Informal writing prompts
Quick way to engage, manage, assess

Informal writing prompts call require short, focused, timed “top of the head” responses to questions about what you are teaching.

Students' responses show them instantly what they caught and what went over their heads.

Informal writing can be done as homework, but it’s more commonly used as an in-class activity.

Gives formative assessment

If you ask students to explain the difference between fiction and nonfiction, for example, and Joey can’t write two sentences explaining the difference, Joey finds out fast that he missed something important. No waiting for the unit test.

Later, when you skim the responses to the informal prompt, you will see what you need to teach or re-teach.

The length of an informal writing assignment can vary from a minute to perhaps as much as 15 minutes. In a middle or high school class, two to three minutes is more typical.

Everyone gets involved

The main function of informal writing prompts is to promote learning, which is why they are sometimes called write-to-learn activities.

Informal prompts often used in science and math classrooms, but they aren’t as widely used by those of us teaching writing as they probably should be.

Unlike the typical class discussion in which only a few students participate, classroom write-to-learn activities get everyone involved, not just the people in the front row who read last night’s homework assignment.

Because the writing is brief and students are not penalized for incorrect answers, getting participation is rarely a problem. Even kids who struggle with writing can manage to write for two minutes on a clearly defined, narrow topic.

Aids classroom management

The informal prompts require all students to participate, which keeps the class on task better than a presentation without a hands-on component.

If you use prompts in class, engage students in writing frequently enough to keep their attention from wandering for long.

If a subject is complicated or builds step by step, give more opportunities for writing than with a less complex topic. You can have students write for two minutes out of every 15 minutes of class if that fits the class topic you are discussing.

A prompt might ask students to compare some new information with something learned previously or ask then to explain in their words what you just said.

Students can often rattle off a definition, but totally misunderstand what the definition means. Using informal writing is a good way to nip those misunderstandings in the bud. Many grammar problems I see at the college level could have been prevented if a teacher had asked Josh or Caitlin to define a term like subject back in sixth grade.

Research shows that when an informal writing activity precedes class discussion, the quality of the class discussion goes up. More students speak out and there’s more substance to what they say.

Researchers don’t know why the combination works, but it seems to hold true across the curriculum and at all educational levels.