see genetic code.” This document deals with that exhortation. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences–and these are all longish compounds which may require modification for some readers–and four comprehension questions.

The third document in the series is this worksheet on nucleotides. This document deals with the imperative, in parentheses at the end of the second sentence in the DNA document, to “see nucleotides.” This is a full-page document with a five-sentence reading and five comprehension questions.

Fourth, and finally, is this worksheet on mitosis, which answers the call, in parentheses at the end of the sixth sentence, to “see mitosis.” This document is a full page, with a reading of four sentences and five comprehension questions. I should probably mention here that the reading for this worksheet contains two parenthetical references: at the end of the third sentence, the reader is encouraged to “see genetics“; and at the end of the fourth sentence, there is another encouragement to “see meiosis.” I have assumed that if a teacher is using these documents, students already have a relatively firm grasp of the concept of genetics. As of meiosis, if a science teacher will step forth and ask me to produce a worksheet on that concept, I’ll do so and amend this post.

Addendum: After reviewing the four documents posted above, I decided to develop two more Cultural Literacy worksheets–one on meiosis and another on sex chromosomes in order to deal with all the cross references on the preceding four. In the final analysis, I haven’t much of an idea about the usefulness of all of this. What I can tell you is that these are six documents formatted in Microsoft Word (like most things on Mark’s Text Terminal, and if you are a regular visitor here, I’ll bet you’re tired of hearing me say that), so you can combine, copy, paste, revise, edit, and adapt as you see fit.

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.