S.N. Behrman, Comedy, and the Extermination of the Jews: Broadway, Christmas Eve, 1934

S.N. Behrman’s Rain from Heaven premiered on Broadway on Christmas Eve, 1934. In the play, Hugo Willens, a refugee from Nazi Germany, describes a pamphlet he had written in Germany that led to his exile: the satirical pamphlet narrates the extermination of all the Jews but one. Tracking Behrman’s wide reading, which he recorded in his diaries, shows that anticipation of genocide was widely shared by writers in the public sphere to which he belonged. Behrman intended the story of the last Jew as a joke, as some of his audience understood, but it was a joke with political force. The fictional comic pamphlet was part of a larger project of remaking the comedy of manners for the purposes of anti-Nazi resistance.

Literature Quizzes: Celebrating the Ongoing Importance of Wide Reading

Literature Quizzes are an integral part of the Southwell School Library programme. Students read widely, hoping to represent us in the annual Kids’ Lit QuizTM (www.kidslitquiz.com ). In this time of electronic entertainment entice your students to enjoy literature, books and ebooks. Reading encourages empathy with others whose lives and situations differ, global awareness, and knowledge of history. Myths and legends influence cultural practice and social realism helps them cope with life’s problems. Reading is a resource for our humanity. At this workshop play brain-training games. These will be given away along with signed books from New Zealand authors. Learn how to write quiz questions and select teams. Hear how we use cognitive technology to help students retain and retrieve literary information. Make Lit Quizzes part of your library programmes and see your readers grow exponentially. There may be a regional of the Kids’ Lit QuizTM near you!

Introducing and establishing a wide reading program in the middle years of schooling

This professional practice paper outlines some of the purposes of a Wide Reading Program and discusses ways in which this has been introduced to English classes in the middle years of schooling. Some of the challenges encountered in the introduction and establishment of this program are also discussed. These can include the reluctance of some readers to engage with the program and how teacher’s administrative duties can prevent their full involvement in Library reading sessions. The evolution of formats used for the collection and presentation of evidence based data is also outlined.

The ‘Sense’ of Knowledge

Part I of this book acquaints the reader with Coleridge’s sense of reason through his theories of sense and imagination. Chapter 1 pursues the intuitive aspect, for Coleridge, in thinking and knowing, as the sensuous nature of knowledge. Section 1.1 examines the intellectual drive—the metaphysical nisus—in terms of the physical senses and the chase which drove him to an ideal sense of contemplation as Sabbaths to epistemic and philosophical labour. Section 1.2 traces Coleridge’s legacy in culture, philosophy, and religion through the nineteenth century, especially in Britain and the United States, before following his reception in twentieth-century philosophy. The chapter then argues that a standard interpretation of Coleridge has remained elusive for four reasons: his aim to transform readers; his wide reading being difficult for scholars to assimilate; the sheer breadth—over fifty separate books—of his writings; and his complex relation with German idealism. Section 1.3 outlines Coleridge’s organicism and holistic anti-reductionism, and his concomitant opposition to extremes in materialism and empiricism, as he strove to overcome alienation.

Pan-Africanism: Freedom for Africa

The Pan-Africanist dream of freedom as expressed in South African political writings and literature from the 1940s to 1970s is the focus of the final chapter. The Pan-Africanist dreams expressed in political discourse that are discussed include: the ANC Youth League’s Manifesto (1944); the ANC’s Programme of Action (1949); the political writings of Muziwakhe Anton Lembede, A. P. Mda and Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe; the PAC’s Manifesto of the Africanist Movement (1959); and the articles and reviews in PAC publications like The Africanist and Mafube. Pan-Africanist dreams of freedom expressed in literary terms are discussed in sections on Lembede’s thoughts on individual literary works; Mda’s prescriptions for literature; Sobukwe’s wide reading and eclectic literary tastes; Melikhaya Mbutumu’s praise poems; novels hostile to the PAC by Peter Abrahams, Richard Rive and Alex la Guma; and novels sympathetic to the PAC by Lauretta Ngcobo and Bessie Head. The popularity within the PAC of Howard Fast’s novels My Glorious Brothers (1948) and Spartacus (1951) is also assessed.

What the OU did for me

Anyone familiar with prisons in the UK will have heard of Erwin James. No one writes about imprisonment as he does. Now an accomplished author and journalist, he provides an account of the role education in his life; first its premature closure through neglectful teachers and abusive family circumstances, then a surprise reopening and rediscovery of latent talent in a prison setting. The Open University, books, wide reading, some supportive teachers and a long prison sentence provide Erwin with hope for another life, a life outside. This moving and beautifully written chapter is proof of its realisation.

‘MARKING THEIR OWN HOMEWORK’: TRUST AND AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT IN THE AUSTRALIAN DIGITAL ADVERTISING INDUSTRY

This paper examines how the Australian advertising industry debates trust in the infrastructures of digital advertising. The advertising industry is undergoing a major change as digital advertising is increasingly dominated by new advertising technology (adtech) players and major tech companies such as Facebook and Google. These new companies which rely on automated systems of ad targeting, pricing and placement to control large amounts of digital advertising inventory and offer new more ‘efficient’ ways to micro-target advertising. Yet these companies have garnered reputations for misrepresenting their numbers; a problem compounded by Google and Facebook’s reticence to provide independent audience verification. This has led to a high degree of mistrust from Australian advertisers. Neither Google or Facebook offers serious third-party auditing, leading many in the advertising industry to say that they are ‘marking their own homework’. In this paper I ask, how is trust of measurement and verification infrastructures debated within the digital advertising industry? Is it fair to compare businesses that distribute advertising in very different ways? I answer these questions through qualitative analysis of submissions made to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) as part of its current Digital Platforms Inquiry (DPI) in 2018 and 2019. I also draw on summaries of four public forums the ACCC held in 2018 as well as wide reading in the advertising industry trade press. This paper aims to contribute to a better understanding of the role standards and measures play within industry and how they relate to trust during industry transformation.

Effective Vocabulary Instruction Fosters Knowing Words, Using Words, and Understanding How Words Work

Purpose This clinical focus article will highlight the importance of vocabulary instruction, in particular, thinking about instruction in terms of focusing students' attention on words and their uses. Vocabulary knowledge that supports literacy and academic learning is extensive and multidimensional. Many learners accumulate high-quality vocabulary knowledge independently, through wide reading and rich language environments that provide abundant practice with words and language forms. However, instruction in vocabulary provides a more efficient way of getting that job done, especially for learners who are less likely to be experiencing rich language interactions, for example, because they struggle with reading and do little of it on their own. Method Three aspects of vocabulary instruction, choosing words to teach, the inclusion of morphological information, and the importance of engaging students in interactions around words, will be explored. Considerations in choosing words include their role in the language and their utility to students. Morphology will be discussed in terms of using Latin roots in instruction as a resource for unlocking new word meanings and a framework for understanding language. Conclusion Effective instruction means bringing students' attention to words in ways that promote not just knowing word meanings but also understanding how words work and how to utilize word knowledge effectively.

Reading and Community as a Support for the New in Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton

This chapter illustrates Elizabeth Gaskell's originality and success, and shows how she used her understanding of literary tradition to articulate and develop her new female point of view on the new urban poverty caused by industrialization. Her consciousness of isolation in her task led her to draw on both earlier and contemporary writers for support and motivated her to provide her successors and contemporaries with models and encouragement. As the chapter shows, Mary Barton emerged from Gaskell's wide reading, her habit of regular writing, with a Unitarian sense of duty and the obligation to tell the truth. It was also motivated by the hope of distracting herself from the personal tragedy of her baby son Willie's death in 1845. At the same time, Gaskell made tradition part of the subject matter of her novel when she showed Mary Barton throwing off the expectations about female behavior which had constrained her and when she dramatized John Carson's religious obligation to forgive John Barton.