Tag Archives: cultural literacy

Cultural Literacy: Hoi Polloi

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.

Cultural Literacy: Hobbits

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.

Cultural Literacy: Republic

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.

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

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.

Cultural Literacy: Czar

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.

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

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.

Cultural Literacy: Reprisals

A few weeks ago I rummaged through my Cultural Literacy folder and pulled up a bunch of worksheets that I thought might be useful for some basic civics education in the run-up the the United States presidential election next week. This Cultural Literacy worksheet on reprisals is the last of them. I think this is an important word, particularly as a  concept in political science and sociology, is important for students 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.

Cultural Literacy: Profit Motive

Although I’ve posted it elsewhere on this blog–along with context clues worksheet on the nouns motive and motivation–here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the profit motive. About five weeks ago I sorted through my library of Cultural Literacy worksheets and selected a group I thought it appropriate to post before the election. This is the penultimate document; I’ll post the final worksheet in the next couple of days.

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: Passive Resistance

This Cultural Literacy worksheet on passive resistance as a means of protest ought to have great currency at the moment, especially when elected officials imply they will not participate in a peaceful transfer of governmental authority. The reading in this short exercise mentions Gandhi, but I don’t think teachers should let the opportunity pass to invoke the name of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., another practitioner of passive resistance who acknowledged his debt to Gandhi.

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: Nihilism

If you can use it (I didn’t fully understand the concept until I was well into my undergraduate education), here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on nihilism as a concept in philosophy, which is this word’s function at bottom–to dress up an abstract concept like a belief in nothing. You might want to help your students make the connection with the Latin word root nihil, which means, simply, nothing.

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.