Discuss the origin and history of New Year's resolutions, including the countries or regions that still subscribe to this tradition and any statistics regarding how many people actually keep their resolutions.

Choose one of your own New Year's resolutions that you currently have or have had in the past. Write a short poem that depicts this resolution.

Writers often use the coldness of winter to signify a death of some kind, as Carson does in "New Rule." Find another poem from any point in history that uses winter in this way, and compare it to Carson's poem.

Research the worst ice storms in the United States and Canada in the last two hundred years. Plot them on a time line and write a small description for each one of them that gives the date, location, and severity of the storm. Also, write...