Story Starters is a great web tool from Scholastic that inspires students to write by providing them with a wide variety of writing prompts. Whether you want to help students overcome their writing block or get them enthusiastic and motivated about their writing, Story Starters has tons of creative prompts to unleash students writing gene.
Prompts from Story Starters “explore the themes of Adventure, Fantasy, or Sci-Fi. Students can also choose the Scrambler for random word combinations. Story Starters gives ideas for character, plot, and setting. If you want to change your writing prompt, pull the lever and it will serve up a new prompt, either piece-by-piece or all at once.”
There are different ways you can incorporate Story Starters in your instruction. For instance, you can use it with a whiteboard and a projector to model ‘good writer’s thinking process’. “Pick a topic, and then think aloud as you write, explaining how you decide what to include, what changes or revisions you make as you write, what words you choose, and how you start, develop, and end your piece. You can also use a whiteboard as a way to engage students in a collaborative writing project while teaching or practicing certain writing skills.”
Check out this page for more ideas on how to use Story Starters in your class.
