Category Archives: Worksheets

Classroom documents for student use. Most are structured and scaffolded, and most are pitched at a fundamental level in terms of the questions they ask and the work and understandings they require of students.

Cultural Literacy: Carlos Fuentes

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Carlos Fuentes. This is a half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading (the sentence is longish and might require editing for some readers) and two short comprehension questions. It’s the barest of introductions to this eminent Mexican novelist and essayist; enough to help students gain knowledge of Carlos Fuentes, a significant figure in world literature. In other words, students will gain passing cultural literacy from this document, but little more.

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, 1 October 2021, Hispanic Heritage Month 2021 Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Don Quixote

For the third Friday of Hispanic Heritage Month 2021, here is a reading on Don Quixote with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I don’t know if you’ve read Miguel de Cervantes’ magisterial novel–I finally read it during the pandemic, and now want to read it again–but I must extol the virtues and richness of this landmark of world literature.

Otherwise, I have nothing to say, and I certainly wouldn’t presume to editorialize upon or criticize this novel. If that’s what you seek, I recommend Harold Bloom or someone of his ilk. It goes without saying, I assume, that a lot of ink has been spilled in seeking a deeper understanding of Don Quixote.

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: Alvarez Hypothesis

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Alvarez Hypothesis. This is a half-page worksheet with a three sentence reading and three comprehension questions. For more on Luis Walter Alvarez and his son, Walter Alvarez, see the post immediately above this one.

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: Cesar Chavez

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Cesar Chavez, the legendary civil rights activist and labor leader. This is a full-page worksheet with a four-sentence reading and six comprehension questions. As I do with many civil rights leaders, I wonder what Cesar Chavez would make of the current economic and social situation in the United States.

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: Bogota

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Bogota, Columbia, the capital of that South American Nation. This is a half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. It identifies Bogota as the capital, and situates it in terms of its physical geography, but not much more than that.

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: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This is a full-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading and five comprehension questions. As Marquez produced one of the modern landmarks of world literature, One Hundred Years of Solitude, I thought it appropriate to take a deeper dive into his biography. Hence five questions from a three-sentence text.

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, 24 September 2021, Hispanic Heritage Month 2021 Week II: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Pablo Picasso

On the second Friday of Hispanic History Month 2021, here is a reading on Pablo Picasso with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. These materials join a growing accumulation of documents on the artist on this blog.

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: Incas

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Incas. This is a half-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. Therefore, it is the most basic introduction to a complicated civilization–which I assume most schools at least take a couple days in a world history or global studies class to pore over.

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: Pancho Villa

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Pancho Villa. This is a full-page worksheet with a four-sentence reading and six comprehension questions. Ergo, this document exceeds the usual uses of most Cultural Literacy materials found on Mark’s Text Terminal: it could work independent practice (i.e. homework) or even a classroom document depending on the learners one is serving.

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, 17 September 2021, Hispanic Heritage Month 2021 Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Gadsden Purchase

For the first Friday of Hispanic Heritage Month 2021, this week’s Text is a reading on the Gadsden Purchase with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. The Gadsden Purchase brought territory in the far southern reaches of the present-day Arizona and New Mexico into the United States, and was concluded in 1854, six years after the Mexican-American War, which was arguably an imperialist move by the United States to seize territory that rightfully belonged to Mexico.

To clear up any confusion (mostly my own, I guess), the Gadsden Purchase was concluded by Ambassador James Gadsden. He is not the namesake of the Gadsden Flag, which has become a symbol of far-right political movements in the United States, including the perpetrators of the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capital. Rather, the Gadsden Flag is named for its designer, Christopher Gadsden, who was, among other things, a delegate to the Continental Congress in colonial North America. Unsurprisingly, though, James Gadsden was the grandson of Christopher Gadsden.

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.