Publish polished student writing inspired by this contest-winning photo here!

[Publishing Voice]

Each year, the WritingFix website sponsors a Digital Photo Contest for students and teachers nationwide.  The goal is for students to take pictures that would inspire their classmates to want to write the "story behind a picture."

 

Click here to access WritingFix's Digital Photo Resource Page! 

 

At right, you see the student-winning digital photograph from our 2010 contest.  It was taken by elementary student Jacob Sammons.  You can enlarge the picture by clicking on it.

 

If you use this photo in class as a writing prompt, and then have a student like what they're writing so much that they take their writing through the writing process, we want to see their published stories posted here!

 

Post no rough drafts...please.  We're looking for polished writing inspired by this photograph!  Final drafts of stories can be pasted or attached in the "Reply to This" box below.

 

Very Important:  Teachers, please only share your students' first name and grade level with us when you post the writing on their behalf.  Do not post last names or school names, or the posts will be deleted.

 

Twenty-five Teachers every semester will win a free classroom resource!  Each semester, we choose 25 new students to publish at our online lessons directly at the world-famous WritingFix website. To have your students' writing considered, it can be posted below in the box underneath  this posting.  In November and May, we will select the 25 students whose writing impressed us the most, and if your student(s) is selected, you will be asked to choose from any of the NNWP Print Publications (http://www.unr.edu/educ/nnwp/publications.html) for us to send to your classroom.

 

Help us celebrate your writers.

 

--Corbett Harrison, WritingFix Webmaster

[Nancy Schneider]

"Trapped" by Jesse

Trapped

When you’re trapped inside scared to death there is now were to go but against a fence,

There are houses near and dear but your pockets are full of fear,

It’s the same old days like my weekly old pays,

The weeds are so long because they grow all day long,

 But no one bothered because they never really thought of what they could have put there,

 

They could have put football fields, base ball field or event start making teams to face other schools,

 But the poor people never thought they only dreamed.    

 By : Jesse

 

[Nancy Schneider]

Beyond the Iron Fence

“Put your hands in the air!” the night was cold and dark lighten only by the blazing lights of the three helicopters that were chasing a young man. He was about fourteen or fifth teen with shaggy blond hair. He had aqua blue eyes and very pale skin.  Wearing a white T-shirt and a leather jacket with cargo jeans, he was telling himself, “almost there almost there”, as he was approaching a large iron fence. Slowly the boy increased in speed getting ready to jump and then…

 

“James! James! Ja-“

“What!”

          “It’s time to go, school’s out!” said Ryan. James and Ryan have been best friends ever since kindergarten and now they were moving on to sixth grade. But before that they needed to have their summer vacation.

”We’re going to your vacation house.” said Ryan.

 “Yeah and I was in the middle of a dream about that.” said James.

“Cool was I in it? Was I? Was I? Please tell me,” Ryan yelled. “You weren’t in it ok! I wasn’t in it either I didn’t know the person that was in it. He was about to jump that fence then, I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

 “You woke me up before I saw the rest.”

 “Well hurry, get back to sleep!”

“Oh my gosh, you’re so dumb if I go back to sleep, I won’t see the same dream! I don’t know if I will even have a dream! James shot back.

 “James! Ryan!” They could hear James mom shouting. “Hurry up it’s time to go.”

 “Ok be right there!” they both called back.

“Come on we better go.” said James.

 

When they got to the van James took one glance at the inside and whined “Aww why do those pigs have to come!”

“Hey no names!” his mother said.” You brought your friend you sister can bring hers.”

 “But we’re celebrating me and Ryan’s birthday!” said James.

“Well deal with it!” said his older sister Jessie.

“Phht!” spit her friend Victoria.

“Hey James!” said Ryan in a whisper. “Look!” What James saw was prank heaven! Ryan’s bag was filled with fireworks, those little popper things that explode when you open a cabinet or something. “And that’s not even the best part!” said Ryan as he reached down deep into his bag. He pulled out an enormous jar of worms!

A wide grin crossed James face as he said, “This is goanna be a long summer!” … to be continued.

By:  Derek       

[Beatriz Soto]

Beyond My Home by Paola, Grade 10

 

                There are two places.

                Home and my wished home.

                There is a place beyond the fence of my dreams.

                My dream is America.

                I have been over the fence and I wanted to stay there, but then, why am I staring at it again?

                I wish I was home away from home.

                I wish I was in America.

[Beatriz Soto]

"The Fence" by Kathya, Grade 10

When driving past the farmer’s fields
All so neatly mowed,
I watch the fences,
Whizzing by on that long, long road.
They become a lengthy blur
Keep all whizzing by
A never ending line
Moving past.
Past my passing eye.
Field after field, that long neat fence just goes on and on.
When we reach our town
Suddenly, that neat fence is gone.
I think it would be oh, so nice
for a fence of steel
round all the houses
give me a lovely feel.

[Lisa Langlois]

6th Grade

STUCK

By Timothy

I can not move,

for my legs are bruised.

Stuck in the cold,

drowned with fear.

Who will help me,

there is no one here?

Yelling at cars,

must they be too far?

This cold fence,

is all I sense.

[Alison Bender Kellner]

Sam's story, grade 6

 

Hello my name is Walter. It is Nazi, Germany. Everyday I mourn from when I was taken from my family. If I was free I would be having my Bar Mitzvah. Here the only hope I have is by looking out the gate. The only thing driving me to live is knowing the fact that one day I will be free. My life is sad and lonely. My family was killed and I am here in a camp. I have been here since I was five years old. I am at the gate by the edge of the camp. This is the safest place for me, no one nearby, me alone. This is where the only flower is in the whole camp. Only I know about it. It has been my friend for the past two years. The thing I dread is when it is my turn to pass. When I die I know no one will care for me. I am a pathetic child. I am just a burden, the boy who does nothing but stare. The only person in the whole camp who gives everyone hope is David. He is seventeen years old. He acts like there is nothing wrong when everything is wrong. One day I know he will be brought to death. David told me that even if I could get through the gate still many troubles lay ahead. I thought about breaking through the gate. I got up and kicked the gate many times until it would break. Behind me I heard a crunch. I did not look back. I heard the coldness in his voice. I turned around and in his eyes I saw hate. It was the camp warden. He grabbed me and threw me into a room. From that day I never saw daylight again.

[Ashley Crossno]

Lost, 5th Grade

[Ashley Crossno]

Beyond the Metal Fence, 5th grade

Pound Dog, 5th Grade

The Cursed Gun, 5th Grade

 

 

[Ashley Crossno]

The Unknown Pitch, 5th Grade

Trapped, 5th Grade

 

[Ann Worley]

Story by Marina, Grade 6

In the Camps

I still don’t understand why I’m stuck behind this fence.  I have a feeling it’s because I’m from Japan but why does that matter?  Sometimes, I like to think the people on the other side of the fence are the trapped ones.  I pretend I am a guard, blocking them from coming onto the free side, where they can enjoy their lives and real homes.  That would be like one of the men in uniforms who stand around in front of the fences, as if anyone would dare trying to sneak out.  I also make believe that I am in charge of everyone and what they do.  Mother says that’s nonsense.  Mother also said, as they were taking us away from home, that I need to do what she and Daddy tell me and that  it’s very important I don’t wander off. 

I really wish I could go out and play with the other little boys but Mother says it’s not a good time for that.  I miss my best friend, Eric, from my real school in California.  I miss my dog, Polly, from home.  I don’t even know where she is now.  I also miss throwing baseball with Daddy but he says he is too tired and stressed now.  I am told to be thankful for what the U.S. men are doing for us:  giving us food, shelter, and keeping our family together.  But, they were the ones who took us away from our homes in the first place.  Our shelter is a shack next to thousands of other families.  Getting food means waiting in line for hours just to get a cold potato and some smelly, old beans.  Also, they are splitting my family apart.  I never spend time with Mother and Daddy anymore because they are always talking about something I don’t understand.  I sometimes see Mother crying, but Daddy tells me not to worry and to go to bed.

            What I also don’t understand is why my family and all the others here aren’t considered Americans.  I know Daddy signed a whole bunch of papers when he and Mother moved from Japan so doesn’t that make us American citizens?  I really wish we were, so I could go home to be with Eric, my dog, and to be safe and happy with my family at home in California, as Americans.