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May 6, 2025

Dear Reader,

Whom in your family would you like to interview? Would you want to be a child influencer? What are your favorite YouTube videos? Do you hug your parents?

These are just a few of the questions we posed recently in our writing prompts. We’d love to read your students’ answers.

Sincerely,
The Learning Network

WRITING PROMPTS

Diego Mallo Student Opinion Do You Hug Your Parents? A guest essayist writes about the surprising difficulty of hugging his teenage son. Are you physically affectionate with your family? By Shannon Doyne and Natalie Proulx

Illustration by Derek Abella Student Opinion Whom in Your Family Would You Like to Interview? How well do you know your relatives? What would you like to learn about them? By Jeremy Engle

Rinko Kawauchi Picture Prompts Microseasons The Japanese recognize 72 “microseasons.” They give them names like “crickets chirp around the door” in October. How would you describe the tiny season you’re in now? By The Learning Network

Student Opinion Would You Want to Be a Child Influencer? What do you imagine would be the best and worst parts? By Jeremy Engle

Nathan Bajar for The New York Times Picture Prompts Favorite Board Games What do you like to play? With whom? When and where? By The Learning Network

Al Drago for The New York Times Student Opinion What Do You Think of Trump’s First 100 Days? How do you feel about how the Trump administration is transforming America and its place in the world? By Katherine Schulten

Student Opinion What Are Your Favorite YouTube Videos? As the video-streaming platform turns 20, look back at your own history with YouTube and tell us about the videos you’ve enjoyed most. By Katherine Schulten

Uber Picture Prompts In the Back of an Uber Tell us a story, real or made up, that is inspired by this image. By The Learning Network

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VOCABULARY RESOURCES

Word of the day Word of the Day: serendipitous This word has appeared in 63 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence? By The Learning Network

Word of the day Word of the Day: vogue This word has appeared in 99 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence? By The Learning Network

Word of the day Word of the Day: rumination This word has appeared in 31 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence? By The Learning Network

Word of the day Word of the Day: unabashed This word has appeared in 102 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence? By The Learning Network

Word of the day Word of the Day: runic This word has appeared in five articles on NYTimes.com in the past year. Can you use it in a sentence? By The Learning Network

How are we doing?
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