Journal Entries Journal Entry Q 1 1 Minimum

Journal Entries

Journal Entry Q 1 -1 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Information: Teenagers like to claim that adults do not understand them. Question: What is the most difficult thing about being a teenager these days? What is the easiest thing? These might not be school-related, but keep them school-appropriate.

Journal Entry Q 1 -2 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) Information: Students always have excuses for not doing their homework. Question: Write a letter to one of your teachers explaining why you didn’t do your homework. Additional Notes: The more creative the excuse, the better a grade you will get! Keep it school appropriate!

Journal Entry Q 1 -3 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) Information: Students complain school starts too early. Question: Should high schools start earlier or later in the day? Why? Make sure to include the following information in your answer: • The later they start, the later they end • The earlier they begin, the earlier they end. • By state law, a day must last at least 6. 5 hours to be an official school day.

Journal Entry Q 1 -4 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Information: Students enjoy dressing in saggy pants and shirts with sometimes inappropriate phrases on them. Question: Do the clothes we wear affect the way people think about us? Explain. What does it mean to dress for success?

Journal Entry Q 1 -5 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Do you feel safe at school? Compare this to your other schools. Explain. OR What are three things you want to do but have never had the courage to try? What do you need to do so you can try them?

Journal Entry Q 1 -6 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) What are the words to the Pledge of Allegiance? What do the words mean?

Journal Entry Q 1 -7 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Describe getting ready for a first date as someone of the opposite gender.

Journal Entry Q 1 -8 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) Are high school students really earning the grades they are being given or are good grades only given to students the teachers like? Make sure to EXPLAIN YOUR ANSWER.

Journal Entry Q 1 -9 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Information: Some people believe that girls and boys should not play on the same sports teams. They fear boys could hurt girls in rougher sports such as football, soccer or basketball. Question: What is your opinion? Should boys and girls play on the same sports teams? Why or why not?

Journal Entry Q 1 -10 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) Imagine you had to relive life starting from first grade, knowing what you know now. What would you do differently? Why?

Journal Entry Q 1 -11 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) • Imagine that a new museum is being built in Washington , D. C. , to show the important work of people overlooked in history, especially minorities and women. What historical people should be included in this museum and why?

Journal Entry Q 1 -12 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) • What issue is going on the news today do you feel strongly about? What is your opinion on the issue? Why and how does this issue personally affect you?

Journal Entry Q 2 -1 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Where do you see yourself in 20 years? What kind of job will you have? Do you have a house? A condo? An apartment? Are you married? If so, to whom? Do you have children? If so, how many? Ages? Boys or girls? Have you earned any special awards? If so, what are they?

Journal Entry Q 2 -2 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) • Information • The school board is debating doing away with 11 th and 12 th grade. • These two grades would become college preparatory… students would only attend 11 th and 12 th grade if they were going to college. Question What is your opinion on this issue?

Journal Entry 2 -3 (Minimum Length: 1 -2 paragraphs) 1. 2. 3. 4. A dictionary is being passed out. Close your eyes Open to a random page. Point to a word. Write that word down on your paper. Write down the definition. 5. Repeat steps 1 -4 six more times (for a total of 7 words). Write 1 -2 paragraphs using these seven words. The paragraphs must make sense!

Journal Entry Q 2 -4 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) Information: There are many things people have trouble believing in: ghosts, UFOs, aliens, Bigfoot, Lochness Monster, etc. Question: What is your view on these things that people have trouble believing in?

Journal Entry Q 2 -5 (Minimum Length: 1 list) List the ten worst things to say to someone who has been dumped.

Journal Entry Q 2 -6 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Information: Teenagers often think they know more than adults or their parents. Question: What would happen if teenagers ruled the world? How would things be different? Be specific.

Journal Entry Q 2 -7 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) • Information – There approximately 2. 3 million adults in the United States who are illiterate. • Question – Describe a day in the life of an illiterate person. What would life be like for someone who is illiterate?

Journal Entry Q 2 -8 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) Question: • How would your family pet describe you? Make sure the journal is written as if the PET was writing the journal entry. • If you don’t have a pet, make one up.

Journal Entry Q 2 -9 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) Which class/es do you feel are unnecessary? What would you replace it / them with that would be more educational?

Journal Entry Q 2 -10 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) What would encourage students to be more active in their community? How can students become more active in areas like politics, education, and economics? Why are they not active in such areas today?

Journal Entry Q 2 -11 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) Information: You have been in school for about a decade. In that time, you have had good and bad teachers and learned how you learn best. Question: How do you learn best? Write about an ideal class, including activities that help you learn best.

Journal Entry Q 2 -12 Here’s an early holiday gift: Write on any topic you choose. Make sure it is school appropriate!

Journal Entry Q 3 -1 Every year, there are headlines no one could have ever predicted (Michael Jackson dies, Woman makes $1 million dollar selling clothes made of newspaper, Man eats another person’s face). Make up 5 predictions for 2011 and give a small description for each one (they can be funny, serious or somewhere in-between).

Journal Entry Q 3 -2 Merriam-Webster has asked you to create five new words for inclusion in the next dictionary. What are your five new words and definitions?

Journal Entry Q 3 -3 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) You've finally snapped. Stress has gotten the better of you, and you can no longer think in long descriptive sentences. Tell me about your typical day, using sentences comprised of six words or fewer.

Journal Entry 3 -4 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) Who are your classmates? Name at least 3 and mention something nice about each one.

Journal Entry Q 3 -5 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Describe a time when you got into trouble for something you did. What did you do? Why did you do it? What was the punishment? Did you learn anything from the experience? Why or why not?

Journal Entry 3 -6 (Minimum Length: 1 -2 paragraphs) Write 1 -2 paragraphs describing your strangest dream.

Journal Entry Q 3 -7 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Information: Everyone loves offering advice. Question: What's the best piece of advice you've ever received? What's the worst (and why)? Discuss the results of following this good and bad advice.

Journal Entry Q 3 -8 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Write about the positive and negative effects of video games.

Journal Entry Q 3 -9 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) Describe the worst date you have ever had OR describe what you think would happen on your worst date.

Journal Entry Q 3 -10 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) Violence in schools is a major issue. What can be done to protect students and teachers from violence in schools? What other major issues face teenagers today?

Journal Entry Q 3 -11 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Information: This year, the state of Michigan announced all colleges in the state would be free of charge to any student who wished to attend college, as long as they graduated from a Michigan high school. Question: Nevada is now considering the same policy. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Discuss the positive and negative things about this policy.

Journal Entry Q 3 -12 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Information: • 1994: Susan Liebeck sued Mc. Donald’s for $600, 000 after she spilled a cup of coffee in her lap. She won. • 2000: Sandra Dukes sued Wal-Mart for 11 billion dollars after she was denied a promotion. She won. • 2005: Napster sued 261 people for illegally downloading music. The cost was $15, 000 per song downloaded. Napster won. • 2010: An Ohio man sued Sears for $500, 000 after his toaster fell into the bathtub while he was in it, electrocuting him. He won because Sears did not provide a warning label to not use the toaster in water. Question: What is your view of cases like this? Should people be allowed to sue for such large amounts? Are warning labels really necessary? What other labels have you seen that should be unnecessary but still exist anyway?

Journal Entry Q 4 -1 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Information: The school board of CCSD needs to cut $120 million dollars next year in order to keep operating. Question: What things would you cut at school in order to save $120 million dollars? Choose at least 3 things and explain how cutting those things would help.

Journal Entry Q 4 -2 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Information: It is a given that laws, privileges and responsibilities change over the years. Question: What laws have changed from the past? Are there any laws that are now useless? What about rights and privileges as Americans? How have they changed over time?

Journal Entry Q 4 -3 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) • Are there any people who are considered outcasts in society? Why are they ignored or abused by other people? Is there anything that can be done to bring “misfits” into regular society? Do you see examples of outcasts here at school? How or why not?

Journal Entry Q 4 -4 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Information: People have always wondered how their lives would be if events were different. Question: Choose one event in your life that is pivotal. How would changing that event change your whole life?

Journal Entry Q 4 -5 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) • Imagine that you have just received a gift of $1000. How do you spend it?

Journal Entry Q 4 -6 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) • Think of something you value highly, that you wish your parents valued, too. Write a journal entry that will persuade them of its value.

Journal Entry Q 4 -7 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) • Question: – Name one thing in the room that bothers you, NOT including a classmate or the teacher and explain why it bothers you.

Journal Entry Q 4 -8 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Information: • These days, people are verbally attacking My. Space, You. Tube, and Facebook. • They claim the sites are dangerous and teens using them have committed suicide because they have been dumped online or even received harassing messages from anonymous users. • Others have died after marathon sessions of sitting in front of the computer using these sites. Question: • What is your view on these sites? Be sure to explain in detail.

Journal Entry 4 -9 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Information: A debate is currently raging as to whether or not high schools should get rid of block scheduling. Question: Compare and contrast block scheduling with regular scheduling. What’s good about both? What’s bad about both?

Journal Entry 4 -10 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) • Animal testing on monkeys, chimpanzees, cats, and dogs has provided us with cures to things such as hepatitis, various types of cancers, measles, mumps and whooping cough. • Question: Do you support testing on animals if it is for the betterment of humans? Why or why not? Defend your answer.

Journal Entry 4 -11 (Minimum Length: 2 paragraphs) Question: What was life like for your parents when they were your age? *OR* What will life be like for teenagers in 50 years?

Journal Entry 4 -12 (Minimum Length: 1 paragraph) What was your favorite journal entry and why?