Sharon Watson, Author at Writing with Sharon Watson-Easy-to-use Homeschool Writing and Literature Curriculum

6 Literature-Based Writing Prompts

SHARON’S BLOG
Literature holds an Aladdin’s cave of treasures that students can plunge their pens into.

Whether it’s imitating good writing, pondering a topic in the story, or using the story to write another, your students will gain a healthy curiosity for great works of literature as they write.

To enjoy these fun prompts, knowledge of the following stories is not necessary.

Terms covered: epiphany, spatial description, and paraphrase.

These literature-based prompts are suitable for your 5th – 12th graders.

Ready to go treasure hunting?

5 New Prompts for a New Year

SHARON’S BLOG
The beginning of a new year is a special time when your students can look back on their past year and cherish their hopes and dreams for the future. But do they know how to express those?

Here are five prompts geared to help them express their ideas through opinion, personal narrative, personification, and so on, as they think about and evaluate their lives.

Suitable for students in grades 5 – 12.

Let’s do this . . .

Do You Have Story Writers? They Will LOVE These Fiction Prompts!

SHARON’S BLOG

You know you have them—those story writers who won’t come out of their bedrooms, the ones who faint at writing essays but love writing stories.

They spend hours creating fictional worlds and populating them with characters in trouble who are looking for a happy ending.

Fiction is a powerful tool to influence readers’ hearts. Let’s equip our fiction writers with practices and insights that will give them success. You can read more about how authors grab readers’ hearts here.

As an added bonus, students who learn how to write more effectively in the world of fiction are absorbing communication skills they will use in their essay and research papers as well.

Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein before she was 19 years old. Christopher Paolini was only 15 when he wrote the first words to his best-selling Eragon. And Jane Austen wrote her first novel at age 14. When will your student be signing autographs?

These prompts are geared for students in 7th-12th grade. Use them now or bookmark them for later.

High-anxiety days need this remedy

SHARON’S BLOG

So much anxiety about the future. Emotions running hot. Fearful thoughts about what lies ahead.

As I pondered these for our nation, the world, and my own life, I was troubled.

I recently heard a radio pastor mention that the Lord says one thing to us more than anything else:

3 Powerful Persuasion Strategies that Advertisers and Politicians Use

SHARON’S BLOG

Do you ever wonder why some ads and political campaigns are so powerful? There’s a reason for that: They use certain strategies to move their viewers.

It’s important to learn these strategies so you can see when they are being used on you!

In this tutorial, you’ll learn three powerful tactics, read examples, and then write your own ad for a product or a politician.

This tutorial is geared for students in 7th – 12th grade.

Ready? Let’s do this . . .

5 Prompts on the Reformation

SHARON’S BLOG

To say that the Protestant Reformation had a great effect on the world is a vast understatement. Kings, kingdoms, and even everyday people felt the sting—and the freedom—this new movement brought.

Your students will be writing opinions, stories, and more while exploring some of the issues and topics associated with the Reformation, no matter your religious persuasion.

If you’d like your students to learn more about Martin Luther in an interesting biography, check out When Lightning Struck by Danika Cooley of Thinking Kids Press.

These prompts are appropriate for students in 5th – 12th grade.

Let’s dig in . . .

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3 Election-themed Prompts

SHARON’S BLOG

Election-themed Prompts

Elections are fraught with anxiety, tension, and maybe even crying, but election-themed writing prompts do not have to be.

Your 5th – 12th graders will cast their vote for any of these interest-grabbing ideas.

No matter your political party, these prompts are winners, and you will be, too, when you share them with your students.

Stepping into the booth . . .

Compare and Contrast: 2 Solid Methods

SHARON’S BLOG

Compare and Contrast: 2 Solid Methods

Have your students ever been asked to write a compare-and-contrast paragraph or essay but don’t know where to begin? Do they have trouble organizing their thoughts and information before comparing and contrasting?

Your 5th – 12th graders will learn two solid methods for compare-and-contrast writing with this free tutorial. It’s packed with two separate exercises, one for each method, and contains complete instructions and colorful worksheets. Your students will learn how to organize their thoughts before writing with either method, and then they’ll write two paragraphs using each method.

Students already know how to compare and contrast in real life: They do it every time they want to buy something and are torn between two choices. They go through the process mentally, and it’s likely automatic and subconscious.

Proofreading Tutorials Bundle

SHARON’S BLOG

Would you like your students to understand how to use proofreading marks? Do they know that they do not have to proofread for everything at once?

And did you know that it is easier for students to proofread if they practice on someone else’s mistakes?

Explore the posts below, appropriate for 7th – 12th graders. Click on any post’s image or link below to get started. FREE tutorials and printables included.

What will your students learn today?

Grammar Tutorials Bundle

SHARON’S BLOG

Looking for a fun way to teach grammar concepts to your 7th – 12th grade students?

This bundle of tutorials is geared to hold your students’ interest with colorful infographics and quirky sentences to work on. Each tutorial contains a lesson, an exercise, and the answers, all free for you to download and print at your leisure.

Commas with compound sentences, dialog punctuation, singular indefinite pronouns, and much more!

Use them now or bookmark them for future use.

Some of the tutorials below are featured in our eBook Let’s Eat Fifi. Read more about that 23-lesson grammar book here.

Click on the individual images or the links below for each tutorial.

Election-themed Prompts

Compare and Contrast: 2 Solid Methods

Looking for something?

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