“Term describing designs or forms carved or sunk into a surface, instead of standing out from it. A process used in germ carving as well as in the graphic arts, including engraving and etching.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
Posted in Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged art/architecture/design
“A comedy (c. 1600) by William Shakespeare (1564-1616). The story is based on Rosalynde: Euphue’s Golden Legacy (1590), a romance by Thomas Lodge (1557-1625), although the clown touchstone and the gloomy philosopher Jaques are purely Shakespeare’s inventions. Orlando is forced to flee the court of the usurping Duke Frederick. He takes refuge in the forest of Arden, where the usurping Duke and his followers are now living. Rosalind, the daughter of the usurped Duke is also obliged to flee, having previously fallen in love with Orlando (and he with her). Disguised as the youth Ganymede, she befriends Orlando and encourages him to practice his wooing of Rosalind on him (i.e. Ganymede). There are certain complications, involving various other sets of lovers. In the end, all is revealed, four pairs of lovers marry and Frederick the usurper surrenders the dukedom to its rightful owner.
The title indicates the playwright’s desire to please with his offering. At the end, Rosalind addresses the audience directly:
‘I charge you, O woman, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as please you; and I charge you, O men, for the love you bear to women—as I perceive by your simpering none of you hates them—that between you and the women the play may please.’ V. iv, Epilogue
‘What You Will,’ the subtitle of Twelfth Night, has an equivalent implication. Similar epilogues, asking the audience for their approbation and indulgence, were something of a theatrical convention at the time; for example, at the end of The Tempest Prospero speaks the epilogue, ending:
‘As you from crimes would pardon’d be,
Let your indulgence set me free.’ V. i, Epilogue
There is another example in All’s Well that Ends Well.
There have been two film versions of As You Like It. The 1936 version includes Laurence Olivier in the cast, and J.M. Barrie co-wrote the screenplay. The 1992 version turns the Forest of Arden into a London ‘cardboard city’ for the homeless.”
Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.
Posted in English Language Arts, Essays/Readings, Quotes, Reference
Tagged drama/theater, poetry
“An approach to learning based on the principle of ‘learning by doing’ in which new ideas develop. Discovery learning activities are designed so that students discover facts and principles themselves, through personal experience, rather than having them authoritatively explained by a textbook or a teacher. Discovery learning in prized by progressive and constructivist educators. Some of the principles of discovery learning have long been part of the repertoire of traditional teachers as well, especially in science classes, where, for example, students can directly observe the results of experiments. Critics claim that discovery learning is extremely time-consuming, difficult to manage, and inefficient because so much time is wasted waiting for students to ‘discover’ what is already known by their teachers.”
Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.
“…the author’s writing deteriorates in a peculiarly striking fashion as he lays about him with him with his satirical club… a very mystifying and unsatisfactory product for the American market.”
Excerpted from: Bernard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged fiction/literature, literary oddities
“Knowing is the measure of the man. By how much we know, so much we are.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) As quoted in The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1893)
Excerpted from: Howe, Randy, ed. The Quotable Teacher. Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2003.
“I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Letter from Birmingham Jail,” 16 April 1963
Excerpted from: Shapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
“It bears mentioning that cultural differences have nothing to do with intelligence and aptitude. It is hoped that the cognitively savvy educator will appreciate the unique perspectives—literally—that students from various backgrounds may have and exploit those differences to optimize and expand the learning opportunities for all students in a classroom.”
Excerpted from: Rekart, Jerome L. The Cognitive Classroom: Using Brain and Cognitive Science to Optimize Student Success. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2013.
Over the years I have been intermittently interested in the Trivium as a way of helping students to think in a linear manner. Anyone dealing with this medieval division and taxonomy of knowledge will quickly come into contact with Scholasticism, and, working backward chronologically, Aristotle. I still haven’t decided if a teacher could or should return to medieval categories of knowledge, but I do think there is a case to be made for teaching rhetoric in high school English Language Arts class.
Because I have some old-fashioned ideas about the equality of opportunity in society, I have made working in struggling, inner-city schools my office for my entire career. Last November, I made the move from one of these schools in New York City to one in Springfield, Massachusetts. One of the first documents to cross my purview in the service of a student was a writing assignment for a work of fiction in an English Language Arts class. My talented colleague, and I thank her for this, asked her students to use one of three rhetorical strategies in this assignment. It was a treat to see.
Anyway, along the way in trying to develop instructional materials related to rhetoric, I transcribed the gravamen of Aristotle’s analysis of rhetoric (from this edition of his treatise) for use in planning a unit on the it. If you can use it, there is a several-page Word document under that hyperlink
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.
“In Milwaukee last month a man died laughing over one of his own jokes. That’s what makes it so tough for us outsiders. We have to fight home competition.”
Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.
Posted in English Language Arts, New York City, Quotes, Reference
Tagged humor, literary oddities
“(1919-1987) Jewish-Italian memoirist, novelist, short-story writer, and poet. Levi was active in the resistance during World War II and was captured and sent to Auschwitz. After the war, he worked for many years as an industrial chemist. His best-known works are Se questo e un uomo (1947; tr If This Is a Man, 1959; U.S. Survival in Auschwitz, 1961) and La tregua (1958; tr The Truce; U.S. The Reawakening, 1963), the first and second volumes of his autobiographical trilogy. Both are Holocaust memoirs distinguished by a combination of compassion and detachment and an extraordinary absence of personal bitterness. A chemist by profession, Levi gained international attention with is final volume of autobiography, Il sistema periodico (1975; tr The Periodic Table, 1984), a brilliant tour de force consisting of twenty-one imaginative pieces, each named after a chemical element robing personal, social and political experiences. After the appearance of The Periodic Table Levi attracted much more attention among English-language readers; several translations of his books have appeared, including Se non ora, quando? (1982; tr If Not Now, When?, 1985), a novel, and The Monkey’s Wrench (1986).”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
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