Arts and Humanities: Writing Prompts

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Resource	Grade Level	Media Type
All Dressed Up All Dressed Up shows a dog being groomed and asks the student to write a story about what the dog is thinking.	6-12	QuickTime Video
America Weighs America Weighs displays someone on a scale weighing themselves and asks the student what public schools should do, if anything, about the growing obesity problem in America.	6-12	QuickTime Video
A Big Pot A Big Pot displays several people stirring a large pot of stew and the prompt at the end asks students to desribe how they would make the same dish.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Bill and Ted's Most Excellent Adventure Bill and Ted's Most Excellent Adventure asks the students to write a script for Bill and Ted, the penguins featured in this video clip.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Birds of a Feather Birds of a Feather shows a variety of birds and asks students to explain the expression: Birds of a feather flock together.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Breathing Breathing shows an underwater scene and asks the students to answer the question, How do the people, fish and turtle get the oxygen they need?	6-12	QuickTime Video
A Bright Idea A Bright Idea shows several different power sources and asks students to write about friction, electricity, combustion or light.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Budgets Budgets shows a variety of ways money is used and asks students to list the products that they use each day and to compute how much money they will need to earn to afford to live on their own.	6-12	QuickTime Video
The Cafe Which person do you most identify with and why?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Cars Cars shows a car speeding away up a street and asks students to respond to the question, Do you ever feel unsafe and out of control when someone else is driving?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Coin Tossing Coin Tossing shows a person flipping a coin and asks the student to describe coin-flipping as a decision making option.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Countries Countires shows money and different locations around the world and asks students the question, If money was no object, where would you live and explain why?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Dance Dance shows a tribal dance and accopmanying music and asks the student to answer the question What would happen if you expressed yourself this way in our society?	6-12	QuickTime Video
A Day at the Beach A Day at the Beach entices students to think about what makes a perfect day at the beach including something from all of their senses.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Drugs Drugs shows a variety of technology and drug paraphernalia and asks the student to describe some of the benefits or problems associated with drugs.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Fire Fire shows a building under fire and asks the students to write a story about how this fire might have started.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Freedom This video clip prompts students to write about their feelings when they have visited one of the great American monuments.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Fussy Fussy	6-12	QuickTime Video
The Game After watching this brief interchange over a chessboard, please write what you think the dialogue is for the two players.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Good Food Good Food is a video clip that asks students to think about owning a restaurant and wants them to write about the name, theme, menu and decor of their creation.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Gravity of the Situation Gravity of the Situation asks students to describe what role gravity plays on the movement of the three groups of kids in the video.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Hard Cash Hard Cash shows coins being sorted and asks the students to describe what metals are used in making coins and why.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Holidays Holidays video clip prompts students to write about two of their favorite family traditions.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Hot Air Hot Air shows a brief segment of someone blowing glass and asks students to describe what object they would create if they were a glass blower.	6-12	QuickTime Video
If at first you don't succeed? This video prompt ask students to write about something that they have worked at to become successful and what obstacles they had to overcome.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Innocence Innocence prompts students to write about the differences, if they think there are any, between innocence and goodness.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Instant Messaging This prompt asks students to write about their experience with Instant Messaging, including how long they spend online each day. The student should also include whether they think IM'ing affects their schoolwork or not.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Last Day of Summer A video prompt to remind kids of what they did on their summer vacation. Students should include a full schedule of what they did on their last day of summer vacation.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Laughing Laughing	6-12	QuickTime Video
Mind Reading Mind Reading shows three different people and asks the students to write a thought for each person that was shown.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Money Do you ever feel like you are throwing money away? Why or why not?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Mug for the Camera Students are asked to describe the man from the clip for a police sketch artist because he had just stolen their purse/wallet.	6-12	QuickTime Video
New War How does war, with today's technology, differ from the wars in the past where soldiers fought another face-to-face?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Nose Ring Video shows tribal people removing their nose ring and prompts students to think about fads and how they know where the line is between fads that are fun and those that are dangerous.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Playing Playing shows kids playing jumprope and asks your students to create their own jump rope rhyme.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Poverty Poverty shows children in unclean conditions and asks your student to write a description of what they think life is like for these children.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Practice Makes Perfect As we all know, practice makes perfect. This clip highlights several children playing musical instruments and challenges the students to write about a time when they felt proud of themselves for working hard at something.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Priorities This clip asks students wto think about what their most valuable way is to spend their free time.	6-12	QuickTime Video
The Red Dynasty Why is the person pictured in the portrait important? Please identify him and explain.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Right to Life? This clip asks students to respond to the question about what animals are to us and should human needs outweight their need for habitat.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Rock Concert This clip asks students to place themselves in the parents shoes and respond to their teenager's request to attend a rock concert and to think about the concerns parents have when making their decisions.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Self Image This video clip asks students to respond to the question, what does society tell you about the value of self esteem?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Sources of Light This video clip shows a number of different light options and asks students to answer the question, where does light come from?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Space Exploration Students are prompted to respond to the question, do you think money spent on space exploration is justified?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Sportsmanship Is winning more important than good sportsmanship?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Stream of Consciousness What is the mountain biker thinking about while he completes his ride from start to finish line?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Stupid or Smart? This video clip highlights several dangerous hobbies/pasttimes and asks students to explain if they would do any of these and why.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Sunrise or Sunset? What difference does a sunrise or sunset make in your mood and which one do you prefer?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Sunset What are the things you watch for to determine what season it is?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Support Who do you turn to for support when you need help or guidance?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Tourists! Write a dialogue for the gulls, who appear to be having some issues with the humans cluttering their beach.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Transportation Do you think that modern transportation limits our ability to see and/or enjoy what the first settlers saw and did?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Traveling Is it more important to know where you are going or where you have been?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Underwater Explain which fish you would want to be in this school and why.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Value What do you think society values more than money?	6-12	QuickTime Video
Vehicles If you placed these two cars in a race, which one would win and why?	6-12	QuickTime Video
War Write a short essay on when and under what circumstances war is justified.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Where is the Chemistry? After watching several outdoor activies the students are asked to explain where the chemistry is in relation to the activities shown.	6-12	QuickTime Video
Yawn! Write about something that you used to enjoy doing but that you no longer find interesting. What has changed and what have you learned?	6-12	QuickTime Video

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Arts and Humanities: Writing Prompts