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 Students have been practicing different types of expository writing and honing their skills with topic sentences and supporting details.  The following paragraphs are excerpts from various persuasive essays.  

(On the use of the drug Ecstasy)
"Ecstasy is not something to play with because it can kill you.  Every time you try it, it can have different effects on you.  You could get sick from it.  You could get hooked on it.  You could end up buried 6-feet under with creepy-crawly creatures throughout your body."

(On air pollution)
"The big cities of the United States are getting slammed with pollution.  People are driving their cars too much and as a result the pollution levels are increasing.  Global warming is becoming worse than it is right now.  In Denver, Colorado there has been a big fog over the city that is caused by pollution from cars, trucks and factories. As a person who loves to drive, the problems with air pollution could result in less driving time for me...People that have authority can make us stop driving.  Cars could end up more expensive because the government could require certain standards for cars that would end up raising the price...We, as humans, need to have a back up plan."

(On school dress codes)
"While walking the halls of my high school, I've noticed the large variety of style.  Every social group has their own sense of expression through clothing.  When school administrators try to suppress that self-expression, they are also suppressing one's freedom of expression...If a highly respected business man can wear whatever he wants on a "casual Friday" then why does it matter how one child dresses around another?...Imagine a world with no diversity:  a world where everyone wears the same clothes, eats the same foods and watches the same television programs.  If you allow the suppression of self-expression, then who knows what will be next, maybe our freedom of speech."

(On school dress codes)
"Some teenagers would like to be able to express themselves more and would like to show their own unique sense of style.  They would prefer to wear more comfortable clothes in class, but teachers think it's a distraction to other students who are trying to get their work done.  Students want to be able to wear shorter skirts or baggier pants...The school board is afraid that if they let teens wear what they want to wear then no one would actually pay attention in school.  Wearing clothes that you feel comfortable in would make you relax and be able to concentrate in class...teenagers should be able to express their own personalities and style through their clothing."

In September, students studied mythology and compared origin stories and myths from cultures around the world.  They discovered many similarities and striking differences.  From those comparisons, they created their own origin stories from an imaginary culture.  Here are some excerpts from their stories:

"In the beginning of time there was one object.  This object was known as the Egg of Nothing.  Over time this egg transformed into a beetle which gave birth to over a million children.  But three of the children stood out and showed exceptional power.  There was the god of the sky, the god of fire and the goddess of nature.  The three siblings united to create a planet covered with clouds and haze.  The planet was filled with mischievous little beings who were always looking for trouble.  This posed a problem to the other Earth beings.  The great beetle was unhappy about this, so he created a second rate being known only as "Law."  Law set out on a mission, a mission to protect and serve all the beings on Earth.  Law was on track with his mission at first, but he soon became sloppy, fat and lazy.  This bothered the great beetle, so he told Law that if he didn't capture a set amount of criminals every 90 days, he would send Law to the deepest boundaries of the universe.  Law was frightened, so he took the easy way out.  Instead of doing away with the more dangerous mischief-makers, he went after the younger harmless beings that were doing harm to no one.  Law said that it was wrong for them to be doing things they weren't old enough to do.  The youngins knew the truth about Law, but whenever they tried to speak up against him, he silenced them with dead end threats of banishment to the end of the universe."

"[In the Alcrens culture] they believed that if they treated the world with respect, the world would treat them with respect.  If the people picked up their garbage and buried their dead animals, and if they killed animals only for food and not out of disrespect then the world would give them heat and good growing weather for vegetables and the people wouldn't have any diseases."

"Lapearlagonde came out of the sun and other planets.  He was immortal.  He would always stay and watch over the Earth.  Lapearlagonde lived up in the stars in a castle at night.  You could see it, but not during the day.  He helped the Earth when it was in trouble.  He helped the crops grow and he helped the people.  He made people fall in love and they had the best lives.  Lapearlagonde saw everything and he put a stop to all of the crimes and it was a happy world.  But a bad god came along and started crimes up when Lapearlagonde was sleeping..."

"The world was started by fire.  One day a fire came from the sky and hit Earth.  The impact cracked the Earth's core and an evil god fell into the underworld.  There he lived by himself for a long time until he learned that he could use an ability to create evil people.  When the fireball hit the Earth, something else happened.  There was another god that was formed and he became the god of Earth.  He made his own people and they believed that everyone should get along with everyone else and stick together...a long time ago people on Earth were getting taken by the people in the underworld.  Then the Earth was getting taken over by the evil people...so the two gods decided to duel each other and the first person to bleed would lose the battle...the evil god finally got hit with a blow to the neck and that was the end of him.  The god of Earth knew that one day he would have this same problem again, but he was hoping that it would not be for a long time."

"It started out as a normal day going to school and hanging out with friends.  But the day got really weird.  As I was walking home, I encountered a strange man and he asked, “have you ever been to the planet Vig?”.  I thought this guy was crazy but I was not going to be rude so I said, “No I have not been to the planet Vig, why?"  Then all of a sudden a strange light appeared and I found myself evaporating before my very eyes.  When I awoke I found myself on a strange vessel in what looked to be some kind of room.  In this room there was a TV- Like-thing–a-ma-bob, a weird looking couch, and a whole lot of buttons; although the buttons looked like they would be fun to play with, I decided to just sit down.  As I was sitting for what seemed like forever I decided to see what the TV-thingy was but when I found out how to turn it on I could not understand a thing it was saying so I turned it off.  A couple of minutes later the “man” from earlier in the day came in and started talking to me. He told me that he was not really a human but an alien in a human disguise.  I asked if I could see his true form and he said “yes”.  It was not like any thing I have imagined.  He had a hard skin, sort of like a shell.  It was gray and on his back he had six spikes, and he had a tail like a crocodile and hands long and thin.  Then he started to walk over to the entry button and pressed one, the table-type- sphere came out of the ground and lit up. He told me to listen as he started to tell the origin of their world. "