Tag Archives: cultural literacy

Cultural Literacy: Joseph Stalin

Posted on January 7, 2021 | Leave a comment

After the historic (and historically disgraceful) events at the United States Capitol building yesterday, I can think of no better time to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Joseph Stalin. N.B. that unlike the preponderance of Cultural Literacy materials posted on Mark’s Text Terminal, this is a full-page (as opposed to half-page) document with six questions. In other words, it is suitable for use as an independent practice (i.e. homework) assignment, or for an in-class guided inquiry with struggling and emergent 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: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Posted on December 16, 2020 | Leave a comment

If you teach it, or perhaps even better if you don’t, but still want to add if to your students’ fund of prior knowledge, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Samuel Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” It serves as a short, general introduction to the work.

And if you want to take this a step further and familiarize your students with the literary term rime, you’ll find a squib on it under that hyperlink.

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, December 4, 2020: A Lesson Plan on Using the Compound Adjective

Posted on December 4, 2020 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on using the compound adjective. I open this lesson with this parsing sentences for adjectives worksheet. In the event the lesson continues into a second day, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the oxymoron as a rhetorical device.

Moving on to the work, here is the scaffolded worksheet that is at the center of the lesson. To assist students in understanding and completing this work, I have a couple of learning supports–actually, two versions of the same learning support: the first is this word bank of adjectives to use when working to fill in the cloze blank; the second is the same document structured into columns. I wrote the second one because I found I needed to be able to direct kids’ attention to the column where the best word for the cloze blanks resides.

Finally, here is the teacher’s copy (or the parents’ copy, if you like) of the worksheet for ease of teaching this lesson.

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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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, Reference, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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Cultural Literacy: Iambic Pentameter

Posted on December 3, 2020 | Leave a comment

On a sunny, cold December morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on iambic pentameter. By the time young people reach their college English classes (if not their advanced English classes in high school), this is a term of art and a concept they should understand and be able to recognize and discuss with facility. This is, after all, the most commonly used poetic meter in English.

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: Hoi Polloi

Posted on November 23, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the noun hoi polloi, from the ancient Greek meaning “the many.” This noun phrase isn’t much used anymore, perhaps because it has negative or even contemptuous connotations. Still, if we want to produce educated citizens who are capable of sustaining a civil society, this might be a word and concept for them to understand.

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: Hobbits

Posted on November 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

If you seek to interest students in J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Hobbits might be a good place to start. It’s a short exercise–a half-page–with only three questions. I’ve used this to good effect with alienated students who I know had an interest in mythology, and fantasy literature.

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: Republic

Posted on November 16, 2020 | Leave a comment

Now seems like a good time to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the republic as form of government. This is a full-page worksheet, so it might be useful as an independent practice (i.e. homework) assignment. There is, like most if not all of the Cultural Literacy worksheets on this blog, plenty of room to expand this document; and, as are the lion’s share of documents here, this one is in Microsoft Word, so it is easily exportable, transferable, and reviseable.

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, November 13, 2020: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Seeing Double”

Posted on November 13, 2020 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Seeing Double.” Judging from my download statistics, these are always a crowd pleaser.

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “Have. an ax to grind,” (which might also be usefully employed when introducing students to the methods of writing a research paper–especially scholarly disinterest). This PDF of the illustration and questions is the evidence you’ll need to conduct this investigation. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key so that you may bring the culprit to the bar of justice.

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: Czar

Posted on November 10, 2020 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the term czar. This noun, of course, describes the absolute rulers of Russia (and, incidentally, like the German Kaiser, originates in ancient Rome with the Latin Caesar). But it also has been used, as the reading on this document explains, to describe public officials with wide-ranging powers. For example, the conservative writer and political activist William Bennett served as the director of the Office of National National Drug Policy under President George H.W. Bush, in which capacity he was known as the “Drug Czar.”

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: William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold” Speech

Posted on November 4, 2020 | Leave a comment

Whatever you may think of his politics, there is little question that William Jennings Bryan was either a great orator or a skilled demagogue (or both). Whichever designation you prefer, this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the “Cross of Gold” speech he delivered at the 1896 Democratic National Convention supplies students of United States history with a short introduction to one of the most memorable political speeches in this nation’s 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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