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We always do a pre-writing activity where the students complete a graphic organizer related to the topic and spend time brainstorming.

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If a student does not know what to write, I often go back and reread the prompt, stopping to clarify specific parts of the question. If they still do not know what to write, I will often provide guided examples that hopefully will activate the lightbulb and get the pencil moving.

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I prompt them with real word question then we brainstorm ideas.

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I find that helping students brainstorm ideas (phrases and words) helps the students to get moving with their writing! I remind the students, too, that making mistakes is part of the process and that it's OK to go back and make the changes/updates later.

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We use prewriting strategies and go through the Writing Process one day at a time. We provide examples/samples of what the writing could look like or ideas to help them get started. If after that, a student still isn't sure, we work with them individually to either highlight ideas from what we read/went over or just talk to them over the microphone/chats to see what they are thinking about. Sometimes we scribe a little bit of their thoughts just to get them started.

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I tell them to start thinking of a topic sentence or to restate the question in the answer.

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I tell them to start thinking of a topic sentence or to restate the question in the answer.

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I like to take the prompt piece by piece and slow it down by having the students reread it and think about exactly what it's looking for.  I rephrase it oftentimes.  I also use a writing rubric or graphic organizer to get them thinking.

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I like to take the prompt piece by piece and slow it down by having the students reread it and think about exactly what it's looking for.  I rephrase it oftentimes.  I also use a writing rubric or graphic organizer to get them thinking.

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I always make sure students brainstorm before writing. If a student struggles with coming up with an idea, I talk it over with him/her. Sometimes I also give examples or pictures to help students generate an idea.

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Having the students speak their ideas out loud seems to help. Once you have them talking and elaborating ideas it is easier to guide them and help them put their ideas into words on paper.

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Use an outline to map out thinking through each step. Restate the question. Come up with your main ideas and back them up with supporting details. Urge them to be creative and use their own background knowledge and experiences to make their writing more meaningful.

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When we are writing in class or assign something for homework.  We always brainstorm and give examples.  This allows us to guide students back to the brainstorming to come up with ideas.  Talking through their thoughts with them also helps students to get started.

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I always start with at least restate the question to get you started. At least they are getting some points for their response.

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It depends on the topic we are writing about... sometimes I would give a few examples and other times I might ask them a few questions to see if I could spark an idea.

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It depends on the topic we are writing about... sometimes I would give a few examples and other times I might ask them a few questions to see if I could spark an idea.

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If a student didn't know what to write, I would help them brainstorm ideas. I would try to help them use ideas that are personal to them or things that would interest them.

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I try and give them some options about the topic to help them

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I help them to brainstorm ideas.  It can be helpful to brainstorm as a class as well so that students can get ideas from their classmates.

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I start by asking who, what, when, where, and why questions based on the writing task.

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I often find that students have great ideas but they do not realize that their ideas are worthy of being put on paper. For example we had a discussion board where students had to relate to a story. The students did a great job recognizing the similarities and differences yet "didn't know how" to put it into words. When I initiate that conversation and ask for their ideas they tell me exactly what I am looking for. But when I say "great, you got it!" they respond with "so what do I write?". It takes a lot of one-on-one time with my students to help them realize that their thoughts are the exact words that I want to see them typing on the screen. In the same instance, when I ask them to comment on others, they will say to me "hey we had the same idea, or, we like the same things" I often explain, then let's type that! I think that the conversation of making them feel comfortable in their own words is essential to them being a good writer.

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I invite the student to a tutoring session if they are asking about a specific writing assignment in BUZZ. We brainstorm and organize thoughts together.
If they express this issue during a class session, I will ask them about their interests and let them write about something they know well. This will help to build their confidence.

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I have them refer back to the prompt and we read it together so that I know they understand what it is asking. Then we will brainstorm together and I will even share some of my ideas with them and see if they can create their own. I like to have them use graphic organizers as well.

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Well, for TDA, when students don't know what to write, I always start with guiding them to restate the question.  The next move it to get them to actually answer the question.  From there, I make them search for details that support their answer. And it goes on.

To avoid this in other writing, I try to use graphic organizers for prewriting. That way, I can say well, let's go back to the prewriting and see what you have down.

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Depending on the task I may ask guiding questions to try and help them brainstorm.

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In our LS class we use writing prompts and model what responses should look like. We brainstorm before writing even begins.

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If a student tells me that they do not know what to write, I will elaborate on the details that we want included to try and help them gain an understanding of the prompt. This is a very common issues that we run into when working with our LS population, so we will typically ask probing questions that deal with the topic to get the student thinking until we find something that sounds like a good topic. I really like when the student says they do not know what to talk about and after questioning I can finally say, "that is what you should write about." Sometimes talking through the writer block is all the student needs to put together a great piece or writing.

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I always try to have students focus on what the task is and first brainstorm ideas. Once we can create a list, then I try to use some sort of graphic organizer to help focus on each area that needs to be included in the written piece. We are working of opinion paragraphs this week, and using these strategies worked well and made for a less stressful ELA class and writing time. In addition, I always have students write about something they are familiar with or know something about. During the brainstorming step, I try to incorporate their interests to help them decide what to write about. For example, one of my students loves donuts so she decided that writing about why donuts make the best dessert would be a good topic.