50+ Journal Prompts that Make Class Fun!

My favorite part of the day is letting the kids go wild with a fun journal prompt! Not a boring one, like "Discuss the pros and cons of school uniforms." Blech! Let them use their imagination, and they will be jumping to share what they have come up with.

STUDENTS' TOP TEN FAVORITES:

1. What would you do if you were locked in Walmart all night?

2. Pick a random object and write a narrative from the perspective of that object.

(I give an example of a pencil, e.g. "I am sick of these sweaty hands always chocking me to death!" This exercise helps introduce writing in 1st person.)

3. The zombie apocalypse is upon us....

4. If fear were a creature, what would it look like? Use lots of imagery!

5. Create your own holiday. What do you celebrate, and how is it celebrated?

6. You are trapped by a villain and can call the characters from one of your favorite TV shows or movies to rescue you. Who do you call and what happens?

7. Choose an incident that happened to you this weekend and turn it into a tall tale.

(First read the tall tale of Paul Bunyan’s birth here: http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/the_birth_of_paul_bunyan.html)

8. It’s a normal Friday in English class when all the lights turn out. An alien appears on the projector screen, speaking from the front office, saying “Greetings. We come from the planet Gantron. We are abducting this school and taking it to our home planet to study its subjects. We have locked the doors. Remain calm. Takeoff begins in 5 minutes.” What does the class do?

9. What would you do with a pack of minions for a day?

(Or, around the holidays, “For Christmas you get to rent a pack of minions for a day…”)

10. You’re walking down the street and the sidewalk you’re on turns into….Tell all about it, and then on a separate sheet of computer paper, create a drawing of that sidewalk.

OTHER FUN PROMPTS

11. Make a list of advice from A to Z. For example: Apples keep you healthy. Books should be read every day. Be clever! This should be good advice! (Humor is always encouraged.)

12. You are trapped in a plane that is about to crash, and you have 5 minutes to write your last letter...

13. You walk into a house and see a broken glass, water, and a thumbtack on the ground. Some papers are scattered on the floor. What do you infer happened?

14. Which emotion on the overhead most accurately describes your mood today? Why?

(On the overhead, project a list of emotions. Try Google searching "emotions chart.")

15. You were involved in a terrible car accident and have been in a coma for the past three months. What your family and the doctors don’t know is that you can hear everything that they say. Write a scene.

16. (Make a “popcorn box” with crumpled yellow and white papers. Have the students pick one of each. The yellow papers have a setting and the white papers have a character.)

Write a story about the character you chose in the setting you chose!

17. If you could ONLY be two, and not the other, would you rather be attractive, smart, or rich? Explain.

(Draw a triangle on the board and label the three corners "attractive," "rich," and "smart.")

18. (Play a crashing/tinkling/rushing/etc. sound on Youtube.) What happened? (Anything that involves the senses leads to more creativity!)

19. What annoys you most about opposite gender?

(Careful with this one--it could get out of hand in some classes! I once had a boy stand on his chair to monologue while the other boys cheers and pumped their fists in agreement.)

20. Write about the worst picture day ever!

21. List 50 things that make you feel good.

(Optional: Listen to “Raindrops on Roses” in the background. Some classes liked this, and others thought it was cheesy. And some, shamefully had never seen The Sound of Music. Sigh.)

22. Imagine it is 20 years in the future. Write about your day from morning to night.

23. (Share the story of Ann Hodges, the only recorded person to be hit by a meteorite.) Write about a time when you felt particularly unlucky.

24. What is your biggest pet peeve?

25. Write about a problem you currently are facing and how you are dealing with it. (Let the students know upfront that this journal will not be shared. Talk about how writing can be therapeutic when dealing with problems.)

26. Write about your feelings toward your name. What name would you choose if you could have another one and why?

(First read the Anne of Green Gables rant about her name in Chapter 3 found here: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rgs/anne-III.html starting with “What’s your name?”)

27. What are the most important lessons your parents (or guardians) taught you?

(Good for Mother's Day)

28. Write about the time as a child you played in one of the following: a treehouse, a field, a junkyard, an abandoned house or barn, a stream, a cemetery

29. Quietly walk around the room and copy down a quote you see on the wall. (I have several quotes posted around the room.) Return to your seat and write about what that quote means to you.

30. What would happen if animals could talk? What questions would you ask them?

31. Imagine that you can become invisible whenever you wanted to? What are some of the things you would do?

32. List as many ways as possible to eat a potato. Which way is best?

33. A new school rule we truly and honestly need...

34. (During the last week of school): What three pieces of advice would you give next year's incoming (Freshmen/7th graders/etc.) about how to survive the year?

USE VIDEOS/SONGS/IMAGES!

• Watch a Youtube video and have students write a response. For example:

35. What do you remember about learning to read? How does knowing how to read help you?

(First play this I Love Lucy clip of Ricky struggling to read: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZV40f0cXF4)

36. Why is laughter important? Write about the last time you laughed so hard it hurt.

(First play "Buzz and the Dandelion": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1dY1dIs2fg)

37. What phrases would you add to Kid President’s list?

(First play "Kid President’s 20 Things We Should Say More Often": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5yCOSHeYn4)

38. Write a letter to someone you haven’t met yet (a future child/teacher/spouse/etc.)

(First play the slam poem “To the Boys Who May One Day Date My Daughter up to 2:38: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcIwZ1Dth0c)

39. The circus master says that “the greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph.” What struggle has led to a triumph in your life?

(First play "The Butterfly Circus", a beautiful 20 minute film that is SO worth the time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p98KAEif3bI)

• Pull up the lyrics to a popular song on the overhead and listen to the song together. Ask questions like:

40. “What is the artist's main message? Do you agree? Why?”

For example, on 9/11, my class listened to “Be Strong, Believe” by Yellowcard as a tribute to the firefighters who sacrificed their lives that day, and the students wrote about what bravery means to them.

41. Depending on your current curriculum, have students pick out a symbol from the song, or a metaphor, and write about why it is effective.

• Playing the game WOULD YOU RATHER is a good way to get students to elaborate and justify their responses. For example:

42. Would you rather have a very muscular lower body and a normal upper body or a muscular upper body but a very skinny lower body? ELABORATE.

(There are tons of clean and fun "would you rather's" here: https://conversationstartersworld.com/would-you-rather-questions-clean/)

• 43. At the end of each quarter, have students turn in two of their own journal prompts. Pick the best ones to use throughout the quarter! They love feeling like they are contributing!

• 44. Read a picture book and have the students write about its meaning. Teenagers love being read to like they're little kids. I don't know what it is! The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch is always a favorite.

• 45. Show the students an image and have them explain what is happening in the picture. Just Google "writing prompt pictures" or any random words you want! These two pictures always result in very creative responses:

PROMPTS THAT SUPPLEMENT CLASS NOVELS:

46. Which character from the novel would you most likely be friends with and why?

47. What song would ______ (students pick a character) have on their iPod playlist? Why? Use examples from the text.

48. Rewrite [a chapter] from [another character’s] point of view. When reading Freak the Mighty, my students enjoy imagining Freak’s and Max’s first encounter from Freak’s perspective.

49. Write a letter from (choose one character) to (choose another character). Make sure you capture your character’s personality and tone!

50. Draw a picture of [a setting from the book] using details found on page [#]. You might even have the students write down page numbers that justify where their imagery comes from. (It’s so fun to have the students draw Diagon Alley when reading Harry Potter! And drawing isn't just for middle schoolers! High school students will also benefit from imagining a setting in greater detail.)

51. Ask students to imagine how they would react if something in the book happened to them. For example (using Harry Potter, naturally), “If you could make a magical candy, how would it taste and what would it do?” “What would you do with an invisibility cloak?” “Would you trust Hagrid? Why? Cite the text.”

WRITING PRACTICE PROMPTS THAT DON’T BORE EVERYONE

52. Ask questions about the vocabulary words the class is currently studying. This helps students think about the words on a higher, more critical level. For example: "Who is the most meticulous person you know?" "When have you been exempted from a rule that everyone else had to follow?" etc.

Write a fairy tale using the following vocabulary words: (list a few)

53. Practice creating similes. Fear is like ______ (You'd be surprised at how poetic some kids get!)

54. Write about your day using only compound sentences. (Give examples first.)

55. Practice with dependent clauses: If I could have a superpower, ... (Go around the room to check if each student used a comma after the dependent clause.)

56. Pump up this sentence using as much imagery as possible: The burger was tasty. (Ask students to appeal to the 5 senses--sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch. I always do an example on the board first with the sentence, "The boy was cute." We write about the smell of his cologne, the softness of his hair, etc.)

57. After using any prompt, you might instruct the students to return to their journal and add different grammar devices to their writing. For example, say: “Reread what you just wrote and add an appositive to one of your sentences," or “Add a participle phrase/complex sentence/metaphor to one of your sentences and underline it.” Ask the students to raise their hands when they finish so you may check their work.

That last idea is effective in teaching, but probably the most boring suggestion on this post. So, to make up for it, I’ll leave you with one of my personal favorite prompts:

58. Write what this cat is thinking in first person narrative. Use at least 5 complex sentences:

(I mean, it’s a cat on a mountain of hot dogs. The possibilities are endless.)

In conclusion, I PROMISE that if you use exciting prompts instead of ones that turn your class into a snooze fest, you will have as much fun listening to their ideas as they had writing them!

Happy teaching!

What are YOUR favorite prompts to use? Please tell us in the comments!!