Writing with Sharon Watson-Easy-to-use Homeschool Writing and Literature Curriculum

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Your Resume

Your Resume

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

Who is this guy?

“I can build moveable bridges for you and also blow them up. If you want your enemies’ bridges destroyed, I can do that as well. I’m pretty handy designing and making catapults and trebuchet for your defense or offense. In times of peace, count on me as an architect to design not only buildings but also waterways. I can also sculpt or paint anything you would like. Oh, and by the way, if you want a demonstration of anything I’ve listed here, I’ll be glad to oblige you. Let’s set up an appointment on your property.”

These are paraphrases from a real resume penned in the late 1400s.

Who is this guy, and would you hire him?

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Grading Essays Made Easy #2: Point Orders

Grading Essays Made Easy #2: Point Orders

SHARON’S BLOG

Grading your middle school or high school student’s essay can be difficult. Where do you begin? What criteria do you use?  How do you ask intelligent questions that will really get to the heart of the essay?

In this informative video series, I show you specifically what to look for when grading those homeschool essays. Grading Essays Made Easy #1 teaches you six key questions to ask of your student’s essay, beginning with the most obvious and proceeding to the least obvious.

For a free grading grid for middle school essays, click here. >>

For a free grading grid for high school essays, click here. >>

Point orders

The question in Grading Essays Made Easy #2  is this: Are the essay’s points arranged in a logical and effective order?

In this video, I’ll show you six different point orders your student can use when organizing his or her essays. They’re easy. They’re fun. And they’re all about trash.

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Noah: Devoted or Demented?

Noah: Devoted or Demented?

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

Noah was a righteous man who obeyed God. No, he was a psychotic mess who heard voices and saw visions.

God destroyed the earth in a worldwide flood because mankind’s sins were so great. No, he flooded the earth because we were cruel to animals and were destroying our planet.

Well, which is it?

Welcome to this week’s high school writing prompt. Is it about the new movie Noah?

Yes. And no.

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Should We Ban the Word “Bossy”?

Should We Ban the Word “Bossy”?

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

Bossy girls have been in the news—not really the girls themselves but the word bossy when describing girls or young women.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s former Chief Operating Officer, wants to ban the word bossy when describing girls. She believes it mischaracterizes young women with leadership skills. It seems that girls with leadership skills are sometimes called bossy, which demeans their talents, goals, abilities, and even themselves, while boys with leadership skills are not considered bossy. They are considered future leaders. You can learn more about Sandberg’s campaign by clicking here.

Other people believe the word bossy

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Do We Spend Too Much on Our Pets?

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

petsYou see this sweet puppy in the window of the pet store, and you can’t resist. You want to buy him. When you do, he leaps into your arms and licks your face. This little fellow is so happy—and so are you.

Now he’s a friend for life. You do everything together. He’s even considered a member of your family. But what happens if he becomes ill?

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Empathetic Characters: The Author Molds Your Child’s Heart

Empathetic Characters: The Author Molds Your Child’s Heart

SHARON’S BLOG

I recently witnessed this conversation between a teen and his mother:

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…“The main character divorced his wife and married another woman,” the teen announced after he read his book...

.“That’s not good,” his mother said.

…“But he had to, Mom. His wife was really awful! She treated him really badly.”

The son went on to tell his mother some of the hateful things the wife had done to her husband in order to explain why this man was justified in divorcing his wife. Anyone would agree that they were truly rotten things.

The exasperated mother calmly stated, “God hates divorce.”

Her son did not change his mind. “But he had to divorce her.”..

My friend was scrambling to figure out how her son could have viewed this divorce in a positive light when she had taught him otherwise.

.What had happened to make her intelligent son fall prey to a viewpoint unacceptable to his parents?

This blog is not about divorce. It’s about two methods authors use to influence our children’s minds and hearts.

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Grading Essays Made Easy #1: Paragraphs in the Body

Grading Essays Made Easy #1: Paragraphs in the Body

SHARON’S BLOG

Your child has just handed you a completed essay, and you are ecstatic . . . until you realize you now have to grade it. Where do you begin? How do you evaluate this marvelous gift?

Grading Essays

Welcome to this exciting, first-in-a-series blog about grading your middle and high school students’ essays! You can find the whole video by clicking here.

Learn to ask six key questions of the paragraphs in the body of your students’ essays in this part-one tutorial. I’ll walk you through these questions from the obvious to the not-so-obvious. Keep reading to view the outline and quoted paragraphs from the tutorial.

What you’ll want to know:

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What’s Your Story?

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

what have you overcomeHave you lived through an illness? Been in an accident? Are you stuck in the middle in your family? Do you have a tendency to lie? Are you afraid of what others think about you?

Can you imagine putting your trouble, weakness, or sin on a piece of paper for all to see?

Cardboard story

That’s just what teens in one group did. They wrote the negative or troubling thing about themselves on one side of a large piece of cardboard and showed it to viewers. Then they flipped the cardboard around to show how God helped them or to reveal a truth about themselves that God showed them. You can view their “cardboard testimonies” here.

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