Letters

• One easy and engaging activity is the letter writing activity. This is a fairly standard school practice, but it can easily be made more complex and engaging simply by a good prompt. For instance, try telling the students to write a letter as a historical figure of their choosing. This could be left open-ended or you can give the prompt a further layer by asking the students to write as their historical figure to a specific person, such as their husband or wife, mother, father or best friend. You can reverse this activity as well, having the student write as themselves to the historical figure.
  
  

Speeches

• Speeches are another short, engaging writing activity. Try having the students write as if they had just become the president or leader of their country and are giving their inaugural address. You could have the students write their own version of a famous speech, such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, or even write a speech as a reaction to a famous speech. Another good speech-writing prompt is having the students write as if they have been given one chance to say something to everyone in the world. As long as the kids don't actually have to give the speeches, you will be surprised at how engaging speech writing can be for students.
  
  

Review

• Students often feel disconnected from activities in school; a good way to pull their focus back and really get them interested is to have them write about something that interests them. Reviews on movies, music, television and other entertainment forms are a great way to do this, as the kids likely already have opinions formed on these. Making sure the students understand they need to keep the writing school-appropriate, have them choose a favorite album, film and write their own review of it. This activity can be reversed and reused by having students write a review of a least favorite item.
  
  

Short Stories

• Possibly the hardest type of writing for many students is fiction, but this is usually because they don't know where to start. A good way to engage students in fiction writing is to give very specific prompts for short stories. One great prompt is having the kids write a day-in-the-life story about their favorite musician or celebrity (again, keeping it school-appropriate is necessary here). You could also have them write as if they had been transported to a time period of your or their choosing and what they think that experience would be like. The trick with fiction is to put just enough limitations on their writing to focus their minds on specific subjects, but leave enough freedom that students can make the story their own.