Cultural Literacy: Tiger Woods

Posted on February 13, 2026 | Leave a comment

OK, for the final documents post on this Friday morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Tiger Woods. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and two comprehension questions. The first sentence is a complex-compound that might be best broken up, especially if you re dealing with emergent readers or users of English as a second language.

But even for kids reading at grade level, depending on what grade you’re teaching, that first sentence might be a bit much.

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.

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C(yril) L(ionel) (R)obert James

Posted on February 13, 2026 | Leave a comment

“C(yril) L(ionel) R(obert) James: (1901-1989) Trinidadian writer and political activist. As a young man he moved to Britain, where his first work, The Life of Captain Cipriani, was published in 1929. His study of Toussaint-Louverture, The Black Jacobins (1938) was a seminal work. During his first stay in the U.S. (1938-53), he became friends with Paul Robeson. Eventually deported to Britain because of his Marxism and labor activism, James wrote on cricket for the Guardian. His Beyond the Boundary (1963) mixes autobiography with commentary on politics and sports. He returned the to the U.S. in 1970 but eventually settled permanently in Britain.”

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

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Cultural Literacy: South Africa

Posted on February 13, 2026 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on South Africa. This one is a doozy: the reading is a full paragraph of 14 sentences, and the comprehension questions number 15. This document might be best broken up into pieces for struggling and emergent readers.

In any case, you may be aware of a relatively recent federal government program in the United States granting refugee status to a group of white South Africans of Dutch descent. Known as Afrikaners, they evidently believe themselves oppressed; they have found a sympathetic ear in President Donald Trump. Anyone who knows anything about the history of South Africa, and especially the Afrikaners, may be forgiven for their skepticism about all of this.

Because the Afrikaners were oppressors, not oppressed. It really is that simple.

I am interested to see that the first bunch of these immigrants ended up in Alabama–you know, the state with a long history of white supremacy, and which led the way in bringing cases before the Supreme Court to weaken the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

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.

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Bernard Coard on the Intellectual and Emotional Oppression of the West Indian Child in the British School System

Posted on February 13, 2026 | Leave a comment

“The Black child acquires two fundamental attitudes or beliefs as a result of his experiencing the British school system: a low self-image, and consequently low expectations in life. These are obtained through streaming, banding, bussing, ESN [Educationally Sub-Normal] schools, racist news media, and a white middle-class curriculum; by totally ignoring the Black child’s language, history, culture, identity. Through the choice of teaching materials, the society emphasizes who and what it thinks is important—and by implication, by omission, who and what it thinks is unimportant, infinitesimal, irrelevant. Through the belittling, ignoring, or denying of a person’s identity, one can destroy perhaps the most important aspect of a person’s personality—his sense of identity, of who he is. Without this, he will get nowhere.”

Excerpted from: Coard, Bernard. How the West Indian Child Is Made Educationally Sub-Normal in the British School System: 50th Anniversary Expanded Fifth Edition. Kingston, Jamaica: McDermott Publishing, 2021.

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The Weekly Text, 13 February 2026, Black History Month Week II: A Lesson Plan on Richard Wright’s Poem “Between the World and Me”

Posted on February 13, 2026 | Leave a comment

One of the better (by which I mean most interesting) things I worked on and finally finished last year is this lesson plan on Richard Wright’s poem “Between the World and Me.” As you may know, Ta-Nehisi Coates, in an obvious homage, took this title for his exceptional and necessary book of the same name.

A few years back, a colleague of mine taught it to a class in which I was the co-teacher. This was during the 2021-2022 school year: we were back after the pandemic, still wearing masks, and I had just moved back to New York City after three years away. In other words, I filed away the poem for days when I had a clearer head.

Three years later, and after a second case of covid which left me cognitively bereft for about 18 months, I was able to recover my senses and develop this lesson. Without further ado, then, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Richard Wright (two-sentence reading, three comprehension questions–very simple), which serves as the do-now exercise for this lesson. Here is the the text of the poem itself; and here is the comprehension and analysis worksheet that is the principal work of this lesson.

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.

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Paul Robeson in Testimony Before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)

Posted on February 6, 2026 | Leave a comment

“My father was a slave and my people died to build this country, and I’m going to stay right here and have a part of it, just like you. And no fascist-minded people like you will drive me from it. Is that clear?”

Paul Robeson, Testimony before House Un-American Activities Committee. 

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

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Cultural Literacy: Sierra Leone

Posted on February 6, 2026 | Leave a comment

Moving right along this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Sierra Leone. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences and three comprehension questions. As I prepared these for use, either in the classroom or on this blog, I intended to use them as measures of reading comprehension and mental organization. So there are a lot of questions along the lines of “What nation is to the north of Sierra Leone?” There are several such questions in this document which I hope will help teachers diagnose students’ reading struggles and formulate solutions.

In the case of most of these Cultural Literacy worksheets dealing with nation-states in Africa, the most important thing is to read one sentence at a time, then figure out which question it answers.

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.

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Teddy Wilson

Posted on February 6, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Teddy Wilson (originally Theodore Shaw) (1912-1986) U.S. pianist and bandleader, the principal pianist of the swing era. Born in Austin, Texas, he began recording as the leader of small groups in 1935. These recordings, which featured Billie Holiday, are classics of small-group swing. Wilson joined Benny Goodman’s trio in 1936. After 1940 he worked primarily as a leader of small groups or as a solo pianist, showcasing his tasteful and refined amalgam of the styles of Fats Waller, Earl Hines, and Art Tatum.”

Excerpted from: Macey, David. The Penguin Dictionary of Critical Theory. New York: Penguin, 2001.

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Cultural Literacy: Scott Joplin

Posted on February 6, 2026 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Scott Joplin. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two relatively simple sentences and two comprehension questions. Just the basics on this innovative and groundbreaking African American pianist and composer.

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.

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Carter G. Woodson on the Oppressor’s Methodology

Posted on February 6, 2026 | Leave a comment

“If you teach the Negro that he has accomplished as much good as any other race he will aspire to equality and justice without regard to race. Such an effort would upset the program of the oppressor in Africa and America. Play up before the Negro, then, his crimes and shortcomings. Let him learn and admire the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin and the Teuton. Lead the Negro to detest the man of African blood—to hate himself. The oppressor may then conquer, exploit, oppress and even annihilate the Negro by segregation without fear or trembling. With the truth hidden there will be little expression of thought to the contrary.

The American Negro has taken over an abundance of information which others have made accessible to the oppressed, but he has not yet learned to think and plan for himself as others do for themselves. Well might this race be referred to as the most docile and tractable people on earth. This merely means that when the oppressors once start the large majority of the race in the direction of serving the purposes of their traducers, the task becomes so easy in the years following that they have little trouble with the masses thus controlled. It is a most satisfactory system, and it has become so popular that European nations of foresight are sending some of their brightest minds to the United States to observe the Negro in ‘inaction’ in order to learn how to deal likewise with Negroes in their colonies. What the Negro in America has become satisfied with will be accepted as the measure or what should be allotted him elsewhere. Certain Europeans consider the ‘solution to the race problem in the United States’ one of our great achievements.”

Excerpted/Adapted from: Woodson, Carter G. The Mis-education of the Negro. Eastford, CT: Martino Fine Books, 2018.

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