One of the most efficient ways to improve student writing is to write daily. To ensure writing occurs daily (at home or in the classroom) teachers can task students with quick writes! In this article, I share free printable quick write prompts students can use at home while schools are closed to write and use their vocabulary. 

A quick write is a literacy strategy that can be used across all subject areas to develop writing fluency and encourage students to reflect upon their learning or their lives. Quick writes are spontaneous and short  writing exercises that last only 3–5 minutes. The short time frame gives students a moment to think about their response and then they must quickly get their thoughts written out.   

From an icebreaker activity to argumentative writing, quick writes can be used so many ways in the classroom! I've found that quick writes help students develop clarity and fluency as thinkers and writers. Quick writes can also be used to assess what a student knows or whether they can apply a particular skill in their writing. 

For example, I ask my students to incorporate at least two vocabulary words into each of their quick write responses so that I can assess if they truly understand the words.

Here are some printable quick write resources you can grab for free and use with students!

Printable Quick Write Prompts Students Can Use at Home or in the Classroom

Ten Quick Write Prompts for Vocabulary

Here are Ten Quick Write Prompts for Vocabulary that students can use at home right now! Download these free prompts and share them with students.

Task students with answering a quick write prompt each "virtual 😉" school day. Explain to students that each day they need to spend 3–5 minutes (at home) writing their response to a prompt and then submit their writings to you via email for review. Instruct students to incorporate at least two vocabulary words in each of their quick write responses so you can evaluate their word knowledge. Don't forget to emphasize that they MUST use vocabulary words in their writing... or these quick writes will fail to be an exercise for practicing vocabulary.

Social Media Quick Write

Quick writes are a great tool to speedily review concepts, summarize the day's learning, assess prior knowledge of a topic, encourage self-reflection, collect formative feedback, and more! To make quick writes really successful in accomplishing all of those amazing things I just mentioned, teachers need to try and make them fun.

With the Social Media Quick Write template, students will have fun responding to quick writes as various social media posts. This printable does not include a list of quick write prompts, so teachers will have to provide the prompts for students to answer on this worksheet. To add an element of vocabulary, require students to use at least two vocabulary words in their response! 

Additional Prompts To Use for Quick Writes

If you want additional prompts for quick writes, you'll want to add the following printable resources to your teaching toolkit! 

10 Letter Writing Prompts, Grades 2–12

Write to a Prompt, Grades 9–12