Walter Dean Myers WebQuest
Directions: Use the websites listed below to help you to answer questions about Walter Dean Myers, the author we will be studying in our first author study. You will notice the websites all have a wide variety of information about Walter Dean Myers; feel free to peruse each website as much as you like before moving on to the next one.
http://www.walterdeanmyers.net/bio.html
a.) In which New York City neighborhood did Walter Dean Myers grow up?
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b.) Which New York City high school did Walter Dean Myers attend?
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c.) For which award was the book Monster named a finalist?
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http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/myers.html
a.) Which books by Walter Dean Myers have been banned from schools
and libraries?
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b.) Myers comments about his writing:
I want to bring values to those who have not been valued, and I
want to etch those values in terms of the ideal. Young people need
ideals which identify them, and their lives, as central . . .
guideposts which tell them what they can be, should be, and
indeed are.
Judging from this comment, what do you think you will see in Myers’
writing, in terms of what he wants to tell young adult readers about
themselves and the world in which they live?
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c.) In response to the question, “Should whites write about blacks?”, Myers, who is African-
American, responds:
Of course I feel you should write about anybody you want to write about, I couldn't care less who you write about. But what very often happens is that, when
you're writing about a culture that's not your own, you may hit large areas of it, but there are so many areas that you miss.
Do you agree with this response? Why or why not?
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http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-myers-walterdean.asp
*Read the section on this page entitled “In His Own Words.”
a.) Myers relates the story of why he first started writing when he was young. Why did he
begin to write?
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b.) Myers explains that writing helped to take away some of the anger he felt about his
speech impediments and reading problems. What do you think about this? Can writing
help you cope with difficult feelings?
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c.) When Myers eventually dropped out of school for good, what did he first do?
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d.) Note some of Myers’ writing strategies. Do you use these strategies when you write?
Do you think they could be helpful for you?
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http://aalbc.com/authors/walter1.htm
a.) Myers comments:
It wasn't necessary for me to be much of a social creature once I discovered books.
Books took me, not so much to foreign lands and fanciful adventures, but to a place
within myself that I have been constantly exploring ever since.
What do you think about this statement? Do you feel that reading is, for you,
a social activity, or do you prefer to do it by yourself?
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b.) Myers comments:
I'd hate to see what kind of biography my cat, Askia, would write about me.
Probably something like, “Walter Dean Myers had enormous feet, didn't feed
me on time, and often sat in my favorite chair.”
Write a short biography of yourself in this style, from the perspective of a pet or a
much-younger sibling, cousin, neighbor, niece/nephew, etc.
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http://www.northern.edu/hastingw/myers.html
a.) About the writing of Monster, Myers comments:
I did 600 pages of interviews with prisoners in New York and New Jersey. And
patterns began to emerge. They all knew why they were in jail; they knew what
crimes they had committed or had been accused of committing, but they never
seemed to be really sure of the path that had got them there… All these people felt
that they were good people…
How do you think this experience inspired Myers to write Monster?
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b.) How do you think Myers’s experience connects to your own life? How do you think you
could take the experience of someone you know, or someone you’ve heard about, and
create a book like Monster that exposes problems like the ones Myers highlights in Monster?
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List below books you have read by Walter Dean Myers, including those that you read before this school year.
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List below any books by Walter Dean Myers you might especially like to read. This does not guarantee that you will be assigned one of those books. Ask permission before going to the classroom library to peruse the available titles. Do not remove books from the shelf!
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