Tag Archives: drama/theater

A Lesson Plan on the Greco-Roman Social

This lesson plan on the Greco-Roman social is the eleventh–see below–or an eleven-lesson unit on the origins of religion and philosophy. I grabbed this from a social studies teacher with whom I worked for several years in Lower Manhattan. The raw documents, which I typed and formatted Microsoft Word, looked like they came from someplace on the Internet similar to Mark’s Text Terminal.

In any case, I attached this Cultural Literacy worksheet on Aesop’s fables as wells as this one on the idiom “When in Rome, Do as the Romans Do” as openers for this lesson, which can easily go for two or even three days. In order to get this activity started, you’re students will need this list of participants in the social and the student worksheet and organizer that will serve as their dance card, so to speak, in this activity. I’ll include this teacher’s copy of the list of participants in the Greco-Roman social as well. I regret that the page numbers given for the readings are for a long-forgotten textbook that my co-teacher and I used for this enterprise. It shouldn’t be hard to replace my page numbers with those from whatever textbook your district uses for globals studies and geography.

As I worked my way through posting this unit,  I realized I wanted these lessons to span two days so I could get a look at kids’ short-term memories, whether something they’d read the day before remained with them, and if they could apply that knowledge the next day. This guided my planning and suggested to me what I might do in the way of support for the students I served. Let me reiterate once more than these lessons are the basis for a series of lessons that I recut every year to fit the fashions of the New York State Global Studies and Geography Regents Examination.

In the final analysis, I see a lot of room for improvement in these lessons. You probably will too. Remember that just about everything you download from Mark’s Text Terminal is in Microsoft Word, so you may alter this material to your students’ and your own needs.

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.

Rotten Reviews: Counting the Ways by Edward Albee

“…the play sounds like George Burns and Gracie Allen trying to keep up a dinner conversation with Wittgenstein…I have never seen such desperately ingratiating smiles on the faces of actors.”

 Newsweek

Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998. 

The Weekly Text, June 19, 2019: A Lesson on the Simple Past Tense of Verbs

This week’s Text, is a lesson plan on the simple past tense of verbs. I begin this lesson after a class change with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the famous proverb “Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned” (I’ve often heard this expression attributed to Shakespeare, but it actually comes from a play by Restoration dramatist William Congreve, “The Mourning Bride“). If circumstances necessitate a second day for this lesson, then here is another do-now exercise, this one a homophones worksheet on the worksheet on the adjectives veracious and voracious. You’ll need this scaffolded worksheet which is the primary work of this lesson; you and your students might also find useful this learning support and word bank. Finally, here is teacher’s copy of the 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.

Term of Art: Illusion

“Illusion: The semblance of reality and verisimilitude (q.v.) in art which most writers seek to create in order to enable the reader to think that he is seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting and smelling, or, conceivable, having some extra-sensory or kinesthetic experience. The creation of illusion is a cooperative act between writer and reader. It brings about in the reader what Coleridge called “the willing suspension of disbelief” (q.v.). However, the writer also destroys illusion, sometimes for a specific purpose: for example, to address the reader directly—a not uncommon practice among 18th and 19th century novelists. The contrast helps the illusion and at the same time sharpens and clarifies the impression of things happening at a distance. Illusion should be distinguished from delusion and hallucination.”

Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.

Historical Term: Agitprop

“agitprop Agitation propaganda, a theatrical device employed by the left-wing in Europe and the USA during the 1950s; in the 1960s it developed into what is now termed ‘street theater.’ Its purpose was to convey a political message, or political education, by seeking to interest and entertain.”

Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.

Frank Rich on “Starlight Express”

“A confusing jamboree of piercing noise, routine roller skating, misogyny and Orwellian special effects, Starlight Express is the perfect gift for the kid who has everything except parents.”

Frank Rich

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

The Algonquin Wits: George S. Kaufman to Adolph Zukor

“Hollywood’s Adolph Zukor was said to have offered a trifling $30,000 for movie rights to a Kaufman play. The playwright sent back a telegram offering Zukor $40,000 for Paramount.”

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.

Happening

“Happening: Happenings developed from a combination of assemblage and environment art as artists sought to free art further from the constraints of the wall and the frame. Resembling performance, these events often involved sculpture, sound, time, motion, and living persons. While participants began with a plan, there was no rehearsal and no repeat performance. Spontaneous audience participation was sometimes encouraged. Allen Kaprow is credited with inventing happenings, which took place in New York City in the 1960s.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

Arna Bontemps

“Arna [Wendell] Bontemps: (1902-1973) American writer, librarian, and teacher. Born in Alexandria, Louisiana, Bontemps moved to California at the age of three. After graduating from Pacific Union college in 1923, he moved to Harlem, where he emerged as an award-winning poet during the Harlem Renaissance. His best-known works, however, are his novels, particularly Black Thunder (1936), and historical novel about the abortive slave rebellion led by Gabriel Prosser in the Virginia of 1800. Bontemps’s most enduring legacy was his work as a librarian and historian of African-American culture. During his twenty-two year career as Librarian at Fisk University, he created one of the principal archival sources for study in the field. Among Bontemps’s thirty works are two additional novels, God Sends Sunday (1931) and Drums at Dusk (1939); a major anthology of folklore coedited with Langston Hughes, The Book of Negro Folklore (1958). A collection of memoirs, The Harlem Renaissance Remembered: Essays (1972); and several histories and fictional accounts of black life written for a juvenile audience. He collaborated with Countee Cullen to transform God Sends Sunday into a successful Broadway musical, St. Louis Woman (1945).”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

Harlem Renaissance

“Harlem Renaissance: With the largest concentration of African-American, West Indian, and African populations in the U.S., Harlem had become the ‘Negro Capital’ (as it was then called) of America by the early 20th century. After World War I, the flourishing intellectual, artistic, musical and political scene focused on historical recollection and redefinition of the African-American experience. Among the best-known artists are Aaron Douglas, William Johnson, and Jacob Lawrence.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.