Tag Archives: cultural literacy

Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull: (1834?-1890) Native American chief. Sitting Bull was the leader of the Sioux forces, along with Crazy Horse, during the Sioux War of 1876-1877 and was present at the battle of the Little Big Horn, during which a U.S. contingent under George A. Custer was wiped out. Forced to flee to Canada, he returned to the U.S. in 1881 and was settled on a reservation. He was killed by Indian police.”

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

Cultural Literacy: Sacajawea

OK, moving right along on this chilly November morning: Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Sacajawea. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of one long sentence (which could be easily broken into two) and 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.

Cultural Literacy: Custer’s Last Stand

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Custer’s Last Stand. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of four–longish–sentences and four comprehension questions.

I don’t know if you’ve ever read the novel Little Big Man by Thomas Berger, or seen the fine film adaptation starring Dustin Hoffman, but both were obsessions in my high school crowd a couple of centuries ago. I mention them on the chance you might be interested in seeing a dramatic recreation of George Armstrong Custer’s last moments on this earth. The film shows you–vividly. Dare I admit I have always found that scene satisfying?

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: Hiawatha

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Hiawatha. Most people, if they’re aware of Hiawatha at all, probably received that awareness by way of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “The Song of Hiawatha.” I vaguely recall reading “The Song of Hiawatha” in grade school, but Longfellow is more memorable to me as one of the suits in the old card game of “Authors.”

Incidentally, the Wikipedia page for “The Song of Hiawatha” suggests that Longfellow based some of the material in the poem on conversations with an Ojibwe man named George Copway, whose story interested me enough to mention him here.

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: Ships that Pass in the Night

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “ships that pass in the night.” This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences and three questions. A spare, but adequate, introduction to an idiom that may well be fading from public use.

Did you know this line comes from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow? I didn’t until I prepared this document for publication here.

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: Sect

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a sect. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and two comprehension questions. A simple but effective introduction to a concept students really ought to understand before they graduate high school.

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: Science Fiction

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on science fiction. This is a half-page document with a reading of three sentences and three comprehension questions. A concise, symmetrical introduction to this literary genre.

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: Fidel Castro

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Fidel Castro. This is a half-page worksheet with a four-sentence reading and four comprehension questions. Just the basics on the late Cuban leader.

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: El Salvador

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on El Salvador, another Latin American nation that has been in the news quite often lately. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences and eight comprehension questions.

A couple of things: the third of the four sentences in the reading is very long; for emergent and struggling readers, it would probably be best edited into smaller clauses. Like most of the Cultural Literacy worksheets I’ve posted during this Hispanic Heritage Month 2025, this one is a literacy exercise designed to help struggling readers understand relatively complex–but short–passages of text. These particularly call upon students to keep straight the cardinal directions of nations bordering on the subject of the document–in this case, El Salvador.

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: Spanish-American War

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Spanish-American War. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of seven sentences (the sixth of which is a long compound, and probably ought to be edited into smaller pieces for emergent and struggling readers) and seven comprehension questions. As usual, the editors of The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy do an admirable job of condensing complicated events into a cogent snippet of 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.