“Herm: Pillar-form sculpture of classical antiquity, typically with a bearded face, armless torso, and prominent phallus. Originally, it probably represented the god Hermes. In European iconography it is symbolic of revelry and abandonment.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
To finish up this morning, here is a reading on Bono, the lead singer of the rock group U2, along with its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This work raises some interesting questions about the privileges and responsibilities of fame. I’ve never been a big fan of U2, and Bono has been a bit too messianic for my tastes. In any case, I assume that this is high-interest material, so I have tagged it as such.
It’s hard to argue, however, with the way he has accepted social responsibility for his fame and used it for good works.
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.
“ailing giants Declining industries in the 1920s and 30s—coal, textiles, shipbuilding, iron and steel—which had formed the basis of Britain’s 19-century supremacy. Weakened by outdated techniques and management, falling demand and foreign competition, they accounted for the bulk of long-term unemployment.”
Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged term of art, united states history
This Cultural Literacy worksheet on the British Empire probably has a number of uses in a social studies classroom, including as an independent practice (i.e. homework) 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.
“Renaissance Art: Strictly, art of the period from ca. 1400 to ca. 1520, but sometimes traced back to the time of Giotto, ca. 1300. During the 14th century, Italian art, especially painting, increasingly took account of scientific perspective and moved toward realism. During the 15th century, early Renaissance development was spurred by the rediscovery of ancient classical art. Reached its climax in the first decades of the 16th century with High Renaissance Art.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged art/architecture/design
Here is a lesson plan on the Crime and Puzzlement case “The Great ‘Drug’ Bust.”
If you use do-not exercises at the beginning of lessons, then the one for this lesson is this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the legend of Saint George and the Dragon. To investigate this case, you’ll need the PDF of the illustration and questions that contain the evidence of this crime. Finally, here is the typescript of the answer key to help you apprehend your culprit.
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.
“Good God, I can’t publish this. We’d both be in jail.”
William Faulkner II: Sartoris
“If the book had a plot and structure, we might suggest shortening and revisions, but it is so diffuse that I don’t this would be of any use. My chief objection is that you don’t have any story to tell.”
Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged fiction/literature, humor, literary oddities
The first record I owned, at the age of ten or eleven, was Pete Seeger Sings Woody Guthrie. My father brought it home for me one day. I loved it from the first time I listened to it, and I still listen to it now. Within a couple of years, I managed to follow Woody Guthrie’s influence to Bob Dylan, whose music I also continue to listen to almost 50 years later. In fact, many of his records, particularly Blood on the Tracks and John Wesley Harding receive almost weekly play here at Mark’s Text Terminal.
To my mind, it’s nearly impossible to underestimate the cultural importance of Bob Dylan’s work. In fact, so much ink has been spelled on it by so many astute critics that I hardly need to belabor the point here. While I know his selection for the Nobel Prize in Literature is controversial, my own opinion is that the man who wrote “Desolation Row” and “Visions of Johanna,” to mention just two of his most brilliant songs, certainly earned his laurels as a writer of lasting worth and importance.
So, last but not least on this May morning, I have two sets of readings and comprehension worksheets on Bob Dylan. The first set is a general biography of Bob Dylan’s musical career and is in some respects anodyne. The second set, which to some extent, by comparison, renders the first set of documents anodyne, is this reading and comprehension worksheet on Bob Dylan’s switch to electric music in 1965 and his legendary (or legendarily disastrous) appearance at the Newport Folk Festival in that year. It’s worth mentioning that Dylan’s appearance at Newport in 1965 is something of a cultural touchstone, both a gotterdammerung moment and an intimation of what was to come in American popular music. It pops up in various places as a reference point to a particular moment in the history of popular music.
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.
“What is Babbitt’s profession? George F. Babbitt (1922), is a real estate dealer in Zenith, an average American city. He is married to Myra Babbitt; his children are named Verona and Ted.”
Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“Synthesis: The combination of two (or more) contradictory phenomena to produce something qualitatively new. The term is usually associated with the dialectical logic employed by some Marxists: for example, the economic contradictions of capitalism and the class conflict they generate, together produce socialism.”
Excerpted from: Marshall, Gordon, ed. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
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