Search

This curriculum guide is intended to introduce elementary school students to Greek mythology. The authors suggest that the selections be presented by the teacher as lively and imaginative stories; the more abstract aspects of the myths should be largely ignored until students reach the junior high school level. In addition to the myths themselves, the guide also includes suggested teaching activities, questions for class discussion, and numerous illustrations. (See related documents CS 200 500, CS 200 502-CS 200 508.) (DI)

This curriculum guide is intended to introduce elementary school students to Norse mythology. Nine myths are included: "The Creation,""Yggdrasil,""A Meeting of the Gods,""The Fenris Wolf,""Thor's Journey,""The Theft of Thor's Hammer,""The Death of Balder,""The Punishment of Loki," and "Ragnarok: The Sun Sets on Asgard." The guide also includes suggested teaching activities, questions for class discussion, and numerous illustrations. (See related documents CS 200 500-501, CS 200 503-508.) (DI)

This curriculum guide is intended to introduce elementary school students to fables. The authors suggest that the fables not be studied as a unit, but that they be used periodically along with other genres of literature. The guide is organized into the following categories: (1) fables with animals, (2) fables with people, (3) inanimate objects, (4) animals wearing other animals' skins, (5) anthology, and (6) proverbs. In addition to the fables themselves, the guide also includes suggested teaching activities, questions for class discussion, and numerous illustrations. (See CS 200 501-CS 200 508 for related documents.) (DI)

This tongue-in-cheek paper represents that ideal and fictitious being, "Joe Personnel", as envisioned by critics of regularly-organized student personnel services. They contend that, since people have, for centuries, handled their own problems, they should be capable of doing so today, and that any assistance needed can be provided by a single campus functionary, "Joe Personnel". "Joe" is expected to combine the devotion of James Conant, the enthusiasm and wit of Bob Hope, the knowledge of Don Super and Carl Rogers, and the compassion of Albert Schweitzer--in short, he must be Socrates, Christ and Dear Abby rolled into one. His need to function constantly and mechanically in behalf of all the students on campus wears him out so that he dies at an early age, declaring his wish to be buried deep, with "the computer at his feet, the typewriter over his empty heart cavity, and the telephone at his head.""Tell the Administration," wails Joe's epitaph, "they're why I'm dead." (Author/CJ)

The IALAC (I Am Loveable and Capable) story presents one day in the life of 14 year old Randy, who puts on his IALAC sign each morning and sets out to face the world. As "put-downs" occur at home and at school, little pieces of his sign are torn away; by the end of the day very little of the sign remains. This allegory is a tool for humanistic education which can be used by a teacher, clergyman, student, or any group leader who is concerned with making people feel loveable and capable. It deals with the "put-down," an American idiosyncrasy, which inhibits humanistic values. The content of the IALAC story can be modified to fit specific groups or dramatized for student participation. (JH)

The significance of Bergman's "Seventh Seal" lies not in the speeches nor in the actions of the central characters but rather in the film's form, its totality created by the emotive elements of imagery and sound together with the intellectual elements of actions and words. The scene-units are related to a central motif (the opening of the seventh seal in the "Book of Revelations") and they trace the reactions of the characters to this sentence of death. Each character, directly or indirectly, searches for meaning within the perspective of a meaningless universe ravaged by the plague; e.g., the Knight, unable to find values in the Crusades, attempts to find significance in the game of chess with Death. The voices of the flagellants, the hedonists, the cynics, the pathetic, and most of the main characters are all drawn together in the knight's deserted castle, and their lives are closed by the girl's final, "It is finished." Only Joseph, Mia, and their son Michael pass through the storm to meet a new bright dawn. (LH)

An analysis of a poem by San Juan de la Cruz (St. John of the Cross), the sixteenth century Spanish mystic, identifies symbols and images, explains themes, and offers a synthesis of his structural patterns. The poem, "Tras de amoroso lance", deals with the theme of the search of the beloved (i.e., the soul) for the lover, and incorporates the mystical concept which differentiates between erotic and divine love. Although the poems are love poems and as such are passionate and delicate, they are allegories of the mystical ascent of the soul to the state of union with God. Falconry ("caza cetrera") symbolizes this search and a finding of divine love. The poet employs reiteration, alliteration, and hendecasyllables frequently in his refrains. The imagery for the verse is drawn from the Spanish poet, Garcilaso de la Vega, and from the "Song of Songs". Through his sense of allusive eroticism and his aesthetic mysticism, the poet, furthermore, eliminates all ambiguity from his work. (DS)

Writers and illustrators are recognizing that people of all ages, from toddlers to adults, enjoy and look toward illustrated books that reflect and convey the thoughts, ideals, and values of modern contemporaneity. Suggests how picture books can be used to help young people with their interpretation of symbols found in painting and photographic techniques. (Author/RK)

Argues for two basic kinds of literary analysis: one which attempts to discover the meaning intended by the author, and one which treats the poem as an illustration of a system of ideas independent of the text and its author. (DD)

This paper uses discussion of Edmund Spenser's "The Faerie Queene" to present a theoretical framework for explaining the semantics of narrative discourse. The algebraic theory of finite automata is used. (CK)

The artistic and social/historical validity of William Faulkner's characterizations of American Indians are examined. (JC)

Presents a fairy tale which metaphorically deals with the teaching of chemistry and the place of research and teaching in society. (MLH)

Not only is this educational utopia of interest in its own right, but it also makes for a fuller understanding of a formative and important period in the development of English education. (Author)

Seventeen reprinted essays and an unpublished one are contained in this collection and organized under five headings: History of Ideas, Approaches to Medieval Literature, Chaucer and Fourteenth-Century English Literature, Language and Linguistics, and Essay-Reviews. Topics discussed include the origin of the concept of the Seven Cardinal Sins; Chaucer's sense of history; the medieval idea of perfection; understanding Old English poetry; symbolism in medieval literature; episodic motivation and marvels in epic and romance; an appraisal of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"; "Piers Plowman" as a 14th-century apocalypse; realism in Chaucer; distance and predestination in "Troilus and Criseyde"; Canadian English and its relation to 18-century American speech; final root-forming morphemes; a grammatical approach to personification allegory; the syncategorematic in poetry; and essay-reviews of four books: "The Structure of Beowulf,""The Pardon of Piers Plowman,""Piers Plowman and Scriptural Tradition," and "Design in Chaucer's 'Troilus'." (LH)

Argues that teaching literature is interpreting literature and that, consequently, the position that literature should only be experienced" is unrealistic in any instructional setting. (RD)

A paper presented at annual convention of Canadian Council of Teachers of English (2nd, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, August 1969). (RD)