Use a memoir or biography-based assignment that gets students excited about writing. Combine the project with an art lesson, asking students to include photographs or drawings of their past experiences. Base the size of the project on the age of the students, asking for a one-page report from younger students and longer papers from older kids. Brainstorm the project in class, asking the students to record the top five moments of their lives and expand those moments into small stories for the finished book.
If you want your kids interested in writing, then opt for writing assignments that have a humorous or funny slant. Give your students a short prompt and ask them to write a story based on that prompt. For example, have the students write a story on what they would do if they found a bag of money or gold on the way home from school. With older students, use the prompt as inspiration for short stories not based on themselves. Give your students a short opening sentence that has no ending and ask for a story that finishes the sentence. For example, tell the students, “I never believed that unicorns existed until … ” and ask them to finish the story.
Divide your classroom into small groups and ask the groups to write a short story based on a prompt you give them. Sometimes students suffer from writer’s block and have difficulty creating a story on their own. Putting the kids into groups lets them brainstorm and bounce ideas off each other, until they create a story that shares elements from each student.
Share the stories that your students create in the classroom. Make small books from pages wrapped with ribbon through holes on the sides. Let the students pick their favorite stories and create pictures for the books. Give the students one prompt and ask each one to create a story with the same theme or idea for the finished book. Get the students excited about creating stories for others. Send home copies of the books for the parents.