Tag Archives: professional development

Term of Art: Spatial Relationships

Posted on April 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

“spatial relationships: The relative positions of objects in a space. Children learn about spatial relationships at an early age as they manipulate toys and other objects. Academically, spatial relationships are involved in the acquisition of reading skills and mathematics: a child must perceive the space between words in a sentence in order to understand the concept of a sentence. In math, understanding spatial relationships is essential for developing many types of math skills such as computation, graphing, and understanding a number line. For example, a child can recognize that the toy is on top of or above the bed; in looking at a picture, a child can recognize that the moon is above the ground, This understanding is often obvious in children’s drawings.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

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Metaphor

Posted on April 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Metaphor: (Greek “carrying from one place to another”) A figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another. The basic figure in poetry. A comparison is usually implicit; whereas in simile (q.v.) it is explicit. There are several metaphors in these lines from the beginning of R.S. Thomas’s Song at the Year’s Turning:

‘Shelley dreamed it. Now the dream decays.

The props crumble. The familiar ways

Are stale with tears trodden underfoot.

The heart’s flower withers at the root.

Bury it, then, in history’s sterile dust.

The slow years shall tame your tawny lust.’

See ORGANIC METAPHOR; TELESCOPED METAPHOR; TENOR AND VEHICLE.”

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

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Tin Pan Alley

Posted on April 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Tin Pan Alley: Genre of U.S. popular music that arose in New York in the late 19th century. The name was coined by the songwriter Monroe Rosenfeld as the byname of the street on which the industry was based—28th Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway in the early 20th century, around Broadway and 32nd Street in the 1920s, and ultimately on Broadway between 42nd and 50th Streets. ‘Tin Pan’ referred to the sound of pianos furiously pounded by ‘song pluggers‘ demonstrating tunes to publishers. The genre comprised the commercial music of songwriters of ballads, dance music, and vaudeville songs, and its name eventually became synonymous with U.S. popular music. Its demise resulted from the rise of film, audio recording, radio, and TV, which created a demand for more and different kinds of music, and commercial songwriting centers grew up in such cities as Hollywood and Nashville.”

Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Metonymy

Posted on April 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Metonymy: (Greek ‘name change’) A figure of speech in which the name or an attribute or a thing is substituted for the thing itself. Common examples are The Stage’ for the theatrical profession; ‘The Crown’ for the monarchy; ‘The Bench’ for the judiciary; ‘Dante’ for his works. See also ANTONOMASIA; METALEPSIS; SYNECHDOCHE.”

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

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Grammar

Posted on April 15, 2022 | Leave a comment

Grammar: Rules of a language governing its phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics; also, a written summary of such rules. The first Europeans to write grammar texts were the Greeks, notably the Alexandrians of the 1st century BC. The Romans applied the Greek grammatical system to Latin, The works of the Latin Grammarians Donatus (4th century BC) and Priscian (6th century) were widely used to teach grammar in Medieval Europe. By 1700, grammars of 61 vernacular languages had been printed. These were mainly used for teaching and were intended to reform or standardize language. In the 19th-20th centuries linguists began studying languages to trace their evolution father than to prescribe correct usage. Descriptive linguists (see Ferdinand de Saussure) studied spoken language by collecting and analyzing sample sentences. Transformational grammarians (see Noam Chomsky) examined the underlying structure of language (see generative grammar). The older approach to grammar as a body of rules needed to speak and write correctly is still the basis of primary and secondary teaching.

Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Auxiliary Verb

Posted on April 14, 2022 | Leave a comment

“auxiliary: In grammar, a verb that is subordinate to the main lexical verb in a clause. Auxiliaries can convey distinctions of tense, aspect, mood, person, and number. In Germanic languages, such as English and Romance languages such as French, an auxiliary verb occurs with the main verb in the form of an infinitive or a participle.”

Excerpted/Adapted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Term of Art: Small School Movement

Posted on April 14, 2022 | Leave a comment

“small schools movement: A movement initiated in the 1970s, mainly in New York City, to establish small schools. Some of these schools were alternative schools for adolescents in need of intensive remediation, whereas others set out to demonstrate that students would get a better education in schools containing fewer than 500 students. Interest in the small schools movement was propelled by pioneers Deborah Meier and her Central Park East schools in East Harlem in New York City and Theodore Sizer and his Coalition of Essential Schools. The movement continued to grow during the 1980s and 1990s and gained momentum with the commitment of $1 billion by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the late 1990s. With funding from the Gates Foundation, many cities across the United States agreed to divide their high schools into small schools. Advocates claim that small schools offer a warmer, more personalized climate than do large schools and consequently boast higher achievement, attendance, and graduation rates. Critics contend that the small schools are unable to mount a strong curriculum with advanced courses and that the administrative costs of small schools are excessive, the burden on teachers is greater, and the academic results are uncertain.”

Excerpted from: Ravitch, Diane. EdSpeak: A Glossary of Education Terms, Phrases, Buzzwords, and Jargon. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2007.

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Term of Art: Perseveration

Posted on April 7, 2022 | Leave a comment

“perseveration: Persistent repetition of a behavior or activity regardless of the result, or having trouble switching from one activity to another. Extreme examples of perseveration may be seen in individuals with a developmental disability or autism., for whom repetitive hand motions, rocking, or other movements are common characteristics. More typical examples in childhood might involve singing a song from a video again and again.

In a school setting, perseveration can be used to describe the fixation on a specific element in a broader task, such as spending all of the time of an exam on a single essay question. Psychologists often encounter perseveration in students they evaluate for learning disabilities. For example, if a student is told to copy six small circles in a straight row, the student may make all the circles all the way across the width of the page, drawing 30 or more. Teachers and parents often report perseverative behaviors among students with learning disabilities and ADHD. For example, if they ask the student to hop four times on the left foot, the student may hop 20 or more times or until he or she lose balance.

This type of behavior may be caused by inflexible strategies and problems in shifting from one task to another.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

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The Magic Mountain

Posted on April 1, 2022 | Leave a comment

“The Magic Mountain: (German title: Der Zauberberg). A novel (1924; English translation 1927) by Thomas Mann (1875-1955). The densely symbolic story is centered on a young man, Hans Castorp, who goes to visit his cousin at Haus Berghof, a high-altitude sanatorium for people with tuberculosis at Davos in the Swiss Alps. Castorp is fascinated by the place, and ends up staying there for years, searching for self-knowledge while prevaricating between the demands of reason and action on the one hand, and mysticism and decadence on the other. The novel is ultimately a symbolic study of the uneasy situation in Europe before the outbreak of the First World War, and explores the isolation of the world of art and philosophy (the mountain) from the crisis of contemporary existence below.”

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

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Term of Art: Neuropsychological Examination

Posted on April 1, 2022 | Leave a comment

“neuropsychological examination: Testing that explores a number of broad areas in the brain and behavioral functioning, including intellectual functioning, attention, language, sensorimotor functions, executive functions, and social and emotional functions. They also measure specific skills, such as memory, concentration, problem solving, and learning.

A neuropsychological examination typically involves administration of a complex battery of tests designed to identify levels of functioning within specific areas and to compare abilities and problems in all areas.

Also called ‘information processing tests,’ this type of testing reveals how the brain and nervous system interact. A complete neuropsychological evaluation begins with information about a child’s education and physical, social, and psychological development. Then tests are used to measure a wide range of areas, including focus and attention, motor skills, sensory acuity, working memory, learning, intelligence, language, arithmetic skills, problem solving, judgment, abstract thinking, mood, temperament, the ability to interpret and apply meaning to visual information, and other skills.

A neuropsychological examination might be recommended if a child has experienced a medical condition or injury that could affect brain health, a sudden or unexpected change in thinking, failure to improve with therapy or special education help, or complex learning and behavior patterns that other evaluations have not identified.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

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