Pandemic Writing Assignment

I’m preparing to add another one of my writing lessons to the other 30 available on a web site for teachers searching for curriculum. I know a lot of teachers are struggling and scrambling to find creative and effective lessons they can adapt to remote instruction. Most of the writing curriculum I’ve seen is truly awful, almost all rote summarizing.

The link to my lessons is here. Please share these with any writing teachers you know.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Nestucca-Spit-Press-Writing-Curriculum

Mine work extremely well with distant learning, whether it be solo or a Zoom-like setting. They can also be used by home schooled students. Many of the lessons are also suitable for elementary aged students.

This latest lesson is called the Pandemic Writing Assignment. The prompts are below. Take a run at some of these yourselves. Why not? It might spur some original thinking instead of rehash and outright lifting.

It sometimes helps order a troubled mind to write about crisis I know it’s worked for me and hundreds of my students over the decades.

There is no better time than now.

Pandemic Writing Prompts

  1. What have learned about myself during the Pandemic?
  2. What I have learned about my country during the Pandemic?
  3. Respond to this: To wear a mask or not wear a mask, that is the question.
  4. What has been your low point during the Pandemic?
  5. What has been your high point during the Pandemic?
  6. Describe a friendship lost or found during the Pandemic.
  7. If you have documented your experience during the Pandemic, how did you do so and why?
  8. What is something you did during the Pandemic that you’d never done before?
  9. What about your pre Pandemic life do you miss the most?
  10. Name a great Pandemic song, show, movie, book or some other art form that helped you cope during the Pandemic. Explain how and why.
  11. Write a Pandemic equation of success or failure for yourself. For example, Booze + Tolstoy + new shelter dog = survival.
  12. Describe the moment you lost it during the Pandemic or were on the verge of losing it.
  13. Okay, let’s go there. President Trump’s performance during the Pandemic has been _____.
  14. Write a haiku about the Pandemic.
  15. Finish this limerick: There once was a virus from Nantucket /
  16. How will life be different once the Pandemic subsides?
  17. Write a slogan for America during the Pandemic.
  18. Who or what kept you sane during the Pandemic?
  19. What member of your family was the strongest or weakest during the Pandemic?
  20. Describe a time how you helped someone or didn’t help someone during the Pandemic.
  21. Describe a time you got into an argument with someone about some aspect of the Pandemic.
  22. Where was God during the Pandemic?
  23. What’s been the greatest lie of the Pandemic?
  24. Respond to this fact: they’re playing professional sports without fans during the Pandemic.
  25. What’s the better story? A stranger comes into town during the Pandemic. Or: A man or woman goes on journey during the Pandemic.
  26. So many Americans are/were on the move during the Pandemic. Why? Where are they going?