Sample prompts

You are taking a photography class for youth in the city summer program. A student next to you started talking to you. 

“Hi, I am Sonia and I’m in 11th grade at Riverview High School. It’s a small school with about 500 students. We have activities after school but not photography. What is your school like? How big is it and who are the students? What kind of activities does it have? Can you describe the location? I really want to hear all the details about your school.”

How do you respond?

In US schools, students have a lot of assignments and projects, sometimes in groups. Describe a project you had to do for a class. Be sure to include information about the class and subject for which you did the project, the challenges, or difficulties, how the teacher helped you and what you learned from doing the project.

When you start a new school, it’s an opportunity to make new friends. What kind of questions do you ask to get to know someone and learn more about them? Write at least 3 or 4 questions you can ask someone. (You can ask about their family, what they like to do, what classes they like, what kind of activities they do after school, or anything else you want to know.)

What do you think makes a good friend?  What is important in a friendship? Tell about a time when you were a good friend to someone, or someone was a good friend to you. Describe in detail about the friendship, what happened, what you did to be a good friend, or how the good friend was helpful to you.

You read the following article in the weekly neighborhood paper. 

The Rewards of Hard Work 

It is July and schools are closed for summer vacation. But at Kofi Annan Elementary School, it looks as if all the students in grades three and four forgot about summer vacation. The students and their teachers were hard at work. With shovels, notebooks, pens and boxes they were finishing a science project that the students started in the spring. Each grade planted carrot, corn, and pea seeds and some small tomato plants. 

Their vegetables grew during the spring and summer and were now ready to be picked. The students took notes about the size and the number of vegetables that grew. Then they washed them and sorted them into the boxes. The boxes of vegetables were for the neighborhood food shelf but the students all wanted to taste them first. The teachers were busy cutting small pieces of carrots for students who wanted more. The sound from the school’s garden showed that the science project will happen again next year. The students were able to learn about gardening, share food with others and enjoy the vegetables. Hopefully, they will enjoy vegetables at dinner and school lunch as much as they enjoyed the vegetables they grew.

You come across this article online. 

A Quiet Hero by M. Yang, neighborhood reporter for the Mountain Press 

Most people have heard stories about public heroes whom everyone sees, the firefighters who put out large fires, the lifeguard who saves someone, the person who saves a life or prevents a serious injury. All neighborhoods in our cities are fortunate to have these heroes and to honor them as they should be. 

Neighborhoods also have many quiet heroes, among them, Ari Sims, a local resident. For many years, Ari has kept his street and Logan Park clean, planted flowers on the corner, and quietly worked to keep the playground clean and safe. On his daily morning walk, he can be seen picking up litter and putting it into one of the trash containers. Most people have not thought of trash containers as the tool of a hero, but for years, Logan Park did not have enough trash containers. The only trash can was too small for the family picnics of all the park visitors.  As a result, people put their trash under trees or just left it anywhere, or some took their trash home. After collecting the trash in a large bag early this summer, Ari asked city managers for more containers. 

City records showed that the park had ten new trash containers but when checking, found that a mistake had been made and the containers were never delivered. The following week saw cans placed in the park, much to the surprise of park visitors. Small children ran to use the bright green trash and recycling cans. 

When the evening news featured the story of the trash cans, Ari didn’t want to appear on TV but agreed to talk to me for this story. I learned that last week, neighbors began an effort to replace the playground equipment with newer, safer, and more interesting equipment. They contacted the city and neighborhood businesses to ask for donations. Suddenly, there was an interest in the park. Ari’s quiet trash cleanup effort resulted in neighbors wanting to improve the experience for families, kids, and all park visitors. 

It all began with a trash can.