Lasting Contributions

Open Ended

Describe an invention that has had a lasting impact. Explain how it has continued to influence people over time.

STEMS: 

One invention that has had a lasting impact on society is _.

It has continued to influence people by _.

Multiple Choice

Why do people continue traditions from their ancestors?

• Because traditions are fun and entertaining

• To keep their culture and history alive

• To forget where they came from

• So they can make new traditions

Multiple Choice

What are some ways people share their culture with others?

• Through music, language, and storytelling

• By keeping everything secret

• By avoiding new people and places

• Through only written records

Open Ended

What do people who move to a new country bring with them according to the text?

STEM: People who move to a new country bring with them _.

Fill in the Blanks

Adapting and preserving African culture was a survival strategy that helped them retain pride in their

.

Multiple Choice

What is the controlling idea (main idea) of paragraph 1?

• Africans lost all their traditions when they arrived in the Americas.

• Africans shared a single language and cultural identity that was specific to only one group.

• Africans adapted their traditions and enriched the culture of the Americas.

• Africans resisted all cultural changes in their new environment.

Multiple Choice

The result was a unique legacy that greatly enriched cultural life throughout the Americas and around the world.
Read the dictionary entry for the word legacy.

Which definition best matches the way legacy is used in paragraph 1?

• money or property left to someone

• a reputation or impact left behind

• an old system or practice

• legal document that states someone’s final wishes.

Multiple Choice

According to the introduction, what is the impact of African cultural traditions on the Americas?

• African customs blended into the cultures of the Americas, shaping traditions and influencing societies across the world.

• Africans brought their culture, but it disappeared due to forced assimilation.

• African traditions remained isolated and had little influence on other cultures.

• The traditions Africans brought were only practiced in secret and had no lasting impact.

Open Ended

Read paragraph 2.
QSSSA Activity
What is the main idea of paragraph 2?
STEM: The main idea of paragraph 2 is _.

Fill in the Blanks

Because many communities made it illegal for enslaved people to learn to read, Africans would pass along the history and social values of their homelands through

.

Fill in the Blanks

In West Africa, musicians and storytellers, known as

, had been doing this for generations.

Fill in the Blanks

Many of the folktales that were handed down

by enslaved people became part of mainstream American culture.

Fill in the Blanks

Among them are the Uncle Remus stories, which the African-American poet James Weldon Johnson called “the greatest body of

America has produced.”

Multiple Choice

What is most likely the reason the author included the information in paragraph 3?

• To show how enslaved Africans preserved their culture through oral storytelling and influenced American literature. 

• To explain why enslaved Africans were unable to read or write. 

• To argue that storytelling was the only way Africans could communicate in the Americas. 

• To compare the education of enslaved Africans with that of Europeans.

Multiple Choice

How does the author support the idea that African storytelling traditions had a lasting impact?

• The author explains that storytelling was illegal for enslaved people, and this was not an effective way to pass down culture.

• The author describes how storytelling helped Africans teach history and social values.

• The author argues that only African-American poets preserved these stories.

• The author states that all African folktales were lost over time.

Multiple Choice

Read paragraph 4 independently and answer the MC question.

How does the author use paragraph 4 to support the central idea of the text?

• By showing how enslaved people used music as a way to survive and preserve their culture

• By explaining how enslaved people created new musical instruments instead of using traditional ones

• By arguing that African music completely changed and lost its original form over time

• By describing how enslaved people abandoned their musical traditions after arriving in the Americas

Open Ended

How does the author explain the lasting impact of African music on American and global cultures?

Sentence Stem:
The author explains the lasting impact of African music by stating that _.

Multiple Select

Which sentences from the selection support the idea that African musical traditions have had a lasting influence on American music. Select TWO correct answers. 

• In West Africa, musicians and storytellers, known as griots, had been doing this for generations.

• Music was more than social entertainment. It was a means of self-expression and part of religious rituals.

• Enslaved people also kept alive the polyrhythmic music of their native homelands.

• All members of an enslaved community joined in the music-making by dancing, singing, clapping, or foot stomping.

• These music and dance forms lived on long after slavery ended.

Open Ended

QSSSA Activity

How does the text Lasting Contributions show that African art, music, and culture have influenced people over time?

Multiple Choice

What is the author’s main purpose in writing this text?

• To argue that African culture was completely lost after the Middle Passage

• To explain how African traditions influenced life in the Americas

• To describe the hardships Africans faced without discussing their contributions

• To compare African and European traditions before the slave trade

Multiple Choice

How does the structure of the section on music help develop the main idea?

• It explains the historical development of African-inspired music genres.

• It describes how Africans stopped playing music after they were enslaved.

• It argues that music was the only way Africans influenced American culture.

• It focuses only on religious uses of music and ignores its social impact.