On Fridays, I give my Literature classes writing prompts. At first, I did the regular potpourri of writing instructions – old memories, descriptions of favorites, persuasive pieces – but eventually I decided to only have them write stories.
I found a few writing ideas online, but my favorite source by far is the Reddit Writing Prompts community. I can spend hours browsing and reading there. Yesterday, I found a great prompt. I tweaked it a little bit before presenting it as the assignment. Here it is:
The old man had been coming to the diner for months. Jackie usually served him. Today he asked her to sit at the table with him. He had a small white envelope in front of him.
I like this prompt because it could be used to write a whole bunch of different genres. It could be a romantic story, a mysterious one, a spy story, science fiction, a story with a twist… There are tons of possibilities. What’s in the envelope? Money? Lab results? A letter from the future? A message from the CIA?
I haven’t read the writings yet. That always takes a long time, so I reserve it for Sunday.
The eighth graders must write at least twelve sentences.
Cool! I’ve seen the writing prompts, but always thought of them as being for budding novelists. What a great idea to use them in the classroom!
Awesome….I’ve not seen this type of “advanced” writing prompts….Since I worked with small children for 25+ years….Ours were a little more simple!!! And often there were only one or two words and a picture!!! I’m getting ready for our Greunke Fall/Winter gathering tomorrow….We Call It Thankmas…..I’m hosting with Uncle Lyle’s twin sister….We are going to set up this a.m. and then I’m off to Omaha with no particular destination or reason….Just To Play, I Guess!! Enjoy Your Weekend……<3 Aunt Bev 🙂