Middle School Prompts Archives - Page 18 of 19 - Writing with Sharon Watson-Easy-to-use Homeschool Writing and Literature Curriculum

Wanted: Cowboy Poets

Heifers. Cowpokes. Cottonwoods. Hullabaloo.

What do these words have in common? Well, if you were a cowboy poet, you would know!

The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is held in Elko, Nevada, each year. Singers and poets compete, attend workshops, and dance. Watch Randy Rieman recite his humorous poem about being “throwed” from a bronco here.

When Is a Sweet Pea Not a Sweet Pea?

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Gardeners love to receive their new seed catalogs in the middle of winter. It gives them something to dream about and plan for. Not only are the photos of flowers and vegetables beautiful and inspiring but their descriptions are as well.

Here’s the description of the Erewhon Sweet Pea from a Burpee catalog:

Do You Have a Spice Clock?

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

When you want to know what time it is, where do you look?

Most likely, you tell time by clocks of some sort. But what if you told time by flowers, birds, or scents?

Huh?

Opinion Writing: Professional Matchmakers

SHARON’S BLOG

Students who have a hard time writing about wars, politics, gender issues, and other heavy topics really warm up to writing opinions, so let’s give them something engaging to write about. After all, everyone has opinions.

It’s Just Lunch is a dating service for businessmen and businesswomen. According to their Website, they’ve provided over two million dates in major cities in the United States since 1991.

This is how it works:

Set Another Place at the Table

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

What’s the second thing that happens to Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit?

He’s visited by twelve dwarves and one wizard. They come for tea (late afternoon) and stay for supper, eating the provisions in his pantry, taking up room in his tidy hobbit hole, and making noise. Bilbo is not happy.

What happened when Sarah Smiley’s husband was deployed overseas for one year?

Three Ways to Be a Better Father

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Many people want to be the best they can be at something, and when it comes to fathers, fatherhood.gov has some ideas. Here are three ideas from that website on how to be a good father:

Too Late! It’s Gone!

HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS

Ever wonder what your life would be like without some of your favorite people or things?

In P. D. James’ futuristic novel Children of Men, she wants people to consider what the world would be like without any new babies. So her novel is all about how no babies have been born on Earth for 25 years. She highlights the blessings of children and how they affect the world by writing about their absence.

In this unusual prompt, let’s ponder what we have.

Now it’s your turn: Think back over the last few months and

The Best Time to Make Friends

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

So, when is the best time to make friends?

The famous actress Ethel Barrymore (great-aunt to Drew Barrymore) has an idea about that:

Getting Paid to Hug?

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

Teachers in the Jiangdu District of China know how important it is to hug their students. In fact, they hug their kindergarten students twice a day . . . as long as the parents

Flee the Boring Description!

MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS

You know that boring description in the last book you read for school?

No, wait. You didn’t read it. You skipped the description because it was so dull.

It’s time to fix that. Here’s a paragraph from H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. Notice the specific and powerful verbs he uses to keep this description of refugees moving along: