Tag Archives: cultural literacy

Cultural Literacy: Folk Music

Posted on July 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on folk music. This is a half-page worksheet with a relatively short reading and three comprehension questions.

The reading implies, but does not spell out, the concept of folkways. I never understood, in my years teaching both English and social studies, why folkways as a concept was never taught explicitly, thereby offering students the opportunity to instantiate or reify it in their own lives; many of the students I served in New York City were of families recently immigrated to the United States. Understanding folkways, and using that understanding to distinguish between folkways and mores strikes me as a key element of any academic domain at the secondary level that calls itself “social studies.”

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: Catherine the Great

Posted on July 16, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Catherine the Great. To my surprise, this is the first material on the Empress I have published on this blog.

She is without question a world-historical figure, and probably of interest to a certain type of student, probably female. In any case, I’ll make a point of producing a couple of more posts about 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.

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Cultural Literacy: Carnegie Hall

Posted on July 9, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Carnegie Hall–useful to my erstwhile New York City colleagues if nobody else.

You probably know the old joke: a tourist in Midtown Manhattan approaches a man who is obviously a seasoned New Yorker and asks “How do I get to Carnegie Hall.” “Practice, Practice, Practice,” the New Yorker replies. Seriously, though, if you’re in the city and planning to attend an event at Carnegie Hall, it is at the corner of 57th Street and 7th Avenue. Take the N, Q, R, or W trains (they’re the yellow ones) to the 57th Street and 7th Avenue station, go upstairs, and enter this grand venue.

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: Carbon

Posted on July 6, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on carbon. This is a half-page worksheet with three questions. In other words, the barest of introductions to the topic. I believe I wrote this to accompany a lesson on carbon dating for a co-taught freshman global studies class in New York City.

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, 2 July 2021: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “The Cider Booth”

Posted on July 2, 2021 | Leave a comment

This week’s text is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “The Cider Booth.” 

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on dead languages. Incidentally, the short reading in this half-page document speaks specifically of Latin, ancient Greek, and Sanskrit. As a matter of routine in my classroom, I taught Greek and Latin word roots for vocabulary building. When one thinks about how often classical word roots turn up in English words, the idea under the circumstances that these languages are “dead” can make for interesting classroom discussions. Also, when one considers that Spanish, the first lingua franca of a wide swath of student I served over the years, is in some respect a modern version of Latin, the idea that the tongue of the Roman Empire is dead doesn’t quite make sense.

Anyway, to conduct your investigation into the case of “The Cider Booth,” you will need this PDF of the illustration and questions that both drive the investigation and serve as evidence in it. Finally, to identify a suspect and bring him or her to the bar of justice, here is the typescript of the answer key you will need.

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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Cultural Literacy: Bond

Posted on June 30, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on bonds, the financial instrument, not the force that holds atoms and molecules together, nor the ineffable thing that grows between friends, lovers, and humans and their pets.

I worked for ten years in a economics-and-finance-themed high school in Manhattan’s financial district. The word bond, which is extravagantly polysemous, really confounded the students I served there. Over the years, I developed a range of materials to teach this word in all its meanings in all the parts of speech. So, be on the lookout for those documents on this blog.

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: Bull Market

Posted on June 29, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a bull market. This is a half-page worksheet with three questions. The reading is one compound sentence on one line which nonetheless manages to contrast bear markets with bull markets. In other words, a succinct general introduction to the topic.

Enough, in other words, for students to understand the symbolism of the cast bronze sculpture Charging Bull on lower Broadway, right by Bowling Green Park, in Manhattan.

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, 25 June 2021: A Lesson Plan on the Demonstrative Pronoun

Posted on June 25, 2021 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the demonstrative pronouns. What are the demonstrative pronouns? They are four simple words: this, that, these, and those. 

I open this lesson with this worksheet on the homophones to, too, and two. In the event the lesson continues into a second day (an eventuality for which I always prepare), here is a second do-now, this one a Cultural Literacy worksheet on italics. The principle work for this lesson is this scaffolded worksheet. To make teaching the lesson a bit easier, here is the teachers copy of the same worksheet I prepared for my own use.

This lesson gives students an opportunity to try out their procedural knowledge, which the lessons prior to this one introduced in various ways, of subject-verb agreement in declarative sentences. These four words have simple, but elegant rules: this and that always govern the use of a singular noun and singular verb form; these and those, of course, govern the use of a plural noun and a plural verb form. I worked in college writing centers for several years, and one of the most common writing lapses that moved people to visit was subject-verb agreement in number. So–stress this skill, I would say.

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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Cultural Literacy: Bone to Pick

Posted on June 24, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “bone to pick.” This is a half-page worksheet with three questions.

It’s a solid explication of the expression, and calls upon students to cite an instance when they had a bone to pick with someone. However, this is yet another document in Microsoft Word, so you may do with it as you wish or need.

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: Alexander the Great

Posted on June 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

Last but not least this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Alexander the Great. This is a half-page worksheet that I developed to jog prior knowledge when teaching the ancient world in global studies classes. It could also serve as a decent introduction to this legendary warrior. The reading itself is a bit longer than I generally use for half-page worksheets, so it could be shortened; or, if you prefer, you could add some questions.

Either way, this is an open document in Microsoft Word, so you can do with it what you want or need.

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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