Tag Archives: cultural literacy

Cultural Literacy: Angola

Posted on February 25, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Angola. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of four compound sentences and nine comprehension questions. This is a good general introduction to the country including its geography and its history, including the relatively recent history of the Angolan Civil War. Early on, during the 1970s the Angolan conflict was a proxy war pitting, essentially, the United States against the Soviet Union, i.e. a “war which came in from the cold,” as the late Hampshire College professor Eqbal Ahmad put it.

So, this would make a good independent practice (i.e. homework) assignment. Or, because it is formatted in Microsoft Word (as is the majority of material you’ll find on this site), you can revise it to suit the needs of your students.

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: Liberia

Posted on February 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Liberia. This is a full-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading with six comprehension questions. This is probably suitable as an independent practice assignment (aka homework). My own sense is that the history of racism in the United States warrants a deeper, more critical look at the motivations of the American Colonization Society in encouraging freed slaves to migrate to Africa.

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: Brown v. Board of Education

Posted on February 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the on the Brown versus Board of Education case. This is a full-page worksheet with a two-paragraph–six-sentence–reading and six comprehension questions. This document joins a number of other materials (including, apparently, an earlier version of this document) on Brown, which you can find here by searching “Brown v Board.”

Depending on what you need you students to know about this landmark civil rights case, however belated even in 1954, this document will either provide you with a short but solid lesson (like most of the entries from The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, this one packs a lot of information into a a pair of short paragraphs. But if you want students to understand that school segregation in the United States continues on a de facto basis, well, you’ll need something a little stronger, so to speak.

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: Mali Empire

Posted on February 11, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Mali Empire. This is a half-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. When I taught global studies, I thought Mali and its empire warranted a full unit. So this document would have served either as a very general introduction, an independent practice (i.e. homework) worksheet, or some sort of assignment for review.

It’s a Microsoft Word document (like almost everything else posted on this site), so you can modify it to suit your classroom.

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: Malcolm X

Posted on February 11, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Malcolm X. This is a very short introduction to Malcolm–a half-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. The document is comprehensive enough to mention The Autobiography of Malcolm X  as it was told to Alex Haley. That’s where any study of Malcolm X should probably lead. Short as this worksheet is, it serves its modest purpose: to introduce Malcolm and his story to young readers.

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: Ralph Bunche

Posted on February 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Ralph Bunche. This is a half-page worksheet with a two-sentence reading and two comprehension questions. In other words, thin gruel for a diplomat of Mr. Bunche’s stature; he did, after all, win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. In the course of preparing this post I learned that he was present at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Furthermore, he was also deeply involved in the global decolonization movement after World War II.

So, this sparse introduction serves the barest of purposes in familiarizing students with Ralph Bunche and his accomplishments. Still, unless a social studies teacher works Mr. Bunche into a unit on decolonization, students may never hear his name. So, if this modest document resolves that, perhaps it is useful after all.

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: Burkina Faso

Posted on February 1, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Burkina Faso. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences, the first of which is a long compound, and eight comprehension questions. The reading focuses on the geography of this West African nation, as do the comprehension questions. This might be solid material for emergent readers and users of English as a second language: the material calls upon students to pay close attention to some finely parsed details about the nations adjacent to Burkina Faso, then record them in response to targeted comprehension questions.

Incidentally, Burkina Faso, like Chad, Mali, Guinea, and Sudan, recently suffered a coup d’etat. If one searches the topic, the pattern that emerges in reporting on these coups is that “Africa is suffering a wave of coups.” That may be true, but authoritarianism around the world is on the rise, not just in Africa. If a civil society remains most salubrious for everyday human life and interaction, a military coup is never good news. On a somewhat happier note, the Burkina Faso National Football Team is on a winning streak.

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: Marcus Garvey

Posted on February 1, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Marcus Garvey. This is a full-page worksheet with a four-sentence reading–all compounds–and seven comprehension questions. This is a good general introduction to this important–if controversial in some quarters–leader. I can tell you that the reading honestly states that the United States government deported Mr. Garvey to Jamaica because it feared his influence over Black people in the United States.

So there’s that, at least. Here is a connection worth exploring: are you aware that Malcolm X’s parents were Garveyites? There remains some reason to believe that Malcolm’s father, Earl Little, was murdered because of his involvement with Marcus Garvey’s United Negro Improvement Association.

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: Straw Man

Posted on January 21, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a straw man in argumentation. This is a half-page worksheet with a two-sentence reading (the second of them a long compound) and two comprehension questions. This is a cogent introduction to the topic of the straw man. However, it presupposes an prior understanding of argumentation (and its rules) that some students may not possess. But in our current discursive culture, understanding the straw man, a favorite tool of demagogues, strikes me as vital for the development of critical awareness in students.

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: Progressive Education

Posted on January 17, 2022 | Leave a comment

Should you be using progressive methods in your teaching practice, you might find this Cultural Literacy worksheet on progressive education useful. If nothing else, it will help your students understand the way their class operates.

This is a full-page worksheet with a six-sentence (a full paragraph) reading and six comprehension questions. Once again, the editors of The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy have done an admirable job of summarizing a series of concepts, complicated when taken together, into a short but thoroughly informative 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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