ESL students and teachers sometimes need a quick, simple idea to start a writing project. Not a big essay. But a small prompt to get writing into action.
Here are three great ideas. I found them on a website. Here is the link. The site has lots of good writing ideas.
Writing Prompt 1. Visualization
Think about a place. Maybe your favorite room. Living, kitchen, bathroom, workshop. Describe the room in great detail. The size, shape, color. The things in the room. What’s on the wall? What’s under the bed? What does it smell like?
Write a paragraph that really puts the reader in the room.
Writing Prompt 2. The Senses
The idea is the same as #1 but here you are writing about food. Use words that activate every sense to describe food. You know, the size, color, taste, texture, sound of eating.
Food can also trigger memories. What do you remember when you eat that food?
Writing Prompt 3. 100 Words
The challenge here is to write only 100 words about one subject: what matters to you. It could be a short paragraph or a poem. The writing could be an answer or a question.
Here is an example from the website. This poem was written by a grade 4 student. Very impressive work.
Untitled Does the field of sunflowers matter? The splash as I jump in a pool matters The smell of the egg salad for my sandwich matters The lead in my pencil matters It all matters It matters helping others The winning goal matters All the love in my family matters The wanting of a dog matters It matters the way I think The rain out on the yard matters The noise in the classroom matters Do clean rooms matter?
-Erin Goldsmith, 4th grade