Use simple back-to-school writing prompts to assess writing skills and learn important information about each student in your room!

Individual Back-To-School Writing Prompts

Writing assessment comes in many forms, and here are 10 prompts to get your students writing.

• Write about going back to school after summer vacation.

• Five years from now I will be …

• Write a list of 10 things that make you feel good.

• Describe your favorite day.

• Tell about your favorite weather.

• Describe an outdoor game you like to play.

• Imagine that you are an animal in the zoo.  What type of animal are you?  How do you feel about your home in the zoo?  How do you feel about people that visit and watch you?

• If you could visit any place, where would it be and why?

• Draw yourself as a superhero. Write about the personality traits you would have.

• As I approached the school on the first day, I saw …

If you would like to extend these writing prompts, download my Letter Writing Prompt Activity. With this activity students will pick a prompt and then write a letter about that topic. Have students practice writing a draft and revising, for a nice, clean final copy. Then instruct students to use the letter template in the Letter Writing Prompt Activity to write their final draft. These final letters can be posted in the classroom or hallway to celebrate your student's writing.

Collaborative Back-to-School Writing Prompts

Using small groups or the whole class, here’s a fun way to write collaboratively!

• Each student needs a pencil and a piece of paper that is out of their notebook

• Post As I approached the school on the first day, I saw … on the overhead projector or white board

• Have each student write the opener and add to it. You can put a time limit on the writing or a quantitative number (e.g., write 3-5 sentences)

• After they have written, have the students pass their paper to the person in front of them

• Students will read the new paper and add to it (again with a time or sentence limit)

• Repeat steps 4 and 5 based on your time frame

• Write a conclusion! At this point, you will have an introduction and some body paragraphs. To reinforce writing conclusions, verbally tell the students to write a solid conclusion, wrapping up the story.

• Have one student read the story to the entire class to share the creative event!

These back-to-school writing prompts build classroom community, gives students an opportunity to write in an engaging, collaborative manner, and gives you valuable feedback to you about each student’s writing.

Additional Back-to-School Writing Ideas

Don't forget to check out my Who Are You? Writing Prompt. This is a great worksheet to use occasionally throughout the year to show your students you are always interested in their interests... not just during the first few weeks of class.

Looking for additional writing prompts you can use throughout the year? Below are three downloads that will be great additions to your teaching tool kit.