District Writing Prompt

After looking at the essays from our district writing prompt, I am pleasantly surprised. It seems that our biggest problem is writing to answer the prompt. I know that some of you may think that is a big problem and why would I be pleasantly surprised, but that is actually not bad. This is very easily corrected. It becomes difficult when students have trouble with writing coherent sentences to make clear and concise paragraphs to communicate their ideas. I did not see too much of that as I was grading the essays. Our eighth graders have minor problems with grammar and sentence variation as well as use of the word "like". Sometimes it seems as though I am having an oral conversation instead of reading a piece of written communication, but the ideas are, nevertheless; communicated in a pretty clear and concise manner. I will see if I can find some websites for parents and students alike, for help in writing. We have also been given a cd entitled, "itext" to go along with our writing book that the students will get to utilize at school and home.

The writing prompt was as follows: Think about what makes a job ideal for a teenager. Now describe the job and explain why it would be ideal.