Teachers must have a purpose for their writing prompts and assignments. However, sometimes teachers don’t think a great deal about what their purpose is when they put a writing prompt up on the front board. In fact, their thought process may only go as far as this:
8 I want my students to write about something that they will have an interest in.
8 I want my students to write about something that will inspire them.
8 I want my students to write about something that they will think is fun.
The reason teachers use lesson plans is so that they can make the most of their students’ time. Teachers need to know what they will accomplish with their lessons. Teachers need to have goals or objectives for their lessons. If teachers don’t know where they are going, they will be on the road to nowhere.
Using a writing prompt is no different. Teachers can define their purpose or objective in many different ways, and I’ll touch on a few here.
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But First, Don’t Create Writing Prompts This Way: “Quick! Think!”
Have you ever gone through this thought process?
“What am I going to have the kids write about? Quick! Think! Hmm… Okay… kids… what you are going to write about today is… you are going to write about… what did you… or … no… describe a time when…”
The thinking that went into the creation of the writing prompt is likely to be reflected in the students’ writing. If teachers don’t treat the writing assignment as important, the students won’t think it’s that important. Even if the students don’t observe exactly how the teacher created the writing prompt, students have a sixth sense for what they perceive as busy work.
Here Are a Few Interesting Ways that You Can More Clearly Define Your Purpose for a Writing Prompt
1. You Can Base Your Purpose on the Kind of Growth You Want Your Students to Experience
8 You want your students to write in a new and challenging way.
8 You want your students to focus on, explore, or expand their creativity.
8 You want your students to break the mold of their previous writing experiences and expand their vision of writing.
8 You want your students to focus on or experiment with structure.
8 You want your students to focus on or explore word usage.
8 You want your students to focus on or explore the imagination.
8 You want your students to focus on or explore their thoughts and feelings.
8 You want your students to think about and reflect on their own thinking and how they learn.
8 You want your students to learn the subject material by writing.
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2. You Can Base Your Purpose on Bloom’s Taxonomy
8 You want your students to know facts and information.
8 You want your students to comprehend or understand a complex issue.
8 You want your students to apply what they have learned to write for a transactive purpose.
8 You want your students to analyze information and present it in an organized way.
8 You want your students to synthesize information from several sources and distill it into something new.
8 You want your students to evaluate two sides of an issue and then take a position and argue for it.
3. You Can Base Your Purpose on Common Essay Structures
8 You want your students to compare and contrast something.
8 You want your students to give information about something.
8 You want your students to describe something.
8 You want your students to evaluate something.
8 You want your students to explain the cause and effect of something.
8 You want your students to tell a personal story.
8 You want your students to describe a process.
8 You want your students to follow a line of argumentative reasoning through to its logical conclusion.
8 You want your students to persuade someone about something.
8 You want your students to critique something.
