Building Effective Writing Prompts for All Students

Well-written student essays begin with a carefully crafted writing prompt, the first step in providing effective support for each of your students. In partnership with Model Teaching, an industry leader in supporting educators, this course teaches you five types of writing prompts you can introduce to your students: narrative, creative, expository, persuasive, and reading response. Model Teaching's Mission is to improve student performance by directly supporting teachers with quality content and resources. You will learn a structure for developing each writing prompt and be provided examples aligned with expectations across grade levels, from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

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3 Months / 8 Course Hrs
Open Enrollment
Offered in partnership with your preferred school

Baylor University

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Learning method

Course code: T14701

This teacher professional development course will teach you about four essential components of an effective writing prompt, ensuring your students are supported in writing strong essays. You will learn how to generate narrative, creative, expository, persuasive, and reading response writing exercises. During your training, you will view examples at each grade level and learn a structured approach for each writing prompt design.

By the end of the course, you will be able to design your own writing prompt for a future lesson in an action plan and will leave the course with 11 tools, templates, and samples ready for use in your classroom.

What you will learn

  • Analyze the five main types of writing prompts for students
  • Identify the four components that all strong writing prompts have in common
  • Design and implement a specific writing prompt plan using one of the five writing prompts introduced in this course

How you will benefit

  • Your students will begin generating better essays because they have the correct guidance and expectations provided by your writing prompt
  • You will be able to spend more quality time supporting students in their writing skills, focusing on the content that will help students excel more quickly
  • Your lesson planning will be streamlined because you will be able to utilize the structured writing prompt approach using the provided templates found in this course

How the course is taught

  • Self-Guided, online course
  • 3 Months access
  • 8 course hours
  1. Types of Writing Prompts
    1. Learn the five types of writing prompts covered in this course, two methods for assessment them, and reflect on a past prompt you created or were assigned.
  2. Narrative Writing Prompts
    1. Learn the components of a narrative writing prompt, then reflect on how to develop your own narrative writing prompt for a lesson aligned to your content or grade level.
  3. Creative Writing Prompts
    1. Learn the components of a creative writing prompt, then reflect on how to develop your own creative writing prompt for a lesson aligned to your content or grade level.
  4. Expository Writing Prompts
    1. Learn the components of an expository writing prompt, then reflect on how to develop your own expository writing prompt for a lesson aligned to your content or grade level.
  5. Persuasive Writing Prompts
    1. Learn the components of a persuasive writing prompt, then reflect on how to develop your own persuasive writing prompt for a lesson aligned to your content or grade level.
  6. Reading Response Writing Prompts
    1. Learn the components of a reading response writing prompt, then reflect on how to develop your own reading response writing prompt for a lesson aligned to your content or grade level.
  7. Putting it All Together
    1. Using the samples provided, build your own writing prompt ready to be implemented in the classroom.
  8. Applying What you Have Learned
    1. Get ideas on how to implement the concepts into your classroom, find a list of online resources that support the design of effective writing prompts, and read the research behind effective writing prompts.
Self-Study

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

  • This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

  • PC: Windows 10 or later.
  • Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
  • Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
  • Microsoft Word Online
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader
  • Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

  • Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.
  • Editing of a Microsoft Word document is required in this course. You may use a free version of Microsoft Word Online, or Google Docs if you do not have Microsoft Office installed on your computer. Model Teaching can provide support for this.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

Your course begins immediately after you enroll.​

You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.