Before 1:1, I used to take lists of writing prompts or story starters that I found online and cut them out into small strips for the students. It was time consuming, and when they were all used up, I had to go find some more.
Nowadays, I rely mostly on online random generators to create these for me. While some of these are geared for adults, some are made just for the purpose of getting kids writing. Any of the following could be used for a writing center, or just as an exercise in promoting creativity during a lesson. Enjoy!
#1 Blog Topic Generator
Do you want students to just get going on their latest blog post? Send them the link to this nifty tool, and they’ll be off and writing in no time. The tool requires them to fill out three keywords, and the result is a list of provocative titles that could start their latest post. Great for teaching Main Idea, too.
#2 Letter Generator
I’ve used a lot of variations of letter templates in the past, but why not use one that is online, and ready to use on a student device? The results of these letter activities can lead to funny interactions, and great conversations about formal vs. informal language, as well as the requisite formatting required to create a letter from scratch.
#3 Story Starter
Do you have a kid that just can’t get going during free writing or narrative writing time? Give them this tool and away they’ll go. They can even pick what type of genre they wish to pursue – good for students with a variety of interests.
#4 Random First Line Generator
Sometimes all it takes for students to get going on their writing is for the first line to be generated. Why not give your students a leg up with a randomly generated first line so that they can get those creative juices flowing?
#5 Pseudonym Generator
Not really a writing tool, per se, but a fun way to start generating funny pen names to develop the writers’ identity in our young learners. Just have students click through this random pseudonym generator, and sort out the names that they like, and pass on the ones they don’t like. Who knows? Maybe one of them will end up in big, bold letters on a future best selling novel?
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Education Rickshaw 
These look like they could be worth a try.
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Good ideas 🙂
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I said to make a random topic generator
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