Tag Archives: cultural literacy

Cultural Literacy: Academy Awards

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Academy Awards. This may be high-interest material for some students, though I can’t recall any of students I’ve served asking for it–so I have not tagged it as high interest.

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: All’s Fair in Love and War

OK, last but not least this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “All’s Fair in Love and War.” It’s a nice abstract expression that students, if you want to augment, could work to reify in a few sentences.

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.

A Lesson Plan on Historical Disciplines and the Division of Labor within Them

Here is a lesson plan on the division of labor within academic historical disciplines. I start this lesson off with this context clues worksheet on the adjective scarce. If the lesson goes into a second day on account of classroom conditions, I keep this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of class struggle nearby. As I think about it, I think I made a point of either teaching this with the lesson, or perhaps assigning it as independent practice (i.e. homework). This scaffolded worksheet is at the center of the unit; here is the teacher’s copy of it to get you through the lesson with something resembling ease.

Incidentally, I wrote this lesson because there were, for the several years I taught the subject in New York City, a couple of questions at the beginning of the New York State Global Studies and Geography Regents Examinations on who might perform a specific task in a historical inquiry. I took this a step further because I wanted to build a literacy lesson as well as give students a preview of potential college areas of study and majors.

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.

A Lesson Plan on Using Linking Verbs

Here is a lesson plan on using linking verbs, which is the first part of two lessons on using these kinds of verbs with predicate adjectives. This is a very common syntactical structure in English, so I have a number of lessons, using a number of strategies and parts of speech, that aim to help students develop their own mastery over this kind of sentence.

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on intransitive verbs; in the event that the lesson goes into a second day, I keep this homophones worksheet on the adjectives hardy and hearty nearby. This learning support is a word bank of predicate adjectives to use with this scaffolded worksheet that is the center of the lesson. Finally, here is the teacher’s copy of the worksheet.

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: Italics

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on italics that introduces this typeface to students. Given that MLA style in now calls for titles of books and journals to be placed in italics, this is a quick way to help students develop their own understanding of the use of italic fonts.

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “The $40,000 Raffle”

Last but not least this morning, here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “The $40,000 Raffle.” You’ll need this PDF of the illustration and questions to conduct your investigation of this case. To solve it, in the final analysis, you’ll want the typescript of the answer key.

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “Carry a Torch for.” Older people will recognize this as an expression meaning, in today’s parlance, “having a crush on,” or more succinctly, “crushing on.” I’ll let the great Louis Jordan (lyrics by the equally great Jon Hendricks) explain it:

“I’m the man for you and so you better start to face it
If you ever lose my love you know you never can replace it
I think it’s time for you to start to givin’ me some lovin’
‘Cause I’m carryin’ a torch for you that’s hotter than a oven
It’s time for you and me to do a little turtle-dovin'”

Enough said!

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: Knee-Jerk Reflex

OK, moving right along this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of the “knee-jerk reflex.” This squib that drives this worksheet does a nice, succinct job of showing the relationship between the literal and the metaphorical in this expression–so that’s a concept you might be able to explore in greater depth consequent to this document.

Just sayin’.

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “A Case of Kippers”

Alright, last but not least this morning, here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “A Case of Kippers.”

I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “burning the candle at both ends.” Here is the PDF of the illustration and questions you and your students will need to conduct this investigation. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key so that you and your class 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: Limerick

Here’s a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the limerick as a poetic form. This might be something to use with English language learners.

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.

A Lesson Plan on the Possessive Case of Nouns

Last but not least this morning, here is a lesson plan on the possessive case of nouns. I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the grim reaper, a subject which rarely fails to elicit student interest right at the beginning of a class period. Here is a learning support on this area of grammar and punctuation. This scaffolded worksheet is the centerpiece of this lesson; finally, here is the teacher’s copy of the worksheet.

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.