Tuesday Trivia

1. Edward Irving Wortis is the given name of which author?
2. Which famous British writer had a famous cocker spaniel named Flush?
3. Which play was adapted by the Mudlark Production Company and presented in a series of tweets on Twitter throughout April and May 2010?
4. Which great author is the gate on the campus of Harvard beside Canaday Hall dedicated to?
5. Which author along with friend Robert Southey, attempted to found a utopian commune society, called Pantisocracy, in the wilderness of Pennsylvania?

Which book does Wilson Rawls credit as his reason for becoming a writer?

Rawls was given a copy of Jack London’s The Call of the Wild at age ten — the very first book that was just his and not shared with his sisters. Rawls carried it with him wherever he went.



Which author wrote his first few books in the evenings following long days working at a sweater warehouse?

Louis Sachar



Which author was hired by the US Department of State to create a film about Hispanic workers in rural America?

The film, …And Now Miguel, was created by Joseph Quincy Krumgold in 1953.



Which author’s first pet was a turkey vulture?

Jean Craighead George was born to a family of Naturalists who kept a variety of interesting pets including a turkey vulture.



Which author was heavily involved in the creation of the 1984 computer game, Below the Root — creating aspects like maps and characters?

Zilpha Keatley Snyder

July's Top Ten Best-Selling eBooks from Prestwick House

1. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Downloadable Novel Test
2. Grapes of Wrath Downloadable Novel Test
3. Catcher in the Rye Downloadable Novel Test
4. Lord of the Flies Downloadable Teaching Unit
5. Importance of Being Earnest Downloadable Novel Test
6. Fahrenheit 451 Downloadable Teaching Unit
7. Adventures of Tom Sawyer Downloadable Novel Test
8. King Lear Downloadable AP Teaching Unit
9. Hamlet Downloadable AP Teaching Unit
10. Catcher in the Rye Downloadable Teaching Unit

Where in the World is.... Beverly Cleary

Where in the world is

Beverly Cleary

Beverly Cleary, a well-known children's writer, is most famous for her Ramona Quimby and Henry Huggins books, imaginative, adventurous stories about adolescents coming of age, while still embracing all the joys of childhood. Cleary has won several awards for her novels, including the John Newbery Award for her novel Dear Mr. Henshaw, as well as Newbery Honors in 1978 for Ramona and Her Father and in 1982 for Ramona Quimby, Age 8. Cleary has also received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (1975), the Regina Medal (1980), and the National Medal of Art (2003).

Her last book, Ramona's World, was published in 1999, but she has recently reentered the spotlight. At the end of July, Ramona and Beezus, the very first major motion picture based on one of her novels, debuted in theaters. Until this movie, Cleary, dedicated to her fans and eager to preserve the integrity of her work, refused to give studios the rights to produce television shows or movies based on her books unless she gave script approval. She, however, approves of the new film, but gives a warning to moviegoers:

"If you like car chases, guns and fights, then this movie is not for you."


For more information on Cleary and the new movie, click on the links below.

http://www.beverlycleary.com/
http://www.ramonaandbeezus.com/

Tuesday Trivia

1. Which book does Wilson Rawls credit as his reason for becoming a writer?
2. Which author wrote his first few books in the evenings following long days working at a sweater warehouse?
3. Which author was hired by the US Department of State to create a film about Hispanic workers in rural America?
4. Which author’s first pet was a turkey vulture?
5. Which author was heavily involved in the creation of the 1984 computer game, Below the Root — creating aspects like maps and characters?

The high-speed ferry between Dublin and Great Britain, across the Irish Sea, is named after which 18th-century satirist?


Jonathan Swift.

(Special thanks to Delaware teacher, Rita Truschel, for submitting this question! Send your submissions to annie@prestwickhouse.com.)



Whose last words were, "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go?"


Oscar Wilde



Ricardo Eliezer Neftalí Reyes y Basoalto is the given name of which famous poet?


Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean writer Ricardo Eliezer Neftalí Reyes y Basoalto.



Which author’s last name, before being anglicized, was mac Aedh Ó Proinntigh?


Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte, come from the mac Aedh Ó Proinntigh family, which was shortened to Prunty or Brunty and eventually Bronte.



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?


Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries.

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.

---

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.