Tag Archives: fiction/literature

Aesop’s Fables: “The Bear and the Travelers”

Here is a lesson plan on the Aesop’s Fable “The Bear and the Travelers.” You and your students will, of course, need the the reading and comprehension questions that are the center of this short lesson.

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.

5 Wizards in Lord of the Rings

“Saruman the White * Gandalf the Grey * Radagast the Brown * Alatar also named Morinehtar * Pallando also named Romestamo

The Five are known as Wizards by men, and as the Istari by Elves, and their role is to assist Middle-Earth. Saruman is the man of skills; Gandalf is the elf of the staff; the dreamer; Radagast is the friend of birds and tender of beasts; Alatar (also named Morinehtar) and Pallando (Romestamo) are the sky-blue wizards who journey into the east and out of the story.”

Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.

Aesop’s Fables: “The Milkmaid and Her Pail”

Here is a lesson plan on the Aesop’s Fable “The Milkmaid and Her Pail.” Of course you’ll need the reading with its comprehension questions to teach this short passage on hopes and reality.

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.

Evelyne Accad

“Evelyne Accad: (1943-) Lebanese poet, novelist, and literary critic. Born in Lebanon, she emigrated to France in her twenties. Among her critical works is Sexuality and War: Literary Masks of the Middle East (1990), which draws upon her experience of the civil war in Lebanon, feminist and antiwar theory, and an extensive reading of such authors as Tahar Ben Jelloun and Etel Adnan. Accad’s only novel available in English, L’Excisee (1982; tr The Excised Woman, 1989), analyzes ritual clitoridectomy and its effects on young Muslim women, usually ‘female excision’ as a metaphor that includes the suppression of women on a broader, cultural level. Accad has authored five other works of criticism, fiction, and poetry.”

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Book of Answers: Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

“What Kurt Vonnegut character invented ice-nine? Dr. Felix Hoenikker in Cat’s Cradle (1963). Ice-nine is a form of water that freezes at 114.1 degrees Fahrenheit. When it is accidentally released into the ocean, it freezes the entire world.”

Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.

Aesop’s Fables: “The Ass, The Fox, and The Lion”

For younger kids, or for English language learners, here is a lesson plan on Aesop’s fable “The Ass, The Fox, and The Lion” and its accompanying reading with comprehension and interpretive questions in worksheet form. If nothing else, I expect (though perhaps I project because I got such a kick out of this as a young reader) younger kids will enjoy hearing a donkey called an “ass.”

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: Alliteration

“Alliteration (noun) Recurrence of stressed sounds in words near one another, usually of initial consonants. Adj. alliterative; adv. Alliteratively; v. alliterate.

‘Even a writer who doesn’t, as Chandler usually did, clean as he goes, would normally liquidate so languorous an alliterative lullaby long before the final draft.'”

Clive James, First Reactions

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

Symbolist Movement

“Symbolist Movement: A literary movement in France (Stephane Mallarme, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine) which got underway about 1885 in reaction to Realism and Impressionism. In painting, Gustave Moreau, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Odilon Redon, and Gustav Klimt produced lyrical dream fantasies, combining mystical elements with an interest in the erotic and decadent.”

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

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

The Satanic Verses: A novel (1988) by Salman Rushdie (b.1947). Questions of faith and doubt underlie this panoramic vision of the clash of cultures between East and West, which encompasses Britain during the Thatcherite era, India, and the mystical landscape in which the Prophet Mahound does battle. The ‘satanic verses’ are whispered by Shaitan in the ear of Mahound, who then repudiates them:

‘The devil came to him in the guise of the archangel, so that the verses he memorized…were not the real thing but its diabolical opposite, not godly, but satanic.’

The novel gave offense to Muslims for certain remarks put into the mouths of its characters. As a result, a Muslim fatwa (legal ruling) was issued by Ayatollah Khomeini, the religious leader of Iran, declaring Rushdie and apostate who should be killed for insulting the Prophet Muhammad. On 24 September 1998, after Rushdie had spent the intervening period in hiding, the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran announced that it had no intention, nor would it take any action, to threaten Rushdie’s life or anybody associated with his work, or encourage or assist anybody to do so.”

Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.

Cultural Literacy: James Joyce

It’s hard to imagine there will be much demand even at the high school level for this Cultural Literacy worksheet on James Joyce. But who knows? More startling things have happened in my classrooms, to be sure.

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.