Tag Archives: questioning/inquiry

The Weekly Text, Friday 9 June 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 14, The Message: Hip-Hop as Political and Social Manifesto

Don’t worry, after this, only two lessons remain to post in the History of Hip-Hop Unit. This week’s Text is lesson plan fourteen of the unit, on Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s seminal Hip-Hop recording, “The Message.” This lesson begins, after your class change, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of a manifesto. The central work of this lesson is a reading, and a listening, for which I use this Official Video of the song on YouTube, and the lyrics to the song, to guide students toward completing these comprehension and analytical questions on these verses.

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.

The Weekly Text, Friday 2 June 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 13, Breaking into the Charts: Hip-Hop as Party Music

This week’s Text offers the thirteenth lesson plan of the History of Hip-Hop Unit. This lesson opens, after a class change, with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Nation of Islam. The principal work of this lesson are the lyrics to “Rapper’s Delight” by the Sugarhill Gang and “The Breaks” by Kurtis Blow, and the comprehension and analytical questions about those lyrics. You can find both of these songs on YouTube–and in the case of “The Breaks” a live performance by Kurtis Blow on Soul Train. I’ve shown parts of both–and nota bene, please, that “Rapper’s Delight,” depending on which version you land on, can be a long song.

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.

The Weekly Text, 26 May 2023, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Kemal Ataturk

Alright, for the final Friday of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2023, here is a reading on Kemal Ataturk along with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension 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.

The Weekly Text, 19 May 2023, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Iwo Jima

Here is a reading on Iwo Jima along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet in observance of Week III of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2023. This is of course, a topic in United States history as well. The battle fought on the island of Iwo Jima produced one of the most iconic war photographs, that of the United States flag being raised there, of the Second World War–and perhaps ever. That photograph inspired the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.

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.

The Weekly Text, 12 May 2023, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Week II: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on the Gulf War

On week II of Asian American Pacific Islander Month 2023, here is reading on the Gulf War along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. Nota bene, please, that these documents deal with the first Gulf War, which effectively began when Iraq invaded Kuwait on 2 August 1990. The war itself, or at least the 39-country military coalition’s (which, as the Wikipedia page accurately points out, was “spearheaded by the United States”) involvement, began in 17 January 1991 and was over by 28 February in that year.

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.

The Weekly Text, 5 May 2023, Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Mencius

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. For the next four Fridays, Mark’s Text Terminal will feature Weekly Texts, documents posts, and quotes that call attention to the numerous contributions that the part of the world the Ancient Greeks, specifically Herodotus, named Asia.

So, let’s begin the month with this reading on Mencius along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension 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.

The Weekly Text, Friday 28 April 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 12, DJ Kool Herc Steps Forward to Sample in The Bronx

Continuing with the History of Hip-Hop Unit, here is lesson plan twelve, on Clive Campbell, aka DJ Kool Herc. This Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) begins the lesson. The centerpiece of this lesson is this reading on Clive Campbell  with its accompanying comprehension worksheet.

And that is that for another week.

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.

The Weekly Text, Friday 21 April 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 11, Gil Scott-Heron: Black Power Griot of Harlem

This week’s Text, following in sequence, is the eleventh lesson plan of the History of Hip-Hop unit, this one on the late, great, Gil Scott-Heron. This lesson begins with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the National Association for the the Advancement of Colored People. The center of this lesson is this adapted reading on Gil Scott-Heron with its comprehension worksheet to accompany it.

This lesson also includes listening to two of Gil Scott-Heron’s songs, both of which are available on YouTube. Here are the lyrics to “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” and “The Bottle.”

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.

The Weekly Text, Friday 14 April 2023: History of Hip-Hop Lesson 10, The Last Poets, Harlem Griots

Moving along with the History of Hip-Hop unit, this week’s Text is the tenth lesson plan, on The Last Poets. I open this lesson with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Malcolm X. From there we proceed to the mainstay of the lesson, this adapted reading on The Last Poets and its attendant comprehension-building worksheet.

Incidentally, if you’re interested in the full text from which the reading above was adapted, here is a PDF of the master of the reading. I snipped this from a copy of Uncut magazine back when the Hip-Hop fanzines were still published in paper and available at the Borders on Lower Broadway (very near Wall), near the school where I served at that time and where I would pick them up. So, we’re talking, basically, about pre-2008, which is when Borders ceased to exist, a casualty of the financial crisis that year. I had a hell of a time finding the citation, but I am relatively confident of it.

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.

Flagpole Sitting

If not for the one request over the years for this reading on the daredevil stunt of flagpole sitting that was somehow in vogue in the United States in the 1920s, supply would at present exceed demand. The reading, interestingly, makes the connection between this risky and arguable peculiar activity with the unusual form of monasticism of Simeon Stylites, a Christian ascetic who lived in the late-forth and early-fifth centuries CE. Anyway, here is the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that attends the reading.

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.