Street Mules.

January 29, 2012

It's April 2004 on the sidewalks bordering New Orleans' famed Jackson Square. Katrina is still 16 months away. It is situation normal on a fine, slightly muggy spring day in the Quarter. It is also Friday, the first day of the 2004 French Quarter Fest, so these mules will be busy.

Sixteenth-Century Ethnocentricity
Wasn't Much Different from Today's.

January 23, 2012

Human beings have a strong tendency to be ethnocentric, i.e., they categorize the people in their world into “Us” or “Them.” By “Us” or “Them,” we mean those inside the group and those outside the group, whatever that group might be: clique, town, state, region, nation, race, or political party. Scholarly discourse refers to those outsiders as “the other,” but that is just another way of saying “them.”

Arkansas . . . .
11,537 Days Ago.

November 21, 2011

Eleven thousand five hundred and thirty-seven days ago .... some several days before cynicism arrived as a besieging legion, enemy at the gates, camping beside the walls of psyche and mocking the dotering mind ....

Spanish Language Poetry Slam
Inspires Presentation at Conference.

November 15, 2011

This week I will be traveling with one of my colleagues, Jessica Fay Sliger, to the annual conference of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in Denver, Colorado. This year's theme, "Empowering Language Educators Through Collaboration," aligns perfectly with the collaborative project Jessica and I created last year for native speakers of Spanish in the Rogers, Arkansas, School District.

Dispatch from the Mediterranean:
Of Minarets and a One-Eyed Chora Cat.

November 7, 2011

Reporting from the Brilliance of the Seas as it navigates the Mediterranean Sea, historian Ron Fritze shares his impressions of a whirlwind visit to a great city founded long ago under the name of Byzantium. "Istanbul is one of those Arabian Nights places even though it is actually Turkish. Patches of minarets pierce the skyline. At periodic times during the day, the muezzins’ call to prayer for faithful Muslims rings out across the city. The place is a nightmare for advocates of orientalism as it really is rather exotic while at the same time also quite modern."

Resurrection Lily.

August 26, 2011

I look out the window. The hawk circles, low in the thin sky, hunting. My eyes drift downward to a heart-shaped dogwood of graceful green and pleasant visage. A few yards to the left of its two-branched trunk, on the other side of the pale gray road, I spy a band of lilies, pink and white, swaying in the hot breeze like dancers in a corps de ballet. They are a wonderful late summer surprise.

Butterfly Lady. 
The Purposeful Habitat.

August 3, 2011

She's a no-nonsense champion for the order Lepidoptera and an articulate advocate of wildlife friendly habitat in the city.  Cindi Cope, the Butterfly Lady, reminds the thoughtful gardener that there's more to creating a butterfly habitat than maintaining a backyard full of bright flowers.  Like Cindi, we at Crow's Cottage view the butterfly and its natural habitat as a meaningful slice of reality.  We invite you to come visit us for a spell, share a pitcher of iced tea, and have a look at the swallowtails, painted lady, great spangled fritillaries, and buckeye at work and play in the gardens.  It's too hot to do anything else.

Lexi Joins the CornDancer Cyberpack.

April 15, 2011

Lexi the Kansas hound is the latest dog to join the CornDancer cyberpack.  She was rescued from a shelter by our friend Karen Steele, who shares Lexi's story in a letter from Dodge City.  We now have a dozen good dogs and three friendly cats in the pack.  Your favorite pet is welcome to join our happy little family of furry friends.  Just drop us a line any ole time. 

ABC Who Are We?  A 'Just Because'
Moment Leads to a Marvelous Poem.

March 17, 2011

Teachers experience a great deal of satisfaction when they create an assignment that students really appreciate and enjoy. Every now and then a student is inspired to go beyond the requirements and reformulate an assignment “just because.” Annie Ratliff, a graduate student in a multicultural issues class, took an assignment named ABC Who are We? to another level and wrote something special.

I Can Remember.

March 9, 2011

In a touching tribute to the memory of her father, Linda Hagen drifts back to childhood and a special moment when the rain fell in the desert night.
 
 

LitTunes Is Featured in Lesson Plan
On NY Times Learning Network.

November 5, 2010

A new lesson plan published by The New York Times on its Learning Network features LitTunes as a resource for classroom teachers.  "Songs in the Key of Lit: Ways to Use Music to Study Literature" is an innovative and robust lesson plan that is nicely attuned to the goals and mission of LitTunes.  We invite you to visit the LitTunes Reading Room and learn more about The New York Times lesson plan and how it relates to the concept of teaching literary works with the aid of popular and classical music.

Teaching with the Song Chorus
and Thesis Statement Connection.

August 28, 2010

Many pop tunes have a chorus — and every academic writing paper is anchored to a thesis statement. Connecting these two fundamental building blocks of effective writing is the focus of Kelly Riley's challenging unit of five lessons, designed to teach conceptual frameworks, critical thinking, and academic writing skills to high school English students. The unit includes handouts of song lyrics, a homework assignment, guidelines for writing a thesis statement, a primer on how to teach with a Socratic Circle, and an indepth set of "Notes for the Teacher." It's a winner for the teacher in search of a rewarding challenge.  

May Day.  The Good Comrades
Are Vanquished.  What Next?

March 24, 2010

After twenty-five months of silence, Dylan FitzDylan returns to CornDancer with the publication of a lyrical narrative he claims to have written while imprisoned in a Soviet socialist satellite state. What are we to think of Marko's oracle, the androgynous, raven-haired creature whose last dance outside the Youth House in Györ, Hungary, leaves her feet bloody and her prophetic voice mute?   What role does Imre Washington play in the first May Day celebration after the fall of the Iron Curtain?   And how successful is sweet Ildie in her search for new isms?

Language, Reality
And the Murder of John Locke.

September 2, 2000

It has got to be maddening to be murdered, to know in the fast fleeting now that the bullets are flying at you and into you, to struggle toward your slayer, to fall in a screaming air of violence onto the floor of your last breath.

When he fell, I don't think John fell at the feet of the killer. I think that John, resolving the last powerful gasp of his chi into a lunge, took the gunman down to the floor with him. I think John died triumphant, face-to-face with the coward who shot him dead.