Using daily writing prompts for elementary students is a great way to encourage students to write. Students begin informal writing in pre k and are expected to write formally by 5th grade, citing sources and documenting detailed information. So how do we get students from Pre k type writing to formal writing by 5th grade? We build writing stamina. What is writing stamina, well it is one thing that every great writer needs.
So what is writing stamina? Writing stamina is defined as the ability to write over long periods of time. Writing is essential to educational development. But as educators, we know this can be a tough road. In this article, I’ll share with you how I use writing prompts for elementary students to build writing stamina.
Daily Writing prompts for Elementary Students
Using daily writing prompts for elementary students is a great way to build writing stamina. When you begin using daily writing prompts, just let them write. Be sure to consider your student’s prior experiences with writing when choosing prompts. It’s a great idea, to begin with, prompts that are very general and easy to write. For example, prompts that start with “My favorite” or “The best” are easy beginner prompts. When practicing daily writing prompts there are no rules. I just let them write, we don’t stress over punctuation or spelling. If a student doesn’t know how to spell a word, I say sound it out and circle it. Stopping to look the word up can halt that student’s thought process and it may be hard to get that student writing again.
Journal Writing for Elementary
Each morning my student’s journal, during morning work. When the students enter the room there is a morning journal entry prompt on the whiteboard. We great each other, take care of our morning housekeeping, attendance, restroom breaks, etc. then they know exactly what to do. I read the journal entry and they are off. It’s completely quiet, all I hear are the little whispers of pencils touching paper. It’s a beautiful sound but this was not done overnight this beautiful sound came from years of adjusting and readjusting and months of my student’s diligent practice. When we begin this process I allow students to write until the pencil whispers stop. Jot down the time when students begin writing and what time they stop. Do this every day to gauge their stamina. Eventually, I give this job to a student so I don’t have to keep up with it myself. Each week stamina increases. As I share the results, my students are encouraged and want to beat there last time.
Each morning after we finish our journal entry I Allow students who want to share their writing to share. Generally each year I have 20 to 25 students so students will share throughout the day. This helps them build confidence in their writing abilities and helps them to understand the joy that their writing can bring others. On Fridays students can free write, they can write about anything they want. This is my students’ favorite day to write and it is when students seem to do their most creative writing.
Fun Writing Prompts for Elementary
There are so many ways to find fun writing prompts for elementary students. A fun thing we’ve done is a prompt jar. Students write down funny journal entries we pull one from the jar to write about each day. Story starters are also a fun wat to get students to write. Story starters are simple sentences that give students just a bit to start with, for example, “All of a sudden there was a knock at the door, when I opened the door there was a ..” Now your students finish the story any way they want. These are fun and really help students who struggle to begin writing.
There are many sites that make it super easy to find writing prompts for elementary students. Teacherpayteacher has the best by far and they have a vast collection of all types of writing prompt pieces. You can also display the prompt on your whiteboard straight from your computer. This means no printing or writing out prompts on the board, major time saver!
Quick Write
A quick write is a short response to something the students have learned. These usually only last 2 to 3 minutes. The student quickly jots down their answer. These actually serve two purposes, evaluate student learning and increase the student’s focused writing process which also improves stamina.
Using daily writing prompts, journal writing, fun writing prompts and quick writes on a regular basis will help improve your students’ writing skills. Implementing these skills will improve stamina and make writing less of a struggle for you and your students
