ILLA Blogs

What's the difference between synecdoche and metonymy? Where might one find examples to teach the various literary devices such as personification, hyperbole, and alliteration? Give these a try:

    YourDictionary

   LiteraryDevices.net

    K12Reader.com

Do civil engineers make good archaeologists? Those currently working on Rome's latest infrastructure, the subway, have been digging up some amazing finds. Check into A Centurion's Digs and Extinct Elephants and Persian Peach Pits.

I occasionally like to invent classroom games which will enhance or spice up the learning quotient among my students. The lastest one is Zingo! (I originally called it "Ding!" but the students decided "Zingo!" would be better.)

The game goes like this: I to slip one of our vocabulary words past them by using it nonchalantly in casual classroom conversation. If they take note of that word, they are to say "Zingo!" and they get a point on a chart I made -- two points if they can define the word.

A second aspect of this game occurs when a student can use the word in classroom discussions -- for which they will get two points.

I've also used other standard word games to help students learn that words can be fascinating. A number of these games can be found online such as classic word jumbles and Boggle. You might have other favorites such as Scrabble or crossword puzzles.  Others are more board-like games such as Balderdash.

Also, check out Wordnik.

An extremely rare and massive 16th-century map has been been fully assembled and digitized for the first time ever.  The three-by-three metre map, the largest map of the world made during the Renaissance, brims with mystical beasts and elaborate drawings. It was created in 1587 by little-known Italian geographer Urbano Monte. Check out the details HERE.

"Curriculum mapping is a process for collecting and recording curriculum-related data that identifies core skills and content taught, processes employed, and assessments used for each subject area and grade level."

Would classical Lutheran education find any value in identifying core content and skills (emphasis on the content)? Or is education much more organic than an objective classification of academic instruction?

Course mapping has been very popular in many educational circles which wish to standardize or objectivize education -- which can be a rather sterile approach to learning. However, since the software or cloud-based services are rather expensive, classical Lutheran educators haven't had much opportunity to review it or try it (or devise criteria for what makes education particularly "classical" and "Lutheran").

Course Mason, however, is a free, cloud-based course mapping utility which will allow classical Lutheran educators to check it out . . . and even to peruse and review the Common Core standards contained therein.