Art of Language Lesson 02 Building With Blocks

 WORDS: The Building Blocks of Language Arts

— Part 1 GROWING WITH WORDS

Please look up these words in a dictionary, then use them in a NEW sentence for the table.

W: albeit AND psychadelic

H: nostalgia

E: choreography

— Part 2 USING WORDS

Read this excerpt from “The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles,” then we’ll talk about it.

The king brought the two into the feasting hall. The youth who had known only the forest and the mountainside had to wonder at the beauty and the magnificence of all he saw around him. On the walls were bright pictures; the tables were of polished wood, and they had vessels of gold and dishes of silver set upon them; along the walls were vases of lovely shapes and colors, and everywhere there were baskets heaped with roses white and red.

The king’s guests were already in the hall, young men and elders, and maidens went amongst them carrying roses which they strung into wreaths for the guests to put upon their heads. A soft-handed maiden gave Jason a wreath of roses and he put it on his head as he sat down at the king’s table. When he looked at all the rich and lovely things in that hall, and when he saw the guests looking at him with friendly eyes, Jason felt that he was indeed far away from the dim spaces of the mountain forest and from the darkness of the centaur’s cave.

Questions:

1 – Does this passage succeed in painting a vivid feasting hall scene?

2 – For your journal: write down three words or phrases that stand out from this passage.

3 – Notice how the passage has MOVEMENT. It’s not just a list of details or words. How does the author make it work?

4 – So what’s the art of language in this passage?

 

— PART 3 HARVESTING LANGUAGE

Let’s go outside, do some word research … then return to the seminar table.

 

— PART 4 THE ART

What is the art of language that we have discussed today?