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"This school year we added a new feature to our daily lineup of student activities. Called "Picture Prompts," these short, accessible, image-driven posts feature photographs and illustrations from The Times, and invite a variety of written or spoken responses - from creative storytelling to personal narrative to constructing an argument or analyzing what a work of "op-art" might be saying. Teachers tell us they use these prompts to inspire student writing - whether in their journals, as a timed opportunity or to practice inferring meaning "without worrying about getting the right or wrong answer." They also use them with a variety of learners, from high school to middle or elementary school students to English Language Learners of all ages. As one teacher put it, she uses them "for helping teenagers to start talking to each other." Below, we've categorized the 160+ prompts we published during the 2016-17 school year based on the type of writing they primarily encourage students to do. All are still open for comment. Plus, we have a lesson plan on how to teach with Picture Prompts, along with other Times images, in case you're looking for more inspiration."

"So often, we make learning more complicated than it has to be. Local planning requirements are usually at fault here-plan this way and prove that you've done so here and here, fill out this and this, etc. Those legitimate concerns aside, the following series of fill-in-the-blank prompts can be used by teachers to create lessons, students to create projects-or teachers to collaborate with students to create lessons-or projects. Or, well, you get the idea. I use these sorts of stems to create "learning blends" for students-either with them, or for them. I couple these prompts with other components-technology like apps or social media channels, texts from literary classics to postmodern non-fiction, creativity, or even local matters of citizenship. Please steal them, add to them, or otherwise do with them what you will."

"What can you write in 10 minutes or less? Let's find out! For a quick creative writing exercise, try one of the 21 writing prompts below, excerpted from Chronicle Books' 642 Tiny Things to Write About. Each prompt was created by a writing teacher at the San Francisco Writers Grotto to be done in 10 minutes or less. For a bigger creative challenge, do one writing prompt a day for 21 days."

"The collection of prompts below asks young writers to think through real or imagined events, their emotions, and a few wacky scenarios. Try out the ones you think will resonate most with your students.  As with all prompts, inform students that their answers should be rated G and that disclosing dangerous or illegal things they're involved in will obligate you to file a report with the administration or school counselors. Finally, give students the option of writing "PERSONAL" above some entries that they don't want anyone to read. We all need to let scraggly emotions run free in our prose sometimes."

"The collection of prompts below asks young writers to think through real or imagined events, their emotions, and a few wacky scenarios. Try out the ones you think will resonate most with your students.  As with all prompts, inform students that their answers should be rated G and that disclosing dangerous or illegal things they're involved in will obligate you to file a report with the administration or school counselors. Finally, give students the option of writing "PERSONAL" above some entries that they don't want anyone to read. We all need to let scraggly emotions run free in our prose sometimes."

"Write About This is a visual writing prompt & creation platform perfect for classrooms and families! With endless ways to respond and the ability to craft custom photo prompts, it will kick-start any writing activity. 125 categorized images & 375 text+voice prompts included!"

"If you want to become a better writer, the best thing you can do is practice writing every single day. But we know sometimes it can be hard to think of what to write about! So we put together this list of 365 creative writing prompts to give you something to write about daily. Whether you write short stories, poems, or like to keep a journal - these will stretch your imagination and give you some ideas on what to write about!"

Shout out to Andy McKiel and Zoe Bettess' grade 3 Math class in this post! "I love Instagram because it prompts me to take and share pictures of things that I might otherwise glance at then forget about. Before cell phones entered my life I rarely took pictures. Last week I took the picture that you see below. Almost as soon as it appeared in my Facebook feed via Instagram, my friend Kelly commented with, "shouldn't they be more concerned about weight than the number of people?" Kelly is a middle school math teacher so this picture was right in her wheelhouse of math prompts. (If you want to use the picture as a math prompt, you are welcome to download it)."

"If you want to become a better writer, the best thing you can do is practice writing every single day. But we know sometimes it can be hard to think of what to write about! So we put together this list of 365 creative writing prompts to give you something to write about daily. Whether you write short stories, poems, or like to keep a journal - these will stretch your imagination and give you some ideas on what to write about!"

"One of my favorite activities with my students was having them keep daily journals. Each day, they knew the routine. Grab their journals, grab a pillow, sit where they want and spend 5 minutes responding to the prompt on the board. Nowadays, technology provides us more engaging ways to encourage writing. Students can journal online with blogs or use mobile technologies to capture images, record videos, and post podcasts. They can make their voices more engaging, spread their ideas, and receive comments from around the world. Below are a few ideas and resou"

A great, and fun twitter bot account provides items which can be used as a writing prompt.

"Write About is a new site co-founded by educator John Spencer (his name may be familiar with readers since I've previously shared his work many times here). His co-founder is Brad Wilson. And they've created what might be the Education Site of 2014. Write About provides many (and I mean many) images with writing prompts. Students can write their response and do an audio recording of it. Teachers can create virtual classrooms and provide individual written feedback to student writing. Student creations can be shared publicly or just with their classmates. Teachers can change prompts or upload their own photos."

"Every school day since 2009 we've asked students a question based on an article in the New York Times. Five years later, we've collected 500 of them that invite narrative and personal writing and pulled them all together in one place. Consider it a companion to the list of 200 argumentative writing prompts we posted earlier this year."

"Doodlecast for Kids is an iPad app that allows kids to draw on a whiteboard and record their voice while drawing; a kid's version for creating animated videos. Doodlecast for Kids has also a gallery of more than 20 story prompts to help struggling students. Students can either pick out one from the prompts or start from scratch."

Many mobile users in India have been receiving missed calls from premium international numbers, or calls related to winning lotteries, prompting them to call back and waste a much of their prepaid balance. TRAI (telecom industry regulator in India) has asked all operators to stop ISD calling on prepaid numbers until especially asked for by customers. TRAI says that it has been receiving complaints that people are getting missed calls (wangiri calls) and calls relating to winning prizes or lotteries from international numbers. These are often premium numbers charging high tariff, prompting consumers to call back such numbers. By responding to such calls/SMSs consumers have to pay unintended charges.

"APPS & WEB TOOLS 20 FREE characters to encourage Scientific Thinking1 ByPaul HamiltonPosted on January 1, 2016 I've learnt a few things in my 15 years of classroom teaching. One of these gems is 'the power of visuals' to prompt, stimulate little imaginations. Whether it be using world builders to ignite creative writing, or a simple image to develop thinking routines. One subject area that I see huge potential to prompt thinking is Science. I often have my students taking photo's of different stages of science experiments and investigations. But it is sometimes difficult for my students to think scientifically and communicate these ideas with others. So here are 20 FREE kids scientist images that I hope will act as a stimulus for scientific thinking."

Using Image Prompts to Inspire Writing & Speaking Activities https://t.co/0bvVFbSezx #writing #esl #tesol #elt #eal… https://t.co/Q4fBENH2WS

"Nighttime Numeracy: Sending out math prompts for you and your child to discuss before bed."

"Exit tickets or cards are informal assessment tools teachers can use to assess students understanding at the end of a class. They can also be used for formative assessment purposes to help teachers design better instructional content based on students feedback. Exit tickets can take the form of a prompt or a question related to what have been taught in the lesson. Here are some examples of questions and prompts to use in your exit cards as featured in "