Critical Prompt Words

At this point in the year, I can tell that the students have truly grown in their ability to identify what it is they're being asked in a question and respond appropriately. I am thinking particularly of the growth I've seen in 4-pt Quick Check questions.  Now is therefore the perfect time to begin the discussion around addressing specific writing prompts.

Prompt reading is a skill that is honed over time and with experience. Grammar, vocabulary, and personal ability are irrelevant if a writer doesn't know what they're supposed to be writing. Thankfully, there are certain key words that tend to get repeated throughout elementary curriculum. Today we created a list of words that we consistently see in prompts and then we dissected a response to the following prompt: Describe your favorite part of the day and explain why it is your favorite.

The first thing we did was pull out the critical words from the prompt: describe, explain, and favorite. Next we talked about how it's ALWAYS a good idea to begin a prompt response by repeating the prompt. Also included in our discussion was how good responses do more than respond- they elaborate and give details! They also include language relevant to the prompt (since the prompt was about a favorite time of day- we boxed words that we felt were related to "favorite"). Similarly we talked about using fun words (if we can use them correctly) J  Lastly, we talked about ending a response by relating it back to the prompt.

Phew! We worked hard on this, but the kids had a blast and were able to tell me at the end of the day the elements to a good prompt response.

They say writing a great paper that doesn't address the prompt is like riding a one-way cruise liner to the middle of the ocean: it's fun, but going nowhere. As emergent writers, I want the kids to feel successful and confident and hope building a strong foundation that directly teaches how to address a prompt will help get all their cruise liners headed toward somewhere more like Hawaii J