Journals & Shorter Assignments
Every Wednesday students are given a topic and have to write a story on that topic. As long as the topic is covered (and the story is at least 200 words), students have a lot of creative freedom with format and approach. Click on the buttons to see samples.
Journal 10 "Mosts"
Write a story that includes one of the characters named yesterday winning one of the "mosts" listed from yesterday. Attached is a list of the characters and mosts. How you incorporate it is up to you. Journal 8 Replace Siri
Choose a character or famous person whose voice you would like to hear in place of an automated electronic voice. Keeping in mind diction and syntax, write a conversation or excerpt that mimics the voice of the famous person/character. You can choose the scenario and the others in the conversation. For instance, if you are having Yoda be the voice for a company's automated phone menu, he might say, "The reason for calling, you state. Buttons, you push. Help, you want; on the line, you stay." Maybe you want Mr. T to navigate for you, "I pity the fool who doesn't take the next right; turn right fool." Journal 5 Names
Write a story about a character with the name you are given in class. Think about the type of person who would have a name like that. Would they live up to the assumptions of their name or would they try to defy them? What type of family did they have that gave them that name? Journal 3
Describe in detail your favorite food. Students then voted on their favorite in the following categories: Meat & Potatoes, Mexican & Seafood, Pasta & Chicken, Pizza & Sweets, and Sandwiches & Snacks. A follow-up vote was taken in which, out of the 5 category winners, Meat & Potatoes won first place and Mexican & Seafood was a close runner-up. Journal 2
Write a story inspired by one of 3 images. |
Journal 12 Free Choice
By Anonymous Char The most intriguing and excruciating thing I’ve experienced is the discovery of a beautiful mind. Like most powerful things, a lovely mind isn’t appreciated or loathed until the person is gone. Realization came in fragments. I’d catch a subtle reference to classic literature in an everyday conversation or watch passionate, almost ravenous scrawls of black ink ignite a blank page. Sometimes a certain, rare intensity spread throughout her, giving her faded gaze a fiery ache. I wanted to sift through memory after memory like each was a hidden tale in a library of untold stories. I wanted to run my fingers softly through each thread of fear and yearning, as if they were grains of pearl sand on an immaculate shoreline, uncorrupted by footprints or debris. I wanted passage into the thoughts that rekindled her with a burst of wild flame and that extinguished her in a surge of smoke and embers. These were the stretches of time where searing pain became none at all, and the severity of the nerve damage left me numb for years. That’s the thing about fire; its beauty cannot be seized in all its entirety without leaving some sort of blister in its wake. Journal 9 Horror Stories
Write a horror story based on the 2 sentences you randomly picked in class. Do keep in mind that "horror" is subjective and also consider that the way you incorporate the 2 sentences is up to you. Journal 6 Villain POV
Write through a villain's POV. Do consider that "villain" is somewhat subjective. Also consider what led the villain to become the way they are. Journal 4 Confessions
Write a confession, but consider the following: who is making the confession (good person, bad person, animal, something inanimate, etc.), what are they confessing, under what circumstances are they making the confession (in a diary, to a priest, on trial, on deathbed, to a loved one, in a will, etc.), what do they hope to gain from the confession. Journal 1
Write a story or letter for or to your 5-year-old self. |