Trivia Tuesday

1. Which eccentric American author created the Angelfish Club, a group of exceptional young girls between the ages of ten and sixteen?
2. What part is Shakespeare said to have played in the original production of Hamlet?
3. What popular American comic strip is known as "Radishes" in Denmark?
4. How many words are in the longest sentence in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables?
5. Which famous English author wrote of the two moons that orbit the planet Mars in 1726 — over 100 years before astronomers identified them?

Last Week’s Answers

According to the third edition of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, how many valid words containing no vowels exist?

According to the third edition of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, there are 20 valid words containing no vowels.


What bizarre theory about Dr. Watson did mystery writer Rex Stout once suggest to fellow members of the Baker Street Irregulars?

That Watson was a woman.


In what field is the Hugo Award given?

Science fiction writing. The award was named for Hugo Gernsback, the "father of science fiction."


What popular American writer coined the word nerd?


Theodore Seuss Geisel, or Dr. Seuss, beloved childrens' author.


Where was the sprawling family estate of early American novelist James Fenimore Cooper?

In Cooperstown, New York--it was the setting of his Leather Stocking Tales and is today the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. William Cooper, the writer's father and one oft he Wealthiest landowners of his time, purchased the Cooperstown site in 1785.

New SmartBoard-Enhanced Products Get a Fresh Look

— Jen Mendoza, Senior Graphic Designer

There are many facets of a product that are considered when we approach a new design — in this case our brand-spanking new SmartBoard-Enhanced line of products including our SmartBoard-Enhanced Prestwick Power Presentations.

Some details have become standards in many of the Prestwick House products. Ideally, every cover, slide, page, and package we design will enthusiastically catapult both teacher and student into the wealth of knowledge that awaits in every product we produce.

Enhancing the look of a product that already has an established, recognizable brand is a challenge, and as designer, my purpose is to communicate those changes in a clean, easy-to-read design that will maintain the immediate brand connection while introducing something new.

In June 2009, Prestwick House added several new items to our PowerPoint for the Classroom series — except they’re not in PowerPoint format but instead SmartBoard-Enhanced (Yes, exciting! I know!).

And, since the PowerPoint for the Classroom brand already has proven success with its current look, we couldn’t jump ship and spin a whole new face for this new addition to the line and risk losing the integrity of its existing presence. My challenge was to enhance the brand so that it would still connect with the existing packaging, but also make a clear distinction between the two very different software platforms.

STEP ONE
Design a logo to encompass a growing line of components.


This logo represents 3 products, PowerPoint for the Classroom, Smartboard-Enhanced for the Classroom, and Lead-Ins to Literature, with many more products to be added in the future. I wanted my concepts to show interactivity and simplicity in a design that was easily transferable from product to product. Although I felt my first attempt carried those characteristics, I thought it might be too difficult to read on a busy background, so, I came up with concept no. 2. This one was pretty boring. While it was easier to read, there was too much of a disconnect from the existing brand. I went back to concept no. 1 and altered it to improve readability. And, voila—several renditions, 4 crinkled napkins and 2 coffees later!



STEP TWO
Design a software-specific icon or logo to distinguish platforms.



Again, after looking at the potential ideas, I decided to go with combining these two concepts for maximum, aesthetic appeal. Can you feel it?

Become a Grammar Ninja

Grammar Ninja, an educational web game created in January 2007 by USC undergrad Greg Lieberman, is a great, interactive way to help your students learn parts of speech. In the game, you "become a Grammar Ninja who must find parts of speech by throwing ninja stars at words. Correct answers allow you to continue, while wrong answers literally explode."

Check out the game here or visit Greg's portfolio website at www.kwarp.com.

Tuesday Trivia

1. According to the third edition of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, how many valid words containing no vowels exist?
2. What bizarre theory about Dr. Watson did mystery writer Rex Stout once suggest to fellow members of the Baker Street Irregulars?
3. In what field is the Hugo Award given?
4. What popular American writer coined the word nerd?
5. Where was the sprawling family estate of early American novelist James Fenimore Cooper?

Last Week’s Answers

What famous nineteenth-century French novelist published a plagiarized work under the pseudonym Bombet?

Stendhal, best known for his novels The Red and the Black and The Charterhouse of Parma, plagiarized his work The Lives of Haydn, Mozart, and Metastasio with material from two biographies and a eulogy. When the plagiarism was discovered, Stendhal defended the nonexistent Bombet in letters signed by an equally nonexistent Bombet Jr.

Under what title do we know the book that was originally published as Murder in the Calais Coach?

Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express was originally called Murder in the Calais Coach for the first several editions of the classic title.

Where did the word "dunce” originate?

The word "dunce" is derived from name of John Duns Scotus, one of the greatest minds of the late 13th century. The term was coined two centuries later by those who disagreed with Scotus' teachings calling any of his followers a "Duns man" or "dunce" — a man who was dull-witted, or incapable of scholarship.

Which famous American playwright choked to death on an eye drop bottle cap?

Tennesee Williams’ cause of death was choking on an eye drop bottle cap in his room at the Hotel Elysee in New York. While holding the cap in his mouth, Williams leaned back to place eye drops in each eye and accidentally swallowed the cap. The police report suggests his use of drugs and alcohol contributed to his death by diminishing his gag reflex.

The first Encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1771, devoted its first volume to "A" and "B." How many additional volumes did it take to cover "C" through "Z"?

Only two.

Vocabulary: The Question is Not Whether but How

- Douglas Grudzina

Polonius, the fool, asks Hamlet, “What are you reading?” And Hamlet answers, “Words, words, words.”

True enough—we read words, hear words, speak words, write words, and—but for a few specific exceptions—we think words. Our students do too. Therefore, it behooves us (and them) to know as many words as possible so that we are better prepared to understand what others are communicating to us and better able to communicate with others.

Study after study (we’ve all read them) compares advantaged students (i.e., kids who grew up in homes with reading materials readily available and whose parents read to them when they were little) to disadvantaged students (i.e., the kids who were not read to and did not grow up in homes filled with books, magazines, and newspapers). Advantaged kids from “literacy-rich” homes start school with vocabularies that are nearly twice as large as the disadvantaged kids.

While this statistic might be distressing, it’s not surprising, and it’s not hard to understand why such a disparity exists.

What is surprising and difficult to understand is the well-documented conclusion that, once both sets of kids enter school, the gap does not narrow; it widens!

How could this be? Starting in…what?...first grade?…second?...both sets of students are handed their vocabulary books, assigned the same ten words a week, given the same weekly crossword puzzle, seek-and-find, and vocabulary test. Why, then, does one group’s vocabulary grow by as many as 3,000 words per year (an average of eight words a day), while the others’ doesn’t?

The answer—and it’s really no mystery at all—lies in how the disparity began in the first place. The parents (and other adults) of the literate students did not give their babies vocabulary books. They did not hand their toddlers weekly vocab sheets with ten words to define, name the part of speech, and list three synonyms and three antonyms. If their kids started school knowing twice as many words as their less fortunate counterparts, it was because their parents read to them.

Anecdotally, it is also surmised that these same parents paid attention to their kids when they talked and offered positive reinforcement when their kids used new and different words.

Exposing young children to words in context and words in use, then, is what explains why some kids start school knowing twice as many words as others. Might it also explain why years and years of ten-word-a-week vocabulary study serves only to widen the gap between students who are probably still being read to and talked to and those who aren’t?

Now, let’s face it, we’re not going to eliminate direct vocabulary instruction any time soon—and perhaps we shouldn’t. After all, we all know how effective simply modeling appropriate academic behavior is for the majority of our students. So, it probably is a good idea to have a systematic means of introducing our students to new words they will need to recognize, understand, and use. After all, they’re going to be learning new and increasingly difficult concepts, so they will need the language to communicate their understanding.

But, clearly, simply introducing them to the words is not sufficient. There are so many studies that show it’s not. There are no studies that indicate that vocabulary study alone is an effective way to increase kids’ working vocabularies. Just as it’s the kids whose parents read to them and spoke to them who come to school with larger vocabularies, so, too, it will be the students who actually use their new words—hear them spoken by the teacher and others, are required to speak them and write them—who will learn them.

They key is use. Whatever vocabulary series you use, if your kids are not actually using the words they’re studying, why bother? None of us enjoys futility.

So…we’re certainly not advocating that you toss out your vocabulary program (quite the opposite since we have great faith in our programs including Vocabulary Power Plus, Vocabulary from Latin and Greek Roots, and the new Standards-Based Vocabulary Study for struggling students). But we are suggesting that you and your colleagues really examine the atmosphere—the context—in which those weekly words are defined, labeled, and played with. And make a conscious effort—make it a top priority—to get your students using the words you say you want them to learn.

After all, that’s how they learned their first 5,000 words.

Musical Phonetic Punctuation for National Punctuation Day!

September 24th is National Punctuation Day and an excellent excuse for an extra grammar lesson in your classroom! Visit the official National Punctuation Day website for a variety of information on individual marks of punctuation, ways to celebrate National Punctuation Day, the Punctuation Playtime Program, photos, letters, contests, and more.







And if you're looking for a single lesson plan to celebrate with your students, why not visit PrestwickHouse.com and pick up a single downloadable Grammar eLesson for the occasion?

Choose from a variety of Grammar eLessons including:

• Apostrophes to Show Possession
• Run on Sentences
• Comma Splices
• 6 Points to Remember When Using Quotation Marks
• 12 Simple Rules for Punctuating Sentences

Happy 50th Birthday, ACT!

by Stephanie Polukis

With the “Over The Hill” jokes set aside, the ACT test has grown in both prestige and popularity since its inception 50 years ago. While the very first ACT was administered to approximately 75,000 students on November 9, 1959, this year, the number of students tested amounted to approximately 2.5 million. In fact, it is now preferred over the SAT in nearly half of the US states.


Created by Ted McCarrel and E.F. Lindquist, the American College Testing Program (ACT) was designed to be comparable to the College Board’s Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). However, instead of testing a student’s potential to do well in college-level classes, the test measured how much the student learned in high school, specifically in the areas of English, reading, math, scientific reasoning, and writing.


On August 22, 2009, approximately 150 people — including ACT CEO Richard Ferguson, Iowa Governor Chet Culver and the University of Iowa President Sally Mason — gathered at the Old Capital at the University of Iowa to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the test’s founding. Governor Culver presented Dr. Ferguson with a Certificate of Recognition, and Dr. Ferguson, in return, presented the University of Iowa with a plaque commemorating ACT’s partnership with the school. Additionally, a display featuring photos and information on the history of ACT was unveiled, and it will be viewable by the public during normal museum hours.

Happy Banned Book Week!

by Douglas Grudzina

Next week, September 26 – October 2, 2009, we educators and bibliophiles will be celebrating the American Library Association’s Twenty-Seventh Annual “Banned Books Week.” In the Association’s words, Banned Books Week (BBW) “celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them.”

The American Library Association website provides a more complete description of the reasons behind the institution of BBW, announcements of BBW events nationwide, as well as ideas for activities you can do in your own school and classroom.

According to the Radcliffe Publishing Course at the Columbia University School of Journalism, of the Top 100 Novels of the 20th century, 43 have been challenged or banned:

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
5. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
6. Ulysses by James Joyce
7. Beloved by Toni Morrison
8. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
9. 1984 by George Orwell
10. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
11. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
12. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
13. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
14. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
15. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
16. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
17. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
18. Their Eyes are Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
19. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
20. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
21. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
22. Native Son by Richard Wright
23. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
24. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
25. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
26. The Call of the Wild by Jack London
27. Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin
28. All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
29. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
30. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
31. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
32. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
33. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
34. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
35. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
36. Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
37. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
38. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
39. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
40. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
41. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
42. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
43. Rabbit, Run by John Updike


The reasons for each book’s challenge are as varied as the challengers, and many are listed on the ALA site. While these reasons may sincerely reflect the challengers’ beliefs and values, they should not reflect the challengers’ power to impose those beliefs and values on other citizens of a free society.


On a personal and professional note, I’m pretty proud to see that I’ve read 21 of these challenged books (maybe I should be embarrassed that I haven’t read more of them…), and I’ve actually taught eight of them (again, maybe I should wish I’d taught more of them, but some of the titles on this list were on the curriculum for other grades and other courses than the ones I taught…).


You’ll also be pleased to know that Prestwick House offers Teaching Units for 24 of these titles, Advanced Placement Teaching Units for 13 of them (with 3 more in development to be available by the end of the year). We also have Response Journals for 19 of them, Activity Packs for 13, and Multiple Critical Perspectives Guides for 13. (And…if we don’t have the teaching materials you need for a hot title you want to teach, just let us know, and we’ll add it to our production schedule).


As the ALA says on its site, “Americans [should] not … take [the] precious democratic freedom [to read and to choose what to read] for granted.” As the above list indicates, there are many people who believe otherwise. So…in honor of Banned Books week, be an American; read a banned or challenged book today.

Ahoy! There Be Pirates in Yer Classroom!

Each year on September 19th, adults and children alike gather together to dress up in pirate garb (or at least throw a few extra "arghhhs" into the daily routine) for International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

To get into the spirit in your classroom and make International Talk Like a Pirate Day both fun and educational, visit the Pirates in the Classroom page on the official ITLPD website for free lesson plans, the special section for junior pirates, and YouTube for fun instructional videos on how to talk like a pirate from the original Pirate Guys, Cap'n Slappy and Ol' Chumbucket.

And as always, visit PrestwickHouse.com for everything you need to teach some nautical favorites like Treasure Island, The Princess Bride, and Peter Pan.

Tuesday Trivia

1. What famous nineteenth-century French novelist published a plagiarized work under the pseudonym Bombet?
2. Under what title do we know the book that was originally published as Murder in the Calais Coach?
3. Where did the word "dunce” originate?
4. Which famous American playwright choked to death on an eye drop bottle cap?
5. The first Encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1771, devoted its first volume to "A" and "B." How many additional volumes did it take to cover "C" through "Z"?

Last Week's Answers

Who used the pen names Acton, Ellis, and Currer Bell?
Anne, Emily and Charlotte Bronte.

Lolly Willowes, a novel about a spinster who realizes her vocation as a witch, won what unique honor when it was published in 1926?
The book, by British author Sylvia Townsend Warner, was the first offering of the Book-of-the-Month Club.

What was the name of French writer Alexandre Dumas' home in Paris?
Monte-Cristo, after his famous novel The Count of Monte Cristo.

What was Goldilock's name when the hungry little girl was first introduced in the famous children's fairy tale The Three Little Bears over a hundred years ago?
Silver Hair, From that she became Golden Hair, and finally Goldilocks.

What English word derived from Greek translates to the phrase “goat song?”
The word "tragedy" is derived from two Greek words meaning "goat song."

Dihydrogen Monoxide: A Killer in the English Classroom

Have you heard about the colorless, odorless, tasteless chemical killer that’s lurking in your classroom every day of the school year? It’s in the beverages your students are drinking. It’s in the air every time someone coughs. And it’s even in your own body.

Dihydrogen monoxide is a compound that’s used in the manufacture of common plastics, and it’s also a major component of both acid rain and tumor cells. It can cause severe burns, and inhaling even small amounts of this substance can be fatal for humans, according to Dr. Tom Way of the Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division. This chemical has been changing the face of our environment and posing health risks for centuries now, but very little has been done to curb the tide of its destruction.

Now, before you start petitioning the school board or drafting a bill to put before Congress, there’s one more minor detail you should know about dihydrogen monoxide—its chemical symbol is H­2O. That’s right; it’s just an obscure term for water. But if you were taken in by this sensationalistic report, you’re in good company. Similar accounts about the dangers of water have been in circulation for decades, and they’ve duped many intelligent people into signing petitions and proposing bans on this substance that’s absolutely essential to life on earth.

Fortunately, this little prank does more than just annoy its victims—and it really does relate to the English classroom outside of your students’ Nalgenes. That’s because it’s a perfect illustration of how language-arts lessons can be useful in real life. The fact is, from the time we pull out the Toasty Os at breakfast to the minute we turn on the evening news, we’re constantly bombarded with persuasive messages. And while many of the claims we’re exposed to might be perfectly factual, they can still be just as deceptive as the opening paragraphs of this blog post. That’s why the analytical skills we develop in the English classroom are so vital to success in academia and in the outside world. When we learn to identify and properly use persuasive techniques, we are better prepared to recognize the pretexts behind the various texts we encounter, and we're better equipped to make responsible, well-informed decisions.

For some teaching resources that will help your students develop a more critical eye, check out the following Prestwick House titles:


Techniques of Propaganda and Persuasion
The Language of Politicians
The Language of Advertising Claims


Now available: Rhetoric, Logic, and Argumentation: A Guide for Student Writers

NCTE Seeks Award Nominations

by Douglas Grudzina

The National Council of Teachers of English is currently seeking nominations for two of its most … uh … prestigious awards. (Well, one might be sought-after, but the other…not so much.)

The George Orwell Award, in keeping with the social philosophy of the author of Animal Farm and 1984, is an actual honor. The recipient is “an author, editor, or producer of a print or nonprint work that contributes to honesty and clarity in public language.”

Recent recipients include: Charlie Savage (2008), Pulitzer-Prize-winning Boston Globe reporter and author of The Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy; Ted Grup (2007), author of Nation of Secrets: The Threat to Democracy and the American Way of Life, an examination of the “culture of secrecy” within the G.W. Bush White House; and Steven H. Miles, M.D. (2006), author of Oath Betrayed: Torture, Medical Complicity, and the War on Terror.

For a PDF list of all winners from the award’s inception in 1975, click here.

The Double-Speak Award, sort of an anti-honor, named for Big Brother’s abuses of language in Orwell’s 1984, goes to “a glaring example of deceptive language by a[n American] public spokesperson.”

Recent recipients include George W. Bush, Alberto Gonzalez, and The New York State Regents. For a complete PDF listing of past recipients, click here.

The deadline for nominations for both awards is September 15, 2009. Winners and runners-up are announced during the NCTE National Convention, this year in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 20 – 24. (And just as a side note, Prestwick House will, of course, be in attendance).

For full information and nomination instructions for the Orwell Award, click here and for the Doublespeak Award, click here.

So, good luck, and may the best (or worst) communicator win!

Tuesday Trivia

1. Who used the pen names Acton, Ellis, and Currer Bell?
2. Lolly Willowes, a novel about a spinster who realizes her vocation as a witch, won what unique honor when it was published in 1926?
3. What was the name of French writer Alexandre Dumas' home in Paris?
4. What was Goldilock's name when the hungry little girl was first introduced in the famous children's fairy tale The Three Little Bears over a hundred years ago?
5. What English word derived from Greek translates to the phrase “goat song?”

Last Week’s Answers

In the novel Futility, published in 1898--fourteen years before the sinking of the Titanic--an "unsinkable" luxury liner was lost after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage. What was the ship's name?

The Titan. It was the creation of writer Morgan Robertson.

How many years after American expatriate Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer was published in France did the novel become legal in the United States?

Twenty-seven. Published in France in 1934 with a dust jacket cautioning booksellers not to display it in their shop windows, the book was banned in the U.S. until 1961 on the grounds of obscenity.

What book was the best-seller of the year in America in 1794?

Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, which had been published in England the year before — three years after his death.

The name of what Texas town came close to being changed in the late 1950s because of a controversial best-selling novel?

Lolita, TX came close to changing it’s name because of the novel by Vladimir Nabokov. After much debate, the citizens of the small southeast Texas town decided to keep the name adopted by their forefathers in honor of early settler Lolita Reese.

What English literary classic was inspired by the adventures of Scottish pirate Andrew Selkirk?

Robinson Crusoe. Daniel Defoe wrote the tale after hearing the story of Selkirk's four and a half years on uninhabited Juan Fernandez Island off the coast of Chile.

Tuesday Trivia

1. In the novel Futility, published in 1898 an "unsinkable" luxury liner was lost after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage. What was the ship's name?
2. How many years after American expatriate Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer was published in France did the novel become legal in the United States?
3. What book was the best-seller of the year in America in 1794?
4. The name of what Texas town came close to being changed in the late 1950s because of a controversial best-selling novel?
5. What English literary classic was inspired by the adventures of Scottish pirate Andrew Selkirk?

Last Week's Answers

Who wrote the popular children's poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin?

This legend about the abduction of all the children from the town of Hamelin, Germany has many versions including one by the Brothers Grimm and a more modern version in English penned by Robert Browning.


What environmentally correct gesture did publisher Harper San Francisco make in 1990 in conjunction with its publication of the book Two Minutes a Day for a Greener Planet?

Harper San Francisco planted 1,000 trees to replace those used in producing the book.


What do the letters in the word “SHAZAM” represent in the Captain Marvel comics?

The word “shazam” is a clever acronym made up of Solomon's wisdom, Hercules' strength, Atlas's stamina, Zeus's power, Achilles' courage, and Mercury's speed.


What great writer, shortly before his death at age 90, successfully defended himself against senility charges by reading his latest work in court?

Sophocles read his work Oedipus at Colonus to prove that he was of sound mind.


What famous writer bragged that he gave his talent to his work and saved his genius for his life?

Oscar Wilde.