by Sharon Watson | Mar 6, 2016 | Middle School Prompts, Middle School Tutorial, Sharon's Blog, teaching aids, tutorial
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS
What are the benefits of owning a pet?
I’m sure you could list a few benefits off the top of your head. Good. Keep those in mind as we learn about an essay’s introduction.
When you write an introduction, you’ll want to include a few key items:
1. An intriguing first sentence to capture your reader’s attention. It’s called a hook.
2. A clear idea of what the article or essay is about (its topic).
3. A sentence that is the main idea (thesis statement) that will guide the rest of the article.
Here’s an example of an introductory paragraph about the TV remote. Although it seems serious, this student is actually poking fun at the idea that the TV remote has affected society: (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Feb 21, 2016 | High School Prompts, High School Tutorial, Literature, Sharon's Blog, teaching aids, tutorial, Writing Prompts
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS
A story’s point of view (POV) can affect how the story feels.
For instance, The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis is written in the third-person omniscient POV: The narrator knows everything, even things that some of the characters do not. The invisible narrator in omniscient POV can tell readers what one character is feeling or thinking and then turn right around and ramble around in another character’s heart and mind and report that to us.
The omniscient point of view is out of fashion today. It followed all the major characters and reported on their happenings. We today want to journey through a story with only one or two main characters because it feels more personal that way.
Here’s a portion of the second paragraph of “The Wood Between the Worlds” in The Magician’s Nephew. The protagonist Digory has just arrived in that forest by means of a magic ring: (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Jan 10, 2016 | High School Prompts, High School Tutorial, Sharon's Blog, teaching aids, tutorial, Writing Prompts
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for racial equality in the 1950s and early 1960s before he was assassinated, but he did not advocate violence as a means of reaching this goal.
Read the following excerpt taken from Stride Toward Freedom, written by him in 1958: (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Jan 4, 2016 | Middle School Prompts, Middle School Tutorial, Sharon's Blog, teaching aids, tutorial, Writing Prompts
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS
Advertising is everywhere. TV commercials bombard you 18 minutes out of every hour, but they are not the only places companies try to sell their products. Think of billboards, huge pictures of food products stuck to restaurant windows, and even your lowly cereal box.
Yes, even after you’ve bought the cereal, you still get advertisements about it. Take a look at a cereal box and notice all the adjectives there to describe the cereal and tell you how great it is. Here’s a sentence from my Cinnamon Life® cereal: (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Jan 4, 2016 | High School Prompts, High School Tutorial, Literature, Sharon's Blog, teaching aids, tutorial, Writing Prompts
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS
From Sunny to Frigid
Buck is a dog who grew up in sunny San Diego, California, but suddenly finds himself thrust into the frigid world of the Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon Territory, Canada, in the late 1890s. You can read about him in Jack London’s The Call of the Wild.
Here’s Buck and his first encounter with . . . well, I’ll let you figure it out: (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Nov 15, 2015 | Middle School Prompts, Middle School Tutorial, Sharon's Blog, teaching aids, tutorial, Writing Prompts
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS
Are you not sure what to do when your teacher gives you a writing assignment?
Check out this prompt. Let’s make your first steps in the writing process easier with these worksheets on brainstorming and organizing.
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