The Hand That Rocks the Cradle

Write about your relationship with your parents/guardians by describing an event from your grade school years, junior high, and high school years. Each event should suggest the nature of your relationship with your parents at the time it occurred.

Half-Empty or Half-Full? (Assignment 12)

Is the glass half-empty or half full? is a common expression, used rhetorically to indicate that a particular situation could be a cause for optimism (half full) or pessimism (half empty); or as a general litmus test to simply determine if an individual is an optimist or a pessimist. The purpose of the question is to demonstrate that the situation may be seen in different ways depending on one's point of view and that there may be opportunity in the situation as well as trouble.

Without thinking, write your response. Fast. Now take some time and explore in writing why you hold this belief. Then write a brief essay (3 to 5 paragraphs) in which you try to convince someone who sees it the other way that you are right. If you want, write a rebuttal to your own argument. Or you can write a short poem (because I know you love poetry), using images to make the same point.

Family Guy (Assignment 11)

Tell a family story, one that gets passed around at holiday dinners more often than the gravy boat. Tell as many as you can recall. If you want, brainstorm for a while, tagging the stories with just a word or a phrase to help you remember them. Then pick a few and develop the narrative and the details.

I Could've Thought of That (Assignment 10)

Research a few inventions. Write about the circumstances for the inventions: How were they discovered or made? What obstacles did the inventors overcome? Write an essay about teh inventor and the invention

If you could only take five things....(Assignment 9)

Mr. Schmit's list:
Endless supply of Aloe sunblock.
Solar Powered cooler/radio with fan attachment
Family Size tent with rain guard
Wind-board (for wind-surfing)
Snorkling gear (including harpoon gun)

"If you could take five things to a desert island, what would they be?"
Write about why you choose each answer. Then imagine you've been on the island for six months or a year. Which items have grown dull in your eyes? Which ones continue to shine?

Secrets Don't Make Friends (Assignment 8)

Options 1)
Write about a time when you told a secret and found out the person you told revealed it to someone else. How did you feel? Did you confront the person? Describe the circumstances and consequences.

Options 2)
Write a monologue in which a fictional character reveals a secret, keeping in mind that Macbeth has really raised the bar high. In other words, make it a significant one. Give urgencey to the telling of the secret. This situation can add urgency to whatever you write. If you're feeling stale on a piece, imagine it as a secret being revealed.

Heffron, Jack, The Writer’s Idea Book. Cincinnati, OH: Writers Digest Books,

You Won't Like Me When I'm Angry (Assignment 7)

What ticks you off? Poor service in a restaurant? Traffic Jams? Incompetence where you work? The injustice of untalented people--far less talented than you, for example--enjoying unwarranted success? We all have our flash points, the buttons that people had better not push. Let's spend some time looking at what makes you good and mad and search for ideas.

WHAT MAKES YOU ANGRY?

Start with a list. Write down the things that have made ou angry in the past week--or the past month, if your week has been mild. Take some time and try to remember all of them, from stubbing your toe on a chair leg to your teacher's adamant refusual to allow you to go to the bathroom, to your senator's cowardly vote on a bill you strongly support.

Pick one item from your list and freewrite about it, telling in a rush of words (don't sweat the punctuation and style at this stage) how you felt and why you felt that way.

Place the items from your list above into categories, such as "home," "school," "family," "friends," "the news," "social injustice" or whatever cateogries are appropriate for you. Then add to each list by moving farther back in time- a month, even a year. Write down what you can remember, then pick a category and look for patters. Is there something at work or school that angers you on a regular basis?