by Sharon Watson | Mar 13, 2016 | High School Prompts, Sharon's Blog, Writing Prompts
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS
Invisibility—is it a blessing or a curse?
According to Irish legend, wearing green makes you invisible to leprechauns and their pinches and tricks.
But wearing green is not the only way to become invisible. The scientist Griffin, in H. G. Wells’ The Invisible Man, makes himself invisible by experimenting with formulas and light. At the beginning of his experiments, he thinks invisibility will be a great gift to mankind. However, as he uses it more and then has a series of misfortunes, he plans to begin a Reign of Terror on the countryside. His invisibility has become a selfish means to revenge.
Those who put on the ring in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien become invisible. This comes in handy when (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Mar 6, 2016 | High School Prompts, Sharon's Blog, Writing Prompts
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS
The comedy team The Smothers Brothers struck a chord when they capitalized on sibling rivalry in their routine “Mom Always Liked You Best.” People laughed because they understood the family tensions in Tom and Dick Smothers’ silliness.
When children, even adult children, feel as if one parent loves a brother or sister over them, it can cause trouble and incite fights between the siblings. Children become competitive, always vying for parental approval, constantly wanting to be better in some way than their brothers or sisters.
Children judge themselves on their (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Feb 28, 2016 | High School Prompts, Sharon's Blog, Writing Prompts
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS
Could you write a story from your life in 91 words?
In honor of an elderly student who died just days before her 91st birthday, the online writing site Gotham Writer’s Workshop conducted a contest. The rules were to write a memoir, a story from your life, in 91 words. (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 | Feb 21, 2016 | Middle School Prompts, Sharon's Blog, Writing Prompts
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS
“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.”
This quote is from Louis Pasteur, a famous scientist who lived in the 1800s and proved that it was not “bad air” that caused some diseases but actually microorganisms that we categorize as germs today. He also developed a vaccine for rabies, and his name is given to a method of killing germs in milk: pasteurization.
So, his secret is his tenacity, but what is it? (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Feb 14, 2016 | High School Prompts, Sharon's Blog, Writing Prompts
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS
Caucuses. Primaries. Stump Speeches. Elections. Acceptance speeches. Inaugurations.
It’s that time of year again.
When newly elected president Theodore Roosevelt gave his inaugural address in 1905, he didn’t use the word “I.” You can read it here. When I read his short address, I was surprised that so many of the things he said were still true today.
To date, he is the only U. S. president to give an inaugural speech without the word “I” in it. (more…)
