Prestwick Cafe

Tuesday Trivia

2009-07-14T00:00:00.000-02:30

In what writer's work did author Cicily Isabel Fairfield Andrews find her famous pseudonym--Rebecca West?
What American writer, while a war correspondent, is credited with capturing a town single-handedly during the Spanish-American War?
How many Shakespearean plays include mention of America?
Which award-winning Jerzy Kosinski novel was repeatedly rejected by publishers when it was resubmitted under a different title 9 years after its original publication?
In the English language, what are the days of the week named after?

Last Week's Answers

What writer contemporary to T.S. Eliot nicknamed him "Old Possum"?

Ezra Pound, a poet, critic, and a major figure of the Modernist movement, famous for his work with major contemporaries such as Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, Ernest Hemingway, and especially T. S. Eliot gave Eliot the nickname “Old Possum.” Eliot later used the nickname in his work Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

In later versions of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the wicked Queen falls off a precipice and dies. How does she meet her end in the original Grimm brothers fairy tale?

She was condemned to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she died.

Where does the word abracadabra come from?

The word "abracadabra" originated in Roman times as part of a prayer to the god Abraxas.

What book was once banned by the Eldon, Missouri library because it contained 39 "objectionable" words?

The American Heritage Dictionary.

What cultural phenomena did psychiatrist Fredric Wertheim ink to juvenile delinquency in his 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent?

Comic books. His book led to Senate hearings and the establishment of the Comics Code Authority, which banned "all scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, and masochism."

Great Teachers: Born or Made?

2009-07-09T11:30:00.000-02:30

By Paul Moliken, Prestwick House Senior Editor

I went to an all-boys academic high school in Philadelphia back in the middle of the last century. The teachers there placed more knowledge into my head than 95% of the professors I had in college. While the emphasis was on learning, appreciation, and discovery, it was always clear that wit went hand in hand with wisdom when it came to teaching. The popular classes, the ones students craved to be assigned to were those in which the teacher did more than simply lecture. He or she was born to the task of stimulating the brains of intellectually curious adolescents. That ability cannot be taught in education classes, in standard deviations, or in bell curves, all of which are useful, but unnecessary in the hands of a skilled educator and dreadfully dull in the hands of a teacher who never deviates from prepared notes.

One English teacher foisted upon his classes 10,000 word essays on arcane and difficult subjects, which he graded on an upwards curve, making sure that the best actually were head and shoulders above the rest. He was extraordinarily difficult, yet admired and respected for his knowledge and ability to teach. Once asked if he threw the essays down the stairs and graded them at random based on where they landed, Mr. R_____ responded dryly, “No, I throw them into the air, and those that don’t come down get A’s.” He was among the most beloved teachers we ever encountered. How many teachers actually deserve that adjective? Those who are born knowing how to reach young minds.

Mr. D____, a physics teacher, just out of college, spoke to us of the properties of simple machines [this is as boring as is possible to be boring to someone interested in poetry and language], but he once lectured while standing on his hands for at least ten minutes. I still remember: “Work equals force times distance.” We saw it in practice, as the physics was explained by a born teacher who knew how to inspire.

How was I going to grasp mole weights or memorize the periodic chart of the elements if I just didn’t care about the subject? My chemistry professor, Dr. B____, made his classes fascinating because each day he presented us with a riddle or told a long hilarious story that illustrated some principle of chemistry. Why was the night watchman’s gold watch discovered in the vat of hydrochloric acid, but not his bones? The answer is, not as one student responded, because “It took a licking and kept on ticking” but because “Noble metals are impervious to acids.” This man understood the power of a joke to make a point. He was born to teach.

The three anecdotes above are not meant to imply that students will not succeed through straight lecturing or memorization of facts; the stories are designed to illustrate my point that a bit of relaxation and a lessening of "teacher dispenses words of wisdom, and the students absorb them" will invariably help students grasp what the teacher needs to impart.

Tuesday Trivia

2009-07-07T06:29:00.000-02:30

What writer contemporary to T.S. Eliot nicknamed him "Old Possum"?
In later versions of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the evil Queen plummets to her death off of a precipice. How does she die in the original Brothers Grimm tale?
Where does the word abracadabra come from?
Which book was banned by a public library in Missouri because it contained 39 objectionable words?
What cultural phenomena did psychiatrist Fredric Wertheim link to juvenile delinquency in his 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent?

Where does the term “salary” come from?

Part of a Roman soldier's pay was called salarium argentium, "salt money", which was used to buy the then-precious commodity, and so pay today is called a "salary".

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series, Dr. Watson is said to have suffered a bullet wound during the war. Where was he shot?

Interestingly enough we are told in A Study in Scarlet that he has been shot in the shoulder, but according to The Sign of Four, he was shot in the in the leg.

What famous Russian novelist and short story writer had several butterflies named after him?

Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita, was also a distinguished etymologist. The genus Nabokovia was named after him in honor of this work, as were a number of butterfly and moth species including many of the genera Madeleinea and Pseudolucia.

What best-selling author opened the first Saab auto dealership in the United States?

Kurt Vonnegut.

What famous writer wished to ban Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn from American public libraries, stating it was inappropriate for "our pure-minded lads and lassies"?

Little Women author, Louisa May Alcott.

What Business and Education Can Accomplish Through Partnership

2009-07-06T18:28:00.000-02:30

In conjunction with the Business, Industry, and Education Alliance’s annual Teacher Externship Program, Prestwick House was thrilled to host two teacher externs from area schools. Delaware teachers June Craig and Michelle Peeling both spent three days speaking with various members of the Prestwick House staff, viewing products, asking questions, and getting a general idea of what a publishing company is all about.

The externship culminated in a round-table discussion during which the Prestwick House staff was able to ask questions about the changing school environment and how we might improve our products to help teachers in the field. The discussion was very informative and generated conversations on everything from the changing trends in education and the evolution of teaching techniques, to ways teachers use technology in the classroom.

“It was great to be able to share the world of publishing with teachers, but we really got a lot out of it, too,” says Prestwick House General Manager, Keith Bergstrom. “The chance to just sit and talk about how and why we do what we do was really valuable, and talking about the way that dedicated teachers (like Michelle and June) do things in their classrooms both validates what we’re doing and gives us some great ideas on how to improve our products.”

“One of the key themes of the round table discussion was the fact that educators are facing more difficulties today than they were ever before,” adds Prestwick House Staff Writer, Stephanie Polukis. “The most important members of our community, who are teaching, training, and preparing the future leaders of America, are finding it increasingly more difficult to do their jobs successfully. Since Prestwick House's mission is to lighten the burden on educators and make products that will help English teachers, it is absolutely necessary for our company stay up to date with current difficulties and trends in today’s schools.”

Prestwick House Brand Manager, Jerry Clark, agrees saying, “I found the experience very informative, especially in the area of how technology is being used in the classroom. A number of creative ideas came forth for new products that are sure to fulfill a need for teachers. We’re excited to get a few new prototypes under development in the coming months.”

Following the experience, all teacher externs attended a closing meeting. When BIEA evaluated the program’s success rate through questionnaires and discussion, responses from teacher externs were overwhelmingly positive.

“The Teacher Externship Program is an example of what business and education can accomplish through partnership,” writes Lori Aldrich, of the Delaware Business, Industry, Education Alliance. ‘Outstanding’ is the definitive word that was expressed by educators to describe […] the experience.”

“You, along with so many other Delaware mentors, impacted over 100 teachers state wide,” writes Michelle Peeling regarding her externship experience at Prestwick House. “Thanks for your continuing support and for being such a valuable resource for English/Language Arts teachers nationwide.”

Prestwick House staff was honored to have the opportunity to host teacher externs and hopes to continue this program in future years.

Dealing with Dickens: Reflections on Reading A Tale of Two Cities

2009-07-02T16:51:00.000-02:30

by Josh Pariseau, Prestwick House Staff

One book I read in my youth that I still recall struggling through is A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens — who has written works I didn’t have to read, like Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, and David Copperfield. Dickens was born in 1812 and focused most of his books on the social failures of his day. A Tale of Two Cities is somewhat unique in that it is set against the French Revolution, when France tried to abolish its monarchy and aristocracy and recognize the inalienable rights of all of its citizens. The central plot of the book involves the complex love triangle of Charles Darnay, Lucie Mannette, and Sydney Carton. In the end, of course, Carton sacrifices himself in order for Darnay to be with Lucie.

What I especially remember about this novel is the complexity of the plot and the character relationships and how everything comes together at the end. The book seemed confusing at the beginning—how were all the different characters and plotlines going to fit in together?—but Dickens managed to pull it all together and make it make sense at the end, especially once the action stopped switching from England to France to England to France…, and all the characters finally settled in France. All of the plotlines also finally began to merge as Charles Darnay was about to be executed, and Sydney Carton (who had promised Lucie that he would do anything to make her happy) sacrificed his life to save Darnay. Did this one selfless act redeem Darnay and give his life meaning? Maybe that’s what Dickens wanted us to think about after we were done reading the book.

This was, of course, the part of the book that I liked the most. After a confusing first half, when a dozen characters and unrelated plot lines are all introduced and set in motion, finally everything builds to a point and starts to make sense.

However, looking back to my youthful self, I remember that one big obstacle to really, really liking the novel was its language. Charles Dickens’s language is, of course, the formal and wordy English of 19^th-century England. To a twenty-first-century teenager, this was just a little hard to understand. Still, I managed to get through it.

(Frankly, though, since we’re now looking at the book’s weaknesses, I thought the opening and some of the early scenes were boring, long, and drawn out. Certainly there’s mystery and suspense when Jarvis Lorry gets his message saying “Recalled to Life.” Sure, we wonder why Lucie is being taken to France and why her father—a shoemaker and a doctor—has been in prison for 18 years, but it did seem to take an awfully long time before things started to be explained).

All in all, despite the novel’s strong points, I thought it was a disappointment to read. (Don’t shoot me, I know I’m writing for an English Teachers’ blog, and I work for a publishing company, but I’m an Arts and Graphics person, not a connoisseur of Great Literature). My judgment is only because I had to struggle to keep up with the story, the characters, and the language. Granted, anyone who likes reading Dickens books would probably love this book because it’s…well…Dickens. As an English teacher, you probably understand the book better than I do.

Nevertheless, I did make my way through the book, and I do remember it pretty vividly, so maybe my English teacher really did accomplish was she set out to do when she made me read it.

EduBlogger Favorites: My Twitter #FollowFriday and #TeacherTuesday Recommended Resources

2009-07-02T10:15:00.000-02:30

In recent months, I have spent quite some time sifting through the blogs of some of my fellow Tweeters and members of the English Companion Ning. In looking for great content to share with teachers, I have found a few indispensible, go-to sources for great information.

These bloggers are teachers, administrators, or just plain old advocates for education who are interested in starting discussions on how to improve things in the educational realm. They are constantly piquing my interest and have given me many resources to pass on.

If you don’t see your favorite edu blogger, please feel free to suggest your favorites in the comments section, and I’ll be happy to add them!

English Companion Ning

http://englishcompanion.ning.com/

I’ve already done my plug for the English Companion Ning both here at the Prestwick Café blog and in our most recent Footnotes Newsletter, but I feel the need to reiterate that it is an absolutely essential resource for those in the English education field. The variety of active forums, blogs, and groups in which you can discuss topics with other teachers is almost overwhelming and the quickness with which others respond to your inquiries is impressive. Answers and suggestions given here are always thorough and thought-provoking.

And while you’re getting your feet wet with the EC Ning, you should check out EC Ning creator Jim Burke’s English Companion Blog for even more useful information.

Larry Ferlazzo’s Education Blog

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/

Concentrating in websites that will help you teach ELL, ESL and EFL, Larry Ferlazzo’s website is a great resource for all sorts of information on education. Specializing in Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced English Language Learners (as well as native English speakers) at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California Larry Ferlazzo has been a high school teacher for five years after spending nineteen years working as a community organizer.

In addition to writing this blog and maintaining his website, Larry writes regularly for In Practice, a blog created by Alice Mercer in 2007 and written by a group of teachers from around the world who teach in low-income communities.

The Edurati Review

http://www.eduratireview.com/

This site, sort of a news feed for what’s going on in education, derives its name from edu(cation) and (lit)erati. 'Edurati' is used to refer to a “new wave of educators, thinkers, entrepreneurs, and activists driving catalytic innovation in public education.” My fellow tweeters, Chad Ratliff, Jason Flom, and Kevin D. Washburn are all contributors to this blog, and give a unique insight on various issues in education. This is one of the websites I check daily, and I am genuinely excited when there’s a new post to read!

Clerestory Learning Blog Spot

http://clerestorylearning.blogspot.com/

Speaking of Kevin D. Washburn, his blog is not only well-written and interesting but his focus on the quality of instruction is similar to Prestwick House’s (which makes it extremely fun for me to read). His “experience as a teacher in elementary through college level classrooms and positions in curriculum and instruction combine with his penchant for reading and research in both educational and scientific areas to uncover important implications for learning.”

New Teacher Resource Center

http://newteacherresourcecenter.com/

This blog was created by Dorit Sasson, freelance writer and ESL teacher, and is dedicated to supporting new teachers. There are constantly new posts and links on developing strategies for succeeding in the classroom including tips on lesson planning, classroom management, and discovering different learning styles and teaching methods.

Keeping Kids First

http://keepingkidsfirst.wordpress.com/

This blog written by Kelly Hines is witty, fun, and covers a number of interesting education topics. As stated in the title, this 4^th grade teacher is adamant about kids and education and her blog is definitely a must-read.

Other Favorites:

Dana M. Huff’s English Blog

Shelly Terrell’s Teacher Boot Camp Blog

Burcu Akyol’s EFL Blog

Shelly Blake-Plock’s Teach Paperless Blog

Meet Prestwick House Writer, Magedah Shabo

2009-07-02T06:00:00.000-02:30

An anthology of pertinent African American literature that covers a variety of authors, genres, and historical periods is difficult to come by — and finding one that's affordable is nearly impossible. With those needs in mind, Prestwick House created African American Literature: A Concise Anthology from Frederick Douglass to Toni Morrison.

Magedah Shabo, editor of this compact, 232-page anthology has agreed to speak about her experiences compiling some of the works of great African American authors, how this project has influenced her personally, and how this anthology will improve literature classes.

This anthology is very concise but contains a great variety of writers. How did you choose the authors and selections for this anthology? What books most influenced your choices?

I designed this book with the goal of covering a wide variety of genres, time periods, and viewpoints, all within the small space of about two-hundred pages. I had noticed that, while there are some excellent African American lit anthologies available, none are concise enough or inexpensive enough to be useful in high school classrooms.

In developing a high school-friendly anthology, I naturally wanted to include some of the canon essentials, like Langston Hughes’s poetry and excerpts from famous works by W.E.B. DuBois and Frederick Douglass. At the same time, I also wanted to make this a truly valuable and unique resource by including some pieces that are less accessible to most high school classrooms—works by lesser-known writers like Lucy Terry and Jessie Redmon Fauset, a rarely-published short story by Toni Morrison, and so on.

The short story “Recitatif” by Toni Morrison is a great example of modern African American literature that is not included in many other anthologies. How did you end up including this story in the collection?

“Recitatif” is a brilliant story, and I’m glad it will be making its way into high schools through this anthology. It was almost impossible to teach this text before we published our collection; in fact, I don’t believe it’s even in print anywhere else at present.

This is a story about two women, one black and one white, whose lives intersect at several points over the course of about three decades. One of the remarkable things about this piece is that you never find out which woman is black and which is white. The characters interact over random fragments of history—the death of Jimi Hendrix, the rise of IBM, desegregation busing—and although the narrative explores racial tensions, it never allows the reader to comfortably consign either woman to a racial category.

The selections in the anthology are arranged in chronological order, and this is the last piece in the book. We begin with Colonial-era poetry written by slaves, and we conclude with this story from the 1980s that seems to question the meaning and legitimacy of race altogether. I thought that was a great way to end the anthology.

What is the general message that ties together the selections in this anthology? What would you like your readers to grasp after reading it?

I wouldn’t say there is any particular message that unifies these selections. I think that our writers’ shared legacies of African American history and culture are reason enough for anthologizing these works together—such a collection gives us personal, artistic accounts of events we usually read about as cold, dead history, and it allows us to compare different points of view on these issues and experiences. But imposing any sort of thematic or ideological unity on such a collection would have required heavy editorializing, if not censorship.

For example, I would never have been able to pair Booker T. Washington with his legendary detractor, W.E.B. DuBois, if we were aiming to present a cohesive message; that would have meant losing one side of a fascinating conversation, and it would have been a misrepresentation of black literature and history.

In short, no, we didn’t attempt to moralize through this book. However, there is a quote on the back cover that I believe will provoke thought and discussion among readers. The quote reads, “Black literature is taught as sociology, as tolerance, not as a serious, rigorous art form.” I believe the indictment is, in other words, that the study of black literature is too often performed condescendingly—it’s treated as an act of magnanimity, rather than simply as literary analysis. I think this quote will engage readers with the question of how black literature is and ought to be and studied.

Which selection in the anthology is your favorite and why?

As much as I admire many of the other pieces in the collection, Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl stands out to me as a favorite. It’s a nonfiction work, so you can read it for its historical value alone. But on top of that, you get the pleasure of reading a story that has all the suspense and poetry of a romance. There’s even a philosophical side to this piece.

You’ll see the depths of human depravity in some of Jacobs’s accounts, but in the same text you’ll also see glimpses of a sublime grace and mercy shining through some of the characters. It’s quite a rewarding study. We’ve excerpted the book in the anthology, but I would encourage anyone who hasn’t read the entire narrative to pick up a copy. Prestwick House provides the full version of this text in our Literary Touchstone Classic line.

If you could meet one of the authors included in the anthology (living or dead), which would it be and why?

Each one of these authors has lived a remarkable life, but if I could interview only one, I would probably choose Phillis Wheatley. I say that because there seems to be something about literacy that makes living in slavery a particularly maddening experience—Harriet Jacobs and Frederick Douglass both indicate as much in their narratives—and I would love to hear Wheatley’s full, uncensored story, as one who was all at once a scholar, a renowned prodigy, and a piece of property. I imagine she would have had an incredible tale to tell. Unfortunately, unlike Jacobs and Douglass, Wheatley died at a young age and never recorded her full story, so we can only imagine.

How do you think this anthology will improve literature classes? In what ways do you think this anthology will affect modern high school students?

I hope that having access to this anthology will inspire more teachers to tackle some of the great works we’ve included here, including some of those that are perhaps controversial or simply obscure. There’s a wealth of history, creativity, eloquence, and skill on display in this book, and I’m certain it will enrich the educational experiences of teachers and students alike.

What new projects are around the corner for Prestwick House?

I’m currently working on a book about reasoning and argumentation. The ability to think clearly and to recognize and interpret different kinds of persuasive techniques is essential to good writing and analysis, and this next book will be focused on sharpening these skill sets. It should be particularly useful for AP Language and Composition classes.

Twitter Mosaic

2009-07-01T11:14:00.000-02:30

Below is a really cool visual representation of all of our Twitter friends provided by Twitter Mosaic.

If you haven't already discovered them, there are lots of ways to stay connected with Prestwick House including our Facebook Page, our Twitter page, and here at the Prestwick Café Blog.

Visit our pages to receive exciting extras like:

Daily updates on free technology, discounts, contests, and more
Weekly trivia questions for your classroom and colleagues
Live chats with our authors about new products
Discussion Forums to voice your opinion

Tuesday Trivia

2009-06-30T06:41:00.000-02:30

Where does the term “salary” come from?
In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series, Dr. Watson is said to have suffered a bullet wound during the war. Where was he shot?
What famous Russian novelist and short story writer had several butterflies named after him?
What best-selling author opened the first Saab auto dealership in the United States?
What famous writer wished to ban Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn from American public libraries, stating it was inappropriate for "our pure-minded lads and lassies"?

Last Week's Answers

What is the most expensive book or manuscript ever sold at an auction?

The most expensive book or manuscript ever sold at an auction was The Codex Hammer, a notebook belonging to Leonardo da Vinci. It sold for $30.8 million.

When was the first novel written?

The first novel ever written contains 54 chapters and is titled The Tale of Genji. It was written in the beginning of the 11^th century by Murasaki Shibuku, a Japanese noblewoman.

How old are the oldest words in the English language?

The oldest words in the English language date from approximately 14,000 years ago and originate from a pre-Indo-European language called Nostratic by linguists. Words from Nostratic that survive today include apple gold (gol), (apal), tin (tin), and bad (bad).

In old English, the word “with” originally meant what?

In Old English, the word with meant "against". This meaning is still preserved in phrases such as "to fight with"

A group of geese is called a gaggle when they are on the ground. What are they called when they are in flight?

A group of magpies is called a tiding, one of ravens an unkindness, one of turtledoves a pitying, one of starlings a murmuration, one of swans a lamentation, one of ponies a string, one of rattlesnakes a rhumba, one of crows a murder, one of cobras a quiver, one of foxes a skulk, one of emus a mob, one of elks a gang, one of cats a clowder, one of flamingoes a pat, and one of bears a sleuth. Groups of geese are named in a peculiar manner; when they are on the ground they are called a "gaggle", but in the air they are called a "skein."

Tuesday Trivia

2009-06-23T05:56:00.000-02:30

Washington Irving got the idea for the story of Rip Van Winkle from which ancient poet?
What was the first American novel published in 1789?
What was the full name of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin?
How many words in all of Shakespeare’s works begin with the letter “X”?
Who was the first Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature?

Last Week's Answers

What date in history do Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis have in common and why?

Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis both died on November 22, 1963, but the day is most often remembered for the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

What literary work gives the “quark,” a building block of the proton, its name?

The quark takes its name from James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, from the line "Three quarks for Muster Mark! Sure he hasn't got much of a bark".

What was the first work of fiction to be blessed by a Pope?

Ben-Hur: A Tale of Christ by American Civil War General, Lew Wallace, was published in 1880 and was the first work of literature to be blessed by the Pope.

How many years older than Shakespeare was his wife Anne Hathaway?

Because Anne Hathaway's tombstone states she was 67 when she died in 1623, it is generally believed that she was eight years older than her husband. However, the figures 1 and 7 are easily confused — so she may have actually been 61, only two years older than William.

Where does the term “bestseller” come from?

The Kansas Times and Star was the first newspaper to use the phrase “bestseller” in their April 25, 1889 edition referring to six books as the “best sellers here last week.”

Happy Birthday, Anne

2009-06-12T06:16:00.000-02:30

Sunday, 14 June, 1942:

On Friday, June 12^th, I woke up at six o’clock and no wonder; it was my birthday. But of course I was not allowed to get up at that hour, so I had to control my curiosity until a quarter to seven. Then I could bear it no longer, and went to the dining room, where I received a warm welcome from Moortje (the cat).

Soon after seven, I went to Mummy and Daddy and then to the sitting room to undo my presents. The first to greet me was you, possibly the nicest of all.

And thus began what was to become, arguably, the most famous diary of the twentieth century, the diary of young Anne Frank, who, on her thirteenth birthday, received the book she addresses in her first entry as “possibly the nicest [gift] of all.” She had seen the book—a red and green plaid, cloth-bound autograph book with a lock—in a shop a few days earlier and had told her father she would like to keep it as a diary.

The rest, of course, is—as they say—history. In less than a month, Anne and her family would go into hiding to prevent their being transported to a Nazi work camp. Before her sixteenth birthday, Anne would be dead.

Anne Frank: the Diary of a Young Girl is a staple of middle school and high school curricula, and deservedly so. There are so many levels on which it can be taught (though it should never be taught as a novel—because it isn’t. But it certainly qualifies as a book-length work of non-fiction, a requirement in most states’ curriculum standards.).

And young Anne’s voice still resonates with readers.

If Anne were alive today, she would be turning 80 on Friday, June 12. She received her famous birthday present sixty-seven years ago.

Somehow, I think that’s worth noting.

So, Happy Birthday, Anne; your life and story have made a difference in many people’s lives.

— Douglas Grudzina

New Push Seeks to End Need for Pre-College Remedial Classes

2009-06-11T15:47:00.001-02:30

Okay, so did anyone notice this article from the May 28, 2009 New York Times?

New Push Seeks to End Need for Pre-College Remedial Classes
By SAM DILLON

It’s certainly not “news” to any of us who have been paying attention to educational issues and various reform efforts for the past, say, two or three decades, but it does seem to be an issue that is not going to go away unless we do something about it.

I don’t think I’m treading on too thin ice when I suggest that most of us who teach (or have taught) high school (especially seniors, especially “college-preparatory” seniors) are thoroughly ambivalent on the issue of non-credit, “remedial” college courses. After all, when we know that college is the student’s goal, and high school graduation is lurking a mere nine months away, we work hard to get our students ready. We know that there are some students who are going to struggle their freshman year—and maybe a non-credit, refresher course would be helpful. We also know, however, that there are students who will simply need a little guidance and instructional attention from their professors. Remediation, for them, we suspect, will be a waste of time and money.

And there are those of us who know—in our heart of hearts—that our high school curriculum could be more rigorous; that we could be more demanding in the depth and scope of understanding we expect our students to attain; that we could be more frank in our assessment of their achievement. We secretly understand the college’s desire to stick the kid into a, say, remedial writing course because we know that our curriculum has fallen short.

We are the lone wolves at faculty and department meetings, begging for higher expectations, more rigorous assignments, more honest grading systems.

We also feel as if we’ve been fighting a never-ending uphill battle.

But we are not really alone. (NOTE TO READER: HERE’S WHERE THE SHAMELESS PROMOTION OF PRESTWICK HOUSE PRODUCTS BEGINS, BUT OUR PRODUCTS REALLY ARE GOOD, SO YOU SHOULD KEEP READING.)

Over the past several years, Prestwick House has striven (strived?) to translate the pedagobbledygook of educational reform into workable classroom materials. The results have been quite successful, and if you haven’t looked at any of the following, you really should:

3 Simple Truths and 6 Essential Traits of Powerful Writing is a four-year writing program designed to pick students up at the novice level (where the five-paragraph essay is the standard for organization, and the reasons for using a compound sentence versus two simple sentences are explained) and take them to the proficient level (where they are required to experiment with literary and rhetorical devices for the sake of tone, voice, and clarity).

This complete writing curriculum includes a scoring rubric (complete with level-appropriate anchor papers) that clearly illustrates the growth expected of students as they progress from level to level (the target score for the Novice level is 4, while the target score for Proficient is 13).

Instruction, practice, models, assignments, and scoring are all provided—and students who pass their twelfth-grade English course will not need remediation when they enter college.

Grammar for Writing: Understanding the Mechanics of Grammar and How Language Works is just about the only grammar text available that immediately applies every convention covered to its role in writing. Without getting wrapped up in the esoterica of grammar-ology, this little book takes a common-sense, descriptive approach.

Students’ time is not wasted on “drill and kill” exercises and rote memorization of a single rule and its 837 discrete exceptions. Instead, they’re taught to reason out what they want to communicate and then to apply the commonly-accepted conventions that will allow them to do it.

This book makes a great companion to the Novice and Developing levels of the 3 Simple Truths series.

Maximum Impact: Perfecting Student Grammar and Writing takes a more traditional approach to grammar and mechanics for those students who need it. Again, however, the underlying assumption is that, if students are going to be college-level writers by the time they leave high school, they must master the basic conventions of the language early on so that their later instruction can focus on depth, complexity, and—yes—style. A writer who is still struggling with verb tenses and pronoun-antecedent agreement in twelfth grade is doomed to a semester or two of remediation in college—a fate that is readily avoidable with the right tools.

Other books that are not intended to form the core of your curriculum but will certainly prepare your students for college are:

Writing an A+ Research Paper: a Roadmap for Beginning and Experienced Writers (you’ll love the instruction, guided practice, independent practice, do it yourself model of instruction and the strong, practical focus on avoiding plagiarism)

and

Rhetorical Devices: A Handbook and Activities for Student Writers (you’ll appreciate the fact that students are encouraged actually to use the devices in their own writing rather than simply learn how to identify them).

So, if you’re tired of being that lone wolf in meetings, if you honestly want to do the best for your college-bound students, and you want to be a part of the solution and not a continuation of the problem, why not contact customer service today and request Professional Review copies of any or all of these products designed to help you “raise the bar” and prepare your students for their challenging futures.

And if your state, school, or district is charged with spending some of its stimulus money on increasing the rigor of your curriculum, here are a few products that will help you do just that.

(THE SHAMELESS PROMOTION ENDS HERE—THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.)

— Douglas Grudzina

Tuesday Trivia

2009-06-09T05:57:00.000-02:30

What date in history do Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis have in common and why?
What literary work gives the “quark,” a building block of the proton, its name?
What was the first work of fiction to be blessed by a Pope?
How many years older than Shakespeare was his wife Anne Hathaway?
Where does the term “bestseller” come from?

Last Week’s Answers

What is the largest book in the world and where is it located?

The largest book in the world, a copy of the Tripitaka, the sacred Buddhist text that includes Buddha's teachings, is inscribed on 729 marble slabs, each 3.5' × 5' × 5", and occupies a thirteen-acre site on the grounds of the Kuthodaw pagoda in Mandalay, Burma.

How many of Emily Dickinson’s 1,800 poems were published in her lifetime?

Of Emily Dickinson’s over 1,800 poems, only seven were published in her lifetime — all without her consent.

Which well-known 20^th century, British author was a member of the Inklings, a group associated with Oxford University, alongside other pertinent authors such as C.S. Lewis?

J.R.R. Tolkien and as his son Christopher were both avid members of the Inklings.

In what year was the first mention of an iceberg recorded in literature?

Recorded in the ninth century, the travel log of the Irish monk St. Brendan in the North Atlantic, mentions a "floating crystal castle.” Since most early literate civilizations were located in the Mediterranean, the first mention of an iceberg did not come until much later in recorded history.

What was the working title of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone With the Wind?

Believe it or not, Ba! Ba! Black Sheep was one of several working titles Margaret Mitchell used for Gone With the Wind. She also considered the titles Tote the Weary Load, Bugles Sang True, Not In Our Stars, and Tomorrow is Another Day before finally settling on a phrase that she had used in the critical scene where Scarlett returns to Tara and asks, "Was Tara still standing? Or was Tara also gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia?"

Invisibility and the Descent into Madness: One Art Director's Journey

2009-06-05T17:41:00.001-02:30

Invisibility as a super power, according to H. G. Wells, may have some, well… "side effects" associated with it. Insanity would be the number one, but I would guess hypothermia would run a close second. Taking this into consideration, next to flying, it still has to be one of the more popular super powers that, at one time or another, most of us have fantasized about. On a design level, I can attest to the madness associated with this ability.

I was assigned the task of creating a cover image for our Literary Touchstone Classic edition of Wells's classic novel, The Invisible Man. Definitely a challenging and creative assignment, but with some Photoshop skills under my belt I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to pull off the whole invisibility thing. This is where the madness sets in.

I never realized how difficult it would be too render an invisible person with even a slight degree of realism. Oh sure, I could have made it easy and photographed him in a dark room with bandages wrapped around his head like a jazz-age-mummy but I wanted the classic Hollywood still effect with dramatic up-lighting and maniacal hand gesturing — I would need lighting for that. Specific lighting. Casting eerie shadows on the wall.

I could visualize the image, and my next step was to set about lining up a model, the clothes, and a location. The model was a no-brainer. My first and only choice was my younger brother for a couple reasons: one he is an avid fan of the 1930’s classic horror movie genre and everything associated with the era; he's a ham and has no problem whatsoever putting himself completely out there for the sake of "art;" and finally, he's my brother and he agreed to work for free! (I had him sign a model release just in case he changed his mind.)

For the location all I really needed was a space where I could shut out all light (except for my direct source), and preferably a blank, bare wall against which the subject might stand to capture the shadows smoothly and without distortion. My brother's basement fit the bill perfectly (and again, no charge).

My vision was to photograph him from the waist up, so I only needed a jacket, shirt, and scarf in a style that would have been used in the 1930's. My brother borrowed a jacket from his wife's grandfather and the warm, brown tweed set just the right nostalgic tone. The scarf and shirt were easily found around the house. The last but most important prop was the glasses. They couldn't be just any ordinary sort of glasses and needed to have side covers (preferably leather) and appear almost goggle-like. Sure, piece of cake, just pop down to Target and pick some up on the 9.99 carousel — hmmm, no such luck. I visited a few antiques stores. Nada. So my brother ended up borrowing a very expensive pair of military issue goggles from a local Army Navy Store connection for the weekend. They looked amazing. (Okay, in retrospect, perhaps I should have paid him). The last prop was an Ace bandage that I picked up at a local drug store.

The shoot went off without a hitch and I ended up with more images than I needed. Here's a short video made with some of the photos:

The difficult and most time consuming part of the process turned out to be working in Photoshop. I had to “clone” out the model’s actual head yet leave the wall and the shadow of his partially wrapped, partially transparent head, bandage and hands casting the shadow they would have made had he really been invisible. After many, many Photoshop layers and countless hours of “cloning,” I managed to pull off the effect at least to a degree that was acceptable. Mapping a Victorian wallpaper pattern on the wall helped to break up the flat planes of color so that some of the tougher cloned spots would be less discernable. The wrists proved just as problematic but again, with some cloning and many layers I was able to achieve the desired effect.

Here's where the real insanity kicked in. While working on the cover image, I had the idea that it might be cool to have the chapter heads show Griffin fading into invisibility and, of course, into madness. Similar to the Crackerjack flipbook prize we coveted as kids, I felt it would add drama and movement to the book. The "animation" effect doesn't quite work in the printed book, as there are just too many pages in between to give the required "persistence of vision" effect needed to create the illusion of animation, but the idea that the reader might slowly discover the transformation of the novel’s protagonist without being told about it beforehand seemed exciting — something I would have gotten a kick out of when I was in school.

But now, as if the invisibility effect wasn't difficult enough, I needed to slowly fade the head, wrists, and their shadows in stages. Yikes! If I would have had this brainstorm prior to photo shoot, I might have tried to photograph the model’s jacket separately with the wrists and neck areas empty with the exact same lighting. This would have added considerably to the length of time it took for the actual shoot, and the idea of reshooting was logistically out the question.

With a little luck and some serious “cloning” and “duplicating,” I managed to pull off the effect I wanted without a lot of compromise to the quality of the image. The relatively small format of 6 x 9 eliminated the need to worry about superfine detail, and gave the desired effect.

So in short, The Invisible Man cover took longer than the some other covers in the series, but in the long run, I feel like it was worth it. Who would have guessed that designing a cover around something that can't be seen would be so labor intensive?

- Larry Knox, Art Director

It is Hard to Retain Uniqueness in a World that Encourages Conformity...

2009-06-04T13:31:00.000-02:30

In celebration of author Robert Fulghum’s birthday, I’d like to share a chapter from his award-winning book, All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things.

This particular chapter in a very quirky, touching book was introduced to me by one of my favorite English teachers and Declamation coach, Mr. Corrigan, while he was helping me to choose a piece for the Declamation team. This team was made up of a group of students who competed in forensics tournaments versus students from other schools in our area, each memorizing a speech to recite and then delivering it in front of peers and a panel of judges.

The following excerpt was my very first speech during my three years competing at what would quickly become my favorite after-school activity. As one of those teachers who always knew that I was a “mermaid,” Mr. Corrigan helped me to discover my love of language, develop my skills, and ultimately helped me to realize my own potential.

So as a thank you to Mr. Corrigan from a previously awkward eleven-year-old and a wish for the very happiest birthday to Mr. Robert Fulghum, an author whose “uncommon thoughts on common things” have stayed with me throughout my adult life, I give you an excerpt from the chapter entitled “Mermaids.”

---

Giants, Wizards, and Dwarfs was the game to play.

Being left in charge of about eighty children seven to ten years old, while their parents were off doing parenty things, I mustered my troops in the church social hall and explained the game. It's a large-scale version of Rock, Paper and Scissors, and involves some intellectual decision making. But the real purpose of the game is to make a lot of noise and run around chasing people until nobody knows which side you are on or who won.

Organising a roomful of wired-up gradeschoolers into two teams, explaining the rudiments of the game, achieving consensus on group identity - all this is no mean accomplishment, but we did it with a right good will and were
ready to go.

The excitement of the chase had reached a critical mass. I yelled out: "You have to decide now which you are - a GIANT, a WIZARD, or a DWARF!"

While the groups huddled in frenzied, whispered consultation, a tug came at my pants leg. A small child stands there looking up, and asks in a small, concerned voice,

"Where do the Mermaids stand?"

Where do the Mermaids stand?

A long pause.

A very long pause.

"Where do the Mermaids stand?" says I.

"Yes. You see, I am a Mermaid."

"There are no such things as Mermaids."

"Oh, yes, I am one!"

She did not relate to being a Giant, a Wizard, or a Dwarf. She knew her category: Mermaid. And was not about to leave the game and go over and stand against a wall where a loser would stand. She intended to participate, wherever Mermaids fit into the scheme of things. Without giving up dignity or identity. She took it for granted that there was a place for Mermaids and that I would know just where.

Well, where DO the Mermaids stand? All the "Mermaids" - all those who are different, who do not fit the norm and who do not accept the available boxes and pigeonholes?

Answer that question, and you can build a school, a nation, or a world on it.

What was my answer at the moment? Every once in a while I say the right thing. "The Mermaid stands right here by the King of the Sea!" says I.

(Yes, right here by the King's Fool, I thought to myself.)

So we stood there hand in hand, reviewing the troops of Wizards, and Giants and Dwarfs as they roiled by in wild disarray.

It is not true, by the way, that Mermaids do not exist. I know at least one personally. I have held her hand.

— taken from All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten -Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things (pp 83-85) by Robert Fulghum; a Harper Collins paperback ISBN 0-586-20892-5

Tuesday Trivia

2009-06-02T11:02:00.001-02:30

What is the largest book in the world and where is it located?
How many of Emily Dickinson’s 1,800 poems were published in her lifetime?
Which well-known 20^th century, British author was a member of the Inklings, a group associated with Oxford University, alongside other pertinent authors such as C.S. Lewis?
In what year was the first mention of an iceberg recorded in literature?
What was the working title of Margaret Mitchell's 1936 novel Gone With the Wind?

Last Week's Answers

Which well-known 20^th century, British author held his first civilian job after WWI was at the offices of the Oxford English Dictionary as an etymologist?

J.R.R. Tolkien

How many years did it take for the Guinness Book of World Records take to “get into itself” by setting a record as the fastest-selling book in the world?

The Guinness Book of World Records, first published in 1955, got into itself nineteen years later, in 1974, by setting a record as the fastest-selling book in the world.

Who is the top-selling English-language author of all time?

Agatha Christie is the top-selling English-language author of all time. She wrote 78 mystery novels that have sold an estimated 2,000,000,000 copies.

Which classical Roman poet left instructions to burn his masterwork when he died because he didn’t have time to polish it?

The Roman emperor Augustus, who had requested the Aeneid be written, denied Vergil's request to burn the masterwork upon his death. Augustus had others edit the few instances where minor changes were needed, and ordered the work published.

Which Jerzy Kosinski novel is based on his unexpected stopover in New York on a flight from Los Angeles to Paris?

On August 8, 1969, Kosinski was flying to Los Angeles from Paris, with a short stopover in New York when all of his luggage was accidentally unloaded, and he had to get off the plane to go through customs. That night, because of the luggage mix-up, he missed his visit with the actress Sharon Tate and other friends, and was absent when Charles Manson paid his infamous visit to the Tate house. Kosinski later wrote about this close call in the novel Blind Date.

2009 Up-and-Coming Paperbacks

2009-05-27T14:57:00.000-02:30

In conjunction with our Paperback Catalog, we have recently added several new titles to our ever-growing collection of paperback books based on suggestions
from our customers.

With everything from graphic novels depicting the turbulent years surrounding the Iranian Revolution, to a fable depicting a naïve German boy’s view of the Holocaust, to a nonfiction selection about a young man living life to the fullest while faced with leukemia, there is sure to be a title that will hold your students' attention!


Memory Keeper’s Daughter	Frenchtown Summer	Persepolis	Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Cuba 15	Eric	Dreaming in Cuban	Banner in the Sky

Before We Were Free	The Hours	My Louisiana Sky	A Thousand Splendid Suns

Tuesday Trivia

2009-05-26T12:28:00.000-02:30

Which well-known 20^th century, British author held his first civilian job after WWI was at the offices of the Oxford English Dictionary as an etymologist?
How many years did it take for the Guinness Book of World Records take to “get into itself” by setting a record as the fastest-selling book in the world?
Who is the top-selling English-language author of all time?
Which classical Roman poet left instructions to burn his masterwork when he died because he didn’t have time to polish it?
Which Jerzy Kosinski novel is based on his unexpected stopover in New York on a flight from Los Angeles to Paris?

Last Week’s Answers

Who is the most successful textbook author of all time?

Elements, by Euclid, was written circa 300 B.C. and has gone through more than 1,000 editions since the invention of printing.

When was the first cookbook published?

In 62 A.D., De Re Coquinaria was published by the Roman Apicius and described the feasts enjoyed by the Emperor Claudius.

Who, according to popular opinion at the time, was the most famous and important playwright in the Elizabethian age?

Thomas Watson was one of the most popular and important playwrights in the Elizabethan age, but sadly, none of his works survive today.

The moons of all planets except for Uranus are named after Greek gods. What are the moons of Uranus named after?

The moons of Uranus named after literary characters. Ariel, Umbriel, and Belinda from Pope’s The Rape of the Lock, and a variety of Shakespeare characters including Titania, Oberon, and Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ariel, Miranda, Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, Stephano, Trinculo, Francisco, and Ferdinand from The Tempest, Cordelia from King Lear, Ophelia from Hamlet, Bianca from The Taming of the Shrew, Cressida from Troilus and Cressida, Juliet and Mab from Romeo and Juliet, Portia from The Merchant of Venice, Rosalind from As You Like It, Margaret from Much Ado About Nothing, Perdita from The Winter’s Tale, and Cupid from Timon of Athens.

Where does A.A. Milne’s classic children’s character, Winnie-the-Pooh, get his name?

Winnie-the-Pooh is based on a real bear. In 1914, Harry Colebourn, a Canadian soldier and veterinarian purchased an orphaned black bear cub in White River, Ontario, which he named Winnipeg, or “Winnie” for short. During his service in World War I, Colebourn loaned Winnie to the London Zoo, where she became the zoo's top attraction.

In the 1920's, Milne often took his son, Christopher Robin, to the zoo, so it was no surprise when Christopher named his teddy bear "Winnie-the-Pooh" after Winnie. And thus, A. A. Milne went on to write several well-loved children's books about Christopher Robin and Winnie-the-Pooh.

Figurative Language Bomb

2009-05-22T06:33:00.000-02:30

Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

2009-05-21T14:29:00.000-02:30

A few weeks ago, General Manager, Keith Bergstrom had an idea for a blog post surrounding a little annual event called the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. I had never heard of it, but after doing a little research, I am a little bit in love with this quirky, tongue-in-cheek literary competition.

The line, "It was a dark and stormy night...," a facet of pop culture that is found everywhere from Charles Schultz's classic Peanuts cartoons to the "LOLcats" of icanhazcheezburger.com, was written by Bulwer-Lytton. It is arguably one of the worst opening lines for a story in the history of mankind, and this contest is a chance for contestants to see if they can come up with a one-sentence opener that is more awful than the original.

To give you an idea of what a submission might look like, here are a few of the winners from 2008.

“Theirs was a New York love, a checkered taxi ride burning rubber, and like the city their passion was opne 24/7, steam rising from their bodies like slick streets exhaling warm, moist, white breath through manhole covers stamped 'Forged by DeLaney Bros. Piscataway, N.J."

Garrison Spik
Washington, D.C.

"Leopold looked up at the arrow piercing the skin of the dirigible with a sort of wondrous dismay -- the wheezy shriek was just the sort of sound he always imagined a baby moose being beaten with a pair of accordions might make.”

Shannon Wedge
New Hampshire

“Mike Hummer had been a private detective so long he could remember Preparation A, his hair reminded everyone of a rat who'd bitten into an electrical cord, but he could still run faster than greased owl snot when he was on a bad guy's trail, and they said his friskings were a lot like getting a vasectomy at Sears.”

Robert B. Robeson
Lincoln, Nebraska

“Bill swore the affair had ended, but Louise knew he was lying, after discovering Tupperware containers under the seat of his car, which were not the off-brand containers that she bought to save money, but authentic, burpable, lidded Tupperware; and she knew he would see that woman again, because unlike the flimsy, fake containers that should always be recycled responsibly, real Tupperware must be returned to its rightful owner.”

Jeanne Villa
Novato, CA

Since the first call for entries in 1982, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest has been sponsored by the English Department at San Jose State University including creator Professor Scott Rice.

Rice first came across Bulwer-Lytton’s “dark and stormy night” line during graduate school research and after being “Conscripted numerous times to be a judge in writing contests that were, in effect, bad writing contests but with prolix, overlong, and generally lengthy submissions, he [Rice] struck upon the idea of holding a competition that would be honest and -- best of all -- invite brief entries. Furthermore, it had the ancillary advantage of one day allowing him to write about himself in the third person."

So in the spirit of Bulwer-Lytton, a handful of Prestwick House employees (myself included) ahve created a few openers of our own.

“There is the outer space that contains moons, stars, planets, black holes and such that we are all familiar with from watching TV, but there is also an outer space of the soul, with its own collection of emotional COMSATs and frozen cosmonaut urine in decaying orbit around our superego planets, and it was into this inner outer space that Crosby Lamont Burlingame was about to step, leaving the airlock of his daily routine, with only about ten minutes of emotional oxygen.”

Jason Scott

CEO

“On the first day, the teacher announced to her freshman, ‘In your English compositions while in my class, there will be no vulgarity, pornographic words, cursing, scatological references, smuttiness, indecencies, profanity, swearing, expletives, crude sexual comments, or redundancies unless you want to fail your English compositions while in my class.’”

Paul Moliken

Senior Editor

“Dobek Matthews—who had spent his entire life dreaming about creating a cinematic masterpiece titled Man Under Parasol, composed of exactly one hour and forty-three minutes of mental patients strolling with umbrellas in the midst of epileptic seizures, convulsing like banana-wielding raptor machines to the soothing sounds of classical music—was wholly disheartened when the big-shot producer, after insinuating that the only artistic endeavor Dobek was fit for was either drawing Hitler moustaches in permanent marker on unsuspecting victims or portraying the rear end of a panto cow, didn’t even take time to draw breath before launching into a pitch for own his stellar idea for a live-action, role-playing game entitled Sideburns Optional in which participants hobble through college campuses in paisley skirts posing as one-legged male prostitutes.”

Annie Rizzuto

Copywriter

“It was love at first site as I watched, LeRoy, the Marlboro Man look-alike stuff his cheek and gums with Redman and reveal to me his jail house tattoo of a rebel flag that waved on the side of his leather like neck as he mounted his swayed backed, geriatric, brood mare and made way to my single wide trailer with the polyester curtains to fill my golden harvest refrigerator with Pabst Blue Ribbon beer for me and my kids with his newly pilfered food stamps.”

Teri Mannering

Financial Operations Manager

“Johan McDougherty shivered, pulling a dirty cashmere sweater, the color of a lilacs trampled by a swarm of well-meaning toddlers trying to help in the garden, around his shoulders, as he realized that his two-week river safari down America’s most polluted river with the girl of his dreams was bound to be a disaster now that his flatulence had offended three of the four obsessive-compulsive personalities that shared a morbidly obese body with her.”

Keith Bergstrom

General Manager