Tag Archives: cultural literacy

Cultural Literacy: Status Quo

Posted on December 15, 2025 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a status quo. This Latinism–which means “the state in which”–is a high frequency term in English, especially among educated people. In any event, this is a half-page worksheet with a two sentences and three comprehension questions.

The first sentence is a compound with a colon in the middle of it. If that’s too much for emergent readers or users of English as a second language, simply remove the colon, replace it with a period, and write “For example” in front of the quote that follows.

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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Cultural Literacy: Stanford-Binet Scale

Posted on December 12, 2025 | Leave a comment

If you can use it, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Stanford-Binet Scale. As you probably know, this instrument purports to measure intelligence and rate it using an “Intelligence Quotient“–which gives us “IQ.” Over time, there have been questions (as well their should be) about the validity of this scale.

I can’t really comment on that. What I can tell you is that this is a half-page worksheet with a two-sentence reading and two comprehension questions. This is just the sparest of introductions to this high-stakes assessment, about which the late Steven Jay Gould (for which I thank him) had some things to say.

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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Cultural Literacy: Subject

Posted on December 5, 2025 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the noun subject as a grammatical term–i.e. the subject of a sentence. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences and four comprehension questions.

But, as with most of these documents, there are a couple of caveats here: these are long and busy sentences with several colons and semicolons in play. And the worksheet itself is a bit crowded. I use other materials in my units to teach subjects, so I haven’t used this. If I did, I would probably rewrite the sentences to simplify them, then turn this into a full-page worksheet. Clarifying the meaning of the polysemous word subject, and helping students understand how a subject operates in a sentence, strike me as foundational material in the high school curriculum.

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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Cultural Literacy: Trail of Tears

Posted on November 20, 2025 | Leave a comment

OK, for the penultimate post of National Native American Heritage Month 2025, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Trail of Tears. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and two comprehension questions. In other words, a very basic introduction to this great tragedy in the history of the United States.

Incidentally, you might want take a look at the first of the two sentences in the reading: it is long, and might be best rewritten as two sentences. If you do so, you might want to add another question to align with your reading.

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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Cultural Literacy: Wampum

Posted on November 20, 2025 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on wampum. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one sentence and one comprehension question.

Which is too bad; I grew up, probably having absorbed it passively through popular culture, thinking wampum was currency, or money. In fact, wampum, usually presented in belts, is a complex cultural article in Eastern woodlands tribes of indigenous peoples in North America.

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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The Weekly Text, 28 November 2025, National Native American Heritage Month Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on British Settlement in North America

Posted on November 20, 2025 | Leave a comment

For the final Text of National Native American Heritage Month 2025, here is a reading on British settlement in North America with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. While this text never explicitly mentions the indigenous peoples of North America or the devastation brought upon them by British colonists and their successors, I think that might be a useful point of entry for students.

One simple question: Who is missing here? Or, if you prefer, was anyone displaced or marginalized by the arrival in North American of European colonists? Or, you might follow this up with material on the Pequot War, which answers the two previous questions. Or, consistent with the current administration’s view of historical inquiry, you could say that the British arrived to a mostly empty continent (which, of course, is nonsense), and what few indigenous peoples inhabited this land were quick to abandon their complex and ancient culture to start driving Buicks.

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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Creek

Posted on November 20, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Creek: Muskogean-speaking North American Indian people that originally occupied much of the Georgia and Alabama flatlands. There were two major divisions: the Muskogee (or Upper Greeks), and the Hitchiti and Alabama (or Lower Creeks). They cultivated corn, beans, and squash. Each Creek town had a plaza or community square, often with a temple, around which were built the rectangular houses. Religious observances included the Busk (Green Corn) ceremony, an annual first-fruits and new-fire rite. In the 18th century, a Creek Confederacy–including the Natchez, Yuchi, Shawnee, and others–was organized to present a united front against both white and Indian enemies. It proved a failure, however, since at no time did all groups contribute warriors to a common battle. The Creek War against the U.S. (1813-1814) ended with the defeated Creeks ceding 23 million acres and being forcibly removed to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Today, about 50,000 Creeks live in Oklahoma, many of them fully assimilated into white society.”

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

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Cultural Literacy: Shawnees

Posted on November 20, 2025 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Shawnees, a midwest tribe whose numbers included the now legendary Tecumseh. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two–longish, perhaps in need of editing down to something simpler–sentences with two comprehension questions.

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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Cultural Literacy: Animism

Posted on November 20, 2025 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on animism. This is a half-page worksheet with a two-sentence reading and two comprehension questions. The first of these two sentences, duty obliges me to mention, is quite long and might be best rewritten, especially for emergent and struggling readers.

While this ethic–I hesitate to call it a religion because of its manifest respect for the material, natural world, something Christians, for example, tend to dismiss as paganism–is global in scope, I post it here during National Native American Heritage Month 2025 because the indigenous peoples on this continent, virtually to a one, were animists in some manner or another.

Incidentally, I particularly like the turn of phrase “so-called primitive people” in this document.

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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Cultural Literacy: Pocahontas

Posted on November 14, 2025 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Pocahontas. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences and three comprehension question. Just the basics on this important, but misunderstood, figure in American history.

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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