Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Gloria Steinem. This is a half-page worksheet with a long, compound, one-sentence reading and one comprehension question. A spare, and I do mean spare, introduction to this important 20th century figure.
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.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Ella Wheeler Wilcox, who authored the famous, if insipid, saying “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone.” Her biography is quite rich, and she was apparently prolific.
This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences and three comprehension questions. A spare, but effective, introduction to a poet who, I’ll hazard a guess, is largely forgotten–which arouses the question: is any poet remembered today?
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.
“Lydia Maria Child originally Lydia Maria Francis: (1802-1880) U.S. abolitionist. Born in Medford, Massachusetts, she wrote historical novels and a popular manual, The Frugal Housewife (1829), and founded the first children’s periodical, Juvenile Miscellany. After meeting William Lloyd Garrison in 1831, she became active in abolitionist work. Her Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans (1833) was widely read and induced many to join the abolitionist cause. She edited the National Anti-Slavery Standard (1841-43) and made her home a stage on the Underground Railroad.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
OK, we’ve rounded to corner to March, during which Mark’s Text Terminal, conforming to the latest consensus, observes Women’s History Month. The first Weekly Text for this month is this reading on Harriet Tubman 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.
“As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me—
although you’re older—and
white
and somewhat more free.
This is my page for English B.”
“Theme for English B l. 37″ (1951)
Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Posted in English Language Arts, New York City, Quotes
Tagged black history, poetry, united states history
“Brian and Eddie Holland (originally Edward): U.S. songwriters and producers. In 1962 the Detroit-born brothers Brian (b.1941) and Eddie (b.1939) formed a team with Lamont Dozier (b.1941) which subsequently created a series of hits for almost every artist on the Motown label, and helped define its characteristic sound through blending elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues with elaborate arrangements. Their songs include ‘Baby Love,’ ‘Stop! In the Name of Love’ (two of the seven number one hits they wrote for the Supremes), ‘Heat Wave,’ ‘Baby I Need Your Loving,’ and dozens of other hit for such artists as Marvin Gaye and the Temptations.”
Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Harlem Renaissance. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences (one of which, longish, presents a nice summary list of writers associated with the Harlem Renaissance) and three comprehension questions.
Once again, this is a short document that serves as a good general introduction to one of the most significant and consequential moments in 20th-century American cultural 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.
“Sarah Breedlove Walker originally Sarah Breedlove: (1867-1919) U.S. businesswoman and philanthropist, the first black female millionaire in the U.S. Born near Delta, Louisiana, she was a widowed washerwoman with a daughter to support in 1905 when she developed a method for straightening curly hair. She founded the Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Co. to sell her treatment, and her door-to-door saleswomen became familiar figures in the black communities in the U.S. and the Caribbean. In 1910 she moved her company to Indianapolis. She augmented her earnings with shrewd real-estate investments, and she donated two-thirds of her fortune to charitable and educational institutions. Her daughter, A’lelia Walker Kennedy, hosted salons where artists and cultural figures mingled during the Harlem Renaissance.”
Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
For the final Friday of Black History Month 2025, the Weekly Text from Mark’s Text Terminal is this reading on Langston Hughes along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. These documents join a solid body of material by and about Langston Hughes on this blog.; to find others, just search his name on the home page.
And now we move on to Women’s History Month 2025 in March.
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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