by Sharon Watson | Feb 14, 2016 | Middle School Prompts, Sharon's Blog, Writing Prompts
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS
What does Jesus’ disciple John have in common with Napoleon Bonaparte? I suppose the image below gives it away, but, yes, they were both exiled—banished from the homes and countries they loved.
John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos in AD 95 during Roman persecution of Christians. While banished to the island, John wrote the book of Revelation. Vistas of the Mediterranean Sea may be beautiful from there, but the island itself is only 30 square miles and very rocky and sterile.
Napoleon Bonaparte, the former emperor of France after the French Revolution, was actually exiled twice. The first time, (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Feb 7, 2016 | Middle School Prompts, Sharon's Blog, Writing Prompts
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS
Every year, paleontologists (those who study fossils or life in prehistoric times) find evidence of a species we didn’t know about before, like a new species of terror bird (Llallawavis scagliai) in Argentina. Its skeleton shows it was ten feet tall!
And, often, other types of scientists discover new animals or species still living that no one knew about. For instance, the kitefin shark was recently discovered in the deep sea off the coast of New Zealand. It not only luminesces but also its dorsal fin “emits light,” according to smithsonianmag.com. And now we know about a spider that looks like it has a peacock tail. It has been dubbed Sparklemuffin (Maratus jactatus), according to livescience.com.
In addition, a bird thought extinct for over 150 years surprisingly has turned up in a rainforest in Borneo. Ornithologists captured the black-browed babbler as it flitted through the trees. Then they photographed it for identification and sent it on its way, according to smithsonianmag.com.
(more…)
by Sharon Watson | Feb 7, 2016 | High School Prompts, Sharon's Blog, Writing Prompts
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS
Adolf Hitler, chancellor of Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, believed that Black people were inferior. He thought they were savages and had less intellectual power than white people.
So when a super-fast runner named Jesse Owens proved him wrong and won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Hitler and his Nazi followers were infuriated. He said Blacks should be banned from the games because they were primitive.
Despite all the struggles Jesse Owens had with other people because of his skin color, he wrote in his autobiography, (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Jan 31, 2016 | High School Prompts, Literature, Sharon's Blog, Writing Prompts
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS
Have you ever visited a house you used to live in or a place you used to visit as a child?
Does it seem smaller to you or different in some way?
In this passage from “Remembrance, Ohio,” Ray Bradbury describes what it’s like to go back to a familiar place after a long time and find that it is not quite what you had remembered: (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Jan 31, 2016 | Middle School Prompts, Sharon's Blog, Writing Prompts
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS
Mr. George McWhirter Fotheringay doesn’t believe in miracles.
At least, that’s what H. G. Wells tells us in his short story “The Man Who Could Work Miracles.” First published in 1898, it tells of a man who didn’t believe in miracles but ended up doing some anyway.
One day, Mr. Fotheringay argues his case in a local tavern. He defines a miracle as “something contrariwise to the course of nature done by the power of Will, something that couldn’t happen without being specially willed.”
While arguing against miracles, he ends up doing one. (more…)
by Sharon Watson | Jan 24, 2016 | Middle School Prompts, Middle School Tutorial, Sharon's Blog, tutorial, Writing Prompts
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS
“Long, long ago, in a lavish lodge near the village of Liverwurst, lived a lovely lass called Linda the Lonely.
Linda was lonely because, ever since she was a little girl, she had been
locked in the lodge by her wicked uncle, Lord Ludwig of Liverwurst.”
So begins “The Legend of Linda the Lonely” in The Sesame Street Book of Fairy Tales.
By now you have noticed something strange about the first paragraph of poor Linda’s story—it’s full of the letter “L.” (more…)
