Hello, class! This week, the free teaching material is the second in my series of “Writing Prompts.” As I said two weeks ago, these writing prompts will come out every other week so I can keep the quality of my other free materials up. If you’re looking forward to the third (and I believe final) part of the “Show, Don’t Tell” presentation is coming next week, so stay tuned!
This week’s writing prompt was specifically designed to help students practice the skill I described in the second part of the “Show Don’t Tell” presentation, which I will link to HERE. I felt that a writing prompt on the topic I covered just last week would be appropriate and timely.
Let’s get started!
What it is/What it’s for\How to use it:
I’ve talked about the importance and use of writing prompts before, but it is always worth remembering. I hope you don’t mind a bit of self-plagiarism, but I feel I described my writing prompts and their uses very well the first time, and so to save you from having to follow a link, I’ll just post it again below:
“Of course writers will know that writing prompts are good for practice, but to be frank, most teachers view them as time fillers – valuable mostly to slip into a schedule when you don’t have anything else prepared. This is an incorrect approach to take with writing prompts. They may be time consuming, but I believe they are an essential part of the writing curriculum for many reasons.
Of course the most obvious purpose for a writing prompt is practice. As much as I love a good presentation or lesson, nothing – and I do mean nothing – is as important in developing writing skills as practice. Writing Prompts, no matter the time window given, give students an opportunity for that practice with just enough structure to focus their efforts, and enough creative freedom for students to feel personal investment in the product of their work.
Short writing prompts – in the five to ten minute range – are great for starting writing class with. They can be on the desk for the students to work on the second they walk in the classroom, which helps with classroom management, but they also help spark creativity, leaving the student revved up and ready to jump into long-form writing projects, or participate in class activities.
Medium writing prompts – in the fifteen to thirty minute range – are best used when paired with other writing steps or activities. For instance, if the students are given a thirty-minute writing prompt, the second half of the period could be used for self-assessment, sharing, or it could see the students trading their writing to practice peer editing or peer conferencing. I like this especially because examining writing is just as important for improvement as the act of writing itself. If you believe in homework, it could also be useful for a light assignment as well.
Long writing prompts would take up a full writing period, and in general I don’t like them very much unless time is planned in a future time period for the students to go over and examine their writing through another context. These sorts of prompts are good for writing assessments before a lesson, as well as post-lesson assessments. I believe there is a danger in using these prompts, however, as it can be tempting to use them to simply fill time by taking up a whole class period so the teacher doesn’t have to plan something more complicated – which is not a great angle to take. I don’t believe they make a good replacement for long term writing projects, and I also believe that extensive homework holds limited returns, so I don’t recommend giving them for homework.
The writing prompts I give have a front and back, but in general I believe they can be used for all three lengths.” … “This could involve writing a single paragraph, or it could be expanded to fill both the back and front of the page, with a little creativity and will. If you’re using my prompts for the short form writing, you should probably only print out the front page, but if you use them for medium or long segments, I would recommend printing both the front and back pages.”
FREE DOWNLOADS:
PDF:
Google Drive: (To Download the Google Drive Files, you will have to click on File and “Download as…” If you use Google Drive a lot, you can also click on “Make a Copy” and modify the file name as you see fit.)
- Printable – “Show, Don’t Tell,” Prompt 02 (Ink Heavy)
- Printable – “Show, Don’t Tell,” Prompt 02 (Ink Light)
- Online-Editable – “Show, Don’t Tell,” Prompt 02 (Dark)
- Online-Editable – “Show, Don’t Tell,” Prompt 02 (Light)
Free Images: Since today doesn’t have new art assets, there are no free images this week. Sorry!
I hope you find these materials useful! If you do, and you want to help me keep making free materials for you and teachers around the world, please support me at My Patreon!
Have a great day, and DFTBA!
Sincerely,
– Mr. Edward L. Cheever II
P.S. – DFTBA = “Don’t Forget to be Awesome!”
P.P.S. – All materials are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution -Non-Commercial – ShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA) License.
Mr. Cheever's Class 