Here’s a great teacher resource - thirty-five writing prompts designed for high school writers. Categories include cause and effect, definition, expository/informative, persuasive, how to, descriptive, narrative, biographical narrative,...

Shake it up! Shake your tablet to bring up a unique writing prompt for journaling or blogging with your class. Shake again and a new one appears. Prompts can come from different categories (sketches, scenes, texts, words, news) to help...

Culminate your unit on Native American tribes with a clear, concise writing prompt. It instructs young writers to complete a report about any Native American tribe, and to include information about the belief systems and traditions of...

Write about another time and place to live with an interesting writing prompt. It presents young writers with the challenge of choosing another time and place in the past and explaining what the advantages and disadvantages of that time...

Open-ended and intriguing, a writing prompt about two people from history is sure to get your young scholars thinking. Have them choose two historical figures, and after brainstorming their similarities and differences, successes and...

A pack of hungry wolves surround a panicked buffalo – who will come out alive? Have your young writers narrate this nature scene, taking the point of view of either a wolf or the buffalo. Perfect for a narrative writing unit or for your...

Begin your persuasive writing with a helpful exercise on making points. With a list of ten points on transportation in a city, third graders map a logical order to their argument. They then write one or two paragraphs about the points...

Meant for use with Maya Angelou's first autobiographical volume I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the materials here are designed for a homeschool setting, but they'd suit any classroom or text. Graphic organizers, chapter summary guides,...

Blogs can be a good way for learners to engage in writing, critical thinking, and social media in a formal way. The New York Times has provided learners age 13-18 with an article, background information, and several prompts to get them...

Who were the Victorians? They were people who lived and made public contributions during the Victorian Age. First the class learns a bit about several famous Victorians, then they complete a series of activities using their text. They...

King Henry was a very busy man, he had to sign documents and go hunting. Kids are presented with three slides and asked to choose the activities they think Henry engaged in each day. They then read to discover what Henry actually did...

If you are teaching Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, you can't afford to miss this source. An extensive list of ideas outlines numerous discussion topics, writing prompts, comprehension questions, oral presentations, and projects. Have class...

Three great writing prompts are yours for the taking. Hand this out and learners construct answers to questions related to the Enlightenment in Europe. They define enlightenment, the contributions of the scientific revolution, and the...

Three wonderful questions will help your middle schoolers better understand the Byzantine Empire. They construct short essay responses to each of the three prompts, discuss the schism between the Greek and Roman Catholic church, the...

A fun, modern twist on journaling! Instead of responding to prompts in their composition notebook, writers use the Internet to complete blog entries. A sample blog (with prompts) is shown here, and writers are assessed on conventions and...

Shakespeare's Macbeth (Act II, Scenes I and II) lacks explicit details of the murder of King Duncan, yet the author creates an atmosphere that allows us to visualize the event. Readers interpret the "Dagger Speech" by writing stage...

High-interest content captures your most reluctant readers and class participants. Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation, in collaboration with Harvard University, seeks to nurture a culture of kindness and reduce bullying. Excerpts from...

Take writing prompts to another level in this activity, which allows pupils to create scenes of dialogue based on the 1903 silent film, The Great Train Robbery. Useful for a language arts/history cross-curricular activity, the lesson...

Keep your class thinking about Seedfolks after they read each chapter by requiring them to keep a journal about the story. Hand out these journal entry prompts at the beginning of the story so that your learners know what to expect. For...

Scholars creatively respond to writing prompts. They respond to writing prompts that reveal clues regarding their personalities and then use the prompts written in class to guess the prompts that belong to their classmates.

Students complete a weekly writing assignment that documents their writing progress throughout the year. Each week, students write a paragraph in response to a prompt or a synopsis of the week's events.