by Sharon Watson | Aug 3, 2014 | Middle School Prompts, Sharon's Blog, Writing Prompts
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS
There’s an advantage to being very, very young. I’m talking about younger than you are now.
When you’re really little, you discover new things all the time, things that seem old or boring to you now. Everything is amazing; everything is new.
The following is a passage from The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. It’s about a woman remembering back to her youth, thinking about the first time she had discovered . . . well, I’ll let you read it: (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Jul 27, 2014 | Middle School Prompts, Sharon's Blog, Writing Prompts
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS
Hot, sweaty, summer days are filled with things you can’t do other times of the year, things like going on a beach vacation, weeding and harvesting, canning, swimming outdoors, catching fireflies, going camping, spending time with friends, and so on.
So perhaps it makes no logical sense that this prompts is really about winter. (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Jul 13, 2014 | Middle School Prompts, Sharon's Blog, Writing Prompts
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS
You probably are used to your parents limiting the time you can spend on social media: texting, tweeting, watching movies and YouTube, checking in on Instagram, and gaming. Now doctors are in on it, too.
The American Academy of Pediatrics believes limits should be set on [>>]
by Sharon Watson | Jul 6, 2014 | Middle School Prompts, Middle School Tutorial, Sharon's Blog, teaching aids, tutorial, Writing Prompts
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS
You want to create a character for your story, but you’re stuck. You can’t think of one.
Keep reading to find out one trick that will give you oodles of ideas.
As readers, we find out about characters by what they do and say, what others say about them, what they look like, and what they wear. For instance, if a character (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Jul 1, 2014 | High School Tutorial, Middle School Tutorial, Sharon's Blog, teaching aids, tutorial
SHARON’S BLOG
Proofreading is never easy. Anyone who says it’s easy is trying to sell you something or has never actually tried it.
If we can’t make it easy, at least we can make it easier for our troubled, weeping students. In fact, with these three tips, you can change it from a job that requires the strength of a backhoe to one that uses a garden trowel.
Many professional writers use the first two methods in their own writing, and so can your students. The third one is exclusively for students.
(more…)
by Sharon Watson | Jun 22, 2014 | High School Prompts, Middle School Prompts, Sharon's Blog, Writing Prompts
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS
When was the last time your shoes talked to you?
Anthropomorphism is a word for “in the form of a human.” It’s close to the term personification, and if you mix them up, it’s okay by me.
Anthropomorphism means giving human attributes to something that is not human. For instance, the Toy Story movies use anthropomorphism to give life to the toys, as do all the Transformer movies and any other movies or stories in which animals or objects talk, laugh, plan, and do other things humans do.
An example of someone’s shoes taking on the human characteristic of speech occurs in Alexander McCall Smith’s Blue Shoes and Happiness. This passage comes just after the character believes she has made a terrible mistake with her fiancé and might have lost him: (more…)