In effort to engage your students from the start, you may get the idea to begin a new writing competency lesson by instructing them to read the literature-based prompt that you have selected. While this is a creative way to introduce the writing competency, it is more appropriate to introduce the actual lesson first and then rely on the literature-based prompt -- whether it be a poem or a story -- after the students are aware of what writing convention they are learning about. The objective for using literature-based prompts is to support the main lesson once the students have learned it. If you introduce the literature-based prompt first, you risk confusing students.
A variety of literature-based prompts exist, and teachers must use an assortment of prompts to keep the lesson plans stimulating and engaging. One idea is to use poetry and short stories interchangeably, rather than just sticking to one or the other. Essays and novels also can be used for teaching writing competencies. Adding a variety of prompts maintains the student's interest so that they do not grow dull from the lesson plan. It also exposes students to different types of literature, which is necessary for them to see how various writing competencies apply to certain, or all, types of literature.
Once the students are exposed to the literature-based prompts, you can extend the lesson plan to include exercises that require students to apply the writing competencies that they just learned about, and read, to their own work. For instance, if you are teaching the class about writing in different points of view, after the students read samples of the literature, have them create their own pieces of literature based on the lesson. This prompt can be similar to the literature-based prompt that you used. For example, if you used an autobiographical essay as your literature-based prompt, the exercise can be for students to write their own autobiographical essays following the same writing competencies that they read about and learned in class.
Rather than simply supplying students with literature-based prompts to read, teachers should use charting techniques to break down the various writing competencies found within the literary work. Charting includes circling significant or symbolic words, identifying key elements and underlining meter, rhythm or other issues pertaining to the competency. This can be done as a class so that all of the students see how the prompt can be broken down.