Tag Archives: cultural literacy

Cultural Literacy: Henry Aaron

Posted on February 3, 2021 | Leave a comment

Sadly, we recently lost him; here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Henry Aaron. If you’re interested in an Everyday Edit worksheet on this exemplary American and great athlete, you can find one here. Moreover, I have a number of materials on Mr. Aaron prepared for publication here, so stay tuned if you or your students are interested in him–and don’t forget to use the search bar on the homepage of this blog.

If you are interested in learning about Hank Aaron’s Civil Rights activism, check out his friendship with the legendary Wisconsin Civil Rights attorney Vel Phillips.

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: Cameroon

Posted on February 2, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Cameroon, the west-central African nation. This is a full-page worksheet with nine questions, so it might be appropriate for independent practice. Alas, it only touches on this nation’s colonial past. If I set out to make more of this document, I would emphasize Cameroon’s colonial past as part of a larger examination of the motives and depredations of colonialism in Africa and, indeed, worldwide. It’s time once and for all to come clean about this stain on history.

One or two simple questions should suffice to open a critical inquiry on colonialism in Cameroon: “How did France and Britain gain control over the west-central nation of Cameroon,” or “Why did France and Britain colonize Cameroon.” The second question, I imagine, will help to clarify what there was to exploit or expropriate in this area of the African continent.

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: Count Basie

Posted on February 1, 2021 | Leave a comment

Today is February first, which means that Black History Month 2021 begins today. I normally bloviate on this topic, but I’ll leave it alone this year other than to say that in this country, and on this blog, every month is Black History Month. That’s not to say Mark’s Text Terminal won’t observe the month–it will. In fact, I developed a raft of new Cultural Literacy worksheets with topics and themes in Black History, as well as transcribed a number of lengthy quotes to post as well.

Let’s start off the month with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Count Basie. Do you know his music? If not, then check out this killer 1965 performance of a Basie Band chestnut, “Jumping at the Woodside.”

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: Nero

Posted on January 28, 2021 | Leave a comment

It is now one week and one day since the American Nero trundled off to Florida to wallow in self-pity, nurture grudges, and play golf. So now is a good time to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Roman Emperor Nero. 

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, January 22, 2021: A Lesson Plan on the Predicate Adjective

Posted on January 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

It’s an important syntactical structure and area of English usage, so I have written several lessons on the predicate adjective; I want students to have this sentence structure and its parts, especially linking verbs, down cold. So, this week’s Text is yet another lesson plan on the predicate adjective.

I open this lesson with this worksheet on the Latinism N.B., or nota bene. The first time I saw this abbreviation on a piece of my Russian language homework in college, I looked it up and mastered its use. It is a phrase students ought to know. This is the scaffolded worksheet on using the predicate adjectives at the center of the lesson, and here is the teacher’s copy of the worksheet for ease of teaching this lesson.

There are two learning supports (ultimately, I’d plan to make four, for, again, scaffolded teaching and learning). The first one is organized to provide extra support for students who need it; the second one is less organized and structured and therefore places greater demand on heuristics and the ability to search for just the right word.

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: Duke Ellington

Posted on January 18, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2021, is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Duke Ellington. 

Today is a day of service; don’t forget to go out and do something to make the world a better, more just, peaceful, and dignified place

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: Lenin

Posted on January 13, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on V.I. Lenin. 

Did you know that his real name was Vladimir Illyich Ulyanov? You can see from his patronymic that his father was named Ilya Ulyanov. Interestingly, given Lenin’s later revolutionary activity against the Russian state and its underlying structure of rank and status, Ilya Ulyanov was elevated by dint of education and talent to the position of Active State Councillor, which endowed him with the status of hereditary nobility. 

Lenin’s older brother, Alexander Ulyanov, on the other hand, fell in with the Narodnaya Volya, which attempted on March 1 1887 (six years to the day after the assassination of Emperor Alexander II) to assassinate Emperor Alexander III. Alexander Ulyanov was arrested, tried, and hanged along with his four co-conspirators for this failed plot.

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, January 8, 2021: A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “International Crisis”

Posted on January 8, 2021 | Leave a comment

The first Weekly Text for 2021 is this lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “International Crisis.”

This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy Cultural Literacy worksheet on the proverb “you can’t have your cake and eat it too. To conduct your investigation of the international crisis, you’ll need this PDF of the illustration and questions that serve as evidence in this case. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key to assist you in bringing the culprit or culprits to 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: 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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