I’m just cleaning out my classroom, so I’m going to plonk this exercise here for future reference, rather than saving a piece of paper that will end up in the bottom of a box of other random pieces of paper!
Write a response to ONE of the following. You have 1hr 10mins.
1. Write an article (serious and/or humorous) for your school magazine titled “10 ways to survive secondary school”
OR
2. Write a sensational news report or your school website describing your debs – who was there! what they wore! who got drunk! who got kissed! who got dumped!
OR
3. Write a news article giving advice (serious and/or lighthearted) to tourists visiting Ireland for the first time.
Here are some essay titles I gave my Leaving Certs in the run up to the exams:
1. Write a descriptive essay on the wonder and innocence of childhood.
2. Write a short story in which something funny happens.
3. Write a speech discussing the idea that, in schools, appearances often mask a disturbing reality. This speech will be delivered in front of the Minister for Education.
4. Write an article for a popular magazine examining some of the unanswerable questions we spend our lives pondering.
5. Write a personal essay discussing your philosophy of life and examining how this effects your behaviour and your relationships.
Here are a few more I’ve just found
1. Write a speech for International Women’s Day. You may take a serious and/or humorous approach
2. Write a descriptive essay on the beauty and the ugliness of our world.
3. Write a short story in which a small moment has a deep significance for the main character.
4. Write a personal essay in which you explore the people, the places and the experiences that have shaped you into the person you are today.
This lot below were topics for a TY public speaking competition:
- Irish women have yet to achieve equality
- Ireland does not need Europe to succeed as a nation
- Our greatest asset in Ireland is our education system
- Future generations will be furious at our indifference to protecting the environment
- As a nation and as individuals we must prioritise our mental health
- Our lack of digital literacy education in schools is a foolish and dangerous oversight
- In the modern world there is no such thing as a ‘generation gap’ between young and old
Yet more – all discovered over the course of two days as I clean out my classroom and dump random bits of paper scrawled with essay topics, homework exercises, class tests…
This list is from a TY public speaking class:
- Write out the speech you deliver at your sister / brother’s wedding or hen/stag
- Write the eulogy for a loved ones funeral
- Write a speech where you nominate someone for an award
- Propose some changes in the way your school is run at a student council meeting
- Prepare a lesson to teach first year students for a class – any subject, any topic!
Here are some debate topics I gave at some random date in the past…
Argue for or against one of the following motions:
- Ireland should lower the voting age
- School attendance should be voluntary
- Parents should be punished for their childrens’ mistakes
- TV talent shows are destroying the music industry
- Beauty pageants do more harm than good
- Doctor-assisted suicide should be legalised
- Celebrities should not be role models
Every time I think I’ve come upon the last random selection of essay titles, I find more!
- Write a light-hearted speech about your pet hates in life
- Write a newspaper article in which you uncover and expose a scandal
- Write an entertaining descriptive essay for a competition under the title “If I ran this school”
- Write a debate speech in which you argue for or against the motion that “the future of publishing is digital”
- Write a personal essay entitled “I’m weird but that’s OK”
One response to “Classwork Essay Titles”