Play the victim and you will be the victim: September 2008

Lesson Plan

Objectives
-Students will be able to define impressionistic criticism
-Students will be able to criticize a piece of literature or art based on their impression
-Students will be able to name and identify works of famous impressionistic critics.

Resources/Material
-Projector
-Wilde’s Essay “The Artist as Critic”
-Various songs, poems

Methodology
0-10è Talk about impressionistic criticism à Definition, Examples
à Artistic Temperament
11-20è Talk about Walter Pater
21-35è Talk about Wildeà Discussion. Essay
36-45è Impressionstic movement
46-60è Examples from song meanings/poems (weird ones). Have class criticize based on impression. Share?
61-70è Review. Link examples to main idea

Evaluation
The class will be given various pieces of art/literature and be asked to criticize it impressionistically. The focus will be to see if students can come to their own conclusion and not just follow and see what others think.

A kind of criticism that tries to convey what the critic subjectively feels and thinks about a work of art.”
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/glossary/Impressionistic_criticism.html
http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/walter-horatio-pater
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Pater
http://www.online-literature.com/wilde/1305/

Call on people (3-5, or as many hands) and ask what their definition of criticism is.
Give the class our definition of criticism.

“the act or art of analyzing and evaluating or judging the quality of a literary or artistic work, musical performance, art exhibit, dramatic production, etc
a critical comment, article, or essay; critique” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/criticism)

Now call on people (3-5 or as many hands) and ask what they think impressionistic criticism
Give class our definition of impressionistic criticism

“A kind of criticism that tries to convey what the critic subjectively feels and thinks about a work of art.”
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/glossary/Impressionistic_criticism.html

We’re going to be talking about two of the more famous literary critics that we’ve come across. The first one is Walter Pater. He was the first one to bring the idea of impressionistic criticism to the world. “Pater was born in Shadwell, East London, the second of four children of Richard Pater and Maria Hill. His father, a surgeon, died when Pater was two years old, and the remaining members of the family moved to Enfield, where Pater attended grammar school. He enrolled in King's School in Canterbury in 1853, the year before the death of his mother, and in 1858 won a scholarship to Queen's College at Oxford, where he studied the classics and was inspired by John Ruskin's Modern Painters. After taking a degree in humane letters in 1862 and working briefly as a tutor of private pupils, he accepted a fellowship at Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1864—a position he would keep until his death. His first published essay, a work on Samuel Taylor Coleridge, appeared in Westminster Review in 1866. Though published anonymously, “Coleridge's Writings,” with its promotion of relativism, made Pater's colleagues question his intellectual heterodoxy. Pater lived the last twenty-five years of his life with his two unmarried sisters in both Oxford and London. Much of what is known or thought to be known concerning Pater's life is gleaned from the autobiographical “The Child in the House” (which first appeared in Macmillan's in 1878, and was published as An Imaginary Portrait in 1894). Indeed, critics have noted that nearly all of Pater's work contains autobiographical elements, and that he often wrote about himself while apparently recounting another's life and career.

Pater’s Work
- Winckelmann (1867)
- Poems by William Morris (1868)
- Notes on Leonardo da Vinci (1869)
- A Fragment of Sandro Botticelli (1870
- The Poetry of Michaelangelo (1871)

In these essays Pater eschewed absolute critical standards in favor of his own personal impressions of the artists' works.” (http://www.enotes.com/nineteenth-century-criticism/walter-horatio-pater) Here is where we see the first evidence of impressionistic criticism.

Focus:
1. 85 by the end of the semester.
2. To improve on my essay writing
3. To use my class time efficiently and effectively

Contributions:
1. Help my classmates if I am able to
2. I will be coaching the junior boys volleyball team
3. I will be bringing my ideas and sharing them with others

Accountabilities:
1. I will be responsible for telling my teacher when I will be absent for sports
2. I will be responsible for getting projects and assignments in on time
3. I will be responsible for not being disruptive during class time

Supports:
1. I will require Mr. Murray for feedback on things I am unsure about
2. I will require my parents to ensure that I have quiet working environment
3. I will require my peers to provide support (proofreading) where possible

Measurements:
1. I will know I succeeded when I get tests back that have my desired score (+85)
2. My mark from at the final report card will exceed that of my midterm report
3. I am able to write essays about any topic effectively

Consequences:
1. If I succeed I will buy myself chocolate in bulk
2. If I fail I will lose the ongoing contest I have going on with my brother about who has the better marks
3. If I succeed then I will take myself, and friends, out to a movie

Play the victim and you will be the victim

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Oscar Wilde

Walter Pater

Sources for Impressionistic Criticism

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Accountability Agreement

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