Writing prompts that relate to students' life experience work well

by Kimberly Wagner
(Ontario, Canada)

The following writing prompts have worked well for me in lower level high school English classes:

Junk food {should/should not} be banned in high schools.

Personal listening devices and/or cell phones {should/should not} be banned in high schools.

Celebrities {are/are not} good role models for young people.

The drinking age {should/should not} be lowered.

Linda responds:

You say those four writing prompts worked well for you, Kimberly. I’d like to know more about how you use them.

Could you provide a full prompt for one of these showing the context for the prompt, the format requirements, and any resources you provide to students?

In what way do you find these writing prompts successful? Is it simply that students are interested in the topic?

Since you are teaching the lower high school grades, you are probably having students write persuasive essays rather than argument essays. Is that correct? What do you require as supporting evidence? What kinds of sources can students use? May they use their personal experience and orbservation or must all the evidence be from third parties?

I can see each of your prompts are what I call "no-brainer" theses: they give students two clearly defined options to use as a thesis about a given topic. That’s a procedure I find very useful with students who have minimal background in thesis + support writing because it gives them structure.

How do you move students from extra-curricular topics to writing prompts that require authentic work in the discipline of English?

Thanks for sharing your experience, Kimberly. Looking forward to hearing more from you about your use of these writing prompts.