10 Fresh Ideas to Get Your Students Writing

Are your students tired of writing prompts and daily writing drills? Here is a list of some fun ways to spark students' imaginations and tap into their creative writing abilities. I think your students will enjoy these ideas as much as mine have.

Writing Mad Libs

Mad Libs are a great way to have students tell a silly story and learn the parts of speech. This activity can even get shy students out of their seat to share funny stories. You can do it once a day after lunch, and share one or two with the class. Students will know their parts of speech in no time. 

Try Writing Four Corner Stories

Have students fold a piece of paper into four squares. Each square represents a part of their story.

Top Left – First         Top Right – Next

Bottom Left – Then   Bottom Right – Finally

Students fill the top half of the box with a story, and the bottom half with a picture showing details. They can retell stories from the books they have read or create their own about their family or a wacky adventure. Students can cut out each square, staple the sides and create their very own book to take home. This is a fun way to test student comprehension as well.

Learn About Publishing

One of the many ways computers can make writing fun is the fact that anyone can get published online these days. There are many websites where you scan in student’s work, and the company prints it out in whatever form you want. A student’s poem accompanied by a drawing can make a wonderful coffee mug for Mothers’ Day, or a big sticky poster for their bedroom. Another student's story may make a great book. This can motivate your students to write their best because they know it is going to be published! Websites like Avery, Vistaprint, or Snapfish, can be used for this purpose.

Telling Stories With a Prompt

One way to spark students' storytelling abilities is to use a story ball. Here is how it works. One student starts a story and then passes the ball to another person in the class. The person who gets it continues the story. To encourage students to use imagery in the story, you can yell out questions for the next person to answer, such as  “What’s the setting?” “Is it a hot day or cold day?” “What kid of hair does the main character have?” Make sure students are bringing the imagery in the story to life.

Use Colors to Tell a Story

Using colors to identify parts of speech can work well for all age groups and helps visual learners excel in the writing process. This is how it works. After students are done writing a piece, have them go back and trace all the adjectives green, nouns yellow, and verbs blue. If they are younger, you could have them trace every capital letter with a green crayon, and every end mark with a red. This will help them edit their work in a fun way, and give them a visual means to see if they should add more verbs, adjectives, or capital letters. This activity could be used with whatever grammar lesson you are working on that week.

Post-its Stories

Students list individual events of a story on separate Post-its. As they build up their “story beats,” they place them in chronological order. This could be a great way for students to retell a story read to them, or create a timeline for a story they will write soon.

Be a Superhero

Every child wants magical powers. In this lesson have students brainstorm the magical powers they would like to have, draw a picture of their superhero and then make a graphic organizer with as many details about the hero as possible. Students should list the setting, the antagonist, conflict, and resolution. Once they are done they can write a rough draft called  "The Adventures of . . . (whatever superhero they chose)."

Create a Class Blog

Have students create a classroom blog to publish their work online. Students should first submit their blog idea to you before they  go to the computer and publish it on the website. Have them write their opinions on topics, persuade others to think as they do, or probe and debate questions. Student’s friends and parents could follow the blog and comment on their work; creating an interactive blog-o-sphere with endless possibilities. Kidblog.org has a safe and simple site just for students.

Design a Class Newspaper

Before you begin to create a class newspaper, have your students go through a “Journalism Licensing Workshop” to learn about creating a newspaper. After they complete the training, print out a little certificate and hire them for the classroom newspaper. This can be something students can work on in the back when they finish early or done in groups as they interview people from your school.

Write a Letter to Your Future Self

Have students write a letter to themselves and put it in a self-addressed envelope (ask them to put extra stamps on it in case of inflation). You can mail this letter to them in five years, three years, or send it at the end of the school year. They can ask their future self questions, such as whether they still like a particular type of music, if they are rich yet, or what they like. This is a good letter writing activity and always a lot of fun. Students enjoy receiving the letter in the mail. The writing will show how much progress they have made, and give them an accomplished feeling. What follows are more writing lessons.

Writing Lessons and Activities:

What Would Happen If

Creative writing prompts to get your students thinking, such as "What would happen if vegtables could talk?" or "What would happen if all the water in the ocean evaporated?"

Imaginary Zoo

Students use an interactive website to create their own animals by mixing and matching different animal parts.  They then write a creative story about their new found animal.

Write Your Own Captions

Students are given newspaper photos and they must write an eye-catching headline, and an article describing what's going on in the picture.