Fall Prompts and Lesson Ideas

It’s officially fall and we’re celebrating with some new autumn-themed prompts! Engaging and current prompts are the key to capturing the attention of students. Including different season-based work into the curriculum can make writing assignments more enjoyable for students. To celebrate the beginning of autumn, we are sharing a couple of fall-themed prompts for you! Take these and make them your own to use in your classroom.

Introduction:

• Connect the subjects of the prompts to different classes your students may be taking! For example:
  • Stories of mythology in English
  • Origins of holidays in History
  • Lessons about cancer in Health
  • Discussions about bullying in Health

Writing Activity:

• Choose a prompt (click Add and copy and paste these prompts to create a new one for your class. Then adjust the advanced options to fit your needs)
  • Halloween originated in the 8th century with a Celtic festival. During the festival, people wore costumes to ward off ghosts. A thousand years later, children dress up in costumes every October 31st and go house to house in search of candy. Create your own holiday and write a response about it. What is the origin story? How and when is it celebrated?
  • October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, National Bullying Prevention Month, and National Apple Month. Choose one and read/watch the stimulus material. Then, write an informative essay answering at least three of the following questions: What does this mean? Does it affect you personally? If yes, how? What are some creative ways to honor/celebrate this month?
  • Create your own prompt! MI Write allows teachers to write/edit any prompt that will fit their students, so have at it!

 Students will be able to:

• Interpret provided information with context
• Summarize and explain learned information
• Apply principles of writing to their response(s)
• Analyze each question, and organize answers into a response
• Absorb criticism, and use it to review their response(s)

Lesson Conclusion:

• What to look for in your student’s response
  • Organization
    • Each question is answered in full
  • Clarity
    • Questions answered with supportive points
  • Grammar
    • Easy to read; proper grammar
• To take it a step further
  • Have each student anonymously review another’s response.
    • Enable Peer Review on your selected prompt. Choose “Hidden” for reviewer name and essay author to keep it anonymous. In your Students tab, make sure you have created Peer Review Groups.
    • Once students have completed their essays, they will click the “Request” on the right side of their submitted essay.