Resources for Writing Prompts:

Other TeachersFirst Special Topics Collections
This collection of reviewed resources includes many types of writing prompts, both visual and verbal, to inspire writing. Whether you want students to try their hand at poetry or informational writing, there are ideas here to help. Make this collection available for students to find their own inspiration for open-ended, creative writing assignments. Teachers can also use this list to find 2-3 possible choices for a targeted writing assignment. Student choice is key in helping student voice come through in their writing.
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Resources for using Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Productivity - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12In the Classroom
Use this collection to save time doing many tasks, from creating assessments to writing prompts, rewriting your emails in a new tone, and much more. Bookmark this site to use to find new ways to increase your productivity and lower your time required using the power of AI!You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse - Twinkl
Grades
K to 5This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Engage students by introducing your Spider-Man and Spider-Gwen tasks with the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse official trailer at the bottom of the page. Discover activities for learners aged 5-16 years. Fuel your student's interest with these entertaining, curriculum-aligned, Spider-Man activities! Use one of the writing prompts for a creative warm-up activity. Play interactive games on computers as a part of daily station rotations. Free downloadable activities include occupational therapy, fine motor skills, writing prompts, reading comprehension passages, interactive games, and math activities.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Creative Writing Exercises for Children - J G Web Publishing
Grades
K to 2This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
There are many ways elementary school teachers could use this resource in the classroom. The Story Title Ideas page creates a title using "the" and chooses an adjective and noun for you. Teachers could also use this feature to teach parts of speech by creating simple sentences where students can label the parts of speech. A second Story Title 2 page generates a story title. Students can press the orange "press here" button until they find a topic that sparks their interest. A fun way to practice writing sentences can be found on the 'Make Up a Sentence' page. Three words are generated, challenging students to write a sentence using all three words. 'Make Up a Sentence' would be an engaging way to begin a writing lesson. Replace paper and pen writing journals, and enhance learning by asking students to write their prompts and ideas in an online blog making it a writing journal. Use a tool like Seesaw, reviewed here. Using an online writing journal, students can finish up at home, and parents can view their writing. Seesaw offers tools for creating portfolios.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Imagine Forest - Imagine Forest
Grades
K to 6In the Classroom
Imagine Forest is a must-have resource for elementary teachers of writing. Even your most reluctant writers will enjoy the ideas included on the site. Share how to use the site on your interactive whiteboard or with a projector then allow students to explore on their own. Challenge students to set daily goals using activities found in challenges. Publish and share student work to create your own classroom library of student-created books. Ask students to create books for any content area studied during class, be sure to upload and include images taken during activities for students to use in their books. Create a classroom chart for students to share accomplishments like badges and points earned while using the site.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Fake Text Message - iFakeTextMessage.com
Grades
2 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Use Fake Text Message to bring lessons to students through their digital world. Ask students to create made-up text messages between book characters or world leaders during a crisis. In math, have students create a conversation discussing methods for solving a difficult problem. Take advantage of the editing tools such as battery life and signal strength indicator to demonstrate urgency in different situations. Have students include images of text messages created into a Google document as part of a written report. Use a text sequence as a prompt for creative writing. Take your text messages to a different level and have students create podcasts incorporating text messages using a tool like Podcast Generator, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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A Year of Picture Prompts - New York Times
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Save this website to your favorites or link from your class web page. These inspirational ideas are perfect for journals, quick writes, or to develop into a full story or essay. There are plenty of unusual ideas to give even your most reluctant writer or artist an inspirational nudge. ENL/ELL students can be motivated easily with picture prompts. Share these prompts with your gifted students for some "out of the box" writing ideas. Keep these creative ideas in your "emergency" lesson plan folder for substitutes, or for your own spontaneous writing needs. Extend student learning and challenge them to share writing aloud in a podcast format using a site such as Buzzsprout, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Write the World - David Weinstein
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Create an innovative, exciting revision experience for students to edit each other's writing and engage in the peer review process by using Write the World. Use this tool to encourage students to do their best writing, proofread, and learn how to tactfully and meaningfully comment on others' writing. Use ideas, prompts, and competitions from this site as a starting point for any writing project. Share this site with other teachers as a professional development activity. Check essays online, monitor progress, and even make suggestions for revisions to provide feedback along the way to drive strong proofreading and editing skills. Students need writing practice across the curriculum. Some ideas for your students to write about are: current events, biographies, or explanations about curriculum topics.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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550 Narrative Prompts - NY Times - New York Times
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
These prompts are not just for language arts teachers. Science and Social Studies teachers will find many prompts to use in Beliefs, Politics and Current Events, and other categories. Digital storytelling incorporates many Common Core Standards and is a possibility in any classroom. To incorporate digital storytelling into your class use a tool like Slidestory, reviewed here, or challenge students to create a Found Poem from the news article using Word Mover, reviewed here.Take advantage of the many ideas on this site for a class blog and student bloggers. Create a link to the list on classroom computers for student use when looking for blog suggestions. After writing about several different prompts, challenge students to choose one and create a short story or poem. Want to learn more about blogs? Check out TeachersFirst's Blog Basics.
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Blog About - Impact
Grades
5 to 12In the Classroom
Use Blog About to come up with a list of topics for your class blog or student blogs. Try the generator to come up with ideas for creative writing assignments, student research projects, or student reading responses. This is an excellent tool for students who say they don't know what to write about. Math and science students can use Blog About to help them narrow their focus on curriculum concepts by doing some research for the prompts that come up. If you are beginning the process of integrating technology, have students create blogs sharing their learning and understanding using Telegra.ph, reviewed here. This blog creator requires no registration.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Promptuarium - Joanne Shepherd
Grades
6 to 12In the Classroom
English/writing, social studies, and current events teachers are sure to find something here for their students to write about. Introduce a few of the prompts using an interactive whiteboard or projector to get students interested. You could also use one prompt a day as an opener or closer quick write. Another idea would be to have students respond on a class blog to the prompts and then make comments on each other's opinions. Haven't started blogging yet? Check out TeachersFirst's Blog Basics.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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401 Prompts for Argumentative/Persuasive writing - New York Times
Grades
7 to 12In the Classroom
English/writing, social studies, and current events teachers are sure to find something here for their students to write about. Introduce a few of the prompts and the winning student editorials using an interactive whiteboard or projector to get students interested. Have students define what concise means and what it should mean in their writing. Point out the good writing habits of the student winners. Students should read the NYT's article(s) that give information about the topic of the prompt(s). At this time, you could have students choose a topic, or you could select several from which students could choose. You could also use one prompt a day as an opener or closer quick write. Another idea would be to have students respond on a class blog to the prompts and then make comments on each other's opinions. Haven't started blogging yet? Check out TeachersFirst's Blog Basics.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Nautilus - Nautilus
Grades
9 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Share these articles as part of a broad discussion of the role of science in our world, such as during a unit on scientists or careers. Share Nautilus with your gifted or science-focused students to spark interests in scientific fields that are new to them. Assign gifted students to select an article and research it further when they have tested out of regular curriculum. They can share their discoveries as a multimedia presentation or write a blog post about them. Use articles from the magazine as fodder for class debates in English class or pull excerpts to use as writing prompts for informational or expository writing. The reading levels are high school and up, so be sure to partner weaker readers with a more capable reader if using this for class assignments. Check specific reading levels of an article by pasting its url into the Juicy Studio Readability Test, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Your Life on Earth - BBC
Grades
6 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Look at the various metrics based on your age to gain perspective on many science and history topics. Look at the impact of human behavior on the environment or at the "big picture" of what one human can do in a lifetime. Consider comparing the changes on Earth based on a student's age versus a teacher's age (if you're brave enough to tell!). You can also dial back the clock 100 years, but choose times in modern history for the comparison. Don't forget to use the dropdown menus on each chart for more information. For example, pick any planet to see how old you'd be there. Small groups of students could discuss and analyze different components of the site and present their findings to the larger class. Include this in math class as a way to apply multiplication formulas or conversions. Use observations on this site to spark blog posts of evidence-based writing. Have students make visual representations of their life on Earth as an infographic. To learn more about infographics in the classroom, see TeachersFirst's Now I See!.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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The Q&A Wiki - wiki.answers.com
Grades
8 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Share the Q&A Wiki with students on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) and explore answers to classroom questions. Post a question, and challenge students to share their response. Use choices of questions from this site as writing prompts for informational writing. Have students find good (and not-so-good) examples of how-to responses as they learn to write their own step by step directions. Challenge students to explore the site to find incorrect or incomplete answers to questions and use this as part of a lesson on evaluating Internet sources. How can you decide whether the information is accurate? Provide this link on your class website for students (and families) to use together.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Highlighting Our History: American Revolution Read-alouds PLUS for the Common Core - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 6In the Classroom
Mark this article in your Favorites and take the book suggestions with you to the school library (or search for interlibrary loans). Consider using this as part of a "Then and Now" or "Past and Present" focus in kindergarten or first grade, or with middle elementary students as part of a unit related to the Revolutionary War. Take a look at the suggestions for connecting the read-alouds to CCSS-aligned writing prompts or for short, focused research projects to include as follow-up.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Content Idea Generator - Portent
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Share this site on your class website or blog for student use in creative writing. View together on your interactive whiteboard or projector to demonstrate brainstorming for ideas (with words you have pretested). To manage the "risk," the teacher could open it on your own tablet or laptop and have students tell you a word to enter. You could read the results to them orally.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Fake iPhone Text - fakeiphonetext.com
Grades
2 to 12This site includes advertising.
In the Classroom
Have students create texts between two characters from a book or two famous people. Create short poetry in text message form. Provide some opening text and ask students to write their ideas for the other person's answers. Use a text sequence as a prompt for creative writing. Have students practice creating a short dialogue or questions and answers. Create a fake text of a conversation and have students use inference skills to determine what happened before and after the conversation. Teach proper texting etiquette and digital citizenship using this tool. Use a fake text on your interactive whiteboard (or projector) to display word definitions in a new way. Create fake texts of homework or project reminders and post them on your class wiki or web page. Make fake text book promotions to share on the dust jackets.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Highlighting Our History: Colonial Times Read-alouds PLUS for the Common Core - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 6In the Classroom
Mark this article in your Favorites and take the book suggestions with you to the library (or search for interlibrary loans) to help "fit" social studies into your read-alouds, making every minute count! Consider using them as part of a "Then and Now" or "Past and Present" focus in kindergarten or first grade, or with middle elementary students as part of a unit related to early settlements or the thirteen colonies. Be sure to look at the suggestions for connecting the read-alouds to CCSS-aligned writing prompts or for short, focused research projects to include as follow-up.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Creating Community and Getting Inspired with Blog Hops and Events - Krista Stevens/WordPress
Grades
4 to 12In the Classroom
In its simplest use, this is a place to find and READ blogs on curriculum-related topics. You can also find questions and prompts for your students to write about offline. Never again will you need to hunt for writing prompts or ways to connect your science or social studies students with the outside world. Of course this is a time to discuss proper netiquette and digital citizenship/safety for interacting with "strangers." If you do not yet have a class or student blogs, you might want to begin with Blog Basics for the Classroom. Be SURE you get parent permission. If your students have blogs, use these ideas as a model for your own weekly or biweekly blog hops on curriculum topics. Since your math students need to write about their problem solving strategies for Common Core, why not make it more fun with a blog hop? Trying to fire up interest in local history? Pose a blog hop prompt asking which local landmark could be replaced with a shopping mall. Looking for students to support arguments with evidence? Spark an environmental question for a blog hop. Browse some of the special topic blog events for discussions related to your current curriculum. For example, connect your plant study unit with gardeners' blogging events. If you teach gifted students, this is the ideal way to connect your students (even reluctant writers) with an outside world that will raise their level of writing and thinking. If you can connect with other teachers who have gifted students, perhaps via the #gtchat Twitter chat, you can set up a regular connection among students in several locations.. in science, social studies, math, or writing classes. Your gifted ones may pull in other blogging classmates, as well!Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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OECD Data Lab - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Grades
8 to 12In the Classroom
Start with the OECD Better Life Index that brings together many factors to numerically rank countries by happiness or well-being. Assign this graph as a "Make Your Own," with students rating the topics (or more importantly, asking their parents or grandparents). Compare their results and look at gender differences. Students can brainstorm reasons for gender differences or ranking of topics in importance. Compare the United States to other countries. Allow class time to look at other data found on this site and brainstorm how these are connected. Connect the data to curriculum being discussed in class: economic policies, wars, global problems with food and agriculture, social norms, and more. Connect the information to headlines from around the world, both past and present. Encourage students to write an essay, opinion piece, or elevator pitch on one aspect or social issue that is important to change. What a great example of argument and evidence as required by Common Core! This assignment can also be delivered as a podcast, video, or part of a news segment the class creates. Use a site such as PodOmatic (reviewed here) to create podcasts. Try creating a video and share it using TeacherTube reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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