Author: abendelow
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An acronymic way into poetic analysis: the TPCASTT
My school colleagues are beset by Acronymic formulae to package their pedagogy, and its in that spirit that I devised the TPCASTT (Title, Paraphrase, Connotation, Attitude, Shift, Title revisited, Theme) for my kids, using one of my American duos, They Might be Giants: TPCASTT of song lyric Song Title: “Birdhouse in your Soul” (1990) (video […]
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A “microessay” for Schilb on “Woodchucks”
Here is a “microessay” done for Professor John Schilb at Indiana University’s Summer seminar, which I’ll be attending next week. It is a brief analysis of the speaker in Maxine Kumin’s poem, “Woodchucks.” First comes the poem, then the analysis. Enjoy: Woodchucks Maxine Kumin, 1925 – 2014 Gassing the woodchucks didn’t turn out right.The knockout […]
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Tableaux Vivants — an old way of making complex literature new
We tried an ancient technique in English class today, and it worked pretty well. I believe it helped students closely analyze their complex literature (in today’s case, Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). You may know about Tableaux Vivants (“living paintings”) from European History. These entertainments go back at least as far as Valois […]
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Blizzard '67 at 16th St.: hot show about a cold night
Get your tickets to 16th Street Theater’s Blizzard ‘67 before it blows out of town in mid February. Staged on the 50th anniversary (Jan. 26, to be exact) of the storm, artist-in-resident Jon Steinhagen play is simultaneously a Chicago History trip, a ribald, all-male jokefest, and a tense human drama reminiscent of Sartre’s No Exit. […]
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"Carroll Gardens" at Berwyn's 16th Street Theater: high quality "biting comedy"
Charles Carroll was a Revolutionary War hero and the only Roman Catholic to have signed the Declaration of Independence. In his honor, the neighborhood of Carroll Gardens was named in Brooklyn, NYC. I learned this last night in the lobby outside Ann Filmer’s fast-paced production of “Carroll Gardens,” A. Zell Williams’ new “biting comedy” at […]
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A hero in the struggle to protect public schools
If you are looking for a true hero in the struggle for educational justice for America’s kids, look no further than Troy A. LaRaviere, the embattled Principal of Blaine Elementary in Chicago’s Wrigleyville. Despite leading one of the district’s best-performing general enrollment schools, and despite doing the right thing (learning about and then calling foul […]
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2014: a personal Year in Review
YCHS students at work on our new garden. Seasons Greetings, Wikiness reader! Forgive my poor posting frequency in 2014. As you will read below, my lack of posting was not caused by idleness. My varied endeavors precluded more frequency. But rest assured, long-time readers: my fuel has been spent in ways consistent with my persistent […]
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Jimmy Driftwood, American Edtech pioneer
Good teachers know how to use convenient and effective media to jar their learners out of inattention, and focus them on content or skill learning. And Wikiness readers know of my interest in the technology of music. Imagine my delight, then, to learn from my friend Wilson Ramsay of Jimmy Driftwood, who in 1936, as […]
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Yes, I’ll take some of that 20% Time, please
Wikiness readers know how I feel about the tough job public school teachers do, specifically HS English teachers. I have posted about the increasing oppression of the factory model in education, and in an effort to publicize a social ill, I have solicited English teacher data to understand how widespread my challenging working conditions were. But on this Memorial Day, […]
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Hilarious, but oh, so wrong for school!
L.A. Comedian Greg Edwards‘ Thug Notes is not safe for work, what with Sparky Sweets, Ph.D. (gangster literature professor) and his casual use of b-words and other profanities. But his notes are as accurate in their summaries as Cliffs’ or Spark’s and–perhaps for a lot of students–as helpful in their analyses of HS English books. […]
The Wikiness 