Encouraging Students to Write with Prompts

Using Writing Prompts to Improve Student Writing

Dec 18, 2008 Jennifer Wagaman

Integrate the writing process into every aspect of your classroom to help improve students' writing skills.

Fun activities in writing will encourage your students to write more, and improve their writing skills along the way. Think about ways to include writing prompts in every lesson you teach, whether as an activity in itself, a lesson on improving writing skills, or an exit slip for other subject areas.

Using Quick Writing Prompts

In quick writing moments, have students write for one minute on each of the following prompts:

Today I...
I wish...
I want to...

The idea behind this activity is to get students to put their thoughts on paper, and not try to think through the best way to write something down. This activity will be helpful for students who seem to have difficulty writing because they want their work to be perfect from the first draft. Have the students answer each prompt, and turn it into a game.

Explode a Moment

Using Dick and Jane (William Gray, Grosset & Dunlap, 2004) to teach writing can be a fun activity for students. In this activity, the story on a page of the book becomes the prompt for the student to write about. Have them take clues from the picture and the story so far to create a more descriptive page of writing. If you have the capability to copy the page onto an overhead you can demonstrate this activity for the students. This lesson will help teach descriptive writing, and help students learn to include the details that the reader needs to know. When working with students to improve their own writing by adding details, you can prompt them to "explode" their writing, in reference to this activity.

Exit Slip for Group Lessons

Using your topic of study as a writing prompt can be an excellent way to close your lesson. You can call this writing activity an exit slip if you want, or create a new name for it relating to what you are studying about: passports for study about other countries, for example. Ask a question that relates to the topic studied and be sure to leave enough time for the students to write a decent answer. Some examples include:

Write about one thing you learned today
Describe the difference between noise and music
I enjoy reading about...

The use of writing reinforces information learned in every subject, and helps to improve student writing at the same time. Creating writing prompts can be as easy as thinking about what the students are learning about in other subjects and ask them a related question. Remember to provide as much support as necessary for students who have a writing disability.

Learn more tips to effectively teach writing.

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Using Writing Prompts in the Classroom