Tuesday Trivia

1. The high-speed ferry between Dublin and Great Britain, across the Irish Sea, is named after which 18th-century satirist?
2. Whose last words were, "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go?"
3. Ricardo Eliezer Neftalí Reyes y Basoalto is the given name of which famous poet?
4. Which author’s last name, before being anglicized, was "mac Aedh Ó Proinntigh?"
5. Which author was married on April 1, 1993 — a deliberate play on her husband’s belief that only fools get married in the first place?

Which was the first gospel to be written? Mark’s gospel was the first to be written. This gospel, and this other New Testament book were presumably both written by the same author, a Greek physician.

Which author started the first African American newspaper in Dayton, OH, aided by the Wright brothers (who provided the printing press)?
The Wright brothers invested in the Dayton Tattler, a newspaper written for the African American community, and edited and published by Paul Laurence Dunbar.

Which author was the first African-American to graduate from Harvard University — earning his Ph.D. in History?
WEB DuBois

Which author wrote his first novel at age 17 while babysitting his youngest brother?
Ernest Gaines wrote his first novel, wrapped it in brown paper, and sent it to a publisher in New York. When it was rejected, he burned the pages but later rewrote the work which became his first novel, Catherine Carmier.

Guest Blog: How can reflective writing make you a better reader?

During my fist year as a high school English teacher in the Midwest, I found reasons every day to question my decision. These challenges became a part of the reason I now love the job, but finding the right tool to overcome the challenge was not something prescribed in my college curriculum (at least not explicitly). One of the most unique challenges came not from the students, but from my own experiences as a reader. How was I supposed to keep up with all the reading? I had books to teach I had not read in years (or not at all), professional development texts being passed to me, and personal books I was dying to escape to--who had the time to take it all in?

I started to think back to the times in college when I was most successful during literature classes. Looking for patterns, scribblings, or whatever clues I could find, I found myself entrenched in old black and white bound journals of class notes. The pressures had changed since then; now I was on the other side of the desk. How could I respond differently and enact a new sense of literary authority while still being approachable? The question burned within me while I thumbed through round-cornered pages.

Eventually I realized the constant I wasn't giving enough credit to, as a college reader, was writing. I wrote continually before, during, and after I read something for class. Any time I took in new information I had to process my thoughts, prior knowledge, and questions. Ah-ha! I wasn't doing enough writing as a teacher; that has to be something helpful I'm missing. I stopped reading and searching right then and started writing something useful to solving my issue, a question:

How can reflective writing make you a better reader?

As an English teacher, I am always looking for more personal ways to plug myself into a new text. The most successful way to work within a piece of literature, be it a first read or a well-worn favorite, is to look in the mirror. I like to think about myself as a young boy on an adventure like Huckleberry Finn, imagine myself living in a distant and oppressive future like Winston Smith in "1984," or even put myself in the shoes of a woman contemplating the meaning and impact of death like Emily Dickinson.

Because I could not stop to write, no words would come to me.

I made a pact with myself to write--to blog, more specifically--as regularly as possible. My goal was every week during the year I would write something about my practice in the classroom, texts I was exploring, and issues that were coming up within my school community. I made an arbitrary word-length which I didn't end up sticking too very long, but it helped me get started. My posts ended up ranging from 300-1000 words each week and if I missed a week I double posted the next.

Continuity. That was the answer to my question about reflective writing. It started to surface after a few weeks in a row of doing public writing. I wasn't solving the mysteries of the universe, or even of my classroom, in each post, but I was starting to see a few threads unravel related to who I was as a teacher, reader, and writer.

More than the personal philosophical benefits writing was providing me as a reading teacher, I was starting to feel more nimble when discussing language arts with my students. I felt like the football coach who, after dropping a few pounds, was running laps on his players' heels. My own practice as a writer was affecting my authority with students; they could perceive that I was more in tune with S.E. Hinton when I knew just exactly what character to suggest they profile for their project.

Before I started using writing to build upon my own understanding of teaching literature and reading, I was full of haste but going nowhere. Now, I can afford to take a more Dickenson-like tempo with my classes:

I slowly teach, I know no haste.

And I do put my pen

into labor, and leisure too

for I know I'm learning.

And now the first line of my poem is something a bit brighter. With my new perspective I can say comfortably, I don't think Emily would mind my riffing on her already great words:

Because I Have to Stop to Write,

The World Kindly Stops for Me.

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Steve J. Moore heads his high school's reading department and teaches literacy skills to incoming freshman. His blog www.mooreonthepage.com is an account of his first year as a teacher, and is being published in a series through the Missouri State Teachers Association's publication Teacher U. Full of energy, optimism, and frankness, Moore's posts mean to uplift and encourage anyone with a stake in education.

Where in the World Is... Harper Lee

Where in the World is...

Harper Lee

June was the 50th Anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird, so it seems ony right to ask, "Where in the world is Harper Lee.

After the publication of the novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction award in 1961, Lee accompanied Truman Capote to Holcomb, Kansas, helping him research the Clutter family murders. The case and subsequent trial were written about in his famous book In Cold Blood. Since then, although she started and abandoned both a second novel and a nonfiction text, To Kill a Mockingbird remains Lee's only major work.

In more recent years, Lee, now eighty-four years old, travels back and forth between New York City and Monroeville, Alabama. She received an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 2006, and that same year, wrote a letter to Oprah that was published in the July 2006 edition of O Magazine. She also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007, a prestigious award that was previously presented to Mother Teresa, Margaret Thatcher, and Tony Blair.

Tuesday Trivia

1. Which was the first gospel to be written?
2. Which author started the first African American newspaper in Dayton, OH, aided by the Wright brothers (who provided the printing press)?
3. Which author was the first African-American to graduate from Harvard University — earning his Ph.D. in History?
4. Which author wrote his first novel at age 17 while babysitting his youngest brother?

After completing high school, which author spent over a dozen years on the assembly line of Flint’s historic Fisher Body Plant hanging car doors?


Christopher Paul Curtis



What 17th century female author had a personal library of books that numbered over 800 titles?


Anne Bradstreet



Which Victorian poet, the oldest of 12 children, was nicknamed “Ba” by her family?


Elizabeth Barrett Browning


Which author cites T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land as the source of a major awakening in regards to his own writing?


Ralph Ellison



Which American author claimed to have been born in 1919 in order to appear younger than her husband?


Shirley Jackson, author of “The Lottery”, was born in 1916, but claimed she was born three years later to appear younger than her husband.

Delaware Educators to be Honored at Teacher Appreciation Night

On Wednesday, July 21, 2010, at the Delaware Shakespeare Festival’s production of Macbeth, local educators will be honored during Teacher Appreciation Night.

The Delaware Shakespeare Festival will run from July 16th through July 31st on the grounds of Rockwood Mansion in Wilmington, DE. To recognize their efforts throughout the school year, teachers will be offered discount admission to the show. In addition, all educators in attendance will receive a complementary copy of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

This year, the entire run of Macbeth is made possible due to sponsorship from Smyrna-based publishing company, Prestwick House. In conjunction with Teacher Appreciation Night, Prestwick House will also be providing a variety pack of Macbeth teaching resources as a drawing prize. All educators attending the performance will be automatically entered to win.

“Teachers are an indispensible part of the community that is often under appreciated,” says Jason Scott, CEO of this year’s production sponsor, Prestwick House. “Teaching is not just a job, it is a vocation, and those who work tirelessly year after year should be recognized and celebrated for their efforts.”
At the performance, Prestwick House will also announce the winners of its first annual Delaware English Teacher of the Year Award, as well as the first annual Delaware Language Arts Student of the Year Award.

The finalists for the first annual Prestwick House Delaware English Teacher of the Year Award are Jennifer Bower of Seaford Middle School, Kristen Zerbe of John Dickinson High School, and Harry Brake of Seaford High School. Finalists for the Prestwick House Delaware Language Arts Student of the Year are Erin Frick of Caesar Rodney High School, Desiree Rodriguez of Smyrna High School, and Lexington Studevant of William Penn High School.

In addition to a plaque commemorating the achievement, the winning teacher will receive a new Apple iPad loaded with digital teaching materials, and the winning student will receive a $500 scholarship. All finalists will be featured on the Prestwick House website, blog, and in the Footnotes monthly email newsletter.
Tickets for Teacher’s Appreciation Night and the Delaware Shakespeare Company’s production of Macbeth can be purchased on the grounds of Rockwood Mansion Park beginning at 6:30pm, one hour before the show begins, or online at DelShakes.org.

Image copyright 2010 Delaware Shakespeare Festival

Tuesday Trivia

1. After completing high school, which author spent over a dozen years on the assembly line of Flint’s historic Fisher Body Plant hanging car doors?
2. What 17th century female author had a personal library of books that numbered over 800 titles?
3. Which Victorian poet, the oldest of 12 children, was nicknamed “Ba” by her family?
4. Which author cites T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land as the source of a major awakening in regards to his own writing?
5. Which American author claimed to have been born in 1919 in order to appear younger than her husband?

In the Summer of 1816, how many people stayed with Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati in Geneva (when Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein)? What were their names?


Byron and four others stayed at the Villa Diodati, making five total: Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont.



Tybalt, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is named after which anthropomorphic character?


Tybalt is named after Tybalt/Tibert, the Prince of Cats in the Reynard the Fox stories. Mercutio alludes to this connection between characters when he says that Tybalt is “More than Prince of Cats” in Act II, Scene iv.



True or False: Heath Ledger was named after Heathcliff in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.


True. Heath was named after Heathcliff, and his older sister, Kate, was named after Catherine Linton nee Earnshaw. Both are names of characters in Wuthering Heights.


Which author was twice engaged to Felice Bauer, a woman who lived in Berlin and worked as a representative for a dictaphone company?


Franz Kafka met Felice Bauer at Max Brod's home in 1912. Over the next five years they corresponded a great deal, met occasionally, and engaged twice before the relationship ended in 1917.


Which female author, disguised as a male Abyssinian royal, participated in the Dreadnought Hoax — a practical joke thought up by Horace de Vere Cole to trick the Royal Navy into showing the HMS Dreadnought to a supposed delegation of royals?


Several members of the Bloomsbury Group gained notoriety by participating in the Dreadnought hoax, including Virginia Woolf.

Caesar Rodney, Smyrna, and William Penn Students Named Finalists in First Annual Prestwick House Delaware Language Arts Student of the Year Award

Smyrna, DE, July 7, 2010 – Today, Smyrna-based publishing company Prestwick House, Inc., is proud to announce three finalists for the first annual Prestwick House Delaware Language Arts Student of the Year Award. The honored students are Erin Frick of Caesar Rodney High School, Desiree Rodriguez of Smyrna High School, and Lexington Studevant of William Penn High School.

Each teacher within the state of Delaware was encouraged to nominate a student for this prestigious award. Each nomination was then carefully reviewed by the Prestwick House Delaware Language Arts Student of the Year Committee, and three finalists were selected.

“These students have truly demonstrated what it means to be a well-rounded language arts student, including excellent academic achievement in the study of literature, writing, and English Language Arts. Their positive attitudes, genuine interest in learning, and ability to stand as role models for their fellow students are to be commended,” says Prestwick House CEO, Jason Scott.

Desiree Rodriguez, a Smyrna high school student with an unmatched love of literature, has read her way through the entirety of the Smyrna High School library and has begun borrowing college level anthologies from teachers to expand her knowledge. Along with a love for reading, Desiree also shows a great talent for writing, submitting creative pieces she has written on her own time to be reviewed. According to teacher Tiffany Duke, “Desiree’s writing is both invigorating and interesting to read. I know without a doubt that this special student will be the next J.K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyers.”

According to her teachers, Caesar Rodney senior Erin Fricke stands as a role model for her fellow students, making them work harder to achieve their own goals. Teacher Michelle Shipe writes, “I can always count on Erin’s assignments to be model examples of the type of work I was expecting. Erin set a new standard in class, above the already high expectations I set for everyone, which is both impressive and admirable.” Outside of academics, Erin is also involved in Cross Country, Tennis, French Club, Earth Club, Unity Club, National Honor Society, Mock Trial, and Student Leadership Council.

Lexington Studevant, a student at William Penn High School, is best known for his love of writing. Teacher Barbara Foxx writes, “Lexington is a very conscientious student who has attained a high academic standard, not only in English, but in other classes as well. He has both desire and determination to excel.” Recently, Lexington was honored for his writing prowess in a contest titled “Laws of Life.”

The winner of the Delaware Language Arts Student of the Year Award will be announced on Wednesday, July 21, 2010, during the Prestwick House-sponsored Teacher Appreciation Night at the Delaware Shakespeare Festival.
Along with recognition for their efforts in conjunction with the Shakespeare Festival performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and a plaque commemorating their achievements, the winning student will also receive a $500 Scholarship. All finalists will be featured on the Prestwick House website, blog, and in the Footnotes monthly email newsletter.

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About Prestwick House - Founded in 1983 by a former Dover High School administrator, Prestwick House is a leader in educational publishing. With a focus on helping English teachers in grades 9-12, Prestwick House publishes the largest selection of literature teaching guides in the country, a line of classic novels, and hundreds of other educational products. Find out more at www.prestwickhouse.com.

Tuesday Trivia

1. In the Summer of 1816, how many people stayed with Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati in Geneva (when Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein)? What were their names?
2. Tybalt, in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is named after which anthropomorphic character?
3. True or False: Heath Ledger was named after Heathcliff in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.
4. Which author was twice engaged to Felice Bauer, a woman who lived in Berlin and worked as a representative for a dictaphone company?
5. Which female author, disguised as a male Abyssinian royal, participated in the Dreadnought Hoax — a practical joke thought up by Horace de Vere Cole to trick the Royal Navy into showing the HMS Dreadnought to a supposed delegation of royals?

Which author once ran for mayor of Oakland California in 1901 under the Social Party ticket?
Jack London

Who is the only author to win the Newbery Medal and a Newbery Honor in the same year?
In 1968, E.L. Konigsburg became the first author to win both the Newbery Medal for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and the Newbery Honor for Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth.

Which author’s father left his family under the pretense of going out to buy a pack of cigarettes?
When Stephen King was two years old, his father Donald left the house to buy cigarettes and never returned, leaving his mother to raise King and his adopted older brother David by herself.

True or False: The Theban plays, Oedipus Tyrannus, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone are a trilogy written by Sophocles.
These three plays are, in fact, not a trilogy and were never performed together. About forty years separates the first play, Antigone, from the last, Oedipus at Colonus.

Prestwick House Goes Green with High Efficiency Solar Panels

2 July 2010, Smyrna, DE — This week, Delaware-based publishing company, Prestwick House, will unveil an 8.61 kilowatt, roof-mounted, solar array as a part of a continuing commitment to reduce emissions and be more environmentally responsible. Installation of the high-efficiency SunPower panels was done by locally owned and operated KW Solar Solutions of Newark, Delaware.

“As a company, we work to emphasize resource conservation, recycling, and emissions reduction in everything we do. With ongoing initiatives including having recycling receptacles available on site, actively reducing the amount of paper used in our catalogues with targeted mailings, and offering employee ride share and public transportation benefits, we are striving to be as green as possible,” says Prestwick House CEO, Jason Scott.

“With the addition of solar panels, we will be adding to our goal of environmental stewardship by lessening energy consumption and ultimately reducing our carbon footprint within the community.”

The new system produces no emissions, uses no fuel, and contains no hazardous materials. The solar panels, expected to produce 10,000 kWh per year of energy, include a monitoring system complete with a comprehensive reporting feature to keep close tabs on energy usage and conservation.

“Generally the roof of a business is just wasted space, so why not use that space to further environmental stewardship?” said Prestwick House CEO, Jason Scott. “We recognize that renewable energy is an excellent opportunity to improve our local community and work towards a more sustainable future.”

On March 10, 2010, Governor Jack Markell announced an update to Delaware’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, an initiative that will expand local manufacturing and establish Delaware as a national leader in the adoption of renewable energy.

According to Markell’s website, “The recently updated Renewable Portfolio Standard sets Delaware on a course to receive 30% of its energy supplies from renewable sources by 2029. This new target will reduce our reliance on variably priced fossil fuels as we move to more price-stable and sustainable sources — ultimately moving Delaware towards a more uniform provision of renewable energy.”

“In conjunction with Delaware’s efforts to use more sustainable energy sources, Prestwick House is dedicated to do our part to be environmentally conscious,” says Prestwick House General Manager, Keith Bergstrom. “We plan to foster this initiative beyond the installation of solar panels and continue to lead our employees in best practices to protect the environment.”

About Prestwick House - Founded in 1983 by a former Dover High School administrator, Prestwick House is a leader in educational publishing. With a focus on helping English teachers in grades 9-12, Prestwick House publishes the largest selection of literature teaching guides in the country, a line of classic novels, and hundreds of other educational products. Find out more at www.prestwickhouse.com.

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If you’d like more information about this topic or to schedule an interview, please call Keith Bergstrom at 302/659-2070 ext 131 or e-mail Keith at keith@prestwickhouse.com

Where in the World is... R.L. Stein

Where in the world is...

R.L. Stine?

Long before teenage girls flocked to midnight releases of the latest Twilight novel, even before J.K. Rowling published her first book about the young, bespectacled boy who would become a great wizard, a book series captivated scared the wits out of young readers, sent them flocking to their libraries on summer vacation.

I'm talking about R.L. Stine's Goosebumps novels, those terrifying but age appropriate books that primed my generation to be Stephen King and Dean Koontz fans later in life. I, personally, have fond memories of getting phone calls from my library--the books were so popular that there was a wait list to take them out--begging my mother to drive me there, getting the books, and spending the first half of the night reading them from cover to cover. The second part of the night was, of course, spent trembling under the covers, jumping at every small sound in the house.

So where in the world is R.L. Stine?

The answer is an simple one: he is still busy writing. Stine now has over 300 novels and short stories accredited to him, and he is now working on a series, Horrorland, for the new generation of Goosebumps fans. According to his website, seven new titles will be released in 2010. Furthermore, Stine spent a some time in China, where he visited members of his international fanbase, and more recently, gave the commencement speech for MacCaulay College (CUNY).

In short, Stein has not left the spotlight at all; his older fanbase has merely grown up.

Image (CC) 2008 Larry D. Moore