Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

The last time I taught a Global Studies course here in New York City, they were part of the curriculum, so here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Moguls. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences and three comprehension questions. And even in that brief reading? The editors of The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy manage to explain the Mogul (Mughal) dynasty in India, but also to observe that the word mogul also connotes “…a great personage or magnate.”

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 Uzbekistan. This is full-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading and seven comprehension questions. You’ll notice that several of the questions (and you’ll find this in most of the Cultural Literacy worksheets that deal with nation-states) deal with the geographical location–bordering states around the compass rose, basically–of the country in question.

These questions, and the sentences that inform the answers, can be a bit much for emergent readers or students using English as a second language. Your can easily (this document, like nearly everything you’ll find on Mark’s Text Terminal, is formatted in word for ease of adaptation and manipulation) edit out those questions, as well as the sentences that drive them. Similarly, these can be simplified.

But bear in mind that I saw these as an opportunity for students with low literacy to stretch out a bit, and deal with some readings with a slightly greater pattern of complexity.

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.