One of the best ways to ensure you stick with a daily writing habit is to have plenty of prompts on hand. Teens thrive when they are given boundaries with generous margins. The twenty writing prompts in this free printable August writing prompt calendar provide the perfect amount of structure to stimulate your high schooler while allowing for plenty of creative expression!
The calendar is not dated, so you can use it year after year whenever you need writing inspiration for your middle school or high school student. Each week features five different categories of prompts so your tween or teen isn’t stuck in a rut of only expository or only persuasive topics.
Example writing prompts from a week of the teen August writing prompt calendar
- persuasive — Think of a favorite restaurant with great food, service, and atmosphere. Then write an essay to convince a city organization to give it an award for best in its category.
- creative — Imagine that a time machine has transported you back to an earlier civilization or historical era. Poking through your backpack, you discover some rope, a pocket knife, a roll of duct tape, and three modern technological devices. Where are you? What is the time period? What tech devices are in your backpack? Write a diary or journal entry about how you survive for 24 hours with the help of the items you have on hand.
- argumentative — Some cities and states have considered taxing sugary drinks in an effort to improve citizens’ health. What do you think about a tax on soda? Support your opinion with logical reasons.
- expository — Make a list of books you’ve read that have also been made into movies you’ve seen, such as The Book Thief, Charlotte’s Web, or The Hobbit. Next to each title, note whether you preferred the book or the film version. Choose one title and explain your reasons for preferring one over the other.
- reflective — What area of life are you the most disciplined about? What motivates you to be so diligent in that area compared to other parts of your life?
Key to the 5 prompt types
1. Persuasive
The PERSUASIVE essay attempts to sway the reader to accept the writer’s position. Key Words: Persuade, convince, sway, argue, convert.
2. Creative
The CREATIVE essay tells a story or describes a situation, person, or location. Key Words: imagine, story, tell, describe, detail.
3. Argumentative
The ARGUMENTATIVE essay is developed from a thesis in which the student takes a stance/gives an opinion. Key words: Justify, prove, take a stance, agree or disagree, argue for or against, should you or should you not, why or why not.
4. Expository
An EXPOSITORY essay explains a premise. Key words: Define, describe, demonstrate, tell how, illustrate, explain, outline the steps needed, compare or contrast, distinguish between, show cause and effect, give examples.
5. Reflective
The REFLECTIVE Essay encourages students to analyze and write about their life, personality, and/or experiences. Reflective essays are much less academic in nature. Key words: your, you.
Ideas for using your teen August writing prompt calendar
There is no single way to use the calendar. It’s flexible, so you can make it work for you and your teenagers! Here are a few options.
- Let your teen highlight or cross off the prompts as she uses them.
- Number the pages with the dates she has homeschool lessons in August.
- Let your teen skip around on the calendar, choosing the prompts out of order.
- Pin the calendar to a bulletin board where it will be seen daily.
- Assign a certain number of the twenty prompts, letting your high schooler select the ones she prefers.
- Tape or glue the calendar into a composition notebook or journal.
- Focus on a different type of writing each week or month, choosing only those particular prompts.
- Each month, select one or two of your teen’s daily journal entries to take through the full writing process for composing a complete essay.
If you would like to share this prompt with others, please link to this post instead of linking directly to the PDF file. Feel free to save and print this PDF file for your own personal use. Please do not sell or host these files anywhere else.
Receive daily writing prompts via email
Would you prefer to have these prompts delivered to your inbox each day? Sign up for our teen prompt of the day emails, and that’s exactly what you will get. Each morning, Monday through Friday, you will receive a new message with a writing prompt you can use that day in your homeschool writing lessons.
Take your pick! Download an August calendar PDF or get the free emails. Or get both for double the writing reminders.
