Do writing prompts work? When comparing Writer’s Workshop to using writing prompts in the classroom, the use of writing prompts was found to be the most effective of the two options.
In truth, both have their place, but today is all about singing the praises of the under admired writing prompts. 🎆
Writing prompts are versatile, no prep, easily differentiated, and good writing prompts have the ability to support student thinking and engagement, but still allow for a student’s creativity and knowledge to shine through.
Somehow writing prompts got the reputation for being “the easy way out”. Maybe because they make a teacher’s life easier? 🤔
Or maybe because writing prompts can make it easier for student engagement to occur?
Who knows? What’s important is, do writing prompts work?
1) What is the purpose of writing prompts?
Writing prompts provide a structured framework for students. Writing prompts tell students what to write about, and how to write it, especially for young or disengaged writers.
Responding to a prompt for many students is so much simpler than coming up with an idea when they are simply told to “write a story”.
Writing prompts can bridge a gap between drawing pictures and beginning writing in multiple ways:
- Students start with drawing which puts down a visual representation of the story.
- As students progress they add labels to their pictures
- Transition students to a smaller picture on the page, with room to write a sentence or two for the story.
Providing students with an assigned topic that the student may have limited knowledge of, the student’s writing may suffer as students have less to share.
Writing prompts make providing students with choice easy.
Teachers can offer:
- a) the same prompt for everyone, but on differentiated paper
- b) a choice of 2-3 prompts on a related genre on writing paper as directed by the teacher.
When teachers are able to provide students with a choice of good quality writing prompts students have a greater opportunity to develop their voice.
Do writing prompts work for supporting students through their developmental stages of writing, supporting choice, engagement and other aspects of differentiation? Absolutely?
2) Are writing prompts good?
Providing students with choice increases writing fluency.
Writing prompts can encourage mechanics and independent thinking and they can easily be adapted for different learning styles.
One of my favourite activities is using provocations. Simple materials with which students can create a 3D version of the story.
This story that has been richly developed in the mind is then transferred to the paper.
Are writing prompts good? Absolutely!
Do writing prompts work? Apparently!
3) Why are writing prompts important?
It is essential for our children to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Writing about a topic helps students to develop a deeper engagement with subject material than if they had just seen it or been told it.
Writing requires students to do so much more than store and retrieve data. Students are required to think critically which requires analysis, reflection, evaluation, creativity, and careful reasoning.
We also nurture this when we answer questions with questions, and when we provide students with open-ended tasks.
Generative writing, which is what writing prompts are, has been positively associated with all three measures of writing achievement: spelling, handwriting and vocabulary.
Do writing prompts work? In truth, more research is needed to determine all of the possible positive impacts of writing prompts, but yes, it is clear that they do.
4) Do they work for you and your students?
The answer is a resounding yes!
How writing prompts work for the teacher.
As a teacher I found that using writing prompts was an effective way to keep the writing going during those times that were not appropriate for a writing unit.
For example, I might wrap up a unit on nonfiction writing towards the end of November, into the first week in December.
Rather than starting up a new unit that would be broken up by the holidays, I would offer a selection of writing prompts to the students.
Not only did this keep them writing, but by allowing them a choice, and providing them with ideas for their writing I kept my students on task during a very disrupted part of the school year.
As soon as they finished writing and editing one prompt, they could come and choose another one.
I also used prompts after the break to start the students off slowly and gently, before digging into a unit.
How they work for the students
Writing prompts are an effective way to support literacy development and nurture a love of writing.
In addition to providing structure and stimulating creativity, writing prompts support the diverse learning needs of your students which make them valuable to everyone in your classroom.
The research shows that they will support your students in their growth as confident and skilled writers.
Do writing prompts work to support you in achieving your educational goals for your students? Why, yes they do! 🥰
What are good writing prompts?
As in all things, it is important to know what is valuable in a writing prompts.
Once upon a time, in a classroom not too far away, I downloaded some really cute, popular writing prompts.
Now, the truth is that just because something is popular, does not mean it is good.
The popular writing prompts I downloaded had cute characters, open-ended prompts, and a visually appealing border and font.
However, I soon realized that there was nowhere for the students to draw a picture to support their story, and this is absolutely essential in K-2 classrooms. In the early developmental stages a picture tells a part of the story, and it helps students to make a connection between the black squiggly lines on the page and the world of imagination inside their heads.
Popular writing prompts are not necessarily evidence based writing prompts.
In order to be effective for K-2 students, writing prompts need to be engaging, with age appropriate topics and design, and offer an open-ended prompt.
Engaging writing prompts
Anyone who has worked in the primary classroom knows that play-based learning is powerful.
This is, in part, because students draw from their vivid imagination and growing understanding of the world.
Therefore, engaging writing prompts will lean heavily upon topics that are of interest to students (seasonal themes, nature, animals, nonfiction etc.).
For some students providing prompts related to such topics as these is akin to throwing them a rope.
Appropriate design for writing prompts
When students look at the paper they see a couple of things:
- How much writing is required?
- Is the line wide enough, or too wide to write on and in?
The diversity of students you have in your class are going to have different needs.
Access to differentiated writing paper is essential. It must allow them to:
Draw a story – the first stage in “writing” a story.
Wide interlined – for students who are beginning to write, and beginning to develop their fine motor skills while learning about letter formation.
Narrow interlined – still provides guidelines as students start to refine their writing.
No interlines – this paper provides narrower lines for students who are growing in fluency.
A picture is worth a thousand words . . .
Okay, you are very unlikely to get a thousand words in primary grades 😉, but still . . . picture prompts help students use the picture to stir their imagination and interpret it into a descriptive text.
Students who struggle with the abstract may need an actual photograph to represent their concrete understanding, but for many students a cute piece of clipart is enough.
For visual students the look of the page is very important, and so it is also important to make the page as clutter free as possible.
I also prefer a writing checklist on a separate paper paper. And I prefer vocabulary to be on the board or on anchor charts rather than on the writing page.
So, do writing prompts work?
Writing prompts are a part of any strong writing program, but they are only one component of a strong program.
Students still need instruction, and a well differentiated program.
My writing papers are differentiated absolutely, and they make a solid contribution to a well differentiated writing program.
However, students need writing instruction that is well rounded and well-differentiated. And that is a whole blog post, or series, on its own.
Meanwhile . . . do writing prompts work? Yes, as long as they are well designed.
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Related blog posts:
Writing Workshop or Writer’s Workshop: How to Combine Them for Success!
