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The first thing an aspiring author is taught is to "write what you know," but how do you make it interesting? The following collection of activity sheets will provide various writing prompts for your high school students. Activities include journal writing, creating original haikus and other forms of poetry, compiling a menu, writing a description of a given word prompt using original research, writing a summary of a book, and more.

Print these for your grade 9-12 students to get their hamster wheel spinning, I said "spinning"! A great way to foster creativity in High School students and get them to push the envelope.

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Printable High School Writing Prompts Worksheets

Scroll down to view and print the High School Writing Prompts.

Diary of a desk lamp

Have students write a 5 day "journal" from a desk lamp's perspective. Each day has to include reference to specified reading material such as the book of the week, newspaper or magazine articles, or reading based school events/clubs. I

What Happened This Week?

Outline the entire week.

Fast food Haiku

Put names of fast food restaurants on strips of paper and place in a box or bowl. Have students randomly draw a fast food name strip. Give an explanation of what a haiku is and how its composition can provide readers and writers with a different perspective of basic everyday things.

ABCs of Writing

Assign 12 letters of the alphabet to each student. Students will come up with a word that the letter stands for. The word will be expanded to a paragraph which explains WHY writing is important.

Brag Bag

Each person is given a brown bag (a lunch bag or gift bag will do). They are to pick an item from a basket. These can be anything from a comb to a stuffed toy, but the item must fit into the bag.

Writers Caf�

Give students a blank sheet of heavy paper. Tell them that they will be creating a menu. Then, using a standard school lunch menu, each student is tasked with rewriting the menu choices to be indicative of a meal that they would expect to find at a luxury restaurant.

You've been Booked

Students will create or you can provide a criminal booking template, similar to what you would expect to see when someone is captured for a crime.

That's So Phony

Have students write out their phone number. For each number of their phone number, they need to write a word. These words will be put together to create a coherent sentence which is supposed to describe either themselves or their home.

International Coffees

Have the students select their favorite flavor. Task the students will writing a review of the coffee which should include regional information relative to the coffee's "home".

Cup of Compliments

The students will be tasked with writing nice things about another classmate or about you as a teacher. They must write something on every strip of paper.

Read My Lips

Using a book that the class has studied, have the students write a summary from their own perspective on the lips.

Perfect Picking

Students are given a plastic piece of fruit or vegetable. They are to write a story based on an experience of picking that particular fruit. The story has to be a mystery.

As Hot As It Gets

Give every student a sheet of red or orange cardstock. Tell them to draw a flame that will be posted. They are then to write a poem about something hot on the flame.

So Refreshing

Place wet cans of soda in a line. As students enter the classroom, have them select a soda. Have the students write a story from the perspective of the soda itself explaining why it feels "so refreshed".

A Hero?

Provide students with a sub roll and all of the fixings for a hero sandwich. Students will build a hero sandwich. When they are finished building the sandwich, they must then write about all of the flavors in the sandwich.

Mystery Product

Students will be tasked with writing an ad for an imaginary product. The catch is that the product has to be something that can be used when doing some type of adventure activity. The ad must describe the product and explain its benefits. The ad is a sales writing exercise and should be compelling enough to make people want to buy the product.