What Would You Read to a Dog?
Dogs and cats with Love on a Leash are certified therapy pets so they can help people. You can even read to them in school. What would you read to a dog?
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Literature | Middle School Prompts | Middle School Tutorial | Sharon's Blog | teaching aids | tutorial | Writing Prompts
Show, Don’t Tell: Emotions in Stories
One of the first rules storywriters learn is this: Show, don’t tell. What does that mean? Read on to find out and to practice this important skill!
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Storywriting: Put Your Character into Hot Water, Part 2
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS In a recent tutorial, you practiced plunging your character into hot water with two powerful methods many writers use. You can find that prompt here.This week you’ll examine three more methods of getting your main character deep into a story. As Stanley Elkin reveals, “I would never write about someone who is…
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Storywriting: Put Your Character into Hot Water, Part 1
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS You have an idea for a story but don’t know how to get it going. Or you would like to write a story but are out of ideas. When you write a story, you have to throw a lot of things at your main character, things he or she would rather not…
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Dialog Does Not Have to Be Boring
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS Have you ever read really boring dialog in a book? You know, like this: “Jane,” said Tarzan, “have you ever noticed how much the monkeys love me?” “Yes, Tarzan, I noticed it,” said Jane. “In fact, one is climbing on you right now.” Tarzan scratched his head. “He’s pulling on my…
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Advertising Jingles
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS Allan G. Odell saved his company from ruin and made it quite popular. How did he do it? In the 1920s, a new shaving product was born called Burma-Shave. It was different from other shaving creams because, now, men didn’t have to lather up some cream or soap with a brush and apply…
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Trees: Be Specific When You Describe
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS Let’s talk about trees. Something interesting just happened to you. Right now. This moment. When you read “trees,” an image of a tree or trees popped into your head. What was it? When you write to describe something, you want to be specific. You DON’T want to write like this:
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What Famous Person Would You Like to Interact With?
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS So you’re driving your taxi, and someone hails you from the sidewalk. In comes a man you eventually recognize, and you get so excited that you shout a phrase from one of his movies to him. He laughs and joins in the fun. You drop him off, but that is not the…
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Fun with Morse Code
MIDDLE SCHOOL PROMPTS. In the mid-1800s, Samuel Morse helped create a code that was used in his new system of communication: telegraphs. You may be familiar with the Morse code for “SOS”: · · · ― ― ― · · · (or “dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot”). The three dots stand…
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A Sonnet: Be the Shakespeare
HIGH SCHOOL PROMPTS Today you get to be Shakespeare and write a sonnet. A sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines. The last two lines, however, are separate and either sum up the rest of the poem or provide a new twist, as does the sonnet below. Let’s look at Shakespeare’s Sonnet 62. The letters…
