By Chaniece Cook

Response writing is a literacy strategy that “allows students to expand their thinking about the concepts at hand and provides an opportunity for students to consider new information on their own.” (Fisher, et. al., 2015, p.89).

One word ladies and gents: PROMPTS! By giving students a prompt that will inspire their writings we get better quality responses and more entertaining papers to grade. One thing to keep in mind: a prompt does not always have to be something you write on a board. It can be a short movie clip, a sound, a skit, it is something that PROMPTS students to think and evaluate. Here’s your alternative  Just kidding…

Have students write what they did/did not understand from the lesson. Have them apply new information to the historical context. Have students compare/contrast new information to personal experiences. Pose a controversial question related to the new information and have students write their opinions. Ask students to put themselves in a main character’s shoes and write how they would handle the character’s situation.

Hypothetical Lesson: My Junior/Senior English classes are about to begin reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I want to get them interested while also demonstrating how some of the book’s elements are still relevant in today’s society. Here is a prompt they would examine: “What is your opinion on cloning/reanimation science. For what reason(s) do you feel/believe this way? Following this prompt, we would begin reading the text and they would formulate an argumentative paper out of this first response (reevaluation and revisions would take place periodically) using the evidence they derived from the text to support their stance.

Brozo, W. G., Fisher, D., Frey, N., & Ivey, G. (2015). 50 Instructional Routines to Develop Content Literacy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.