Creator: New York Times | visit site
Grade Range: 6 - 11
Find 301 prompts from the New York Times (NYT) Learning Network’s Student Opinion feature. Find a multitude of topics of interest to teens and they will have an opinion about at least a few of them! However, their opinion is not all they are supposed to give. To submit, teens will need to have evidence-based, concise editorials much like the ones the NYT publishes daily. Once submitted the NYT and the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University will use a rubric to select winners, and then publish those on The Learning Network. We suggest obtaining parental permission before submitting anything.
In the Classroom
English/writing, social studies, and current events teachers are sure to find something here for their students to write about. Introduce a few of the prompts and the winning student editorials using an interactive whiteboard or projector to get students interested. Have students define what concise means and what it should mean in their writing. Point out the good writing habits of the student winners. Students should read the NYT’s article(s) that give information about the topic of the prompt(s). At this time, you could have students choose a topic, or you could select several from which students could choose. You could also use one prompt a day as an opener or closer quick write. Another idea would be to have students respond on a class blog to the prompts and then make comments on each other’s opinions. Haven’t started blogging yet? Check out <a href="/content/blog/blogbasics.cfm">TeachersFirst’s Blog Basics</a>.
At Home
Use some of these writing prompts to find interesting topics for family conversations during meal times or car travel. Help your son or daughter to hone their persuasive skills using one or more of these prompts! Be sure to show them how to find the accompanying article from the NYT to help them use evidence to persuade.
Tags
writing prompts, writing, news, persuasive writing,
Subjects
Current Events, English, ESL/ELL, Language Arts, Reading, Social Studies, Social Studies, Special Education, Writing,