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Creative writing prompts for gifted students

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Picture Prompts

145 Picture Prompts to Inspire Student Writing

A school year’s worth of short, accessible image-driven posts that invite a variety of kinds of writing.

By The Learning Network

Image from our related Picture Prompt “ Creative Juices .”

We’ve been publishing our Picture Prompts series four days a week since 2016. Below, we’ve rounded up all the prompts we published for the 2021-22 school year.

These short, accessible, image-driven prompts invite students to pen short stories, poems and memoirs; share experiences from their lives; analyze illustrations, graphs and charts; and tell us their opinions on hot-button issues.

You can find even more in our roundups for the 2016-17 , 2017-18 , 2018-19 , 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years. That’s nearly 900 prompts, many still open for comment by students 13 and up. We have also published a short, visual post highlighting four popular prompts from this school year.

To learn how you can use Picture Prompts to build literacy skills, promote critical thinking, inspire discussion and foster creativity in your classroom, watch our three-minute tutorial video or our on-demand webinar . For dozens more ideas, see our lesson plan, “ How to Teach With Our Picture Prompts (and Other Times Images) .”

If you use this feature with your students, or if you have other ideas for how to use photos, illustrations and graphics to encourage writing, let us know in the comments.

What story does this image inspire for you?

Phone Booth in the Wilderness Roller Coasters In the Waves In the Lunchroom Den of Toys Butterflies Flight Delays Two Roads Dog Park Friendship Under the Sea Found in the Crowd Under the Desk Barren Landscape Park Bench Other Selves On the Court Holiday Party Little Red House Candy Cornucopia Doors Mystery Money Royal Dining Up in a Tree Around the Fire Galaxy Plundered Shelves Confetti Solo Climb At the Fountain Heated Conversation Yellow Creatures Meadow in Starlight Storm On the Subway Giant Jar Family

Share experiences from your own life.

Pet Ownership Creative Juices Horror Stories One Great Summer Memory Dining Out Riddle Me This Your Go-To Recipes Hitting the Road Comic Con Craze October Thrifting Harry Potter Self-Compassion Holiday Shopping Giving Gratitude Festive Wear Measuring Time Winter TV Shows Sacred Spaces Your Tech Local Celebrities Winter Olympics Wildlife in Winter Group Chat Winter Getaways D.I.Y. Taste Test Spring Fashion March Madness Mask Withdrawal Your Favorite Tree Rites of Spring Fortuitous Finds Hanging Out Heartbroken Best Pizza? Everyday Pleasures Musical Instruments

What do you think this image, chart or cartoon is saying?

Hands Blasting Out of a Phone Dings and Pings Pulling at a Reflection Memorial Twisting Track Elephant and Donkey Tiny Dollar Clouds Vision Test The Whole World Work and Home Bedroom Staring Crossed-Out Words Clicking Her Heels Weapon Burger Quitting Spoonfed Brady Mesmerized Skates Melting Man Lit-Up Landmarks Literary Allusions A Brick on an Egg Listening and Clapping Between the Ears Smiling X’s on Bubbles Eyeballs Inside Vs. Outside Amazon Boxes Area Closed High Wire Very, Very Tired

What’s your opinion on this issue?

A New Social App Morality Plays Flamboyant Fashion Home Games Powering Down Facebook Outage Old Glory Custom Cars Tourist Surveillance E-Scooters, E-Bikes Motorcycle Adventures Veterans Day Book Lovers Speed Skydiving Gift-Giving, Gift-Getting Solstice Favorite Moments in Sports Your Word of the Year Guilty Pleasures Smart Watch Wordle True Love? Prized Possessions Audiobooks Separate Together TV-Themed Trips Forgiveness Life at Sea Constructive Criticism Electric Cars Little Free Libraries Met Gala #VanLife Responding to the Shooting in Uvalde

225 Fun & Free Creative Writing Prompts for Kids in All Grade Levels

Written by Maria Kampen

Prodigy English is here! Get your students playing — and learning — today.

• Teacher Resources
• Prodigy English
• Elementary school writing prompts

Middle school writing prompts

High school writing prompts.

• Social emotional learning jounal prompts
• Math writing prompts

Writing prompts are meant to unlock creativity. They’re story starters designed to inspire creative thinking. They can take you to places you’ve been or recall an important time in your life. 

But mostly, they’re useful tools for teachers to inspire writing growth in students from grade school to high school.

“Once upon a time, in a land far, far away…”

It’s amazing how one simple sentence can send you on a journey to places you’ve never been, filled with untold possibilities. 

Reading is great, but you know what’s even better? Giving your students the power to write stories for themselves. 

Writing prompts for kids help students:

• Express themselves and their creativity
• Grasp lifelong literacy skills and concepts
• Tell their own stories and build self-confidence
• Develop a growth mindset when it comes to their writing skills

Writing is like a muscle — it takes practice to build up skills. Luckily, we put together a list of over 200 writing prompts to help your students get started. We’ve also organized them by middle school, high school and elementary school to help teachers decide whether these prompts are age-appropriate for their students.

Grade school writing prompts

Grade schoolers can definitely begin to address complex ideas when it comes to story writing — but you should seek to keep the prompts simple and straightforward. 

Reluctant writers might be intimidated by complicated writing ideas — and this is an age where we should be encouraging creativity.

Creative writing prompts for elementary schoolers

Whether it’s exploring the furthest reaches of outer space, traveling across the Sahara desert or sticking a little closer to home, these creative writing prompts will have students imagining endless possibilities for their writing.

• Write about what your life would be like if you turned into a squirrel. What would you do every day?
• A strange spaceship just crashed and landed in your backyard. What happens next?
• Make up a story about where thunder comes from.
• You find an old notebook hidden in an attic. What does it say? Who did it belong to?
• You have a magic garden. What magical plants do you grow? How do you take care of them?
• Write a story about running away with the circus when it comes to town.
• Rewrite “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” from the perspective of one of the dwarfs (Happy, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, Grumpy, Sneezy and Bashful).
• There once was a little boy who ate nothing but oranges. What happened to him?
• Write a story about a magical hat. Where is it from? What does it do? What does it look like?
• You’re exploring the rainforest and come across a flower that no one’s ever seen before. Describe it!
• Tell me a story about a dinosaur living a long, long time ago.
• Tell me a story about an astronaut visiting another planet. Where are they going? How do they get there? What do they take with them?
• You discover a magic portal in the park. Where does it lead to?
• Pick a partner and write a story together! Start by writing the first sentence, then pass it to your partner to write the second sentence.
• You find buried treasure in the park, hidden in a big wooden chest. What kind of treasure is it? Who left it there?
• Write a story about a family that can travel in time. 
• Write a story without using the letter “E”.
• Write the funniest story you can think of. 
• There’s a kangaroo in your classroom. How did it get there? What happens when you find it?
• Write a story about an explorer who keeps getting lost. Where are they trying to go? What do they find along the way?
• Write a story about a wooden door, a can of soda and a blue shoe.
• If there was a magical portal in the back of your closet, where would it lead to? 
• Finish this story: There was a knock on the door. I opened it to find a dog sitting there, and…
• You come home and find that everything in your house is upside down. What happened?
• Describe the color “red” without using the word “red”.
• There’s an old, abandoned house at the end of your street that’s been empty for years. One day, someone moves in.
• Rewrite the story of Cinderella from the perspective of the stepsisters.  
• Write a backstory for Ed, the orange Prodigy mascot. 
• You wake up one morning and find a mermaid in your bathtub. How did they get there? What do you do?
• Write a story about a monster looking for some friends. 
• Oh no — your balloon blew away! Write about what happens from the balloon’s perspective. 
• You and your friends are out for a walk when, out of nowhere, your friends start disappearing! What’s going on?
• Once upon a time, an old inventor built a weather machine. It sat undiscovered for years — until you found it. What happens next?
• You just ate a cookie that turned you 15 feet tall. What do you do next?

Fun writing prompts for grade schoolers

Everyday life is full of great inspiration for writing! Get students thinking with these easy and fun writing prompts.Write about something you are good at. 

• If you could write a book about anything, what would you write about?
• If you could have any animal as a pet, what would it be and why?
• Do you have a favorite animal? Tell me all about it! Why do you like it?
• What would you do if you woke up one morning and everything was pink — including you?
• What food can you not live without? Why?
• If you could add any class to your school schedule, what would it be?
• Invent a new day of the week. What is it called? When is it? What do people usually do on that day of the week?
• If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? 
• If you could spend a Saturday doing anything you wanted, what adventures would you get up to?
• If you could have any wild animal as a pet, what would you choose? Why?
• What's your favorite, wacky food?
• Where is your favorite place to read? Why?
• What was the coolest day of school for you? What made it exciting?
• Which of your toys do you wish could talk? What would they say?
• If you could only wear one outfit for the rest of your life, what would it look like?
• Invent a machine to do a chore for you. What does the machine do? What does it look like?
• What's your favorite season? What makes it the best?
• What is your favorite math game and why?
• Describe your real-life superpower.
• Finish the story: When I'm older I want to be an expert in…
• If pets could talk to each other, what would they say?
• If you were the captain of a ship, what would you call your ship? What would it look like? Where would you go?
• If your pet could talk to you, what do you think it would say?
• If you were the only person on earth for one day, what would you do?
• Plan the perfect birthday party for yourself. 
• What is your favorite thing to do over summer break?
• Describe your ideal birthday cake. 
• If you could add any type of room to your house, what would it be?
• What’s your favorite movie and why?

Persuasive writing prompts for elementary school

Are your students’ opinions up for debate? Ask them to flex their critical thinking skills with these persuasive writing prompts. Once they’re done, get class discussion flowing with a spirited debate!

• Write a letter convincing your parents to let you get a pet dog. What arguments do you use to persuade them?
• Convince your teacher that you should be allowed an extra 15 minutes of recess.
• Convince your best friend to read your favorite book.
• How would you convince someone to do your chores for you?
• Write a commercial for your favorite breakfast food. What would convince someone else to try it?
• What flavor of chips is the best? Why?
• What would make a better pet — a monkey or a peacock?
• Do you think children should be allowed to stay up as late as they want?
• What’s your favorite holiday and why should it be everyone’s favorite? 
• Convince us that your favorite food should be a staple in everyone’s diet.

As students enter middle school, they’re starting to feel like bigger, older kids. They can start writing original short stories and abstract persuasive essays. 

It’s best to inspire creativity at this age and encourage them to explore their own voice and different writing styles. These prompts will definitely go a long way in inspiring that.

Creative Writing Prompts for Middle Schoolers

• Invent a new type of transportation for the future. Who uses it? Where does it go?
• If you had a time machine, where would you visit first — the past or the future? Why?
• You get on the bus and find a four-piece jazz band giving a concert. What do you do?
• Design and name your own Prodigy pet . What element are they? What’s their special power?
• Finish this story: “Something just touched my foot,” they shouted, swimming frantically towards the shore. 
• Write a silly or scary story to tell around a campfire. 
• Finish this story: Everything was going so well today — until I tripped and fell, right in front of…
• Throughout your adventures as a pirate on the high seas, you’ve seen lots of strange and magical creatures. Which one was the most interesting?
• Deep in the heart of a dark and mysterious cave, there lies a magic stone. Write about your quest to find it. 
• Write an acrostic poem using the word “strawberry.”
• There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She knit and she baked, but what else did she do?
• Finish this story: “One thing I’ll never do again,” she said, “Is go on vacation with an alpaca.”
• Make up a new planet and describe it. 
• Write a story about a family of penguins living on an iceberg.
• Write a story about a girl who can walk through walls. 
• You’ve been invited to a ball at the Queen’s palace! What is it like?
• Imagine you’re exploring the Amazon jungle. Write a diary entry about your day.
• If you could invent a TV show, what would it be about?
• You discovered an underwater kingdom! What is it like there?
• A lonely trumpet player makes friends with the dancer who lives next door. What happens next?
• You go to the park to fly a kite, but get carried away by the wind! What happens next?
• Write a story about a volcano that’s about to erupt.
• Write a story about visiting an old lady who lives deep in the woods.
• Boom, you’re a superhero! Give yourself an origin story, describe your superpowers and plan what you’ll do to make the world a better place. 
• Write a story using these six words: calendar, headphones, lipstick, mug, bear.
• You wake up to find you’re invisible. How did it happen? What do you do?
• There’s been a robbery at the bank, and you’re in charge of finding the culprit. How do you solve the case?
• Finish the story: Once upon a time, there was a dragon...
• You just joined a super-secret spy organization. What’s your first mission?
• Write a story about being cold without using the word “cold.”
• You’re a scientist and you’ve just discovered a new type of bug. Describe what it looks like, where it’s from and what you’re going to call it. 
• Imagine a world where all the birds can talk. What would they say?
• Write about what happens after the end of your favorite book or movie.
• Finish the story: She sprinted down the driveway to the mailbox. The package was here!
• You’re on a hike and a bird starts talking to you. What do you do? What does it say?
• Write a story using these five words: bubblegum, stapler, spoon, lightbulb, strawberry.
• You ate a magical carrot and your skin turned orange! What happens next?
• Write about what it would be like if you had an elephant for a pet.

Fun Writing Prompts for Middle Schoolers

• If you were in charge of the classroom for a day, what would your class do?
• Tell me about the last dream you had.
• You’re trapped on a desert island. What three things did you bring with you and why?
• What mythical creature would you like to have as a pet? Why?
• Invent a new type of pasta. What does it look like? What does it taste like?
• If you could go on vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go? Make a plan and tell the story of your dream vacation.
• Plan the perfect picnic. Where would it be? What food would you have?
• If you could decorate your bedroom any way you wanted, what would it look like?
• Write a story that sounds loud, using onomatopoeia (words that sound like their meaning, like crash, snort, bang and boom.)
• Invent a new type of cookie. What does it taste like?
• Invent a new sport. What is it called? What are the rules?
• How would you disguise yourself to blend in with a forest?
• You just won a special award from the president. What did you do to earn that award?
• Do you collect anything? What is it and why? If not, what would you like to collect?
• You just found a genie in a bottle. What three things would you wish for? (Remember, no wishing for extra wishes!
• Explain how to play your favorite sport or do your favorite hobby. Make it as exciting as possible!
• Describe the most beautiful sunrise or sunset you’ve ever seen.
• If you could live in any book or movie, which one would you choose and why?
• Imagine that you’re going on a camping trip. What do you pack to make sure the trip is fun?
• If you could invent a robot to do any chore, what chore would it be? How would the robot do it?
• Would you rather it was always raining, or always snowing?
• Imagine you’re a toy inventor. What will you create?
• Would you rather climb to the top of a mountain or go scuba diving?
• Interview a family member about their childhood, then write it as a story.
• What was your favorite toy growing up — why was it so special to you?

Persuasive Writing Prompts for Middle School

• If you could change one thing about your school, what would it be and why?
• Is it better to read the book before you watch the movie, or watch the movie before you read the book?
• Persuade someone to try out your favorite hobby or sport.
• What’s the best way to try and persuade a friend to do what you want to do?
• When is peer pressure good? When is peer pressure bad?
• Is it better to have lots of friends, or just a few really good friends?
• Should students be in charge of what they learn in school?

High school students can either be tasked with more complex writing prompts or breathe nuance into simple story ideas. Students can drive these prompts in a million different ways.

So while not necessarily more complicated than middle school, these prompts can be tweaked, either by the student or teacher, to encourage thought-provoking output.

Creative Writing Prompts for High Schoolers

• Write a story about someone your age who lives on the other side of the world. 
• Pick up the nearest book and turn to page 7. Close your eyes and point to a random word on the page, then write a story about that word.
• Write a story in ten words or less.
• You fell asleep for 100 years. What does the world look like when you wake up?
• Finish the story: “This isn’t what I hoped would happen,” she said….
• You’re walking down the street when you see someone who looks exactly like you.
• Write a story where the main character learns something new about themselves.
• Write a story that takes place in the desert. 
• Write a story about a day where everything seems to go wrong. 
• Write a poem about the color blue.
• How would your life be different if you didn’t have access to a computer, video games or your phone?

Fun writing prompts for high schoolers

• You win a million dollars, but there’s a catch — you have to spend it all in 24 hours, or you lose all the money. What do you do?
• Write about something you or your family does from the perspective of someone from another country.
• If you could make up a new holiday, when would it be and what would it celebrate?
• Go out on a nature walk and find a tree. Write the story of that tree, from the time it was a seed until now.
• What’s the most boring superpower you can think of? How would it be useful?
• If you could pass any law, what would it be?
• You meet yourself in the future, as a grown-up at age 35 — what do you talk about? 
• If you had to show aliens the most important/best things in the world, what would you show them?
• Who is your hero and why?
• Write about the best surprise you ever got. 
• What are three good things you can do for the environment? How can you encourage the people around you to do good things for the environment?
• What is your earliest memory? Write down as many details as you can remember.
• If you could take two people – real or fictional – on a cross-country road trip, who would you take? Where would you go?
• If you could have any job in the world tomorrow, what would you do?
• What is the best thing about living in your city or neighbourhood?
• Write a letter to your 30-year-old self. What do you think you’ll accomplish by then?
• Teach me how to make your favorite recipe.
• Describe the sound of your favorite song using descriptive words.

Persuasive writing prompts for high school

• Should kids be allowed to use social media unsupervised? Why or why not?
• Persuade someone to start a healthy habit, or get rid of a bad one.
• Should all single-use plastics be outlawed? Why or why not?
• Should our school have a dress code? Why or why not?
• Is it more important to be right or to not hurt someone else’s feelings?
• What important historical figure do you think belongs on the ten-dollar bill?
• Do you think you’re born with your personality traits, or do you gain them as you grow up?
• Should mobile apps be responsible for protecting your privacy — why or why not?

Social emotional learning journal prompts

School is about more than just books and quizzes — it’s about preparing students for the rest of their lives. Social emotional learning teaches them how to build good relationships with peers, understand and control their emotions and make healthy life decisions.

Journaling is a great way for students to reflect on their feelings in a safe, private space. Use these journaling prompts as thought starters for more social emotional learning!

Check out our list of the 25 best social emotional learning activities for students here. 

• Tell me about a tradition you have with your family or friends. 
• What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?
• Have you ever found something that you lost? How did you feel when you found it?
• What is something you haven’t learned this school year that you’re still wondering about?
• What do you do when you’re angry? Write about three ways you calm yourself down.
• Where do you feel the safest? Why do you feel safe there?
• Write a poem to make a friend happy.
• When was the last time you were kind to someone? How can you be kind to someone today?
• How are you feeling today? Are you happy, sad, excited or anxious?
• If you could give your best friend a present, what would it be?
• What are the qualities you look for in a friend? Why is it important to be a good friend?
• What does responsibility mean to you?
• Who do you talk to when you’re worried about something? How do they make you feel better?
• If you could make a card for anyone in your life, who would it be for and what would it say?
• What’s your favorite thing about yourself?
• Write about a time you had to make a hard decision. How did you make your decision?
• What do you do to make yourself happy when you’re sad?
• Write about a time you were disappointed. 
• What are three things that make your best friend awesome?
• What do you think empathy means? Why is it important?
• How can you cheer up a friend who is sad?
• What makes you a good friend? How can you be a better friend?
• What’s the best piece of advice a friend, parent or teacher has ever given you?
• Write three goals for the rest of the school year. How are you going to accomplish them?
• What does responsibility mean to you? What are you responsible for at school and at home?
• What person in your life makes you feel confident?
• What scares you? How can you overcome your fears?
• Tell me about a time when you tried something new. How did it feel? Did you do it again?

Math writing prompts for kids

Whether it’s tackling word problems or explaining a new concept, writing is a surprisingly good tool for the math classroom. 

A math journal can help you understand what students already know, while giving them space to work through tricky concepts on their own. Use these writing prompts to promote literacy in every subject — and help students avoid math anxiety .

• Tell me everything you know about ________.
• Explain, in words, how to solve this problem.
• What is and isn’t true about this situation?
• What is _______?
• Explain two different ways to solve this problem. Which one is better?
• What did you get correct in this problem?
• What mistakes did you make while solving this problem?
• What do you not understand about _____?
• Write a word problem using the concept we’re learning about. 
• What did you learn today?
• How do you use math in your everyday life?
• What is the easiest/hardest part of math class?
• What discoveries did you make in math class today?

Final thoughts on writing prompts for kids

Writing prompts aren’t the end of the story — they’re just the beginning. Encourage your students to build a regular writing practice, and soon you’ll see the benefits in every class. 

Where will your students’ imaginations take them?

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Teachers Workshop

A Duke TIP Blog

Teaching Argument Writing: Use Manifestos with Gifted Youth

July 2, 2019 By Monica Miller Leave a Comment

This post shares differentiated content ideas for designing a lesson that teaches argumentation to gifted youth.

What Gifted Youth Need

Gifted students bring enormous passion and knowledge to the classroom, but they sometimes struggle to find appropriate channels for these talents. While many of these students are comfortable with expressing their point of view in more creative fiction or nonfiction settings–such as creating YouTube commentary videos or writing original stories–they often have less experience with expressing their ideas in more traditional written genres, such as an argumentative essay. As a writing instructor in Duke TIP eStudies program who has also taught at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Louisiana State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Middle Georgia State University, I look for opportunities to bring a sense of authenticity to student writing and to channel their enthusiasm and interests so they can create organized, engaging arguments. 

So often, what students learn about organizing and communicating their thoughts–especially in written essays and arguments–are so rote, cookie-cutter, and aimed at success in standardized tests as to squeeze any sense of joy or originality out of writing, for both teachers and students. In teaching students so many rules–from not using “I” in their work to the dreaded five-paragraph essay–we sometimes end up stunting them with training wheels, as John Warner argues in Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities . According to Warner, by insisting on teaching such a rigid template for writing, we not only are teaching students an “artificial construct,” a type of writing which they will never use outside of school, but we also encourage them to see writing as a kind of “fill-in-the-blank” exercise, rather than one which draws on their knowledge, curiosity, and passion (29). Gifted students may find such cookie-cutter exercises dull and a waste of time. 

How do you teach argumentation? 

How have you used the declaration of independence in your classroom , share with us below .

Models: What Do We Mean By Manifesto?

While I think it is important to provide engaging models of writing for students, I want them to see the models as inspirations, rather than templates to fill out. The models I draw on provide a variety of structures to make their arguments, in an effort to demonstrate that there’s no “one-size-fits-all” way of writing. Gifted students appreciate knowing multiple possibilities, as many gifted students are highly versatile and can digest a large amount of input and knowledge. However, despite the models’ variety in historical context, length, purpose, and even language, I have drawn from them a common model which I characterize as a “manifesto” model of argument, a model which I then ask students to emulate in their own work. 

“Manifesto” may sound like a lofty, contentious genre. However, at its heart, a manifesto is a declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of a group, and it usually has some ideological dimension to it. There are manifestos for everything from political movements to preferred fonts . For this assignment, I start with a model with which most of my students have at least a passing familiarity: the Declaration of Independence . 

I start this unit by having students take turns reading the entire Declaration of Independence. While students may be reticent at first to read out loud–or may think they know it already, or may not be interested in it–the act of reading the Declaration of Independence out loud functions as a striking demonstration of the powerful potential of words. Once we get past the familiar opening phrases, it’s nearly impossible not to be moved by the text. The Founding Fathers’ words retain their feeling of rebelliousness, of anger, of accusation, which can’t help but capture the students’ attention. (And I admit to showing my own emotional reaction to the document, as I find it an emotionally stirring statement. My own dramatic reaction can often give students a sense of permission to experience their own response to the text.)

Why the Manifesto?

Ultimately, this “manifesto model” of argument writing works because:

• It is modeled after powerful examples of real-word writing;
• It provides enough of a structure that students have a place to start in organizing their ideas;
• It has enough flexibility that students (and teachers) can adapt it to a wide variety of writing contexts;
• It generally helps students produce more engaging, dynamic reading, which makes for much more rewarding teaching.

For gifted students, who may be used to seeing an intimidating quantity of content knowledge as sufficient for creating a convincing argument, this model forces a higher level of engagement with their knowledge; and this engagement can be driven by and further fuel their passion for learning. By starting with a topic about which they’re already passionate and knowledgeable–whether Marvel superheroes, American history, or Shakespeare’s plays–and using this model to construct an argument about their topic, students are forced to sort and evaluate their information into these categories, which helps them organize and synthesize their knowledge into a cogent argument. It is not enough to present a substantial amount of background knowledge; students must decide what values this information represents. They must determine whether the evidence they’re presenting is in alignment with the values they have claimed.

Then they must decide what exactly they are arguing for (the “Call to Action”) as well as the significance of their argument (“What’s at Stake?”) All of these elements are identifiable in the models from American history I have suggested (the Declaration, the Address, and the Letter); by referring students to these models and having them identify where they see these elements in the famous documents, students can find inspiration (but not cookie cutters for) their own work.

The Declaration of Independence as a Model Argument

I have drawn on the Declaration of Independence to construct a model for writing an argument that students use in creating their own arguments. Using the Declaration as my own model for what I call a “manifesto argument,” I break down this manifesto argument into four main parts:

• Background (“When in the course of human events…”)
• Statement of Values (“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”)
• Call to Action (“That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states…”)
• What’s at Stake (“Our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour…”)

Rather than a fill-in-the-blank template, this manifesto model requires that students draw on critical thinking skills to determine what information and evidence they should draw on for each of these sections.

The model is adaptable enough that it can be used as a low-stakes, formative assignment to practice sketching out an argument, drawing on students’ pre-existing knowledge and passion (a manifesto for pizza parties on Fridays! For what Hogwarts house they belong in!), to more long-term, summative assignments incorporating academic or even field research. 

Using Other Manifestos

In some classes, the Declaration of Independence is the only manifesto example that we read out loud. However, I have also had success teaching it along with the Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “ Letter from a Birmingham Jail ,” reading all of the Lincoln speech and excerpts of the King essay out loud.

As a trio of texts, they echo and reflect back on each other, forming an important trio of foundational documents on the centrality of the idea of freedom in American history. I’ve had one students describe the two subsequent documents as the “Declaration Parts Two and Three”–and yet another student characterized it as the ultimate break-up letter. Taken together, these documents can act as a productive jumping off point for a student discussion on the evolutionary nature of ideas, or on the understanding of liberty and democracy in American history. The concrete nature of using primary source documents in the classroom has a strong appeal to gifted students who excel at finding patterns and relationships in content.

Regardless of the field, discipline, or career path that students are drawn to, they must have the ability to construct a cogent argument supported by clear, credible evidence. Providing them with a flexible heuristic such as this manifesto model moves students away from the kind of “training wheels” kind of writing assignments which discourages complex engagement with their subject matter. And perhaps even more importantly, it’s more interesting for students to write, and it’s more interesting for teachers to read. 

About Monica Miller

Dr. Monica Miller is an assistant professor of English at Middle Georgia State University. A former TIPster herself, she has taught courses in Shakespeare, writing, and dystopian literature for Duke TIP in both the residential and online programs. Her first book, Being Ugly: Southern Women Writers and Social Rebellion , was published by Louisiana University Press's Southern Literary Studies Series.

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Sat / act prep online guides and tips, 105 creative writing prompts to try out.

General Education

The most common advice out there for being a writer is, "if you want to write, write." While this is true (and good advice), it's not always that easy, particularly if you're not writing regularly.

Whether you're looking for help getting started on your next project, or just want to spend 20 minutes being creative, writing prompts are great ways to rev up your imagination. Read on for our list of over 100 creative writing prompts!

feature image credit: r. nial bradshaw /Flickr

10 Short Writing Prompts

If you're looking for a quick boost to get yourself going, these 10 short writing prompts will do the trick.

#1 : Write a scene starting with a regular family ritual that goes awry.

#2 : Describe exactly what you see/smell/hear/etc, right now. Include objects, people, and anything else in your immediate environment.

#3 : Suggest eight possible ways to get a ping pong ball out of a vertical pipe.

#4 : A shoe falls out of the sky. Justify why.

#5 : If your brain were a tangible, physical place, what would it be like?

#6 : Begin your writing with the phrase, "The stage was set."

#7 : You have been asked to write a history of "The Summer of [this past year]." Your publisher wants a table of contents. What events will you submit?

#8 : Write a sympathetic story from the point of view of the "bad guy." (Think fractured fairy tales like Wicked or The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! , although the story doesn't have to be a fairy tale.)

#9 : Look at everyday objects in a new way and write about the stories one of these objects contains.

#10 : One person meets a stranger on a mode of transportation. Write the story that ensues.

11 Writing Prompts for Kids

Any of these prompts can be used by writers of any age, but we chose the following 11 prompts as ones that would be particularly fun for kids to write about. (Most of them I used myself as a young writer, so I can vouch for their working!)

#1 : Include something falling in your writing.

#2 : Write a short poem (or story) with the title, "We don't know when it will be fixed."

#3 : Write from the perspective of someone of a different gender than you.

#4 : Write a dumb internet quiz.

#5 : Finish this thought: "A perfect day in my imagination begins like this:"

#6 : Write a character's inner monologue (what they are thinking as they go about their day).

#7 : Think of a character. Write a paragraph each about:

• An important childhood experience that character had.
• The character's living situation.
• Two hobbies or things the character likes to do.
• The room where the character sleeps.
• An ambition of the character.
• Two physical characteristics of the character.
• What happens when a second person and this character meet.
• Two important defining personal traits of this character.

#8 : Start a story with a quote from a song.

#9 : Begin a story with, "It was the summer of ______ when ______"

#10 : Pretend everyday objects have no names. Think about what you would name them based on what they do, what you can use them for, and what they look like.

#11 : Start a story with the phrases "My grandparents are/were," "My parents are/were," or "My mother/father/parent is/was."

15 Cool Writing Prompts

#1 : List five issues that you're passionate about. Write about them from the opposite point of view (or from the perspective of a character with the opposite point of view).

#2 : Walk around and write down a phrase you hear (or read). Make a story out of it.

#3 : Write using no adjectives or adverbs.

#4 : Write a character's inner dialogue between different aspects of a character's self (rather than an inner monologue).

#5 : Write a true story from your past that involves light or darkness in some way.

#6 : "Saying goodbye awakens us to the true nature of things." Write something in which someone has to say goodbye and has a realization.

#7 : Begin by writing the end of the story.

#8 : Write a recipe for an intangible thing.

#9 : Write a horror story about an ordinary situation (e.g., buying groceries, going to the bank, listening to music).

#10 : Write a story from within a bubble.

#11 : Write down 2-3 short character descriptions and then write the characters in conversation with one another.

#12 : Write a story in second person.

#13 : Write a story that keeps contradicting itself.

#14 : Write about a character with at least three big problems.

#15 : Write something that takes place on a Friday, the 13th (of any month).

15 Funny Writing Prompts

#1 : Write a story which starts with someone eating a pickle and potato sandwich.

#2 : Write a short script where the plot has to do with evil dolls trying to take over something.

#3 : Write about writers' block.

#4 : List five election issues that would be ridiculous to includes as part of your election platform (e.g. outlawing mechanical pencils and clicky pens, mandating every person over the age of 30 must own an emergency last rites kit). Choose one of the ridiculous issues and write a speech in favor of it.

#5 : Write a children's story that is insanely inappropriate but can't use graphic language, curses, or violence.

#6 : List five careers. Write about someone with one of those careers who wants to quit it.

#7 : Write down a list of murder methods. Choose one at random from the list to use in a story.

#8 : Write a romance story in which the hero must have a last name corresponding with a physical characteristic (e.g. Jacques Hairyback or Flora Dimple).

#9 : Come up with 10 different ways to:

• order a pizza
• congratulate someone on a job well done
• return to the store something that's broken

#10 : Search for "random Renaissance painting" (or any other inspirational image search text you can think of) on any online internet image search engine. Picking one image, write half a page each of:

• Statements about this image (e.g. "I meant bring me the BREAD of John the Baptist").
• Questions about this image (e.g. "How many of those cherubs look like their necks are broken?").
• Explanations of this image (e.g. "The painter ran out of blue paint halfway through and had to improvise for the color of the sky").
• Commands said by people in this image or about this image (e.g. "Stop telling me to smile!" or "Bring me some gasoline!").

#11 : Write starting with a word that sounds like "chute" (e.g. "chute," "shoot," "shooed").

#12 : Write about a character named X "The [article of clothing]" Y (e.g. Julie "The Yellow Darted Skirt" Whyte) or simply referred to by their clothing (e.g. "the man in the brown suit" or "the woman in black").

#13 : Write down a paragraph each describing two wildly different settings. Write a story involving both settings.

#14 : Think of a fictional holiday based around some natural event (e.g. the Earth being at its farthest point from the sun, in memory of a volcanic eruption, that time a cloud looked like a rabbit riding a bicycle). Write about how this holiday is celebrated.

#15 : Write a "Just-So" type story about a fictional creature (e.g. "how the dragon got its firebreath" or "how the mudkip got its cheek gills").

54 Other Writing Prompt Ideas

#1 : Borrow a character from some other form of media (or create your own). Write from that character's perspective.

#2 : Write for and against a non-consequential controversy (e.g., salt vs. pepper, Mac vs. PC, best kind of door).

#3 : Choose an ancestor or a person from the past to write about or to.

#4 : Write a pirate story with a twist.

#5 : Have a character talk about another character and their feelings about that other character.

#6 : Pick a season and think about an event in your life that occurred in that season. Write a creative nonfiction piece about that event and that season.

#7 : Think of something very complicated and long. Write a page about it using short sentences.

#8 : Write a story as a dream.

#9 : Describe around a food without ever directly naming it.

#10 : Write a monologue (one character, talking to the audience/reader) (*not* an inner monologue).

#11 : Begin a story with the phrase, "It only took five seconds to..."

#12 : List five strong emotions. Choosing one, write about a character experiencing that emotion, but only use the character's actions to convey how they are feeling (no outright statements).

#13 : Write a chapter of the memoir of your life.

#14 : Look through the (physical) things you're currently carrying with you or wearing. Write about the memories or emotions tied with each of them.

#15 : Go be in nature. Write drawing your story from your surroundings (both physical, social, and mental/emotional).

#16 : Write from the perspective of a bubble (or bubble-like creature).

#17 : A person is jogging along an asphalt road. Write a story.

#18 : Title your story (or poem, or play, etc) "Anti-_____". Fill in the blank and write the story.

#19 : Write something that must include an animal, a mineral, and a vegetable.

#20 : Begin your writing with the phrase, "6 weeks later..."

#21 : List 5-10 office jobs. Pick one of them and describe a person working in that job as if you were a commentator on an Olympic sporting event.

#22 : Practice your poetic imagery: overwrite a description of a character's breakfast routine.

#23 : Write about a character (or group of characters) trying to convince another character to try something they're scared of.

#24 : Keep an eye out in your environment for examples of greengrocer's apostrophes and rogue quotation marks. Pick an example and write about what the misplaced punctuation implies (e.g., we have the "best" meat or we have the best "meat" ).

#25 : Fill in the blank with the first word that comes to mind: "_______ Riot!" Write a newspaper-style article describing the events that that took place.

#26 : Write from the point of view of your most-loved possession. What does it think of you?

#27 : Think of five common sayings (e.g., "An apple a day keeps the doctor away"). Write a horror story whose plot is one of those common sayings.

#28 : Write a scene in which two characters are finally hashing out a long-standing misunderstanding or disagreement.

#29 : You start receiving text messages from an unknown number. Tell the story of what happens next.

#30 : Write one character bragging to another about the story behind their new tattoo.

#31 : Superheroes save the world...but they also leave a lot of destruction in their wake. Write about a normal person in a superhero's world.

#32 : Sometimes, family is who we are related to; sometimes, family is a group of people we gather around ourselves. Write a story about (some of) a character's found family and relatives meeting for the first time.

#33 : Write a story that begins in the middle of the plot's action ( en media res ).

#34 : Everyone says you can never have too much of a good thing. Write a story where that isn't true.

#35 : What do ghosts do when they're not creating mischief? Write about the secret lives of ghosts.

#36 : Every year, you dread the last week of April. Write a story about why.

#37 : Write a story about what it would be like to have an animal sidekick in real life.

#38 : Heists don't just have to be black-clad thieves stealing into vaults to steal rare art or money. Write about a group of people (adults or children) who commit a heist for something of seemingly little monetary value.

#39 : "Life is like a chooseable-path adventure, except you don't get to see what would have happened if you chose differently." Think of a choice you've made and write about a world where you made a different choice.

#40 : Write a story about a secret room.

#41 : You find a message in a bottle with very specific directions. Write a story about the adventure you embark upon.

#42 : "You'll always be okay as long as you know where your _______ is." Fill in the blank and write a story (either fictional or from your life) illustrating this statement.

#43 : Forcing people into prolonged proximity can change and deepen relationships. Write about characters on a road trip together.

#44 : In music, sonata form includes three main parts: exposition, development, and recapitulation. Write a short story that follows this format.

#45 : Begin writing with a character saying, "I'm afraid this simply can't wait."

#46 : Write a story with a happy ending (either happily-ever-after or happy-for-now).

#47 : Write about a character before and after a tragedy in that character's life.

#48 : Choose an object or concept you encounter in everyday life (e.g. tables, the feeling of hot or cold, oxygen) and write an infomercial about it.

#49 : "Life is a series of quests, whether important or mundane." Write about a quest you've gone on (or would like to go on, or will have to go on).

#50 : List 10 different ways to learn. Choose one (or more) and write a story where a character learns something using that one (or more) method.

#51 : You've been called to the principal's office for bad behavior. You know what you did. Explain and justify yourself.

#52 : A character discovers their sibling owns a cursed object. Write about what happens next.

#53 : Write a character description by writing a list of items that would be on a scavenger hunt about them.

#54 : The slogan for a product or service you're advertising is, "Kid-tested, _____." Fill in the blank and write the copy for a radio or podcast advertisement for your product.

How to Use Creative Writing Prompts

There's no wrong way to use a creative writing prompt (unless it's to harass and hurt someone)—the point of them is to get you writing and your imagination flowing.

To help you get the most out of these writing prompts, however, we've come up with the six tips below. Try them out!

#1: DON'T Limit Yourself to Prose

Unless you're writing for a particular assignment, there's no reason everything you write in response to a writing prompt has to be prose fiction . Instead of writing your response to a prompt as a story, try writing a poem, nonfiction essay, play, screenplay, or some other format entirely.

#2: DON'T Edit as You Write

The purposes of writing prompts is to get you writing, typos and weird grammar and all. Editing comes later, once you've finished writing and have some space from it to come back to what you wrote.

It's OK to fix things that will make it difficult to read what you've written (e.g., a weird autocorrect that changes the meaning of a sentence), but don't worry too much about typos or perfect grammar when you're writing; those are easy enough to fix in edits . You also can always insert asterisks or a short note as you're writing to remind yourself to go back to fix something (for instance, if as you're writing it seems like you want to move around the order of your paragraphs or insert something earlier).

#3: DO Interpret the Prompt Broadly

The point of using a writing prompt is not to write something that best exemplifies the prompt, but something that sparks your own creativity. Again, unless you're writing in response to an assignment with specific directions, feel free to interpret writing prompts as broadly or as narrowly as you want.

For instance, if your prompt is to write a story that begins with "The stage was set," you could write about anything from someone preparing to put a plan into motion to a literal theatre stage constructed out of pieces of old sets (or something else entirely).

If you're using a writing prompt, it doesn't have to be the first sentence of your story or poem, either; you can also use the prompt as a goal to work towards in your writing.

#4: DO Try Switching Up Your Writing Methods

If it's a possibility for you, see if you write differently in different media. Do you write the same kind of stories by hand as you would typing at a computer? What about if you dictate a story and then transcribe it? Or text it to a friend? Varying the method you use to write can affect the stories you're able to tell.

For example, you may find that it's easier for you to tell stories about your life to a voice recorder than to try to write out a personal essay. Or maybe you have trouble writing poetry, but can easily text yourself or a friend a poem. You might even find you like a writing method you've not tried before better than what you've been doing!

#5: DO Mix and Match Prompt Ideas

If you need more inspiration, feel free to combine multiple prompts (but don't overwhelm yourself with too much to write about).

You can also try switching genres from what might be suggested in the prompt. For instance, try writing a prompt that seems funny in a serious and sad way, or finding the humor in something that otherwise seems humorless. The categories we've organized the prompts into are by no means limiters on what you're allowed to write about.

#6: DO Try to Write Regularly

The more regularly you write, the easier it will be to write (with or without writing prompts).

For some people, this means writing daily; for others, it means setting aside time to write each weekend or each month. Set yourself an achievable goal (write 2x a week, write 1000 words a month) and stick to it. You can always start small and then ramp your wordcount or frequency up.

If you do better when you have something outside yourself prompting to write, you may also want to try something like morning pages , which encourages you to write at least 750 words every day, in any format (story, diary entry, social media postings, etc).

What's Next?

Thinking about attending college or grad school for creative writing? Our articles on whether or not you should major in creative writing and the best creative writing programs are there for you! Plus, if you're a high schooler, you should check out these top writing contests .

Creative writing doesn't necessarily have to be fiction. Check out these three examples of narrative writing and our tips for how to write your own narrative stories and essays .

Just as writing prompts can help give form to amorphous creative energy, using specific writing structures or devices can be great starting points for your next story. Read through our discussion of the top 20 poetic devices to know and see if you can work at least one new one into your next writing session.

Still looking for more writing ideas? Try repurposing our 100+ easy drawing ideas for characters, settings, or plot points in your writing.

Laura graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College with a BA in Music and Psychology, and earned a Master's degree in Composition from the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She scored 99 percentile scores on the SAT and GRE and loves advising students on how to excel in high school.

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How to Challenge Gifted Students in Writing: Stimulate Creative Thinking and Utilize Technology

By Happy Sharer

Introduction

Gifted students are those who demonstrate a high level of academic ability and excel beyond their peers. While it is important to provide rigorous instruction to meet their needs, it can be difficult to engage them in the classroom. Writing is an essential skill, and teachers must find ways to challenge gifted students in order to ensure they reach their full potential.

Provide Writing Prompts That Stimulate Creative Thinking

One way to challenge gifted students in writing is to provide writing prompts that stimulate creative thinking. Brainstorming is an effective way to generate ideas for writing assignments. Teachers can ask students to come up with a list of topics and then narrow down the list to one that is interesting and engaging. Open-ended questions can also be used to prompt students to think more deeply about a particular topic or issue.

In addition, teachers should assign writing challenges that require students to stretch their imaginations. For example, they might ask students to write a story from the perspective of a character they have never encountered before, or write a poem about a historical event. These types of challenges encourage students to think outside the box and use their creativity.

Incorporate Different Types of Writing Assignments

Another way to challenge gifted students in writing is to incorporate different types of writing assignments. Narrative writing allows students to tell a story, while expository writing requires them to explain an idea or concept. Argumentative writing encourages students to make a case for their point of view. By providing a variety of writing assignments, teachers can ensure that gifted students are engaged and challenged.

Encourage Students to Research New Topics

Research is an important part of writing, and teachers should encourage gifted students to research new topics. The library is a great resource for this, but teachers should also consider online resources, such as databases and websites. In addition, interviews can be a great way for students to get first-hand information on a particular topic.

Use Visual Aids Such as Pictures and Videos

Visual aids can be a great way to engage gifted students in writing. Incorporating images into writing assignments can help students visualize the topic and create a stronger connection to the material. Additionally, videos can be used to illustrate a concept or provide context for a story. By using visual aids, teachers can ensure that gifted students stay engaged and interested in the writing process.

Ask Students to Write in Different Genres

Writing in different genres can be a great way to challenge gifted students in writing. Poetry, drama, and fiction all offer unique opportunities for students to express themselves and explore their creativity. Assigning these types of writing assignments can help students develop their skills and become more confident writers.

Assign Group Projects

Group projects can be an effective way to challenge gifted students in writing. Collaboration is an important part of the writing process, and working together on a project can help students learn from each other and develop their skills. Additionally, peer review can be beneficial as it allows students to receive feedback on their work and make improvements.

Utilize Technology to Enhance Writing Assignments

Technology can be a great tool for enhancing writing assignments. Digital tools such as word processors, presentation software, and graphic design programs can help students create professional looking documents. Additionally, audio and visual resources can be used to add interest and engagement to writing assignments.

Challenging gifted students in writing is an important part of helping them reach their full potential. By providing stimulating prompts, incorporating different types of writing assignments, encouraging research, using visual aids, assigning group projects, and utilizing technology, teachers can ensure that gifted students are engaged and challenged. Ultimately, these strategies will help them become more confident and successful writers.

(Note: Is this article not meeting your expectations? Do you have knowledge or insights to share? Unlock new opportunities and expand your reach by joining our authors team. Click Registration to join us and share your expertise with our readers.)

Hi, I'm Happy Sharer and I love sharing interesting and useful knowledge with others. I have a passion for learning and enjoy explaining complex concepts in a simple way.

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A meeting place for a world of reflective writers.

What Gifted Writers Need

One of my writing mentors said that the best writers are the ones who give themselves the most permissions. I have been teaching gifted elementary students for the past eight of my 28 years of teaching. Gifted students, at least the ones I have taught, tend to be highly verbal. These young students come to me ready to write. They just need permission.

Today with the Common Core standards and the new testing systems (PARCC for us), teachers have become more and more fearful of creative writing. Writing is not fun anymore. It is a given on the test, so we must practice writing to a prompt using at least two texts as support. “Show text evidence” is a common critique written on my student’s reader responses.

Creativity relies on permission. I use writing workshop style. The students know the expectations; however, they are also free to roam around the room, to write in different mediums (paper and pencil or word processing), and to explore different forms.

One day I was asking my students to write a haiku poem. I introduced Laura Purdie Salas’ “Why-ku” poetry form .  Some of my boys got together and created their own form. They called it “Psyku!” Here’s how Reed explained it on our kidblog site: “This is an out -of-the-world dumb type of writing. You just make up a topic and have it crazyfied! It can be something about a dumb person or a wacky topic.” The syllable count (which actually has a pattern to it) is 5, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 5, 7, 5, 8.

From Nigel, an original creator of the Psyku:

I can’t see. It’s dark. OUCH!! A brick wall. I can’t see. It’s dark. I know I’m not blind. I can’t see. It’s dark. Maybe just a long blink. I can’t see. It’s dark. My glasses lenses are clear. I can’t see. It’s dark. Hold on. I just found the light switch.  

I posted this wild and wacky poetry form on Poetry Friday and had seven poets respond with a Psyku! See the post and comments here .  My students were elated. Their confidence was boosted sky high, and other students wanted to invent their own poetry forms as well.

From Michelle Heidenrich Barnes (who is no stranger to poetry challenges. She hosts a ditty challenge each month on her blog.)

Any questions?

Above is below. Calm is uptight. Inside is outside. And wrong’s always right. High-fives? Unheard of! They’re now low-fives instead. And all underwear should be worn over the head. We end at the start. The start is the end. I’m hungry.

Trying on the forms of other writers gives students freedom to be creative. On Michelle’s site, Today’s Little Ditty, I read about J. Patrick Lewis’s poetry form called the zeno .  I introduced this form to my students, and they came back to it again and again. Writing about murmurations, Emily chose this form and used Animoto to further express her thoughts in video form.

My students come into my class with amazing abilities. They have minds full of imaginative ideas. I open up the door and allow them to let go, to try on new words and forms, to experiment with technology, and to be inventive. I believe that creativity is the lacking ingredient in the standards and standardized testing. And creativity will be the savior of our society. All a gifted writer needs is permission. After that, they will amaze you.

Margaret Simon lives on the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, Louisiana.  Margaret has a Masters degree in Gifted Education and certification by the National Boards for Professional Teaching Standards. She received the Donald Graves Award for teaching writing from NCTE in 2014. Her young readers novel, Blessen, was published by Border Press in April, 2012.  She blogs regularly at http://reflectionsontheteche.wordpress.com .

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21 thoughts on “ What Gifted Writers Need ”

Margaret, I find that my top kiddos and my top teachers have something in common. They BOTH need permission to “let something go”. Freedom to create is powerful; not helpful when structures fight against that very intellectual freedom that is so necessary!

Thanks for sharing the student work!

Bravo for infusing technology and creativity into your teaching, Margaret. I think gifted children, in particular, need permission often to spread their wings and take risks. How marvelous for them that you give them just the opportunity.

We all seem to think we need permission to do creative things with students these days. It is nice to know someone is passing the gift of permission to be creative on to her students. I hope more folks — at all levels and with all student populations — can find a way to do this.

Margaret~ So refreshing to hear you talk about permission in writing. I agree we all need to give ourselves and our students permission. I teach first graders who I like to believe are still fresh and work without (society or school imposed) boundaries, but this is not always the case. I have had writers who appear to need support getting started or generating a topic, then just as we discover a “sweet spot” an idea that sparks them I hear. “Oh, am I allowed to do that?” This puzzles me as I have never given them a writing prompt or demanded a style or genre. First grade allows us to be creative and free, we have permission. These writers who are already cautioned in first grade concern me more than any of my other writers.

I got a first grader this year. He was the one who made me realize that they need us to open up the creativity door. He would give me one sentence answers full of school acceptable language. When finally he realized that I wanted him to respond from his own thoughts and ideas, he took off. He became the one to ask, “Are we writing today?” Ah, music.

Margaret, I love the idea that gifted writers need permission. Actually, that’s what all writers need, I suppose… just to give ourselves permission. Thanks so much for sharing your thinking today on Two Writing Teachers!

I sometimes hesitate to use the term “gifted” because so many of the methods I use with them are good for all children.

Wow- this is such an interesting post. You’ve got me thinking about so many things. “Psyku” – what a great writing adventure for your students.

“All a gifted writer needs is permission. After that, they will amaze you.” I learned this this school year and it has changed everything!

I think sometimes we rely too much on the lesson plan. I tend to veer off the road quite easily and my students love leading me.

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“Creativity relies on permission.” So true! Not just for gifted kids, but all children. School by it’s very nature takes this away. You open up the world of writing for your students while channelling that creativity with your expectations. No small task! Your students (and you) continually amaze me. Julieanne

We just have to pay attention. They want to be creative. If we notice the moments when light shines, it’s likely to shine again and again. Students rely on us to tell them what is “right” and “good.”

Don’t we all wish that every student could have this opportunity. I’m happy you give your students the chance (permission?) to write and create their own ideas. They do wonderful things.

I agree that students need to allowed freedom to write. Too many of my struggling students don’t like to write not only because it’s difficult, but also because they are afraid its going to be marked up and its so prescribed.

I don’t see how test-generated writing is authentic. Real writers rewrite and rewrite. We need to give students opportunities to try out without fear of judgement.

Wow. This post was filled with such richness: your beliefs on what writers need in this narrow, test driven time; different poetry styles to try and invent!; students seeing themselves as mentors for teachers (another wow!); the seamless use of media such as Animoto paired with writing. I’m rather blown away! Do you teach only writing to gifted students across grade levels or do you teach one grade of gifted students all subjects? Such a powerful post with many things to come back to.

I teach gifted students in grades 1-6. We do an academic pull-out program, so I am able to schedule my students for the ELA (Reading and Writing) block. I usually work with multiple grade levels at one time.

“Creativity relies on permission.” YES!!!! I completely agree with every syllable in this post!! I’ve found that the students who come to me with much academic success struggle with writing creatively. They are looking for the “right” answer. Nudging them and giving them permission to find their own right answer is tough, but so worth it! What a creative form of poetry and beautiful poems penned by your amazing creative writers! Thank you for sharing…I am so inspired!

Michelle, interesting how you mentioned the struggling writers because I was thinking sometimes they are the ones handed the worksheets while the more gifted writers get opportunities for creativity. Margaret’s amazing post reminds us of the power of freedom, choice, digital literacies and an amazing teacher as a model and guide!

Students (especially gifted ones) are teacher pleasers and want to perform to your expectations. When you expect out of the box, creative thinking, they can be thrown off course. This is another subject for another post, but perfectionism is a difficult thing to overcome.

That “It’s dark” poem is pretty awesome.

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Creativity in the Classroom is Important for Gifted Students

As teachers, we often hear about the importance of creativity in education. But what does creativity really mean? Why is it crucial for our students? There are 3 main reasons you should teach creativity in the classroom:

• Gives students a voice
• Teaches problem-solving and critical thinking skills
• Supports unique perspectives

What is Creativity?

First, let’s define creativity . Creativity is the ability to generate new and innovative ideas . It’s the ability to think outside the box and come up with new solutions to problems. Creativity is not just artistic expression, although that’s a form of creativity. Creativity can be applied to any subject, from math and science to language arts and social studies.

So why is creativity important in the classroom? For one thing, it helps students develop critical thinking skills. When students are encouraged to come up with their own ideas and solutions, they have to evaluate and analyze different options. They must make decisions based on logical reasoning and evidence. This type of problem-solving is essential for academics and, more important, any future career path.

Creativity in the Classroom

Creativity in the classroom is also important for allowing students to develop their own voice. When students can express themselves and share their ideas, they feel more connected to the learning and invested in their education. This leads to increased motivation and engagement, which provides amazing learning outcomes.

Finally, creativity is important because it helps students prepare for the real world. In today’s rapidly changing world, the ability to think creatively is more important than ever! By fostering creativity in your classroom, you’re helping students develop the skills they need to thrive in their future world.

Giftedness and Creativity in the Classroom

Now that we’ve established the importance of creativity, let’s look at how we can use it to support our gifted students. Gifted students need and crave additional challenges. They also need support to help them reach their full potential. Here are a few ideas for incorporating creativity into your lessons to support gifted students:

• Encourage open-ended projects : Give gifted students the freedom to choose their own project topics and come up with their own ideas for how to show what they know. This allows them to use their creativity and apply their advanced skills and knowledge in a meaningful way.
• Offer a variety of learning options: Gifted students benefit from having multiple ways to engage with the material. Offer different learning modalities, such as hands-on, independent research, or group projects, to allow students to learn in a way that works best for them.

Story Coins are perfect for supporting creativity in the classroom!

• Encourage creativity in problem-solving : Gifted students often excel at coming up with creative solutions to problems. Encourage them to think outside the box and come up with original ideas for tackling challenges. This can be especially interesting in science or social studies content areas.
• Provide opportunities for collaboration: Gifted students may benefit from working with their peers on collaborative projects. Encourage them to share their ideas and work together to create something new.
• Encourage risk-taking: Creativity often involves taking risks and trying new things. Encourage gifted students to embrace this aspect of creativity and try out new ideas, even if they may not work out perfectly.

Technology and Creativity in the Classroom

In addition to these ideas to foster creativity, here are a few more that incorporate technology as a creative outlet. Incorporating technology and creativity into elementary education can help students further develop problem-solving, critical thinking, and communication skills, while also fostering their imagination and creativity.

• Create and share multimedia projects: Students can use tools like video, graphic design, or online presentation tools to create multimedia projects that showcase their creativity and knowledge. For example, students might create a video about a historical event, design a brochure about a science concept, or create a slide presentation about a literary work.
• Collaborate on projects: Technology can also help students collaborate with their classmates on creative projects. For example, students might use a collaborative document editing tool like Google Docs to work on a group writing project. They could use a project management tool like Trello to organize and track the progress of a group project.
• Explore and learn : Students can use tech to access a wide range of resources to learn new things in a fun way. For example, students might use online educational games or interactive simulations to explore science concepts. Or, they could use virtual reality tools to learn about history or geography in a immersive way.
• Communicate and share: Finally, technology can help students communicate and share their ideas with a wider audience. For example, students might use social media or blogging platforms to share their thoughts and creations with others. Or, they could use video conferencing tools to collaborate with experts from around the world on a specific topic.

Creativity is an essential part of education, and it’s particularly important for gifted students. Through creativity in the classroom, we can help students develop critical thinking skills, find voice and perspective, and prepare for the future. There are so many ways to incorporate creativity into the classroom. Try using lessons and activities like open-ended projects, choice options, problem-solving tasks, and collaboration.

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13 Ideas to Support your Gifted Students

• Korryna Sanchez
• March 11, 2022
• No Comments

Typically, as teachers, we put more time and energy into focusing on the students that have fallen behind or are struggling.  That’s where our focus lies, however, that doesn’t mean we ignore our middle-of-the-track or high flyers.  Yes, we want to make sure that those struggling students progress. It is also important to spend time with your gifted learners as well to ensure they are challenged appropriately and progress too! So we came up with a list of 13 Ideas to Support your Gifted Students.

As always, we looked to our Fearless Facebook Groups to help us come up with ideas and strategies to make sure ALL of the students in our classrooms are getting the attention and support they need.  

Join any of our three groups: Fearless Kindergarten Teachers: Education to the Core Facebook Group, Fearless First Grade Teachers: Education to the Core Facebook Group, or Fearless Second Grade Teachers: Education to the Core Facebook Group if you want more information and ideas to support your Gifted Students. It is also a great place to go if you are looking for feedback on anything else that has to do with navigating your #teacherlife. 

Ideas to Support your Gifted Students – 1: iPads

“ Do you have iPads? We have been using Beast Academy in math. It is higher-level thinking and you can pick the topic. I have a couple of mine work on that if we are working on a skill they already mastered.” -Tayler K. 

2-“I’m about to introduce author studies to mine.” -Lorren H. 

Ideas to support your Gifted Students – 3: Fluency Passages

Try using a higher level Fluency Passage to try and challenge them and provoke more complex thoughts when they are reading text.

4-“I do a book club with a group of 9 kids. They all read the same book. I assign them two chapters a week and q&a worksheets for each chapter. I meet with them once a week for 30 min to review the chapters read. They love it. For math, I teach 2-3 different lessons. While I teach group 1, the other two groups are on computers or at centers. Then group 1 goes and does their independent math worksheet, then I teach group 2, and so on. Group 1 is on level, Group 2 is above grade level by one year and group 3 is above grade level by 2 years. Sometimes I’ll assign my highest group a Khan Academy video to watch before my lesson so we can get through the lesson quicker.” -Tammy Y. 

5-“I challenge them throughout the day. During ELA they get more difficult words to sound out, or they become leaders and help students who are at grade level while I help struggling learners. They also get a chance to write multiple sentences versus only one or more complex sentences.  In math, they write their own word problems then share them with a group to solve. I sometimes give them higher numbers as well. Always encouraging higher-level thinking through questioning.  Remember to give more difficult work, not more work. It would be helpful to collaborate with your gifted teacher if you have one or second grade to see what resources you can share between each other. “ -Aurora M. 

6 – “My high learners love games they play with each other on the floor. Racko old game, but good practice with number sense, probability, and strategy. Decks of cards are fantastic for math games for almost every topic. They play quietly while I work with another group. After 1 year of remote the benefits of learning to play cooperatively beginning to show in how they get along.” -Karen L. 

Ideas to support your Gifted Students – 7: STEM Challenge Stories

STEM Challenge Stories encourages a  growth mindset. The challenges encourage a growth mindset, creative thinking, and inspire students to learn from their successes and their struggles. Challenging your gifted learned to not only do well when they know the answer but also when they do not know the answer is a huge part of supporting your gifted students.

8- “Pull out more advanced work or modify current work to be more challenging. For one student I have gone to the next grade up and borrowed activities to see what he can do. I have one who has become a regular teacher helper. She helps students who are struggling and puts smiley faces on their finished papers that are correct.” -Christina N. 

9- “It won’t work for everyone, especially in this covid era but small groups.  We do reading in small groups at a grade level. All students are broken up into groups and go to their specific intervention group at the same time. All students work on what they need.  I teach writing in two groups. My intervention group and my capable students don’t need to learn to segment but need to learn to compose. I also do math in small groups. I’m teaching the same content but a little differently depending on capability. After guided math small groups my math intervention students get pulled for a group with paras and my more capable students work on a number sense activity.” -Susan T. 

10 – “Book clubs! My high flyers read a level K Razz kid’s book about animals. They chose an animal from the book to research. We went to the library and they took out books and I also assigned them books on Epic. They are writing a report and working Inca diorama to present to the class!” -Adela F. 

Ideas to Support your Gifted Students – 11: Once Upon A Stem

Once Upon a STEM is fun and great for those gifted students because these activities involve some research and can be done as a self-study activity that gives them the option to go at their own pace and not feel the pressure of trying to finish first or wanting to compare their work to their peers.

12 “Genius hour. They love it, grow reading, writing, speaking, and many other skills. everyone learns through the presentations or sharing of learning. Child driven.” -Joanne S. 

13-  My students love games and they build so many skills beyond academics, like social and teamwork skills. File folder games are fun! 

If you enjoyed some of the 13 Ideas to Support your Gifted Students and want more tips and tricks you can sign up for our free Teaching Tiny Humans Teacher Course, where you will get weekly emails and guidance on how to navigate challenging situations, along with tips, tricks, activity ideas, and freebies to make this school year a success and constantly be honing your skills even if you are not in the classroom.

In addition, you can follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook @educationtothecore for continued information and resources as the school year progresses, or listen to our podcast Where the Primary Things Are.

Written by – Korryna Sanchez 

At Education to the Core , we exist to help our teachers build a stronger classroom as they connect with our community to find trusted, state-of-the-art resources designed by teachers for teachers. We aspire to be the world’s leading & most trusted community for educational resources for teachers. We improve the lives of every teacher and learner with the most comprehensive, reliable, and inclusive educational resources.

If you enjoyed what we have to offer at ETTC, be sure to join our email list , so you won’t miss a beat. We are here to help with all your resource needs. Become a Premium Member of Education to the Core and receive immediate access to thousands of printable activities. For one small monthly or annual fee, everything ETTC can be at your fingertips all of the time.

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50 Tips, Tricks and Ideas for Teaching Gifted Students

Use these ideas to engage the high-level thinkers in your classroom.

Gifted kids can be a joy to teach when you know how to identify what engages them. These 50 tips and tricks come from my own experience and from around the Web. They’re good to have in your bag of tricks whether you’re a newbie or an old hand at teaching these high-level thinkers.

1. Know Their Interests

Every year, I start by having my students complete an interest inventory . This helps me ensure that curriculum is personalized to their interests.

2. Try Book Talks

Share what you are reading with gifted students. Often, these students experience a reading lag where they can’t find a sweet spot because it is hard for high-ability students to understand what is both challenging and appropriate.

3. Keep Them Active

Gifted students often need to have the ability to move when learning … pacing, flapping and bouncing are parts of their thinking process.

4. Offer Flexible Seating

A window seat is my favorite place to read, so I keep that in mind when offering seating. Try to offer different seating options for students: beanbag chairs, carpet squares, pillows, director chairs … the list can go on and on.

SOURCE:  kindergartenisgrrreat.blogspot.com

5. Model Social Situations

Social situations can be challenging for some gifted students as their ability to understand social cues can be underdeveloped. Team up with other teachers to model the proper way to start conversations.

6. Share Current Events

Current events are important to incorporate into gifted programming. We want these students to be thinking about how they can use their talents to solve real-world problems.

7. Look for the Helpers

As important as current events are, it is also just as important to understand that gifted students internalize global happenings on a very personal level. Kids do not have the experience with the world to understand that despite there being a war or attack, there are still good things happening in the world. 

SOURCE:  Reddit

8. Allow for Groupings

Not all gifted students are meant to be the project manager. Allow students the opportunity to work alone or in a group. Even cross-grade groupings work well with gifted students.

9. Mind the Child Labor Laws

Gifted students who finish early should not automatically be the teacher’s helper. Gifted students can be some of the worst students to assist others because their brains often work very differently. Having a gifted child help a student who is struggling may do more harm than good.

10. Create a Makerspace

My grandmother always said, idle hands are the devil’s workshop … so keep some key things in the back for busy hands. LEGO bricks, cardboard and masking tape, and Snap Circuits are some of my favorites!

11. Introduce Minecraft Edu

Don’t be scared to incorporate students’ passions and interests. I once had a student who never wanted to practice spelling words until I told him he could practice them in Minecraft. Minecraft Edu has lots of great ways teachers can implement this engaging game in the classroom.

SOURCE:  http://education.minecraft.net/

12. Give Them End Dates

Provide gifted students with clear endpoints on projects and assignments. Gifted students can create unusually high expectations and never see an end in sight; a book reflection can easily become a 10-page paper, a PowerPoint can become an intensive course on the topic. Letting students know where to stop can be helpful.

13. Set Realistic Goals 

Use FutureMe.org and have students write a letter to their future selves. Once students have written the letter, you can set the date for it to be sent to their inbox. What a great way for students to set goals and create natural check-in points.

14. Teach Decision-Making

Gifted students can have a huge case of FOMO: fear of missing out. They understand that decisions have consequences, and sometimes they need to be given an inordinate amount of details about their options. Allow for the gifted student to fully understand the pros and cons of a decision.

15. Be Patient

Gifted students are processing a lot in their minds. Be patient and give them the time to reflect on what they need to come to a consensus they can live with.

16. Assign Expiration Dates

My gifted students walk into class with exploding folders and binders. They keep everything because there is a fear of being unprepared. Just like expiration dates for food, think about adding a footer to your handouts: “This handout expires on April 15.”

17. Model Organization Strategies

Or at least model how you organize life. Gifted students like options and seeing how they work in the “real world” is very helpful. I show students how I use notes to organize things , how Google Calendar is my lifeline, and what I do for physical notes. I have used planners in the past and show those examples as well.

We also review different apps that could be helpful. I urge students to find what works for them. No system is not an answer. We all need a system to help us be productive. When I taught younger students, we would all try different systems together as our end-of-the-day procedure.

18. Use Brain Breaks

Offer gifted students a hobby that can help calm their busy minds. Teach them how to Zentangle , breathe, meditate, make friendship bracelets, knit, color—anything that allows for them to focus carefully on details can help them quiet some of the extra noise.

SOURCE:  http://teachertothecore.blogspot.com

19. Explore Their Passions

Some gifted students don’t have a passion yet because they haven’t found it. Provide exposure to as much as possible. TED talks are one way to help students think about different topics. TED even has created teaching enhancements. I heart TED.

20. Read Tons of Biographies

Reading, watching or listening to the lives of others can help gifted students develop a plan of action and see what others did to accomplish goals.

21. Read Lots of Everything

It is true, so many gifted students have found a book that becomes so much a part of them, they can discuss it at length. Bibliotherapy is a great way for students to experience how to deal with issues and learn tactics and strategies.

22. Pre-Assess Them

For the love of anything that is holy, this should probably be no. 1. Research states that most gifted students do not learn new information until January. Don’t make a student who has already mastered a concept sit through the lesson again. 

23. Allow Them to Focus

Let gifted students pursue their interests. If they want to let everything be about dinosaurs, more power to them! We need paleontologists. As mentioned in Outliers , it takes over 10,000 hours to be an expert. To get that many hours on a time card, students have to be allowed to focus.

24. Make Connections

We need to allow students to hyper-focus but also then be the “guide on the side” that helps them make connections from one area to another. Perhaps we can get our dinosaur expert to use Scratch and make a “Dino Dig” math game?

25. Find Mentors

Gifted students need mentors within their interest areas. Mentors can teach students how to navigate through professions and can even be gatekeepers to additional opportunities.

26. Practice Like Professionals

Allow students to practice like the professionals. Use the same processes that professionals use. Looking to try fashion designing? Have students actually sew, measure, use patterns and do the alterations. Visit the American Museum of Natural History’s OLogy interactive site.

27. Locate Authentic Audiences

The work students create should have a real audience and be appreciated by those who authentically would benefit from its completion. Younger students are a great first authentic audience.

28. Put Them in Escape Rooms

If you haven’t heard of these yet, drop everything and head over to http://www.breakoutedu.com/digital/ . These are a great way to curate the knowledge you want your students to gain. 

29. Watch Webinars

You can find webinars on just about any topic that interests your students. If you sign up at Edtech , they will send weekly lists of upcoming professional webinars.

30. Submit Inventions

Inventions are a great way for students to take risks and try different things. I feel like students are more apt to take risks when they are creating something new. Student Inventions for a Better America challenges students to submit an invention that will make the world a better place … and there are winners every month.

31. Try Gamification 

I love  The Mind Research Institute , which challenges students in grades K–12 to design their own mathematical game.

32. Check Out Local Happenings

Do you live in the middle of nowhere? Me too! But I was surprised to learn there were still a TON of events happening on the weekends. If you are in the urban areas, you are rich in opportunities. Look to local libraries, museums or universities.

33. Send Them to Summer Camp

Some of my closest childhood friendships started at summer camp. These times allowed for encouragement and allowed kids to be nurtured in an environment where trying something new was the goal. Summer camp allowed me to be myself and try new things.

34. Solve Local Problems

“With great power comes great responsibility,” says one of our favorite superheroes, and he is correct—kindness counts. We need to do good with the gifts and talents we have been given. Give gifted students the opportunity to solve local problems and see the need for change in their own community. Allow a book to inspire this mission: Wonder , Kindness Club , or The Summer I Changed the World in 65 Days .

35. Develop Book Clubs

What do friends all have in common? Interests!! We are attracted to those who think similarly and those who challenge our beliefs. Book clubs make for a great space for likeminded students to come together to discuss a common theme … in this case a book, which serves as a great discussion starter.

36. Allow for Voice and Choice

How many of you hated a certain book in high school only to read it as an adult and see how wrong you were? The moment we lost choice (of what to read in this case), we also lost joy. Allowing gifted students to have choice in the classroom allows them to feel empowered and engaged. Choices do not need to be huge either, small choices are just as important.

37. Raise the Bar

No one wants to only be the big fish in a small pond. We want to be around people who will make us better and want to achieve more. Allow your gifted student to be challenged by participating in academic competitions such as National History Day. Your students will see what true competition is.

38. Brainstorm

This is one of the best ways to develop critical thinking. Show a picture of clouds … what do you see? This type of activity develops fluency, elabora tion, originality and abstract thinking, which are all integral parts of being a creative thinker. Try Google’s Quick, Draw!  It’s a great tool for getting students to think rapidly—it’s also a gem for indoor recess.

39. Model Curiosity

When the students ask a question you don’t know, look it up with them. As librarian media specialist Melissa Thom says, “the smartest people are the people who know how to find answers to their own questions.” Follow her on twitter at  @ msthombookitis .

40. Try Flocabulary

Flocabulary creates content-rich raps (yes, as in hip-hop) about just about ANYTHING. There are so many wonderful resources embedded within—contests, lyric labs, lyric notes, connections to primary sources, teacher plans, corresponding handouts, questioning and so much more! This will quickly become your favorite teaching resource. I promise!

41. Let Them Read Below-Level Books

Why do we expect every book gifted students read to be 1.5–2 grade levels above their reading level? I say, if a student is enjoying a book, read it! Yes, challenging books are needed to develop reading ability but don’t discount a book just because it is below a student’s level. Reading a book for a different purpose can increase the difficulty of a book without changing the text.

42. Connect Globally

Global Read Aloud  is a program where one book is used to connect the world. Pernille Ripp founded GRA in 2010 with the simple idea to read a book aloud to her stude nts and during that time try to make as many global connections as possible. This mission has grown exponentially and has reached over two million students. Collaborating with students in other states and countries will help a gifted student think empathetically.

43. Incorporate Mythology

If you know a gifted s tudent, then you know that mythology can be a huge interest—often spurred by the  Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. Allow students to build a better understanding by incorporating mythology into different curricular units.

This is an authentic way for gifted students to share their reading in a way that we would as adults. Creating readers means treating them like readers—when I finish a book I do not take a comprehension quiz. I talk about it, share it with friends or write about it. Have your students react to reading like real readers. Kidblog is a great tool for creating safe student blogs.

45. Crowdsource

Two heads are better than one! Allow students to go places where they can collaborate. Google Docs is a great place to start, but also explore tools like FlipGrid , a tool that allows students to record and reply to one another.

46. Be a Safe Space

Provide a safe space for gifted students to take risks without being put down. Gifted students are often timid to answer something they are unsure about because of the social stigma attached to not answering correctly. Create a classroom culture where wrong answers become an opportunity to celebrate different thinking. Check out Nancy Anderson’s book, What’s Right About Wrong Answers? Learning Math From Mistakes .

47. Use QR Codes

QR codes add an interactive component to your classroom. Create a QR Code Museum or Gallery or even a QR scavenger hunt on one of your classroom bulletin boards.

48. Write Haikus

A frog jumps into the pond, splash! Silence again. This is Basho Matsuo’s famous haiku. Use haiku as a way to challenge gifted students to summarize chapters, current events, biographies or vocabulary words. Haiku are student-friendly yet force them to be concise and purposeful with their word choice.

49. Change the World

Action is powerful for gifted students. Allowing students to find solutions to problems they see in their school, neighborhood or community will allow them to understand that they can make a difference. Internalizing that they can be the change in the world is transformational. Watch these TED Talks to show them what kids like them are doing to change the world.

50. Record Them

Allow gifted students to record their voices into an app or movie application. Teaching in front of peers is public speaking and that is its own beast. By allowing gifted students to show their work in a way that allows their confidence to be present is a win-win. Explain Everything is a collaborative and interactive whiteboard tool that makes this approach a piece of cake!

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100 Creative Writing Prompts for Middle & High School – 2024

April 15, 2024

Some high school students dream of writing for a living, perhaps pursuing an English major in college, or even attending a creative writing MFA program later on. For other students, creative writing can be useful for school assignments, in English and other subjects, and also for preparing their Common App essays . In a less goal-oriented sense, daily freewriting in a journal can be a healthy life practice for many high schoolers. Not sure where to start? Continue reading for 100 creative writing prompts for middle school and high school students. These middle/high school writing prompts offer inspiration for getting started with writing in a number of genres and styles.

Click here to view the 35 Best Colleges for Creative Writing .

What are Creative Writing Prompts?

Similar to how an academic essay prompt provides a jumping-off point for forming and organizing an argument, creative writing prompts are points of initiation for writing a story, poem, or creative essay. Prompts can be useful for writers of all ages, helping many to get past writer’s block and just start (often one of the most difficult parts of a writing process).

Writing prompts come in a variety of forms. Sometimes they are phrases used to begin sentences. Other times they are questions, more like academic essay prompts Writing prompts can also involve objects such as photographs, or activities such as walking. Below, you will find high school writing prompts that use memories, objects, senses (smell/taste/touch), abstract ideas , and even songs as jumping-off points for creative writing. These prompts can be used to write in a variety of forms, from short stories to creative essays, to poems.

How to use Creative Writing Prompts

Before we get started with the list, are a few tips when using creative writing prompts:

Experiment with different formats : Prose is great, but there’s no need to limit yourself to full sentences, at least at first. A piece of creative writing can begin with a poem, or a dialogue, or even a list. You can always bring it back to prose later if needed.

Interpret the prompt broadly : The point of a creative writing prompt is not to answer it “correctly” or “precisely.” You might begin with the prompt, but then your ideas could take you in a completely different direction. The words in the prompt also don’t need to open your poem or essay, but could appear somewhere in the middle.

Switch up/pile up the prompts : Try using two or three prompts and combine them, or weave between them. Perhaps choose a main prompt, and a different “sub-prompt.” For example, your main prompt might be “write about being in transit from one place to another,” and within that prompt, you might use the prompt to “describe a physical sensation,” and/or one the dialogue prompts.  This could be a fun way to find complexity as you write.

Creative Writing Prompts for Middle School & High School Students (Continued)

Write first, edit later : While you’re first getting started with a prompt, leave the typos and bad grammar. Obsessing over details can take away from your flow of thoughts. You will inevitably make many fixes when you go back through to edit.

Write consistently : It often becomes easier to write when it’s a practice , rather than a once-in-a-while kind of activity. For some, it’s useful to write daily. Others find time to write every few days, or every weekend. Sometimes, a word-count goal can help (100 words a day, 2,000 words a month, etc.). If you set a goal, make sure it’s realistic. Start small and build from there, rather than starting with an unachievable goal and quickly giving up.

100 Creative Writing Prompts for Middle School & High School Teens

Here are some prompts for getting started with your creative writing. These are organized by method, rather than genre, so they can inspire writing in a variety of forms. Pick and choose the ones that work best for you, and enjoy!

Prompts using memories

• Begin each sentence or group of sentences with the phrase, “I remember…”
• Describe a family ritual.
• Choose an event in your life, and write about it from the perspective of someone else who was there.
• Pick a pathway you take on a regular basis (to school, or to a friend’s house). Describe five landmarks that you remember from this pathway.
• Write about your house or apartment using a memory from each room.
• Write an imaginary history of the previous people who lived in your house or apartment.
• Write about an ancestor based on stories you’ve heard from relatives.
• What’s your earliest memory?
• Who was your first friend?
• Write a letter to someone you haven’t seen since childhood.
• Write about yourself now from the perspective of yourself twenty, or eighty, years from now.
• Write about the best month of the year.
• Write about the worst day of the year.
• Rant about something that has always annoyed you.
• Write about the hottest or coldest day you can remember.
• Visualize a fleeting moment in your life and as though it’s a photograph, and time yourself 5 minutes to write every detail you can remember about the scene.
• Draw out a timeline of your life so far. Then choose three years to write about, as though you were writing for a history book.
• Write about a historical event in the first person, as though you remember it.
• Write about a memory of being in transit from one place to another.

Objects and photographs as creative writing prompts

• Describe the first object you see in the room. What importance does it have in your life? What memories do you have with this object? What might it symbolize?
• Pick up an object, and spend some time holding it/examining it. Write about how it looks, feels, and smells. Write about the material that it’s made from.
• Choose a favorite family photograph. What could someone know just by looking at the photograph? What’s secretly happening in the photograph?
• Choose a photograph and tell the story of this photograph from the perspective of someone or something in it.
• Write about a color by describing three objects that are that color.
• Tell the story of a piece of trash.
• Tell the story of a pair of shoes.
• Tell the story of your oldest piece of clothing.

Senses and observations as creative writing prompts

• Describe a sound you hear in the room or outside. Choose the first sound you notice. What are its qualities? It’s rhythms? What other sounds does it remind you of?
• Describe a physical sensation you feel right now, in as much detail as possible.
• Listen to a conversation and write down a phrase that you hear someone say. Start a free-write with this phrase.
• Write about a food by describing its qualities, but don’t say what it is.
• Describe a flavor (salty, sweet, bitter, etc.) to someone who has never tasted it before.
• Narrate your day through tastes you tasted.
• Narrate your day through sounds you heard.
• Narrate your day through physical sensations you felt.
• Describe in detail the physical process of doing an action you consider simple or mundane, like walking or lying down or chopping vegetables.
• Write about the sensation of doing an action you consider physically demanding or tiring, like running or lifting heavy boxes.
• Describe something that gives you goosebumps.
• Write a story that involves drinking a cold glass of water on a hot day.
• Write a story that involves entering a warm house from a cold snowy day.
• Describe someone’s facial features in as much detail as possible.

Songs, books, and other art

• Choose a song quote, write it down, and free-write from there.
• Choose a song, and write a story in which that song is playing in the car.
• Choose a song, and write to the rhythm of that song.
• Choose a character from a book, and describe an event in your life from the perspective of that character.
• Go to a library and write down 10 book titles that catch your eye. Free-write for 5 minutes beginning with each one.
• Go to a library and open to random book pages, and write down 5 sentences that catch your attention. Use those sentences as prompts and free-write for 5-minutes with each.
• Choose a piece of abstract artwork. Jot down 10 words that come to mind from the painting or drawing, and free-write for 2 minutes based on each word.
• Find a picture of a dramatic Renaissance painting online. Tell a story about what’s going on in the painting that has nothing to do with what the artist intended.
• Write about your day in five acts, like a Shakespearean play. If your day were a play, what would be the introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution?
• Narrate a complicated book or film plot using only short sentences.
• Read a short poem. Then write a poem that could be a “sister” or “cousin” of that poem.

Abstract ideas as creative writing prompts

• Write about an experience that demonstrates an abstract idea, such as “love” or “home” or “freedom” or “loss” without ever using the word itself.
• Write a list of ways to say “hello” without actually saying “hello.”
• Write a list of ways to say “I love you” without actually saying “I love you.”
• Do you believe in ghosts? Describe a ghost.
• Invent a mode of time travel.
• Glass half-full/half-empty: Write about an event or situation with a positive outlook. Then write about it with a miserable outlook.
• Free-write beginning with “my religion is…” (what comes next can have as much or as little to do with organized religion as you’d like).
• Free-write beginning with “my gender is…” (what comes next can have as much or as little to do with common ideas of gender as you’d like).
• Write about a person or character that is “good” and one that is “evil.” Then write about the “evil” in the good character and the “good” in the evil character.
• Write like you’re telling a secret.
• Describe a moment of beauty you witnessed. What makes something beautiful?

Prompts for playing with narrative and character

• Begin writing with the phrase, “It all started when…”
• Tell a story from the middle of the most dramatic part.
• Write a story that begins with the ending.
• Begin a story but give it 5 possible endings.
• Write a list of ways to dramatically quit a terrible job.
• Write about a character breaking a social rule or ritual (i.e., walking backwards, sitting on the floor of a restaurant, wearing a ballgown to the grocery store). What are the ramifications?
• You are sent to the principal’s office. Justify your bad behavior.
• Re-write a well-known fairytale but set it in your school.
• Write your own version of the TV show trope where someone gets stuck in an elevator with a stranger, or a secret love interest, or a nemesis.
• Imagine a day where you said everything you were thinking, and write about it.
• Write about a scenario in which you have too much of a good thing.
• Write about a scenario in which money can buy happiness.
• Invent a bank or museum heist.
• Invent a superhero, including an origin story.
• Write using the form of the scientific method (question, hypothesis, test, analyze data conclusion).
• Write using the form of a recipe.

Middle School & High School Creative writing prompts for playing with fact vs. fiction

• Write something you know for sure is true, and then, “but maybe it isn’t.” Then explain why that thing may not be true.
• Write a statement and contradict that statement. Then do it again.
• Draft an email with an outlandish excuse as to why you didn’t do your homework or why you need an extension.
• Write about your morning routine, and make it sound extravagant/luxurious (even if it isn’t).
• You’ve just won an award for doing a very mundane and simple task. Write your acceptance speech.
• Write about a non-athletic event as though it were a sports game.
• Write about the most complicated way to complete a simple task.
• Write a brief history of your life, and exaggerate everything.
• Write about your day, but lie about some things.
• Tell the story of your birth.
• Choose a historical event and write an alternative outcome.
• Write about a day in the life of a famous person in history.
• Read an instructional manual, and change three instructions to include some kind of magical or otherwise impossible element.

Prompts for starting with dialogue

• Write a texting conversation between two friends who haven’t spoken in years.
• Write a texting conversation between two friends who speak every day and know each other better than anyone.
• Watch two people on the street having a conversation, and imagine the conversation they’re having. Write it down.
• Write an overheard conversation behind a closed door that you shouldn’t be listening to.
• Write a conversation between two characters arguing about contradicting memories of what happened.
• You have a difficult decision to make. Write a conversation about it with yourself.
• Write a conversation with a total lack of communication.
• Write a job interview gone badly.

Final Thoughts – Creative Writing Prompts for Middle School & High School 

Hopefully you have found several of these creative writing prompts helpful. Remember that when writing creatively, especially on your own, you can mix, match, and change prompts. For more on writing for high school students, check out the following articles:

• College Application Essay Topics to Avoid
• 160 Good Argumentative Essay Topics
• 150 Good Persuasive Speech Topics
• Good Transition Words for Essays
• High School Success

Sarah Mininsohn

With a BA from Wesleyan University and an MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Sarah is a writer, educator, and artist. She served as a graduate instructor at the University of Illinois, a tutor at St Peter’s School in Philadelphia, and an academic writing tutor and thesis mentor at Wesleyan’s Writing Workshop.

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• Writing Prompts

300+ Writing Prompts for Kids (+ Free Printable)

This is the ultimate bank of over 300 writing prompts for kids. From creative writing prompts to journal ideas and even quick poetry prompts . Whenever you’re bored or need a little inspiration, here are some fun ideas for kids writing prompts that can be used over and over again.

This list of creative writing prompts for kids includes a mixture of writing exercises, short story ideas, creative prompts and image prompts . All perfect for beating writer’s block and even for helping you write a whole story . If this list is too difficult to read through, you can use the writing prompts generator below to get some quick random ideas. And there’s even a free PDF version of this post available right at the end of this list – Just keep on reading!

Random Writing Prompts Generator

We put some of our favourite writing prompts in a video for quick viewing:

Over 300 Writing Prompts for Kids

• “Ready or not, here I come!” shouted Millie in the distance.
• 2 million years ago, one curious caveman makes an interesting discovery, which takes him to a city in the year 2020. Here’s a video for more inspiration on this prompt.
• A box is delivered to your house. You open it and find…What’s inside the box? Continue this story.
• A girl at your school has been hiding her true identity for years. Until one day it’s revealed that she is an alien from outer space with mysterious powers.
• A group of young puppies are separated at birth. One of them becomes a circus performer. The other, a well-pampered house pet and the final one a stray dog.
• A kind princess gets locked in a tower which once belonged to a powerful wizard. Instead of waiting for a prince or knight to save her, she creates her own spells to get out. Soon the spells start taking over and turn her into an evil witch.
• A man obsessed with comic books starts thinking that he is actually a supervillain from one of his favourite comic books. And now he is plotting world domination.
• A mastermind supervillain is tired of people always booing him and wishing him to disappear. He decides to become a good guy or a superhero and tries to get people to like him.
• A monkey at the zoo wants to run away from the zoo to join a circus.
• A mouse believes that he can talk to cheese. The other mice think he’s crazy – but is he?
• A new magic shop has just opened in town. You decide to get your brother a magic playset for his birthday from this shop. Instead of just playful magic, the magic set turns your brother into a warlock capable of turning humans into frogs and more
• A physics professor at a top university creates a gadget that can turn back time. He starts using it for his own personal gain, such as winning the lottery. Then he realises that he has created multiple timelines, where multiple versions of himself have been created.
• A superhero who catches the bad guy, but actually helps the “real” bad guy escape.
• A vegetarian shark explains how he feels like an outsider and doesn’t fit in anywhere. 
• A witch kidnaps you and locks you up in a tower. How will you escape? Why have you been kidnapped?
• A young Prince has locked himself in his castle to avoid eye contact with any human person. One look could turn them to stone.
• A young witch turns her three older sisters into dolls and plays with them every day. How will the three older witches become real again?
• A zombie who wants to become a vegetarian.
• After 30 years in prison, the big bad wolf is finally out. Write a short story about the big bad wolf’s life after prison. You can watch this video for further inspiration and clues.
• After a thunderstorm, you find a mysterious egg in your backyard. It starts to hatch and out comes a baby dragon! What do you do next? For help take a look at our dragon invasion video prompt .
• After eating a strange-looking vegetable, your pet bunny becomes a disgusting zombie bunny.
• After reading a magical book, you gain some magical powers. However, it turns out that you always had these magical abilities inside of you.
• After the accident, Nelson never felt safe again.
• Aliens are coming to invade Earth! Send them a letter to convince them to stop invading Earth.
• All humans eventually get a superpower. However, David is the only kid at school with no superpowers at all.
• All your life you knew your best friend. But one day you find out that your real best friend passed away years ago and was replaced by a robot.
• An adventurer discovers a glowing cube inside a dark cave in South America. But when they try to leave the cave, the cube summons a secret league of assassins.
• An everyday boy walks up from a coma to discover the world has been taken over by aliens – But is this all a dream?
• An evil conman (or any other type of villain) turns out to be your hero’s only saviour.
• An expedition in the Amazon rainforest gets deadly when you and your team encounter a group of warriors protecting the rainforest from outsiders.
• Another tea party, another game.
• Blinded by a bright light outside his window, Jake jumped up in horror.
• Bridget has been best friends with Charlie since elementary school. Everything changes when a new girl Chrissy becomes Charlie’s other best friend.
• Can you help Freddie the ninja cat write up a game plan to rescue his best friend and save the day? Here’s a video for more inspiration on this prompt.
• Can you write a how-to guide on how to make friends at a new school? Watch this video prompt for more inspiration.
• Can you write a short fantasy story about a strange key that opens up portals to new worlds? Here is a video to help you out with this creative prompt.
• Can you write a short story about a group of forest animals working together to save their home from deforestation? You can watch this video to inspire you further with this prompt.
• Can you write down at least 10 ways to show love to someone you care about, such as friends and family? You can use this video to help you out with this prompt.
• Describe the city of the future. In 100 years time, what will the world look like?
• Do you have a favourite magazine that you read? Write a letter to your favourite publication telling them how good their recent issue was.
• During a family camping trip, you find a backpack containing a strange-looking map, compass and a solid gold snake ring. What do you do next
• During the night, your house gets robbed. Now you’re on a mission to find the stolen items and punish the robber.
• Every night the same whispers. Every night the same cries. Who could this be and what do they want?
• Everything he touches turns to bananas that must be the worst superpower ever. When will it ever come in handy?
• Everything will be automated in the future. Humans won’t even need to walk or get up. The robots can do that for them. In fact, humans don’t do anything, apart from just exist in the world. This gives aliens from a nearby planet, the perfect opportunity to invade and take over planet Earth (see our planet name generator for more inspiration).
• Finish this sentence: For lunch today, I…
• Finish this sentence: If I could change one thing about myself, it would be…
• For years you have had breathing problems and suffered from asthma. You also had an extreme phobia of the ocean and deep water. Then one day, someone from your school invites you to a beach party. At the party, you learn that you’re a mermaid.
• For years you have played the role of a good superhero. Always saving lives and watching the people you love disappear. Now you had enough, it’s time to be the bad guy, it’s time to play the villain.
• Gavin was always getting the best presents. For once I wish I could be like him.
• Having a superpower was cool until Mindy started losing control of her power. It was like the darkness was taking over her whole body. She is now a danger to everyone, including herself.
• How was the very first superhuman or human with superpowers created?
• If dogs could speak, then Spike would be thanking Chris right now.
• Imagine if animals could write. Choose an animal of your choice and write a letter to them.
• Imagine that you are a fork. What would your life be like as a fork that humans use for eating with? As a talking fork, what would you say?
• In a futuristic world, humans are fighting against robots to keep their race alive. However, it turns out that everyone is a robot anyway and the true human race died out years ago.
• In a war between humans and aliens, you lose your best friend. However, he/she is really alive and working with the aliens.
• In the damp streets of Manhattan, there lived a fierce little cat.
• In the story of Hansel and Gretal, write from the perspective of the witch that lives in the Gingerbread house. 
• Is your family wealthy or short on money? Money can be a strong motivator and a source of conflict for many people. How does money make you feel?
• It’s ‘Bring a Parent to School Day’. But your main character’s parents are so busy that they can’t make it, so they bring their much older brother to school instead.
• It’s the 1930s and you are making your first debut as a circus clown. However, on the first night of the circus opening, things end very badly.
• It’s the annual snail racing championships. Pretend that you are a commentator for a snail race.
• It’s the year 2070 and crime is at an all-time high. To combat crime, one town has completely replaced its police officers with robot officers. However, the robot police officers malfunction and start thinking that all humans are criminals.
• Legend says that if you breathe in and out ten times in front of a mirror something strange happens.
• Life is good, life is perfect until you realise everything is a hologram and the real world is a dark and broken place.
• Life wasn’t great at all for Mr Pea. It wasn’t even mildly good.
• Loneliness is a strong emotion. Write about a time when you felt alone and what did you do to cheer yourself up.
• Look through some old family photos and pick one at random. Use this photo as inspiration for your next story.
• Make a bucket list of all the places you want to visit.
• Meeting a group of talking monkeys in the jungle.
• Mother has always warned me about not eating too much cheese before bedtime and now I know why! Cheese makes your nightmares come true!
• On her 13th birthday, Cassie was cursed to never speak again. She was such a loud, outgoing girl, now she’s almost invisible.
• One day, you notice that cats keep following you home from school. You eventually find out that you’re slowly turning into a cat yourself. How will you stop this from happening?
• People ran inside their homes, as the alarm rang.
• Pick a fairytale character of your choice and write a letter to them.
• Pick an inspirational quote and design a whole page around it in your journal.
• Robbie the robin thinks that he is the best singer in the world. But all the other birds think he sounds like a broken flute.
• Sitting alone in the dark, Jesse feared the outside world. She just wants to be alone.
• Sitting at his computer, Martin noticed something odd about his favourite computer game.
• Some say the number 7 is unlucky, but to me, it wasn’t.
• Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Spiderman – Whoever your favourite superhero is, write an imaginary letter to them.
• Tabitha the house cat knows there’s a mouse hiding in the kitchen. Write a monologue scene of Tabitha dreaming about catching the mouse.
• Talk about the struggles of being the most popular girl or boy in school. Think about the peer pressure you face daily.
• The desert-like sun burned his skin as he lay scorching in the sand.
• The room was a dump, as Jack frantically searched every corner.
• The same words over and over again scattered all over the floor.
• The sun shone brightly on the Oakland farm, but not all was bright.
• The world’s longest game of tic-tac-toe – For some reason, it just never seems to end.
• There’s an old ancient belief that the ocean is alive. When pirates pollute it with rubbish and hurt the sea creatures it makes the ocean angry. Write a short story from the perspective of the ocean.
• Think about a difficult decision you had to make recently. For example, did you have to choose between going to your best friend’s birthday party or visiting your dad in another country?
• Think about how your self-image has changed over the past few years. Has your confidence grown or withered away? Use this as your inspiration for your next short story.
• Think about the first time you met your friend. Write a letter to them reminding them of this time.
• Think about the funniest thing that happened in your life and use it as an inspiration for your next short story.
• This Halloween you decide to go as a simple ghost. What you didn’t realise is that by wearing the costume, you actually became a ghost. And your best friend dressed up as a vampire, is now actually a vampire!
• Thomas Saint designed the first-ever sewing machine. Write a story from the perspective of Thomas and how he came up with the idea.
• Three brothers are fighting with each other to be the next king of their kingdom – who will win?
• Tick… tock… tick… tock… time was going so slow.
• To make some extra money on the side, a farmer decides to open a knock-off version of Disneyland.
• Weather is a common theme in poems. Pick any weather of your choice, such as rain, snow, a sunny day and then write a poem about it.
• What do you think the world will be like in 10, 50 or even 100 years time?
• What hobby do you enjoy the most and how did you get into it?
• Write a biography of your life, as the child of an infamous pirate living out at sea. You can view this video for more inspiration.
• Write a day in the life story of a talking ice-cream family. You can watch this video prompt for further inspiration.
• Write a fairytale about a young prince cursed with the power of darkness. Take a look at this video for more inspiration.
• Write a letter to a company that you want to work for in the future. Tell them why you would make a good worker and why they should hire you.
• Write a letter to cheer someone up who is sad. You could include a funny story or joke in this letter.
• Write a letter to your favourite celebrity.
• Write a script of a conversation between you and a talking tree. You can view this video for more inspiration.
• Write a short story about a dog travelling across America to find his mother.
• Write a short story about being turned into a rat. You can use the clues and questions in this video to help you with your story.
• Write a short story about the life of being a husky dog working in Alaska to help pull equipment and people around in the snowy landscape.
• Write a short story titled, Raining Doughnuts. You can use the information in this video to help you out with this prompt.
• Write a story about a young boy or girl, who leaves their home to find that everyone is gone. Their friends, family, neighbours, pets – Everyone is gone. Watch this video prompt for more inspiration.
• Write a story dedicated to the best teacher or mentor you ever had so far in your life.
• Write about a nightmare you recently had.
• Write about a recent achievement or goal you accomplished. 
• Write at least 7 journal entries about being lost on a deserted island . You can use this video prompt to help you out.
• Write out a simple storyline for a new video game. Think about the year your game will be set in, who the enemies will be and how the game will start and end? Watch this video for more clues on what to include in your video game.
• You and your friends finally find the courage to enter the haunted house in your neighbourhood. But what exactly lurks inside the house?
• You are a master chef at a top restaurant. To keep the restaurant going, you need to come up with a new recipe or dish to include on the menu. Can you invent a new dish or menu item? Watch this video for more inspiration.
• You are going to visit your grandma. It’s a two-hour car drive to get and the traffic is extra busy today. While stuck in the traffic you have some funny, yet strange encounters with other drivers.
• You are researching your family tree for a school project. You thought your family was small until you stumbled upon some old family photos All those aunts, uncles, cousins that you never saw your whole life. Why keep them a secret?
• You are the best dark assassin in the kingdom. The king’s son has hired you to kill the king in secret. What do you do?
• You are the most famous superhero of all time. But what you don’t know is that your father is actually a supervillain which you’ll have to take down.
• You become the very first superhuman in the whole world after discovering that you can move objects with just your mind. You decide to keep it a secret and only ever use it when you’re really desperate. But this all changes one day
• You finally solve a Rubix cube to get trapped inside a life-size cube. Where you have to solve many cube-like puzzles to get released.
• You get an unknown phone call from someone. The person tells you that someone will knock at your door very soon and that you should not open it. You hear a knock at the door – What do you do?
• You just landed on a new planet. Describe this new planet to the other people on your spaceship. Watch this video for some clues and ideas to help you with this prompt.
• You’re the son of a mad scientist who rides a snail to school every day.
• You’re leaving a long adventure and you don’t know when you’ll be back. Write a goodbye letter to your loved ones and friends.
• Your best friend and you sneak into the school cafeteria after school to steal some food. But as soon as you open the door you hear the dinner ladies chanting some spell over something that looks like a smoking cauldron.
• Your long, lost sister who you thought was dead knocks at your door.
• Your main character is a poor farmer’s boy. One day his fortune turns around when he finds a magician’s spellbook deep in the forest.
• Your main character is a street thief and a shapeshifter. They can change into any human or animal. As the lowest ranking member of society, your main character is tired of being treated like dirt, so they decide to impersonate the king and take over the kingdom.
• Your main character is a werewolf hunter, but it turns out that he himself is a werewolf.
• Your main character is plotting the greatest revenge in history in their own mind.
• Your best friend died years ago and was replaced by a cyborg. And you only just found out recently.
• After going through some old stuff in the attic, you learn that your great grandfather was a war hero.
• Earth’s weather system has dramatically changed in the future. Now the weather forecast talks about balls of fire falling from the sky and tornadoes made of water flooding random towns.
• Everyone looked up to Lava Knight until he accidentally hurt someone with his superpowers. Now all humans are protesting against superheroes. They demand that all superheroes are stripped off their superpowers.
• On your 12th birthday, you’ll be old enough to join any of the four clans: Steel Warriors, Earth Souls, The Healers or the Wise Ones. But a secret group living underground called the Dark Assassins want to recruit you. What will happen next? (If you like cats and warriors, take a look at the Imagine Forest Warrior Cat name generator .)
• Your character has a big confession to make to the world.
• Your family is hiding a big, dark secret and they’ll do anything to keep it a secret from your other relatives.
• Alone sitting at a dinner party fit for 20 people, the main character explains how they lost it all for nothing.
• Have you ever felt pressured to do something? Write about this peer pressure from the perspective of your future self in 5 years time.
• Write a short story from the perspective of an alien living on Mars. You can use the following sentence as inspiration, “Humans are real! We are not alone! Humans are real” Chanted the crowd.
• Every year your family goes on a family vacation. But this year, the annual family vacation has been cancelled.
• “Master Jewel Thief Caught And Locked Up!” – That’s what the newspaper headline read on Saturday morning. It’s now Wednesday morning and another diamond robbery took place last night.
• During a cruise ship holiday, the ship starts sinking. You end up stranded on an island, where you have to survive until someone rescues you.
• You and your best friend find a beautiful sports car parked outside your home. The keys are inside and the door has been left open.
• Write a short story about a mad scientist who has found a way to combine human DNA with animal DNA to create superhumans.
• As an orphan child, Cassie always felt alone. Until she joined an art club and met her two best friends, Edwin and Miranda. Now she found a family that she never thought she’ll have.
• Each snowflake is unique and delicate. With only a few seconds before you melt, write a short monologue from the perspective of a snowflake falling from the sky.
• A cure for a rare disease mutates humans into flesh-eating zombies.
• Who raised you the most when growing up? What lessons did they teach you? How do they inspire you?
• There are many benefits to being a middle child. You don’t have the responsibility of being the eldest and you aren’t treated like a baby like the youngest. But still, you always feel misunderstood by your family and are always on the outside.
• Earth was created as a prison for all badly behaved humans. And now that the prison sentence is over, everyone can finally go home to their real planet.
• Your main character follows a street cat and ends up in a world where cats rule the planet and humans are their pets.
• The lights turn off, as your master goes to sleep. One dog sits by the bed of his master – What is he wondering about?
• You find an old pen in a magic shop. Every time you write something down using that pen it becomes true.
• A hard-working lawyer decides to leave the city life behind to start a new life in the country. As he ventures off to the country he realises that country life is not as calm or as relaxing as he thought it would be.
• Your main character is a spy in the year 1570. They have been hired to protect the queen from a secret league of assassins.
• It’s the year 2135, every household has their own robot servant. After years of learning from human behaviour, the robot servants develop a mind of their own and start to attack humans.
• For two whole years, you thought Catelyn was your best friend. So many secrets shared. So many moments shared. But she was just a fake friend – She was never there when you really needed her.
• One by one students from your class are going missing. It’s up to you to find out what happened to them.
• Everyone thinks that you’re this big, tough guy, but really you’re struggling on the inside. In a monologue, talk about your struggles and the judgement, you face every day.
• Write about something that brings you great joy in your life.
• Jerome the chameleon hates people staring at him, so he always camouflages. One day he sees a human and wants her to adopt him. But she never sees him. From that moment, Jerome doesn’t want to hide away anymore.
• It’s the 1930s and you are making your first debut as a circus clown. However on the first night of the circus opening things end very badly.
• Sarah can move objects with her mind, but her power is super weak. Until she connects with a group of girls from another high school. Together their bond forms the greatest power that anyone has seen.
• In the future, there has been a serious drop in the human population. After viruses, war and human nature have killed the majority of Earth’s population. Now humans are considered an endangered species.
• How was the first-ever newspaper or media company started? Your main character in this story is the first-ever reporter.
• Your little sister is always bugging you to play with her dolls, but you’re too old to play with dolls. Until one day you actually become a doll. Your parents think you ran away, but really you are in your sister’s bedroom on a shelf with all the other dolls.
• After years of horrific weather conditions and natural disasters, humans have learned to adapt to the various environmental changes.
• Not everything is rainbows and cotton candy on the planet of unicorns. Something deadly lurks underground.
• On a bus ride to an important college interview, your character goes through many self-doubts.
• An alpha wolf is kicked out of his pack for playing around with humans. Will he ever become alpha again?
• It has always been you and you mom. Until one day your mom introduces you to a lady and tells you that they are getting married.
• Mysterious symbols are appearing all over town. It is up to your main character to decipher the code and find out the meaning of these symbols.
• It’s the year 2,075 and scientists have discovered a way to make humans immortal. But only the rich and important people are offered this treatment.
• Write a monologue scene from the point of view of one of the ugly step-sisters in Cinderella. The scene can be set right after Cinderella’s wedding.
• During a football game, the ball falls into the forest behind your school. When you go to find the ball, you discover small fairy-like creatures in the forest. No-one believes you when you try telling them, but you know the truth.
• Your main character hasn’t seen their father in over 10 years. Suddenly out of the blue their father turns up asking for a place to stay.
• For centuries humans have evolved. From apes to modern-day men and women. This evolution has not stopped. In the year, 2200, some humans have special abilities or superpowers, such as mind-reading powers or the ability to fly. This has caused great destruction on Earth.
• After a huge argument, you learn your parents are getting a divorce. Your mom wants you to stay with her, while your dad wants you to come with him. What will you do?
• Write a short story about a magpie with a stealing problem. No matter what this magpie does he/she just can’t help stealing shiny things.
• Dragons are at war with humans. While foraging for food near the mountains you find a small ice dragon that helps hunt for food. Together you end the war between dragons and humans.
• Scientists invent a teleportation machine which allows people to travel all over the world within a few seconds. However, the machine goes bust and starts sending people into different dimensions.
• Complete the following story starter: The music stops, everyone turns around and they see…
• After the death of your uncle, you inherit his magical sword. When held in a fighting position, the sword turns you into a legendary superhero, called the crimson knight.
• A family camping trip gets dangerous when a pack of wolves start circling your tents in the middle of the night.
• Cats and dogs rule the world and humans are their pets.
• Little Red Riding meets the wolf in the forest. Instead of being scared of him, they become close friends.
• It’s Halloween night and you just finished carving a pumpkin with your parents. Later that night when you are alone in the house, the pumpkins start talking to you with the mouth you carved on them.
• After years of getting all the attention from your parents. Your parents bring home a baby boy and now it seems like no-one even notices you anymore. It’s all about your baby brother now.
• Known as the Floral Slayer, there is a serial killer on the loose. They are going around town destroying all flowers in public places, people’s gardens and front yards. Why are they doing this and who can stop them?
• When the world is about to end, a superhero and supervillain must work together to save it.
• A poem dedicated to your mother.
• Going to Paris on holiday.
• Dedication poem to your favourite celebrity.
• The creepy shadows in your room remind you of… 
• What is life like on a fluffy white cloud?
• Being on stage with everyone looking at you.
• Can you think of some common stereotypes that people have of women? Why are these stereotypes wrong? For example, some people think women should stay at home and not work – do you agree or disagree with this statement?
• Think about something your mom is always saying and write down how you can help out.
• You’re on the beach collecting seashells. You then hear a calm whisper from one of the seashells. It whispers, “Come, find me…” What do you do next?
• We all heard the legend of mermaids and the loch ness monster. But can you write your own legend about a mysterious sea creature? 
• Write a limerick about the summer sun.
• Write one journal entry into your nature journal about the great outdoors. 
• Your favourite celebrity is about to give a talk on violence against pets. Can you help them by writing a powerful speech for their talk?
• Your new pet dog has superpowers! Create a comic strip about this super dog’s adventures. Who’s the villain? What are its powers?
• Write a short story which must include the following items: Vanilla Ice-Cream, Jam Sandwiches and a monkey. 
• You are the manager of your favourite football team. Create a game plan on how they can win their next game.
• Crystal was one of the most powerful witches of all-time. She defeated many evil warlocks and villains. But now she’s locked up in a mental institution. Is she really a witch or is she just crazy?
• After reading a forbidden book, the most horrific and disgusting creatures from hell crossover to Earth.
• A boy helps out an old lady, in return, he is given magical powers. Instead of using his powers for good, he uses it to destroy the world.
• Scientists accidentally create a vaccine which gives humans super strength, along with other traits.
• A hurricane destroyed a whole city. Write a story about a search and rescue dog.
• You find out that your cat is actually the king of a secret kingdom of cats.

• Write a short story including the following elements: An elephant, a balloon, pyjamas and a watermelon.

• How do rabbits celebrate a holiday like Easter?

• Complete the following story starter: The moon’s light reflected on the ocean. Maisie sat with her toes deep in the sand, thinking about her future. What would happen next? Now that everyone knows her secret.
• Complete the following story starter: Soon I will be powerful enough to beat them all!
• Write a story including the following elements: A lobster, two pairs of socks and a party balloon.
• Use a good memory from your life as inspiration for your next story.
• Use a bad memory from your life as inspiration for your next story.
• Complete the following story starter: The nightmares never ended for Clara.
• Write a story including the following elements: Your favourite celebrity, a hobby you enjoy doing and your dream holiday destination.
• Rewrite your favourite fairytale .
• Rewrite the lyrics of your favourite song. But this time make it all about food!
• Write a scary story about an evil prince who collects bugs.
• Write a short biography of a beautiful lady who ages 10 years in one day.
• Describe to your friend a brainy rockstar who hates school.
• Describe a day in the life of an old owl who tries to get into the Guinness Book of World.
• Write a rhyming story about an old movie star who collects bugs.
• Make up a conversation you might have with a nerdy alien who lives on a faraway planet.
• Describe the personality of a self-conscious fox who wants to win a dance contest.
• Write a short biography of an evil dragon who won a million pounds.
• Write a funny story about an ugly knight who tries to get into the Guinness Book of World.
• Make up a conversation you might have with a self-conscious ogre who discovers they have superpowers.
• Write a travel log for a devious dentist who is lost on an island.
• Describe the appearance of a smelly alien who gets lost in the Amazon rainforest.
• Write a detective story about a million-year-old zombie who is always getting into trouble with their parents.
• Describe to your friend a devious pirate who discovers a talking frog.
• Write a rhyming story about a smelly prince who has to save the world.
• Describe a very unusual day for a nerdy witch who has to save the world.
• Write a scary story about a million-year-old cat who ages 10 years in one day.
• Write a scary story about a nerdy rockstar who is lost on an island.
• Write a travel log for a devious dog who rides a giant snail to school.
• Write a story including the following elements: A magical pencil, a dog and a mischievous eraser.
• Complete the following story starter: Darren sat on the bus watching the rain pour down.

Free 150 Writing Prompts For Kids PDF

Now it times to Download your free printable writing prompts for kids PDF ! This printable pdf contains 150 writing prompts for kids, which you can print-out and use as inspiration for your next story! For more fun writing prompts, take a look at our dedicated writing prompts section .

This collection of writing prompts for kids are great for both young writers and experienced writers. We guarantee that you’ll feel more inspired and ready to beat writer’s block with these creative writing prompts. Share your writing prompts and tips in the comments below.

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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Critical and Creative Thinking: The Joy of Learning!

Step-by-step critical and creative thinking strategies are discussed in this article.

“Children do not develop their thinking skills by memorizing the products of adults’ thinking. Children develop these thinking skills by manipulating ideas, critically examining them, and trying to combine them in new ways. Data become meaningful only when individuals perform certain mental operations on those data.” (Taba, 1971, pp. 240–241)

We recognize the need for gifted learners to develop and practice higher-order critical and creative thinking skills that go beyond fundamental acquisition of information. Gifted students need to be involved with analysis, evaluation, and creative synthesis of data and information, asking new questions and generating innovative ideas, solutions, and products because of their advanced cognitive development, preference for complexity, questioning of the status quo, idealism, and need for social action. This is particularly true of the creatively gifted learner who must find relevance and opportunities for creative synthesis and expression in order to truly engage in the learning process. We also know that, in order to develop these critical and creative thinking skills as thinking habits, students must engage in these kinds of thinking activities frequently, in meaningful, appropriate contexts.

To what extent is this happening? Are gifted students being given opportunities for exploring ideas and developing skills of critical analysis, evaluation, and creativity in classrooms today? Not so much, according to a study reported in  Newsweek  (2010) by Bronson and Merryman. The findings of this study indicate a significant decline of creativity among American students in recent decades, which the authors describe as a “creativity crisis.” They attribute this decline to overemphasis on standardization in curriculum, instruction, and assessment in American schools—with emphasis on acquisition of information, facts and details, and finding “the right answer” rather than critical analysis and evaluation of content or creative exploration of ideas and innovative thinking. The answer to this crisis, they say, is teaching critical and creative thinking skills in context of content instruction.

Critical and creative thinking strategies are not merely “fun” or “cute” activities to be pulled out at the end of the week or semester, or after the state tests are over for the year in order to fill time and entertain students. They are ways of deeply engaging and interacting with ideas and concepts in meaningful context, building meaning and understanding through multiple processing of ideas and information in increasingly sophisticated levels of thinking, adding depth and complexity to the content being learned, and finding personal relevance in the learning process. In order to teach any skill or content effectively, we must first have a clear understanding of the nature and purpose of the skills and/or content to be taught. Employing critical and creative thinking strategies without first understanding what is involved in these skills and processes or without connecting these thinking skills to appropriate content is likely to result in missing the point and wasting time. Students may have fun playing around with such activities, but may not actually address content in a meaningful, purposeful way, nor actually engage in the higher order thinking intended.

Critical thinking involves analysis and evaluation rather than merely accepting ideas or information: understanding of relationships, similarities, and differences; looking for patterns; classifying and categorizing; understanding cause/effect; seeing trends and big ideas; predicting outcomes; considering multiple perspectives; making judgments; and questioning and reasoning. Creative thinking requires all of these critical thinking skills and goes beyond, generating something new and useful in a particular context: generating innovative ideas, products, and solutions; expressing ideas in innovative ways; and communicating ideas, solutions, or products to an appropriate audience. These, of course, are the higher order thinking skills of Bloom; these are the thinking skills necessary for meaningful learning in all disciplines.

How can we manage all this within the constraints of assessment-driven standardized curriculum and instruction? How can we truly engage even our most creative and advanced thinkers in analytical thinking, making informed judgments and evaluation based on critical analysis, and the creation of innovative ideas, perspectives, and products that actually solve problems? How can we encourage students to express unique and original points of view and communicate with audiences in valid and defensible ways to increase truly meaningful, personally relevant learning? The answer is that we must incorporate effective critical and creative thinking strategies appropriately into content instruction. When thinking skills are taught in relevant content, students practice higher order thinking skills to the point of developing creative thinking habits, while at the same time playing with ideas and processing content information in multiple ways. They find personal meaning and relevance in the learning. They experience the joy of learning!

APPLYING TABA’S STRATEGIES FOR CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

One sequence of critical and creative thinking activities that incorporates some of Taba’s strategies for concept development can be effectively applied to many different content topics and purposes. This sequence of activities involves students in playfully generating and examining data in a variety of ways, requiring both divergent thinking (fluency, flexibility, elaboration, and originality) and convergent thinking (evaluation, providing justification for choices, drawing conclusions based on evidence presented). The activities can be adapted for almost any content at various levels of complexity: literary or historical events or characters, contemporary or historic issues or problems (literature, social studies); concepts or operations, inventions or discoveries (math or science); or almost any other content that is a focus of study.

Basically, the activities involve generating or gathering data. This means that students are evaluating and prioritizing data, analyzing and organizing that data into data sets and naming the sets, generating questions, drawing conclusions based on data analysis and evaluation, and communicating the results. In general, the process includes these steps and thinking processes:

• Step One: Data Generation/Data Gathering.  Knowing, understanding information or data
• Step Two: Ranking.  Evaluating, prioritizing, justifying, defending data choices
• Step Three: Grouping, Labeling, Regrouping, Subsuming, Re-labeling.  Categorizing, analyzing, synthesizing data
• Step Four: Asking Questions.  Knowing, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing information and ideas
• Step Five: Drawing Conclusions.  Knowing, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, synthesizing data and ideas
• Step Six: Communicating Results.  Creating an appropriate format or product to share the results or express major ideas to an audience

Depending on the complexity of the concepts and/or data to be used as a basis for the activities, all of these steps could be used in a single lesson, or the sequence could be broken into several subsequent lessons over time, with more time for reflection, sharing, and elaborating on first thoughts with more complex ideas and more time for creative incubation as the content demands.

Consider how this sequence of critical and creative thinking activities might be applied with math content in a study of percents. This idea was suggested by one of my graduate students, a middle school math teacher, to encourage students to play with the concepts related to understanding and using percents while developing recognition and understanding of many of the ways in which percentages are used in everyday life and how this affects them personally.

Step One: Listing (Individual Brainstorming)

Begin by having students quickly list as many situations as they can think of in which percents may be used in real life. This step could be a short timed activity, perhaps 3 minutes, with no talking or sharing allowed during this step. Set a goal based on the time allowed (eight listed items in 3 minutes, for example). Keeping the time short for this initial listing of data keeps students on task. When time is called, ask for a show of hands for students who achieved the goal that was set, and then tell students that from this point on, they are encouraged to add to their original list if they think of any new ideas or if they hear any good ideas they hadn’t thought of. The more data students have to work with on the topic, the better. Unique or original ideas that fit are especially valued as they reflect flexibility in thinking.

Step Two: Ranking and Prioritizing

Next, tell students to consider the items on their list and, without any discussion or sharing, to rank them in order of most significant to least significant (they may determine “significance”). They must be prepared to explain and justify their top two or three choices. Allow a few minutes for this ranking process. When students have completed ranking at least through their top three items, have students volunteer to share their top one or two items and explain their reasons for those choices. To stimulate discussion based on the reasons they provide, and to add to the playfulness of the activity, this could be put in the form of a game (Top That!) in which a student offers a number one item from her list and explains the reasoning for the choice, and then other students take turns trying to “top that” with their own choices, with emphasis on their reasoning for their decisions. Anticipate some lively discussions at this stage, which is a good thing as students defend their reasoning and hear others’ points of view. Again, encourage students to add anything that they hear and like to their own lists (fluency, flexibility). Remind students that unique or original ideas are particularly valued, but all items offered must actually fit the parameters that were set for the database.

Step Three: Grouping and Labeling

Students are now told to group the items on their list according to whatever criteria they choose. They are then to create an appropriate label for each group they create that encompasses all of the items in that group according to the criteria they have determined for their sets. These groups and labels will then be shared, discussed, and evaluated by the whole class, as other students consider the appropriateness of sets formed and comprehensiveness of labels. Sharing and discussing different ways of grouping their ideas and evaluating the appropriateness of their labels expands flexibility in thinking, while expanding everyone’s understanding and realization of how often they encounter percents in their own world and in what contexts they might occur. This step might be an activity for which the teacher would choose to allow additional time for display and review of individual groupings and their labels, perhaps a gallery walk so that students can share and consider the ideas of their peers. Grouping is, of course, creating categories based on analysis of similarities or differences – critical thinking skills that are inherent in every discipline. Observing, discussing, and critiquing various ways in which students have chosen to create and label these data sets offers opportunities to expand the flexible thinking of all students.

Students might then be asked to try to find ways in which they can subsume one or more of their groups within another group. This increases the analytical thinking involved, requiring students to process the same ideas again in multiple ways, to look at that data from multiple perspectives to find new, hierarchical relationships, and to synthesize new labels as appropriate. A discussion of the various ways in which the data were grouped and the appropriateness or uniqueness of the labels given helps students think more analytically and flexibly about their own ideas as well (fluency, flexibility, and elaboration).

Step Four: Asking Questions

Students are encouraged to generate as many questions as they can about percents, with emphasis on why, how, why not, when, what if, etc. questions that require higher order thinking. Asking such questions elicits critical analysis and evaluation or creative synthesis thinking and provides teachable moments to clarify misinformation and misunderstandings. As with the previous step, this could be a simple class activity or could be expanded over time with students encouraged to add their questions to a growing list on the wall or board. As before, particular value is given to unique or original questions that go beyond the simple or obvious (elaboration, flexibility, and originality). Asking good questions is a critical and creative thinking skill requiring all levels of Bloom and requires both modeling and practice; questions generated by students are likely to show what they know or need to learn or want to understand about the topic.

To make the “game” more interesting, try presenting an answer (e.g., .25) and allow students to generate as many possible questions or computations as they can for that answer (fluency, flexibility, elaboration). Any reasonable question that fits the answer is acceptable, but again, unique or original questions that encourage divergent thinking are most valued. If points are awarded as in a game, all correct questions might receive 1 point, but unique questions are worth 3 points. Unique could be determined by the criterion that “no one else thought of that” or “we agree as a group, that question is unique.”

Step Five: Drawing Conclusions

Students are asked to consider what conclusions they might reasonably draw about the topic of percents based on the discussions and activities to this point. This process of drawing conclusions and developing generalizations requires synthesis of ideas and concepts, the highest level of Bloom (create). Any reasonable conclusion that can be supported by the student based on evidence to this point or original reasoning may be accepted as valid.

Step Six: Communicating Results

As a further creative elaboration, encourage students to express their conclusions and supporting evidence in an original product or appropriate format of their choosing. They may consider a concrete or metaphorical expression to communicate their ideas. For example, they may create cartoons, drawings, scenarios or dramatizations, speeches, rap, rhyme, or song. Or they may develop presentations using technology, art, or whatever form of creative expression the student finds personally interesting or most appropriate to communicate their generalizations and ideas to an audience.

Through this series of activities, students conclude that knowing and understanding percents and how to compute and compare them and use them is useful, personally relevant, and significant in their lives. Students have been engaged in higher order analysis, evaluation, and synthesis in the learning process, and they have had fun playing with the data and concepts in multiple ways.

The same sequence of activities could be applied to almost any content in any discipline and modified for any grade level. Playing with information, ideas, or data sets in these ways involves students in processing information in multiple ways. It allows for a reexamination of the data and their own understanding, analyzing, and evaluating and justifying their choices and ideas. They are observing and thinking about how others view the same information from different perspectives, and they can raise new questions and elaborate on their own original ideas. Even though the curriculum content determines parameters for the initial data-gathering or listing, encouragement of unique or original ideas throughout the series of activities encourages divergent thinking within those parameters.

A CREATIVE WRITING STRATEGY: CAUSE/EFFECT AND PROBLEM/SOLUTION

Another strategy, often used in creative writing to examine narrative structure and sequence of plot development, could also be adapted to enhance critical and creative thinking about concepts in many content areas with a particular focus on cause/ effect and problem/solution relationships. Engaging in this strategy in a variety of appropriate contexts can be useful in developing skills for creative problem solving.

The process is simple. One student writes an opening line from a story she would like to read at the top of a page, folds it down, and hands the page to another student. That student then writes the closing line of a story he would like to read at the bottom of that same page. The two students then work together to fill in the plot points necessary to develop the story from the opening line to the closing line. This creative writing activity engages students in developing narrative structure, cause/effect, and problem/solution; predicting reasonable outcomes; and using elaborative thinking as well as divergent, convergent, and higher order thinking skills.

This strategy could be adapted to science, social studies, math, music, and art. Student One could be asked to write an event from the past, a historical situation or problem (social studies, science); number, number equation, musical line, or figural drawing (math, music art) at the top of the page and fold it down. Student Two could then write a contemporary event, situation, issue (social studies, science); another problem, number, equation, musical line, or figural drawing (math, music or art) at the bottom of the page. Then the two students could work out the cause-effect, problem-solution steps, and make the connections necessary to go from the first statement to the final statement.

As a further extension in analyzing and developing ideas constructed in this activity, students might be asked to create a graph or chart to illustrate the plot curve, cause/effect, problem/solution sequence, or connections within the relationships they have constructed. This could be a visual graph or three-dimensional structure, a dramatic performance, or a musical or artistic representation— as long as it represents the sequential or developmental cause/effect relationships involved. Collaboration as well as critical and creative thinking at the highest levels of Bloom are involved throughout these activities.

OTHER STRATEGIES TO EXPLORE

Strategies such as the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) model (Treffinger, Isaksen, & Dorval, 2003), SCAMPER (Eberle, 1977), or Six Thinking Hats (de Bono, 1999) encourage flexibility and elaboration as students consider issues or concepts from multiple points of view. These thinking strategies are familiar to many gifted teachers, but are rarely applied in contexts by content teachers. Students can employ the problem-finding step of the CPS model by asking themselves “In What Ways Might We . . .?” to help identify potential problems within larger issues, listing as many ideas as they can relative to the situation and then evaluating those ideas to determine a problem they might pursue. SCAMPER ( S ubstitute,  C ombine,  A dapt,  M odify/Magnify/Minify,  P ut to other uses,  E liminate,  R everse/ Reorder/Rearrange) is a useful tool for encouraging flexible thinking, as students examine and analyze situations or issues and generate innovative ideas and solutions. In small groups or as a class, students might try on de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats as they examine potential issues from multiple perspectives: gathering and examining facts and evaluating sources and objectivity of  facts  (White Hat); considering possible  emotions  involved (Red Hat); considering possible  benefits  (Yellow Hat), as well as possible  negatives  (Black Hat) related to the issue; generating  creative  ideas, even far-out wild and crazy ideas (Green Hat); before finally considering possible solutions and developing a plan of  implementation  (Blue Hat). In each of these strategies, students consider issues and possibilities from multiple points of view, discussing, analyzing, and processing data and information in multiple ways to move from vague, broadly-conceived issues into more clearly-defined problem statements, potentially leading to useful, creative solutions.

PRESENTING THE FINDINGS

In all of these critical and creative thinking strategies, students gather data or information related to issues that they find to be significant or personally meaningful. Students are encouraged to evaluate sources of data and to consider bias and objectivity or accuracy of information—critical thinking skills particularly necessary in today’s world. By analyzing and categorizing data, they can begin to sort through relevant and irrelevant information pertinent to a problem that they might effectively address. By considering multiple perspectives related to the problem, brainstorming, and sharing multiple possible solutions, students can think more fluently and flexibly and then begin to choose among alternative possibilities and propose a likely course of action. All of these processes involve higher order thinking skills of analysis, evaluation, and creative synthesis at every step. Students learn to ask good questions, considering relationships such as cause/effect, make reasonable predictions, draw conclusions, generate innovative ideas and products, and support and defend decisions and choices.

Students should also consider an appropriate audience for presentation of their proposed solutions. How will they communicate the problem they have identified, the pertinent data they have found, and ideas for possible solutions to the target audience? Presentation of an identified problem within a larger issue accompanied by relevant supporting data and a considered approach to a potential solution is an important leadership skill that crosses all disciplines, particularly critical in contemporary times.

When these kinds of critical and creative thinking strategies are practiced frequently in purposeful content instruction, content learning is enhanced, not only in terms of more meaningful development of concepts, but also in terms of skills required for reading, writing, speaking, listening, research, and presentation. Thinking skills of cause/effect, predicting reasonable outcomes, analysis of data and multiple points of view, evaluation, making judgments, and creative synthesis can be developed through frequent opportunities to explore and express opinions and ideas in a receptive, collaborative critical and creative thinking learning environment. Not only are students given opportunity to develop these higher order thinking skills through these kinds of practices, but they also develop leadership skills of teamwork and collaboration and presentation skills in speaking, writing, and use of technology for authentic purposes.

Critical and creative thinking strategies should not be merely an afterthought to instruction. Critical and creative thinking are the ways in which real learning occurs. When strategies for critical and creative thinking are tied to appropriate content learning objectives, content learning becomes more meaningful, more challenging and interesting, and therefore, more engaging. By engaging students frequently with a variety of critical and creative thinking strategies applied to appropriate curriculum content, we encourage students to think more divergently and meaningfully about content. We also enhance skills of analytical and evaluative thinking and creative problem solving. This implies a classroom atmosphere of inquiry, discovery, and acceptance of expression of new ideas and exploring questions. In this atmosphere, gifted learners are better prepared for authentic problem-finding and developing innovative solutions and products, and for communication of those results and ideas to appropriate audiences: the Joy of Learning!

Benny Hickerson, Ph.D. , a former TAGT President (1998) and TAGT board member, is an adjunct professor of gifted education at Southern Methodist University. She is also a presenter and speaker for G/T staff development and serves as a consultant in gifted education in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metropolitan area. Dr. Hickerson has been a K–12 G/T district administrator, a campus administrator, and a classroom teacher in both public and private schools, including having taught at every grade level K–12. She has also taught both undergraduate and graduate levels in college, in both reading and gifted education. She can be contacted at [email protected] or [email protected].

Permission Statement

Permission to reprint this article has been granted to The Davidson Institute for Talent Development from  Tempo Magazine , a publication of the Texas Association of the Gifted and Talented (TAGT)  http://www.txgifted.org/ . This material may not be reproduced without permission from TAGT.

This article is provided as a service of the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to supporting profoundly gifted young people 18 and under. To learn more about the Davidson Institute’s programs, please visit  www.DavidsonGifted.org .

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