Tag Archives: cultural literacy

Cultural Literacy: Bay of Pigs

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba in 1961. This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of four relatively dense compound sentences and five comprehension questions. The Bay of Pigs debacle, as the reading observes, was an embarrassment to the administration of President John F. Kennedy. It is also a significant moment in the history of the Cold War.

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: Alamo

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Alamo. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three dense compound sentences and three questions. I am tempted to explain why I take issue with the use of the word “heroic” in the text, but perhaps that is best left to the students reading it.

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: Guatemala

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Guatemala. This is a full-page worksheet with a four-sentence reading and eight comprehension questions. I contrived the questions for this text with an eye toward assisting students in developing their own understanding of how to tease out relatively complex details in a text. In this case, that work involves situating Guatemala in relation to its neighboring nations in Central America.

Editorially (if I may), I think Guatemala ought to be a subject of deeper inquiry in our world history or global studies (or whatever your district calls these kinds of courses), especially the dreadful consequences of United States foreign policy in this sovereign nation. Reading the primary documents from this period leads to the inescapable conclusion that the United States government was complicit in genocide.

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: Carlos Fuentes

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Carlos Fuentes. This is a half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading (the sentence is longish and might require editing for some readers) and two short comprehension questions. It’s the barest of introductions to this eminent Mexican novelist and essayist; enough to help students gain knowledge of Carlos Fuentes, a significant figure in world literature. In other words, students will gain passing cultural literacy from this document, but little more.

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: Alvarez Hypothesis

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Alvarez Hypothesis. This is a half-page worksheet with a three sentence reading and three comprehension questions. For more on Luis Walter Alvarez and his son, Walter Alvarez, see the post immediately above this one.

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: Cesar Chavez

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Cesar Chavez, the legendary civil rights activist and labor leader. This is a full-page worksheet with a four-sentence reading and six comprehension questions. As I do with many civil rights leaders, I wonder what Cesar Chavez would make of the current economic and social situation in the United States.

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: Bogota

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Bogota, Columbia, the capital of that South American Nation. This is a half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. It identifies Bogota as the capital, and situates it in terms of its physical geography, but not much more than that.

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: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This is a full-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading and five comprehension questions. As Marquez produced one of the modern landmarks of world literature, One Hundred Years of Solitude, I thought it appropriate to take a deeper dive into his biography. Hence five questions from a three-sentence 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.

Cultural Literacy: Mayas

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Mayas. This is a half-page worksheet with two compound sentences and four comprehension questions. Depending on the learners you serve, this document could function as a do-now exercise to begin a class or independent practice to send home.

Or, you can do what you want with it: the worksheet is formatted in Microsoft Word, so it is open source and therefore available (as is just about everything on this blog) to do with as you need or want.

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: Incas

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Incas. This is a half-page worksheet with a three-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. Therefore, it is the most basic introduction to a complicated civilization–which I assume most schools at least take a couple days in a world history or global studies class to pore over.

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.