Cultural Literacy: Spirituals

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on spirituals. This is a half-page document with a reading of three sentences and five comprehension questions. The reading is straightforward, and even the longish third and final sentence is simply a list of famous spirituals that shouldn’t cause a reader at any level much trouble.

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

Ralph Waldo Ellison

“Ralph Waldo Ellison: (1914-1993) American novelist, essayist, short-story writer, and critic. Ellison was recognized as one of the most influential and accomplished American authors of the twentieth century. He is best-known for his highly acclaimed first novel, Invisible Man, the story of a young African-American man’s painful efforts to find identity and recognition in a society that sees only his superficial racial characteristics. Recipient of the National Book Award for fiction, Invisible Man is regarded as a masterpiece for its complex treatment of racial repression and betrayal.

Ellison’s first collection of essays, Shadow and Act (1964), covers over two decades of reviews, criticism, and interviews concerning such subjects as literature, music, art, and race. Going to the Territory (1986) echoes many of these concerns. Ellison’s short stories, written in the 1940s and 1950s, are often anthologized. He taught and lectured widely in both America and Europe and was Albert Schweitzer Professor of Humanities at New York University (1970-79). Ellison was at work on another novel, which had once already been destroyed by a fire at his home, at the time of his death.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

The Weekly Text, 27 February 2026, Black History Month Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on The Underground Railroad

OK, for the final Friday of Black History Month 2026, here is a reading on the Underground Railroad along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

Should you be interested, as I most certainly was when I first heard it two years ago, here is a National Public Radio story about the Underground Railroad, and in particular a man named Thomas Smallwood. As the interview subject, Scott Shane, observes, “Thomas Smallwood is an amazing guy who very few people know about.” Mr. Shane thought it sufficiently important that people know about Thomas Smallwood that he wrote a book on Mr. Smallwood, Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery’s Borderland.

When we think about the Underground Railroad, we tend, rightly, to think of Harriet Tubman. Thomas Smallwood is easily her equal in heroic feats of helping slaves escape bondage. He should be better known.

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.

Frederick Douglass on Slave Songs

“[Of slave songs:] Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.”

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass ch. 2 (1845)

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Cultural Literacy: Chuck Berry

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Chuck Berry. This is a half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading and two comprehension questions. The sparest of introductions to this musical innovator, but one nonetheless that notes his influence on The Beatles and Bob Dylan.

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

Wayne Shorter

“Wayne Shorter: (1933-2023) U.S. saxophonist and composer. Born in Newark, New Jersey, he studied at New York University, He played with Art Blakey’s group 1959-64, acting as its musical director, then joined Miles Davis’s remarkable mid-1960s group, including Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Tony Williams. In 1970, he and Joe Zawinul formed Weather Report, the most significant jazz-rock ‘fusion’ band of the 1970s, with bassist Jaco Pastorius. He has written many distinctive jazz standards.”

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

Cultural Literacy: Tanzania

Here is a worksheet on Tanzania. This is full-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences and seven comprehension questions.

The second sentence in the reading, I must warn users, is a slog. It is actually four clauses separated by semicolons. This sentence outlines the geography of Tanzania and its neighbors–the kind of thing I want to try to use with students who are a bit higher on the scaffold of literacy. If you are dealing with emergent readers or users of English as a second language, I think you will perceive the necessity of breaking up that second sentence, the verbal equivalent of the Green Monster at Fenway Park in Boston.

Fortunately, the task is relatively easy. You really only need to remove the semicolons and turn the clauses they separate into complete sentences and terminate them with periods. For example, the second clause, “to the east by the Indian ocean,” you can rewrite as “The eastern border of Tanzania is the Indian Ocean.”

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 Walker

“Alice (Malsenior) Walker: (b.1944) U.S. writer. Born in Eatonton, Georgia, Walker moved to Mississippi after attending Spelman and Sarah Lawrence colleges and became involved with the civil-rights movement. Her works are noted for their insightful treatment of African-American culture. Her third and most popular novel, The Color Purple (1982; Pulitzer Prize; film, 1985), depicts a black woman’s struggle for racial and sexual equality. Her later novels include The Temple of My Familiar (1989) and Possessing the Secret of Joy (1992). She has also written essays, some collected in In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens (1983); several books of poetry; short stories; and children’s books.

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

[Addendum: The Color Purple was filmed a second time, in 2023; this second film adaptation was based on the Broadway musical of The Color Purple.]

The Weekly Text, 20 February 2026, Black History Month Week III: A Reading on Arturo Schomburg

Sometime not long after I returned to New York in 2021, I attended a lecture a the New York Public Library (the main on 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, with the lions Patience and Fortitude at the front) on Arturo Schomburg. When I lived in Harlem, I walked by his namesake, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, every morning on my way to work. I also regularly stopped in to view exhibits there as well.

Therefore, Arturo Schomburg has been something of a presence in my intellectual life since 2004.

There are two biographies of Arturo Schomburg: Diasporic Blackness: The Life and Times of Arturo Schomburg,  by Vanessa Valdes or Arturo Schomburg: Black Bibliophile and Collector by Elinor Des Verney Sinette. I read the latter

One thing that I did pick up on at the lecture and in Ms Sinette’s book, however, was the existence of this article from the man himself. This is a PDF of an article “Arthur” (one thing I learned about Schomburg is that very little is known about him, including which given version of his given name he was using at any time) Schomburg wrote on Black History, “The Negro Digs Up His History.” Nota bene, please, that I have only posted the reading; next year at this time (I already have the basic structure assembled) you’ll find a fully realized lesson plan to accompany this article.

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.

Muhammad Ali on Joe Frazier

Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wild Life.”

Muhammad Ali

Excerpted from: Sherrin, Ned, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations. New York: Oxford University Press. 1996.