Tag Archives: cultural literacy

A Lesson Plan on the Crime and Puzzlement Case “Fragment”

Here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “Fragment.” Suffice it to say that this is the first of many of these.

I’ve put up a couple of these before, and traffic to them is consistent. For this one, here is the Cultural Literacy do-now exercise on the idiom “An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure.” From the book itself, here is a PDF of the illustration of the evidence with the questions students will consider in analysis and contemplation as they resolve the crime. Finally, here is teacher’s answer key to this case.

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: Archetype

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on archetype as it is generally conceptualized; it’s nice to see–however brief–the excursus on Carl Jung’s psychology in this passage.

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, December 21, 2018: A Literacy Lesson on the Word and Concept Factor

Today is the Winter Solstice, so the days now begin to lengthen. Spring is on the horizon.

This week’s Text is a complete lesson plan on the word factor that I developed on the fly (which shows, I fear) three years ago. The purpose of the lesson is to help students understand this complicated, polysemous word so that could use it in all the settings where it becomes, well, a factor.

For reasons I don’t entirely recall, I conceived of this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the noun axiom as the do-now, or opener of this lesson. I suspect I sought merely to introduce another concept from mathematics for the sake of consistency. The first worksheet for this lesson is three context clues worksheets on factor: in the first instance students will identify it as a noun, in the second as a verb, and in the third and final worksheet, it is once again used as a noun. To support this activity, here is a learning support in the form of definitions of factor in the order it appears on the context clues worksheets; this can be distributed to students as appropriate, or to your class linguist. Because I wasn’t sure how long any of this would take (the institute class for which it was written was a little over an hour long), I threw in this reading and comprehension worksheet on factorials as a complement. Parenthetically, I’ll just say that I think this lesson is incomplete; in fact, before I could consider it complete, I would want to run it by a math teacher or two.

And that’s it. This is the final Weekly Text from Mark’s Text Terminal for 2018. I plan to spend the next week doing just about anything but looking at a computer screen.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

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: Any Port in a Storm

If you need it, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the idiom “any port in a storm.”

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: Anthropomorphism

In my classroom, we recently completed a vocabulary building exercise using the Greek word roots anthro– and anthropo-  (they mean man and human) as a starting point. Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on anthropomorphism to deepen understanding of this particular concept if anyone is interested.

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: The Women’s Movement

On a grey and chilly Saturday morning, here is something timely: a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Women’s Movement. It might help your students understand how we reached the point we have in our zeitgeist. It turns out, to the surprise of very few, that women prefer not to be thought of or treated like objects.

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: Supply and Demand

Here’s a Cultural Literacy worksheet on supply and demand if you can use it. I can think of a number of ways and places to use this document–it does, after all, introduce students to a fundamental concept in economics.

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: Separation of Church and State

Since the zeitgeist appears to demand it, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the separation of church and state.

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: OPEC

On my way out the door on a chilly, damp morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on OPEC, i.e. the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Given the extent to which the Saudi Royal Family has been in the news for its complicity in the murder of a journalist, as well as the manifest effect burning fossil fuel now has on the ecology of this planet, this seems like a timely reading and comprehension exercise.

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: The Pentagon Papers

Given the state of the nation, now seems as good a time as any to post this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Pentagon Papers. And thanks, Daniel Ellsberg,

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.