Sharon Draper Biography - life, family, children, parents, story, death, history, schoo... - 2 views
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For thirty years Sharon Draper was an English teacher in the Cincinnati, Ohio,
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her love of reading and writing in generations of children, and inspiring them to reach for their greatest dreams.
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Wow! A teacher? I had no idea!! I have got to start reading those books! -
Wow!!!!!!!!!! For thirty years of teaching she became an author!!!! That is amazing!
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n 1997 she received the highest honor an educator can be given when President Bill Clinton (1946–) named her the U.S. Teacher of the Year.
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In 1994 the dedicated teacher became an author, releasing her first children's book, Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs.
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Draper is also a poet and nonfiction write
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Draper's most recent young adult novel, The Battle of Jericho (2003),
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the Coretta Scott King Honor Book of 2004.
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Draper, Sharon. The Battle of Jericho. New York: Simon … Schuster, 2003. Draper, Sharon. Forged by Fire. New York: Simon … Schuster, 1997. Draper, Sharon. Tears of a Tiger. New York: Simon … Schuster, 1994. Draper, Sharon. Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs. East Orange, N.J.: Just Us Books, 1994. Draper, Sharon. Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs: Lost in the Tunnel of Time. East Orange, N.J.: Just Us Books, 1996
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Books
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I write because I care about young people. I write because I teach."
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Draper breezed through high school, taking advanced and honors courses, and graduated a National Merit Scholar.
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National Merit Scholarships are awarded each year to a handful of students who achieve excellence on the college placement examination, the SAT.
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In 1971, when she was just twenty years old, Draper graduated with a degree in English.
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She earned a master's degree in 1974
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this same period, she married her husband, Larry Draper, who is also a teacher. The couple has four children.
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Her writing career began in 1990 on a whim.
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Draper had always encouraged her students to submit stories and poems to writing contests.
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"I wanted to write something that young people could read that would be contemporary and exciting." She further explained, "I couldn't find anything they really liked to read, so I started writing for them myself."
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The busy Draper wrote during any spare moment she could find, which meant stealing time on weekends, at night, and during study hall periods.
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In November 1994 both of Draper's books appeared on bookstore shelves on the sa
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me day.
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Tears was the first book in what would become the Hazelwood High trilogy. The main character in the second title in the series, Forged by Fire (1997), is Gerald Nickelby, one of Andy's basketball teammates. Darkness Before Dawn (2001) follows Andy's girlfriend, Keisha, through her senior year of high school.
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Teachers latched on to Draper's books for making lesson plans, parents praised her for helping their children turn off the television and start turning pages, and kids raced to the library begging for more.
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Many of Draper's novels deal with topics that may be controversial, but that are a very real part of everyday life for some people.
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Draper believes that her books help her readers in many ways.
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1. What do you usually have for breakfast? Yogurt and walnuts and bananas. 2. If you could eat lunch with one famous person, who would it be? Denzel Washington. 3. What would you hate to be left in a room with? No books! 4. What inspires you? Honesty. Sincerity. Love. 5. What annoys you? People who don't try. People who give up.
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In 2004, Draper received her third Coretta Scott King Award for The Battle of Jericho (2003), which takes a frank look at yet another controversial topic: hazing rituals.
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I Survived the Draper Paper."
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Following her win, Draper took a one-year leave of absence from the classroom to tour the United States as a teaching ambassador.
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"I am so proud to be a teacher," she commented.
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"I'm proud of my colleagues, 3 million of us, who strive every day in the classrooms across the country to make a difference in the lives of students."
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While still in elementary school Draper also realized that one day she wanted to become a teacher. "I was probably born to be a teacher," she revealed on her Web site. "As a child, I taught my dolls, my dogs, and the kids next door." She singles out one woman, in particular, who served as a special role model: her fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Kathadaza Mann.
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According to Draper, Mann taught her students about Black history long before it was an accepted part of the curriculum.
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She also
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introduced them to classic literature, art, and music. "She was one of the first teachers," Draper recalled, "who taught me to read analytically, to think critically, and to speak fearlessly."
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In interviews Sharon Draper credits her parents for introducing her to the world of books. Draper was born in 1952 in Cleveland, Ohio, the oldest child of Victor Mills,
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Here are some fun answers to some interesting questions posed to award-winning author Sharon Draper
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o enthusiastically ask her questions about the writing process, the characters in her books, and how they can one day become writers themselves. In April 2005, Draper visited Whittier Middle School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she read excerpts from her books and fielded questions from her young fans. As one thirteen-year-old told Brenda Schmidt of the Argus Leader, "You do feel like you know her. It's a lot of fun to actually meet her and see her personality." According to Draper, who spoke with Teri Lesesne of Teacher Librarian, "It's an awesome responsibility to have so much response to what I've written." As a result, she takes correspondence from fans very seriously and she reads every piece of e-mail she receives. Many of t
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There are some questions that she will not answer because they are too personal (like how old she is);
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Draper refuses to answer when she feels it would be completing kids' homework assignments
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he questions posed by young readers are posted on Draper's Web site and give a glimpse into the life of the famous author.
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By 2005 Draper had retired from teaching to pursue writing full time, but the dedicated professional could never truly stop being an educator.
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she continues to travel around the world lecturing to groups of all ages about the power of education and the importance of literacy and reading.
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Draper is also a frequent guest on many U.S. television and radio programs
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I started writing as a result of my teaching, and now, my writing has become a teaching tool.
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I wrote for my students, for the kids I knew who didn't like to read, who weren't inspired by books or literature.
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Now the books are used in schools all over the country, teachers use them as learning tools for their classes, and when I speak to students at schools, all I really do is an extended version of what I've always done, which is teach."
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April 11, 1952
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I inhaled books and knowledge
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" the author commented on her Web site.
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Draper began school she was already a self-described bookworm
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when they were very young; by the time
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and Catherine Mills read to her three children each night startin
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Mills's home,
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filled the
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As an English teacher in the Cincinnati Public School system, Draper earned a reputation as a no-nonsense educator who challenged her students to the limit.
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I demand the best from them," she explained on her Web site
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they expect the best from me."
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Draper introduced students to classic and contemporary literature through seminar-like classes where kids were encouraged to discuss what they read in conjunction with current events.
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One of Draper's writing assignments, in particular, became legendary. As part of their final grade, seniors at Walnut Hills High School were asked to produce a well-researched term paper.
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The Draper Paper."
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T-shirts were even
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designed
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given only to those students who successfully met the challenge.
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shirts proudly boasted:
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Draper's classes were in high demand through the 1980s and 1990s, and in 1997 she was named Ohio's Teacher of the Year.
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April 1997 t
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Cincinnati educator
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scored
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even bigger honor
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she earned the title U.S. Teacher of the Year.
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award ceremony
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Washington, D.C., President Bill Clinton applauded Draper for her many years of service.
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reprinted part of his speech:
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27 years she has inspired
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and life
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passion for literature
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students with her
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Sharon Draper
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credit to her profession
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, she is a true blessing to the children she has taught.
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In addition, Draper became part of the National Board for Teaching Standards and contributed to a number of professional publications to push the need for teacher accountability and development.
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Being the Teacher of the Year ambassador kept Draper on the road more than twenty days a month.
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One day, Draper explains on her Web site, a bold young man handed her a crumpled application form and said, "You think you so bad— why don't you write something! Enter this contest!"
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Draper accepted his challenge and submitted a short story to Ebony magazine's annual Gertrude Johnson Williams Literary Competition.
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Months went by
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Draper promptly forgot that she had even entered a contest.
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One day, however, she received a phone call that her short story, "One Small Torch," had taken first prize.
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she began receiving letters
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calls of congratulations—
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very famous writers.
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importantly,
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win ignited a spark in Draper, who decided to try her hand at a longer work of fiction.
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As luck would have it, while she was waiting for Tears to be published, Draper was contacted by her agent who said that another publishing house, the African American-run Just Us Books, had inquired whether Draper had anything in the works for younger readers.
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Tears of a Tiger focuses on an African American teen named Andy Jackson, who struggles to come to terms with the death of his best friend, Robert.
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Draper uses a variety of devices to move the story along.
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As Draper told David Marc Fischer of Writing!, "For young people, the largest part of the day is spent in school.
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So I make school assignments and activities vital parts of my stories."
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Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs also ended up being a trilogy, with all three books following the adventures of ten-year-old Ziggy, who forms a club called the Black Dinosaurs with his three best friends.
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just as she did in the Hazelwood High books, the teacher-turned-author mixes some "lessons" in with the adventure.
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, Lost in the Tunnel of Time (1996), Ziggy and friends discover a tunnel once used as a station for the Underground Railroad.
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one teacher told Kelly Starling of Ebony, "Few books have elicited such strong emotion in my students as Tears of a Tiger.
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only book some of them have read completely."
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Forged by Fire
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Seattle Times, the ALA jury commended Draper "for tackling troubling contemporary issues, and providing concrete options and positive African American role models."
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example, 1999's Romiette and Julio takes on interracial dating and gang life, and Double Dutch, published in 2002, tackles illiteracy and child abandonment.
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sked why
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explores such tough subjects, Draper told David Marc Fischer, "Perhaps reading about the difficulties of others will act like an armor and protect my readers from the personal tragedies of their own lives."
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At first the tasks are harmless, but as the week progresses things start to take a negative turn. Ultimately, Jericho must decide whether staying with the group is worth losing his self-respect.
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Publishers Weekly called it "timely," and congratulated Draper for "driving home an important message about peer pressure.
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. In order to join the group new members must survive pledge initiation week.
