You are on page 1of 7

Journal from: A Year of Journal Prompts

itten r W d n a Compiledacee Orman by Tr


11 002 - 20 2 t h g d i e Copyr ights Reserv All R

AUGUST Prompts

M Teache y rs Teache Pay r Store s

A Year of Journal Prompts: Common Core Standards Aligned


Includes presentations with over 300 slides of journal prompts.

Purchase the full version here:

August Prompts by Tracee Orman, Copyright 2011, Hunger Games Lessons, http://www.hungergameslessons.com

August
1. Describe yourself in detail. You can write about your personality, your likes/dislikes, your outward appearance, etc.. DO NOT write about other people (like your family)...this is just about YOU! 2. On August 4th, 1944, 15-year-old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family were captured by the Nazis. Anne spent two years hidden in a sealed-off space in a warehouse, recording her ordeal in a diary that was eventually published and translated into more than 50 languages. Describe how it must have been for this young girl to be cooped up in a small living area with her family and the seven other occupants. What would you do to pass the time, knowing you would not have modernday conveniences such as a television, cell phone, video games, etc.? 3. On August 6th in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world's first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. On August 9th, another atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing over 23,000 people from the blast. As a result, Japan surrendered and WWII was over. How do you feel about Americans killing so many innocent civilians in these attacks? Do you think the bombings were necessary? Why or why not? Is war the only way to make peace? 4. The second week of August is Elvis Presley Week in Memphis, Tennessee. Elvis fans of all ages from around the world gather in Memphis to celebrate the King of Rock-n-Roll. Describe a scene that might take place during this week of music, magic, and memories associated with the legacy of Elvis Presley. Are you familiar with any Elvis songs? If so, which is your favorite? 5. The greatest automobile race in history happened on August 10th in 1907. The Peking-to-Paris race lasted for 62 days and was 8,000 miles long. If you were going to participate in this race today, what kind of vehicle would you choose and why? Would you choose something fast over something comfortable? If you could choose one person to accompany you in the race, who would you choose? Why? 6. Kool-Aid Days are celebrated in Hastings, Nebraska each year around this time in August. Did you ever have a Kool-Aid or lemonade stand as a child? Why or why not? If so, was it successful? If not, consider this: Deep-fried Kool-Aid was introduced at a Chicken Charlies stand at the San Diego County Fair in June, 2011. The ingredients included sugar, flour, and Kool-Aid powder. Would you try the fried Kool-Aid? What are some other possibilities for fried fair food? 7. August 12th: On this day in 1990, fossil hunter Susan Hendrickson discovers three huge bones jutting out of a cliff near Faith, South Dakota. They turn out to be part of the largest-ever Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered, a 65 million-year-old specimen dubbed Sue, after its discoverer. What do you think is one of the greatest discoveries of all time? Why? If you were to discover something great, what would you want it to be and why?

August Prompts by Tracee Orman, Copyright 2011, Hunger Games Lessons, http://www.hungergameslessons.com

8. Construction began on the Berlin Wall August 13th, 1961, and on August 17th, the first concrete blocks were put in place. The wall was the physical barrier between East and West Berlin, with Easterners prohibited to leave their sector. Many families were torn apart. If you lived in East Berlin and worked in West Berlin, you lost your job. The wall remained until November 9th, 1989. Imagine the city in which you live right now. Then draw a line down the center of it. Then imagine your section of town is closed off from the rest of the world and you could not leave and visitors (from the other side, or the rest of the world) could not come to you. How would that feel? What would you do? 9. On August 14, 2003, a major outage knocked out power across the eastern United States and parts of Canada. Beginning at 4:10 p.m. ET, 21 power plants shut down in just three minutes. Fifty million people were affected, including residents of New York, Cleveland and Detroit, as well as Toronto and Ottawa, Canada. Although power companies were able to resume some service in as little as two hours, power remained off in other places for more than a day. The outage stopped trains and elevators, and disrupted everything from cellular telephone service to operations at hospitals to traffic at airports. In New York City, it took more than two hours for passengers to be evacuated from stalled subway trains. Small business owners were affected when they lost expensive refrigerated stock. The loss of use of electric water pumps interrupted water service in many areas. There were even some reports of people being stranded mid-ride on amusement park roller coasters. At the New York Stock Exchange and bond market, though, trading was able to continue thanks to backup generators. Describe a time when youve lost power. How did you spend your time with no electricity? Have you ever been in somewhere--like in an elevator or on a subway--when power has gone out? How did you feel? What is the longest you have been without power? 10. According to Truckline.com, each year we celebrate National Truck Driver Appreciation Week in August or September. What do you think it would be like to be a truck driver? Would you like that job? Why or why not? How could you show your appreciation to our nations truck drivers? 11. On August 17th, 1969, the grooviest event in music history--the Woodstock Music Festival--draws to a close after three days of peace, love and rock 'n' roll in upstate New York. Initially, organizers had sold a total of 186,000 tickets and expected no more than 200,000 people to show up. By Friday night, however, thousands of eager early arrivals were pushing against the entrance gates. Fearing they could not control the crowds, the promoters made the decision to open the concert to everyone, free of charge. Close to half a million people attended Woodstock, jamming the roads around Bethel with eight miles of traffic. A 25th anniversary celebration of Woodstock took place in 1994 in Saugerties, New York. Known as Woodstock II, the concert featured Bob Dylan and Crosby, Stills and Nash as well as newer acts such as Nine Inch Nails and Green Day. Held over another rainy, muddy weekend, the event drew an estimated 300,000 people. Have you been to any music concerts? If so, write about your experience seeing a live band perform. If not, who would you like to see/hear live in concert? Why?

August Prompts by Tracee Orman, Copyright 2011, Hunger Games Lessons, http://www.hungergameslessons.com

12. August 18th is considered Bad Poetry Day. The creators of this holiday, Wellcat.com, describe the purpose: After all the good poetry you were forced to study in school, heres a chance for a pay back. Invite some friends over, compose some really rotten verse, and send it to your old high school teacher. Write a (school-appropriate) poem in honor of this day. You may work with a partner, or work on your own. 13. August 20th is National Radio Day. What is your favorite radio station? Why? What kind of music does it play? How often do you listen to the radio? If you dont, do you listen to internet or satellite stations? Podcasts? What do you like about radio? What dont you like? 14. In 1971 the US Congress designated August 26 as Women's Equality Day. This date commemorates not only the day in 1920 that women were granted the right to vote, but also calls attention to women's continuing efforts toward full equality. Do you think women have equal rights to men today? Why or why not? What needs to be changed or improved upon? Why? 15. August 28 marks the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.s I Have a Dream speech. He gave the speech Aug. 28, 1963, during the March on Washington. This day is called Dream Day because of his inspiring words about his own dream that his children would grow up in a world in which all races could live, work, and play as equals. What is your dream? Is it for world peace, no more hunger, no more poverty? Or is it more personala dream for happiness, riches, or fame? Write in detail about your dream. 16. What is something you do well? How/why did you learn that skill? 17. On August 31, 1989, the authorities of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic adopted a language law which proclaimed the Moldavian language (written in Latin script) to be the official state language. Moldavian is basically Romanian with a Moldovan accent. It was banned from schools in the 1870s with Russian (and the Russian-Slovanic alphabet) taking its place. The 20th century brought political strife, and with it confusion as to what language should be taught in schools. The declaration in 1989 did not settle matters, however. Controversy has erupted in recent years when one city (who declared itself independent and favored the Russian language) shut down its four schools that spoke Romanian, forcing the school children to sleep on the street. What is your native language? How would you feel if one day you were not allowed to speak or write using this language? Do you think a nation should declare an official language and require all of its citizens to communicate using it? Why or why not? If they did, what would the punishment be for not using that language? Before deciding which side you are on, consider that perhaps the language you speak and write would be the one banned. Does that change your opinion?

Thanks for downloading these free prompts for August.


I compiled the events and historical references from History.com, Wellcat.com, Truckline.com, and Wikipedia.com. I wrote the prompt questions to go with the event or historical reference. If you like what you see, please take a moment to leave feedback. Also, you may like the complete year of prompts, which comes with additional Anytime prompts, One-liners, and student handouts. The following pages is a preview of what you will find in my A Year in Journal Prompts package. Thanks, again, and have a great school year! -Tracee Orman

August Prompts by Tracee Orman, Copyright 2011, Hunger Games Lessons, http://www.hungergameslessons.com

A Year of Journal Prompts Includes six files:


1. Journal Prompts in Microsoft Word: Table of contents of this document listed below 2. Journal Prompts in PDF format: Table of Contents listed below 3. Journal Month Prompts PPT: Powerpoint Presentation of each of the months prompts on single slides 4. Journal Month Prompts PDF: Same presentation in PDF format 5. Journal Anytime Prompts PPT: Powerpoint Presentation of journal prompts that can be used anytime of the year. 6. Journal Anytime Prompts PDF file: Same presentation in PDF format

Table of Contents for Journal Prompts (Offered in Word & PDF formats)
Page 3 Teachers Guide -Directions for using the handouts and presentation files -Sources -Copyright terms Common Core ELA Anchor Standards for Grades 6-12 -Reading, Writing, Speaking & Listening, Language Common Core Standards History/Writing (Grades 9-12) Specific Strands for ELA Standards (Grades 9-12) Specific Strands for ELA Standards, continued (Grades 9-12) Student Handouts - Writing Response Sheets -Optional forms you can use if you do not want to have students type on computer or write their response in a notebook.
Journal response for using day of the month prompts (in separate presentation) Generic prompt journal response form Journal research enhancement form (use this to do the additional research about a historical event; go one step further and have them write the information in essay format using MLA documentation). Write a Journal Prompt form (any type of prompt) Write a Journal Prompt form using the History.com website to go with an event in history Quote response form Quote research enhancement form (use this to do the additional research about the quote itself and/or the speaker of the quote. Students should find the context of the quote: whether it was written in a novel, quoted in a newspaper, spoken in a speech AND who the audience was for the quote AND if it was in response to another statement, quote, speech, event, etc.; go one step further and have them write the information in essay format using MLA documentation).

Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Pages 7-13


Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13

Pages 14-57 Monthly Prompts -Includes 15 to 20 prompts per month Page 57 Birthday (or Half-Birthday) Prompt Pages 57-62 Anytime Prompts -Prompts that can be used on any day or students can opt to write about one of these topics if they do not like the topic of the day. Pages 63-64 One-Liners: Complete the Sentence -Use as exit slips, ice-breakers, or when you dont have much time for a full journal entry. Pages 65-69 Quotes -Quotes that can be used to spark journal writing. Students should respond with what the quote means to them. Separate documents: Journal Prompts: Days of Month Presentation & Journal Anytime Prompts Presentation

August Prompts by Tracee Orman, Copyright 2011, Hunger Games Lessons, http://www.hungergameslessons.com

Examples of the Month Prompts from the Presentation file:

Examples of the Handouts (6 total):

August Prompts by Tracee Orman, Copyright 2011, Hunger Games Lessons, http://www.hungergameslessons.com

Examples of the Anytime Prompts:

Examples of the One-Liners and Quotes Prompts:

A Year of Journal Prompts: Common Core Standards Aligned


Includes presentations with over 300 slides of journal prompts.
August Prompts by Tracee Orman, Copyright 2011, Hunger Games Lessons, http://www.hungergameslessons.com

Purchase the full version here:

You might also like