Bigfoot and Other Persuasive Writing Prompts

Many classrooms and homeschools across the world have a point in their day where they free write in either a daily journal, or a writing notebook. Often there are writing prompts such as, "If I could travel anywhere, I would go..." or a story beginning such as, "Thunder clapped loudly as the dark figure entered the..." which the students need to finish. 

While I love creative writing, I am taking a different approach to this activity. I want my children to be able to think critically, make decisions, form opinions, and be able to express their beliefs and opinions in sound an solid ways. So, currently, our daily writing prompts are essay starters, kindling persuasive writing.

First, I share some information with my children. Every day is something different. If I come across an interesting or provocative book like the Bigfoot "autobiography" shown below, BINGO! After reading the (considerably informative yet still speculative) book, plus a few accounts of sightings from the internet, the question for the day was, "Do you believe in Bigfoot and why or why not?"

This school year we have had a subscription to Scholastic News. Each issue has articles on current events and a lot of interesting bits of information, plus a debate section. I choose the pieces I think most valuable to think about and read the article, then pose a question to write about. Examples of some of these are, "Should boys and girls attend school together, or should they be separated?" "Should students have more P.E. time?" "Would you want to be one of the first people on Mars?" "Should (a kid who has been trained) be able to climb Mount Everest?" Keep in mind that before writing my kids have heard multiple perspectives as well as some cold, hard facts and information, and they're expected to back up their positions.

I also come up with writing prompts based on our current studies and common reading and viewing. An example of this is, "Compare and contrast Andrew Jackson and Donald Trump. Are they more alike, or more different?"

After about seven writing prompts, I have my children choose one of the free write topics and write a full, researched essay to develop their thinking, researching, and writing skills.

In case you are wondering, most of my kids believe in Bigfoot. We have one, solid holdout among us.