Writing Prompts for Journal Topics and Writing Ideas

Writing Prompts for Journal Topics and Writing Ideas May is often a beautiful month, full of flowers and sunshine. May also celebrates a week for teachers during  Teacher Appreciation Week. Many of the following writing prompts for each day of May are written to take advantage of this time of year. These prompts provide teachers a great way to add more writing time in class. Some have two suggestions, one for middle school (MS) and one for high school (HS). These can be simple writing assignments, warm-ups, or journal entries. Feel free to use these any way you wish. May Holidays American Bike MonthFlower MonthAsthma Allergy Awareness MonthNational Bar-B-Que MonthNational Physical Fitness and Sports MonthOlder Americans MonthNational Hamburger Month Writing Prompt Ideas for May May 1 - Theme: May Day(MS) May Day is a traditional celebration of Spring in countries around the globe, often including dancing and flowers around a maypole. However, May Day is rarely celebrated in the United States. Do you think that Americans should celebrate May Day? Why or why not?(HS) In Chicago 1886, 15 people were killed during the Haymaker Riot strikes held to protest poor working conditions. In sympathy, European nations, many  socialist or communist, established May Day to honor the cause of the worker.   May 2 - Theme: Holocaust Remembrance DaySome people argue that the Holocaust is too disturbing for students to learn about  in middle school or even in high school. Write a persuasive paragraph explaining why it should be included in the curriculum.   May 3 - Theme: National Day of Prayer is usually observed on the first Thursday of May. This  day is an inter-denominational event when faiths from across the country pray for the United States and its leaders. The word pray was first used in the  early 13th century to mean ask earnestly, beg. What would you like to  ask earnestly, beg for  in your life?  Ã‚     May 4 - Theme: Star Wars DayThe date comes from the  catchphrase, May the 4th [force]  Be With You.What is your opinion about the Star Wars film franchise? Do you love it, hate it? Are there reasons to appreciate the series? For example,   from 2015 to the present, the   film series has made millions of dollars: Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)   over $900 millionStar Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) over $600 millionRogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)   over $500 million May 5 - Theme:  Cinco de MayoMany people across the United States celebrate the day, but they do not know what Cinco de Mayo commemorates. The day recognizes when  Mexican Armys victory over the French at the  Battle of Puebla, in 1862. Should there be more education on knowing this holiday or other international holidays?  Ã‚   May 6 - Theme: American Bike Month(MS) 40% of Americans have a bicycle. Do you know how to ride a bike?   Do you have a bicycle? What could be the advantages of having a bicycle? What are the disadvantages of riding a bike?(HS) Urban planners include more bike lanes to reduce car traffic. The benefits of bicycles in cities are the reduction of car emissions and the increase of exercise. Is this planning a good thing? Or, is this planning something cities should do? Could this planning be like the idiom the says something is needed like a fish needs a bicycle  ? May 7 - Theme: Teacher Appreciation  (Week May 7-11)What qualities do you think a great teacher must have? Explain your answer.Do you have a favorite teacher from your school experiences? Write a letter of appreciation to that teacher. May 8 - Theme: National Train DayHigh-speed trains can travel fast with some prototypes with speeds over 400 mph. In theory, a high-speed train could race up the East Coast, from NYC to Miami, in seven hours. The same trip would take a car about 18.5 hours. Should Americans invest in high-speed rails for trains or in roads for cars?     Why or why not?May 9 - Theme: Peter Pan DayPretend you were in J.M. Barries story about Peter Pan, a boy who never grows up and remain eternally young. Which part would you most like to see or do: fly, visit with mermaids, fight the pirate Captain Hook, or meet the mischevious fairy Tinkerbell? Explain your answer. May 10 - Theme: Civil Disobedience.In 1994, political activist  Nelson Mandela was sworn in as South Africas 1st black president. Mandela followed the example of the civil disobedience practices used by Gandhi and Martin Luther King.   Consider Kings statement, Any man who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community on the injustice of the law is at that moment expressing the very highest respect for the law.For what injustice would you practice civil disobedience?ORMay 10: Theme: PostcardsIn 1861, the US Post Office authorized the first postcard.  Postcards are usually sent from a vacation place or as a greeting card to mark an event, or even just to say hello.Design a postcard and prepare a message. May 11 - Theme: Asthma Allergy Awareness MonthDo you have asthma or allergies? If so, what are your triggers? (What makes you have an attack or sneeze, etc.) If not, do you think that schools do enough to help those who have asthma and allergies? Why or why not?May 12: Theme: National Limerick DayLimericks are poems with the following scheme: five-lines of an anapestic  meter (unstressed syllable, unstressed syllable, stressed syllable)   with a strict  rhyme scheme  of AABBA. For example: There was an Old Man in a tree,Who was horribly bored by a Bee;When they said, Does it buzz?He replied, Yes, it does!Its a regular brute of a Bee! Try to write a limerick.   May 13 - Theme: Mothers DayWrite a descriptive paragraph or poem about either your Mother or someone who is a Mother figure to you.ORMay 13 - Theme: Tulip DayIn the 17th century, tulip bulbs were so prized that traders would mortgage their houses and fields.   (provide a picture or bring in real tulips). Describe a tulip or another flower using all five senses. May 14 - Theme: Lewis and Clark ExpeditionWilliam Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was able to create a map of the Louisiana Purchase by merely walking through and exploring it. Today Google uses  cars with custom cameras over  five million miles  to develop their Google Maps apps. How do maps figure in your life? How might they figure in your future?May 15 - Theme: L. F. Baums Birthday - Author of the Wizard of Oz books and creator of Dorothy, the Wicked Witch of the West, the Scarecrow, the Lion, the Tin Man, and the Wizard.Which character from the world of Oz would you most like to meet? Explain your answer. May 16 - Theme: National Bar-B-Que MonthThe  word barbecue comes from the Caribbean word â€Å"barbacoa.† Originally, barbacoa was not a way of cooking food, but the name of a wooden structure used by indigenous Taino Indians to smoke their food. Barbeque ranks in the top 20 most popular foods in the USA. Whats your favorite picnic food? Do you like bar-b-que, hamburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken, or something else entirely? What makes it so special? May 17 - Theme: Kentucky Derby(MS) This horse race is also called  The Run for the Roses for the draped blanket of roses placed over the winning horse. This idiom uses a rose, as do many other idioms. Choose one of the following rose idioms, or any other idiom you know, and give an example as to when it could be used: a bed of rosesa rose by any other namebed of rosesbloom is off the rosebring the roses to (ones) cheekscome out smelling like a rose (HS) Just before the race at the Kentucky Derby, the crowds sing My Old Kentucky Home. The revised lyrics of the original song by Stephen Foster changed the  word darkies,   and substituted the word people. Crowds now sing: The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky homeTis summer, the people are gay... Should songs with questionable lyrics from years ago continue to be used for public events? Are there songs that are so inappropriate that they should be dropped entirely? May 18 - Theme: International Museum DayThere are numerous world-class museums around the world. For example, there is The Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Hermitage. There are also some oddball museums such as Museum of Bad Art or the National Mustard Museum.If you could create a museum about any topic, what would it be about? Describe two or three exhibits that would be in your museum.May 19 - Theme: Circus MonthIn 1768, the English equestrian  Philip Astley demonstrated trick riding by trotting in a circle rather than a straight line. His act was named a circus. As today is circus day, you have a choice of topics: If you were in a circus, which performer would you be and why?Do you like circuses? Explain your answer.Do you think circuses should feature animals? Why or why not? May 20 - Theme: National Physical Fitness and Sports MonthEach state requires a specific number of minutes that students should participate in physical activity.   If your state requires  physical fitness activity for the next 30 minutes, what activity would you choose? Why? May 21 - Theme: Lindbergh Flight DayOn this day in 1927, Charles Lindbergh took off on his famous flight across the Atlantic. Would you like to learn how to fly a plane? Why or why not? May 22 - Theme: Older Americans MonthDo you believe that older Americans are treated with enough respect today? Explain your answer. May 23 - Theme: World Turtle/Tortoise DayToday is World Turtle Day. Conservation efforts are demonstrating success, and turtle populations are up.   Tortoises can live long lives. One,  Adwaita the Tortoise (1750-2006), is reputed to have lived over 250 years. What events would a tortoise who lived that long have witnessed? What event would you like to have seen? May 24 - Theme: First Morse Code Message SentA simple substitution code is when you replace each letter with a different letter. For example, all As become Bs, and Bs become Cs, etc. I have written the following sentence using this type of code so that each letter of the alphabet is written as the letter that comes after it. What does my sentence say? Do you agree or disagree with it?Dpef csfbljoh jt fbtz boe gvo. May 25 - Theme: John F. Kennedys Speech About Sending a Man to the MoonOn this day in 1961, John F. Kennedy said that America would send a man to the moon before the end of the 1960s.   We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. Why is this speech so significant? Should Americans continue space exploration because it is hard?   May 26 - Theme: National Hamburger MonthOn average, Americans eat three hamburgers a week. What is your favorite type of hamburger or veggie burger? Is it plain or with toppings like cheese, bacon, onions, etc.? If not a hamburger, what food do you (or could you) eat three times a week? Describe a favorite food using at least three of the five senses. May 27 - Theme: Golden Gate Bridge OpensThe Golden Gate Bridge is a symbol of San Francisco, recognizable by people all over the world. Do you have any symbols or monuments for your city or community? What are they? Even if you dont have a symbol that you can think of,   explain why you think these types of symbols are important to people. May 28 - Theme: Amnesty International DayThe goal of Amnesty International is to protect and promote human rights across the world. Their motto is, Fight injustice and help create a world where human rights are enjoyed by all.  In some countries, genocide (the systemized killing of an entire ethnic group) is still being carried out. What is the responsibility of the United States? Do we have a duty to step in and stop these types of human rights violations? Explain your answer. May 29 - Theme: Paper Clip DayThe paperclip was created in 1889. There is a paperclip game  to play that pits you against market forces. There is also a movie,  Paper Clips, featuring middle school students who collected  one  paper clip  for each  person  exterminated by the Nazis. The paper clip was also a symbol of resistance in Norway against  Nazi  occupation.   This small everyday object has made its way into history. What other uses could you come up with for a paper clip?ORTheme: Memorial DayMemorial Day is a federal holiday that originated when decorations were placed on the graves of Civil War soldiers. Decoration Day gave way to Memorial Day, the last Monday in May.What are three things that we can do to honor those men and women who died while serving in our military?   May 30- Theme-Emerald GemstoneThe emerald is Mays gemstone. The stone is a symbol of rebirth and is believed to grant the owner foresight, good fortune, and youth. The color green  is associated with new life and the promise of spring. What promises of spring do you see now?   May 31 - Theme: Meditation DayA combination of anecdotal and scientific evidence  suggests that meditation in schools may help improve grades and attendance. Yoga and meditation may help students at all grade levels feel happier and more relaxed. What do you know about meditation and yoga? Would you like to see meditation programs brought into your school?

Language and Gender Definitions and Discussions

Language and Gender Definitions and Discussions Language and gender is an interdisciplinary field of research that studies varieties of speech (and, to a lesser extent, writing) in terms of gender, gender relations, gendered practices, and sexuality. In The Handbook of Language and Gender (2003), Janet Holmes and Miriam Meyerhoff discuss the shift that has occurred in the field since the early 1970sa movement away from essentialist and dichotomous conceptions of gender to a differentiated, contextualized, and performative model which questions generalized claims about gender. What Are Language and Gender Studies? Regarding gender, extensive research on language, culture, and identity has sought to uncover the logic of the encoding of sex differences in languages, to analyze the oppressive implications of ordinary speech, to explain miscommunication between men and women, to explore how gender is constructed and interacts with other identities, and to investigate the role of language in helping establish gender identity [as] part of a broader range of processes through which membership in particular groups is activated, imposed, and sometimes contested through the use of linguistic forms . . . that activate stances ([Alessandro] Duranti 2009: 30-31). Other work explores how language is used to reproduce, naturalize, and contest gender ideologies, drawing from many disciplinary perspectives . . .. Critical discourse, narrative, metaphor, and rhetorical analysis have been used to examine other gendered dimensions of processes of meaning making, such as gender bias in cell biology (Beldecos et al . 1988) and factory farm industry language used to conceal violence (Glenn 2004).(Christine Mallinson and Tyler Kendall, Interdisciplinary Approaches. The Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguistics, ed. by Robert Bayley, Richard Cameron, and Ceil Lucas. Oxford University Press, 2013) Doing Gender We act out gender roles from a continuum of masculine and feminine characteristics; we are therefore gendered and we are involved in the process of our own gendering and the gendering of others throughout our lives. In the field of  gender and language use, this performance of gender is referred to as doing gender. In many ways we are rehearsed into our gender roles, like being prepared for a part in a play: gender is something we do, not something we are (Bergvall, 1999; Butler, 1990). Over our lives and particularly in our early formative years, we are conditioned, prompted and prodded to behave in acceptable ways so that our gender, and our communitys acceptance of it, aligns with our ascribed sex. [S]ome scholars in the field question the distinction that sex is a biological property and gender is a cultural construct, and both terms continue to be contested . . ..(Allyson Julà ©, A Beginners Guide to Language and Gender. Multilingual Matters, 2008) The Dangers of Abstraction Our diagnosis is that gender and language studies suffer from the same problem as that confronting sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics more generally: too much abstraction. Abstracting gender and language from the social practices that produce their particular forms in given communities often obscures and sometimes distorts the ways they connect and how those connections are implicated in power relations, in social conflict, in the production and reproduction of values and plans. Too much abstraction is often symptomatic of too little theorizing: abstraction should not substitute for theorizing but be informed by and responsive to it. Theoretical insight into how language and gender interact requires a close look at social practices in which they are jointly produced. (Sally McConnell-Ginet, Gender, Sexuality, and Meaning: Linguistic Practice and Politics. Oxford University Press, 2011) Background and Evolution of Language and Gender Studies In the United States during the late 1960s and early 1970s, women began to examine and critique societal practices that supported gender discrimination in consciousness-raising groups, in feminist cells, in rallies and media events (see [Alice] Echols, 1989, for a history of the womens movement in the United States). In the academy, women and a few sympathetic men started to examine the practices and methods of their disciplines, subjecting them to similar critiques for similar ends: the elimination of societal inequities based upon gender. The study of language and gender was initiated in 1975 by three books, the latter two of which have continued to significantly influence sociolinguistic work: Male/Female Language (Mary Ritchie Key), Language and Womens Place (Robin Lakoff), and Language and Sex: Difference and Dominance (Barrie Thorne and Nancy Hedley, Eds.). . . . Overly dichotomous ideas of gender pervade Western society in ways that must be challenged. Because, however, it is important that challenging exaggerated notions of difference does not simply result in women assimilating to male, or mainstream, norms, feminist scholars must simultaneously document and describe the value of attitudes and behaviors long considered feminine. In doing so, feminist scholars challenge their exclusive association with women and point out their value for all people.(Rebecca Freeman and Bonnie McElhinny, Language and Gender. Sociolinguistics and Language Teaching, ed. by Sandra Lee McKay and Nacy H. Hornberger. Cambridge University Press, 1996) In the first phase of language/gender research, Many of us were eager to piece together an overall portrayal of differences in the speech of women and men. We invented notions like genderlect to provide overall characterizations of sex differences in speech (Kramer, 1974b; Thorne and Henley, 1975). The genderlect portrayal now seems too abstract and overdrawn, implying that there are differences in the basic codes used by women and men, rather than variably occurring differences, and similarities.(Barrie Thorne, Cheris Kramarae, and Nancy Henley, 1983; quoted by Mary Crawford in Talking Difference: On Gender and Language. SAGE, 1995)Interactional sociolinguistics [IS] serves as one of many theoretical orientations that have been drawn on to investigate gender and communication. The pioneering study of Maltz and Borker (1982) provided a starting point for [Deborah] Tannens (1990, 1994, 1996, 1999) writing on language and gender in which Tannen investigates interactions between women a nd men as a kind of cross-cultural communication and firmly establishes IS as a useful approach to gendered interaction. Her general audience book You Just Dont Understand (Tannen, 1990) offers insights into everyday communication rituals of speakers of both genders. Much like Lakoffs (1975) Language and Womens Place, Tannens work has fueled both academic and popular interest in the topic. In fact, language and gender research exploded in the 1990s and continues to be a topic receiving a great deal of attention from researchers using various theoretical and methodological perspectives (Kendall and Tannen, 2001).(Cynthia Gordon, Gumperz and Interactional Sociolinguistics. The SAGE Handbook of Sociolinguistics, ed. by Ruth Wodak, Barbara Johnstone, and Paul Kerswill. SAGE, 2011) Language and gender studies have seen significant expansion to encompass sexual orientation, ethnicity and multilingualism, and, to some extent, class, involving analyses of spoken, written, and signed gendered identities.(Mary Talbot, Language and Gender, 2nd ed. Polity Press, 2010)