High School Prompts Archives - Page 9 of 21 - Writing with Sharon Watson-Easy-to-use Homeschool Writing and Literature Curriculum

Repentance

There are many gut-wrenching parts to the death of Jesus and his resurrection.

One is how Judas, a “friend” for three years, hands Jesus over to his enemies—with a sign of affection.

Another is when Jesus willingly steps into a rigged trial, one He knows He will lose.

Another troubling part of this account is when Peter, Jesus’ right-hand man, denies knowing Jesus even after he’s been warned that he will deny him. You can read about this in Mark 14:27-31 and Mark 14:66-72.

Jesus knows what Peter is doing. In fact, the Bible says that while Jesus is being mistreated in the house of the high priest, he turns and looks “straight at Peter” (Luke 22:61 NIV). At that point, Peter remembers the warning Jesus gave him, and he runs out of the courtyard and weeps “bitterly.”

The amazing part of Peter’s betrayal is that

Invisibility

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

Sibling Rivalry: Give Advice to a Friend

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

91-Word Memoir

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 91^st 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.

How Point of View Changes the Feel of a Story

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:

Jesse Owens Proved Him Wrong

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,

Personal Narrative: Not Quite How I Remembered It

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:

National Park Service Centennial High School Writing Prompts

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

Have you seen the presidents on Mount Rushmore? Walked among the giant sequoias of Yosemite National Park? Stood on the precipice of the Grand Canyon? Explored an underwater shipwreck as a Junior Ranger?

The United States’ National Park Service turned 100 in 2016, but even before it was formed, 35 national parks and monuments were already in operation. We can celebrate a rich heritage of forests, deserts, mountains, sweeping landscapes, historical sites, and other treasures saved for our education and enjoyment.

Doctors and Assisted Suicide

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

You are a doctor, and you have been told that you must assist a patient with their suicide. If you don’t you will be breaking the law.

Doctors in some American states, in Quebec, and in some Scandinavian countries are facing this increasingly ethical dilemma: Help patients kill themselves or be punished.

In fact, doctors in Quebec, through Bill 52, are given a kit with three medicines designed to calm their patients’ anxiety and then stop their breathing, according to the Church Around the World.

Brittany Maynard, a vivacious 29-year-old woman dying of cancer of the brain, committed suicide in 2014 with the help of her physician. You can read her story here.

J. J. Hanson, a Marine Corp veteran, learned that he, too, is suffering from the same inoperable brain cancer that Brittany Maynard dealt with. You can read his story here.

Edgar Allan Poe and “The Bells”

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809. Though that is over 200 years ago, we still read his work today.

He’s famous for his short stories and for poems like “The Raven.” (You know, that “Nevermore” poem.)

In an essay, Poe explained how he was very careful to choose just the right words for how they sound and for the effect he was trying to achieve. You’ll see that he was very successful in his poem “The Bells,” which is rich with writer’s devices.