Lesson Plans and Archives

Student writing samples inspired by viewing the Ansel Adams exhibit...

8TH GRADE

Writing Prompt: Choose a landscape and write a postcard from the place.

Grandpa,
You would love this place. It's so peaceful and quiet. The trees make you feel so tiny and in tune with what's around you. You feel a sense of tranquility.
Leonel R.

Dear Mom,
I wish you were here because this scenery is very dramatic. I never knew that a place like this could be in California. It is the water raging over the cliff. In the back there is a mountain with trees growing out of it.
Deon W.

Dear Elaine,
Bridal Veil Fall
If you were here you would be scared because if you are at the bottom of the mountain you will feel small, and if you are at the top of the mountain you will feel big.
Taisha S.

Dear Danee,
I am at the Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. It is windy out here. It is dark and cloudy looking. I feel really peaceful and love the sound of the water and wind. It's amazing.
Brittanni

Dear Vanessa,
Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone. It's like the ocean going up like fire. It's like you're mad and you just exploded. It is windy out here and everything seems like art.
Atavia A.

Dear Jessica,
The wind that blows every minute on my face feels fresh and clean and peaceful. The sky seems like it's moving in a different direction while the wind blows.
Dignora

Hi Owen,
Clearning Storm, Sonora Country Hills, California, 1951.
This sight is interesting to me because it seems as if a world is getting ready to end. I think so because it seems as if the sky is falling and all the mist, fig and wind are filled with toxins.
Dyanelle J.

Dear Ashley,
Monolith, the Face of Half Done, Yosemite, 1927
I feel homesick and lonely here. It's very cold. I'm glad I brought my gloves, hat and scarf. There are bit mountains and lots of snow, there are a couple of trees but not a lot. It's a very quiet place. You might hear an animal, like a bird, once in a while. Really, you should visit, it's beautiful.
Fallon

Dear A Tavia,
I am in Yosemite National Park in California. I feel like I'm in heaven! Sure do wish you were here!
Vanessa S.

There are rocks at the bottom of the waterfall. To me once this scene represents that there are hard times but once you reach the edge things will calm down. I guess the big rock next to the waterfall represents a wall that makes you have to go through rough times, which are represented by the sharp rocks at the bottom.
Annefera G.

Dear Mom,
There is a little fog that gives the mountain a spooky feeling to it. I watch in awe at this view.
Tanya L.

Dear Mama,
The desert looks like Israel or Egypt. It's like soft sand and there's nothing around. It feels like a lonely place.
Israel A.

Writing Prompt: If the picture could talk, what would it say?

The Spanish American Woman, near Chicayo, New Mexico, 1937. This picture says to me "I am old and so is the wood, our texture is the same, but intentions are different."
Danee H.

Trailer Camp Children. I think if this picture could talk, the children would say, "Help, I'm afraid." They are afraid of someone. Probably their mother is being beaten by their father. And they have to sit there and watch and they look sorry and sad.
Deon W.

Trailer Camp Children. They are showing sorrow for their pathetic lives. And screaming out from the reaches of their own hell. Will people look at the worthless people they are? For they are condemned to their own terror.
Ben

Buddhist Graves
"Hi, I am haunted. Do you know that people die here? I have Chinese symbols. Do not come here at night, I am warning you."