[TIPS] two more writing prompt ideas - plus old magazines

http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/ - (Yes, I do love this site!)

 

Here's another great writing prompt for your upper grade Sociology classes. Bjorn Lomborg's talk, "You're Worrying About The Wrong Problem" is quite interesting. He does tend to repeat himself a bit, but the basis for his talk is quite interesting, I think. If you had to prioritize the world's problems and then invest $50 billion in those problems where you would get the most bang for your buck, which would be your top four? Fighting poverty? Global warming? Aids? His answer may surprise you and may also be an excellent writing prompt for your students who watch this 18 minute video.

 

The second video is of Robert Neuwirth, author of "Shadow Cities", those squatter cities that lie in the shadows of the larger cities of the world that are home to a BILLION people. See if his talk doesn't also give your students fuel for some very good writing. Real world scenarios, don't y' know.

 

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Finally, this site came across another listserv this morning. (Thanks Steve) http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/  Old magazines with articles scanned into pdf formats. What fun to go back and look at those. I'll bet THEY would be great for writing prompts, as well. Check out this description of one article I found:

 

Germany Defends It's Military Build Up (The Literary Digest, 1913)

A defense was offered for the growth of German military expenditures based on the spread of "Slavik pride" and the rise of a "great Pan-Slavonic movement" due to "victory of their kinsmen in the Balkans". German leaders, furthermore, felt a deep uneasiness about the fact that about one-third of the population of the Hapsburg Monarchy consisted of Slavs and therefore felt that military aid from the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not guaranteed in the event of a war with Russia and France. KEY WORDS: The Balkan War and the Kaiser, German Military Build-Up, German Military Expansion, the German Government and It's Austrian Ally in 1913, Alliance Between Austria and Germany, Germany and Serbia, German Fear of Slavs in 1913, Slavs and the Hapsburg Empire, Slavs and the Austro-Hungarian Empir e.

 

 

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