Making Prompt Writing Fun!

So here's my take... on writing prompts.


     Spring time is here and so is the Writing Predictor Assessment (my county's name for it). I have been researching (blog stalking) how others get students ready for this day.  I really enjoyed Lorraine's idea at Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies. She created a Writing Camp (you must check it out, plus there is a freebie!). I definitely aspire to implement this next year!

     My research turned up that many teachers are using picture prompts. I immediately found awesome pictures to use, but they didn't fully hook my students...until I found Video Writing Prompts!

     TeachHUB has a collection of relevant, interesting, and age appropriate video clips to get students excited to write!

     The best part is that they already have prompts ready to go for you, plus they differentiate them for different age groups (K-2, 3-5, 6-8 etc). 

     The graphic link above will take you to the first video prompt I did with my class. They had an absolute fun time writing and didn't want to stop once writing time was over! 

Freebie!

    My student's struggle with writing proper paragraphs and organizing a 5 paragraph essay. I used the video writing prompts to practice what we called "perfect paragraphs". 

     My student's had success with the above organizer for paragraphs, so I modified the organizer to introduce the 5 paragraph essay. When my student's got familiar with the organizers they learned to create them in their notebooks (copy paper is in short supply at my school).

Freebie!

What do you do to get your students ready for the writing assessment? I would love to hear about your great idea, please leave a comment below!