Friends play a powerful role in all of our lives, from a very young age.
Without any prompting, it’s more than likely that friendship will feature in many students writing naturally too.
But how can we encourage kids in our classes to be more thoughtful about all aspects of friendship, and consider the subject more deeply than a mention of a friend as part of a story?
Today I’ve written some prompts which should help get some interesting discussion and writing exercises going with your students.
Why write about friendship?
One of the best aspects of writing in my view is that relies on the arrangement of thoughts.
We take a concept, question, or idea, and build on it.
Maybe it is a creative story that we (or our students) are giving life.
Or perhaps it is a question which prompts us to deeply consider what is most important to us – and ponder why that is so.
These are all valuable exercises, and in fact, just as with a physical exercise, repeating that exercise regularly is what builds that “muscle”.
We develop our ability for creative thought – just as we can develop our ability for introspective thought, or critical thinking.
I strongly believe that these are all extremely valuable qualities to have in life.
So when a question is posed regarding some aspect of friendship, beyond becoming a better writer, this can lead us to look within ourselves and clarify what is important to us.
It can help us understand what kind of person we are striving to be, and what sort of people we want to surround ourselves with in life.
And as teachers, in my view we are aiming to not only give our students the skills needed to survive in this life, but help set them up to thrive in every aspect of it.
How to use:
As with most types of writing prompts, these can be used in a number of different ways.
Here are some suggestions:
- Group discussion – provide a small group with one or two prompts as talking points. More students, especially introverts, will be comfortable openly discussing deeper topics with a smaller group.
- Individual consideration – provide a specific prompt (or a few) to each student individually. Have them sit quietly and consider and write about their own opinions on the prompt.
- Class discussion – whether as a standalone exercise, or once you have had the individual/group time to consider a specific set of prompts, it can be helpful to help guide the discussion as a class. This can allow you to encourage open sharing of different ideas and ways of thinking about the same question. Some of these will be very different to what an individual would have considered on their own, and being exposed to a wide variety of ways of thinking is important in any students learning and growth.
Here are the Prompts:
- What makes someone a wonderful friend?
- Do you think you’re a good friend to others? Why?
- How do you choose who to have as a friend? Why is that?
- Is it possible to buy friendship? Why or why not?
- What do you think you’ll treasure more, memories of a great friendship, or having met a famous person?
- What is something that can be difficult in a friendship?
- How do you want people to think of you as a friend? Why?
- Can pets be your friends? Why or why not?
- Do friends always have to agree? Why is that?
- Are there different levels of friendship? What are they?
- Does it make you feel good to be a kind friend? Why?
- Should a friend be concerned if you’re one of the popular kids? Why?
- What was a great adventure you went on with a friend?
- Can you think of the earliest friend you made? What drew you to them?
- If your friends are always positive or always negative about things, can that effect how you see the world? Why?
- Can we choose to change our friends if we realize they’re not as good a friend as we thought at first? How?
- What sort of friends would you hope your kid brother or sister would have? Why is that?
- Can friends change the way we think about things?
- Can you be yourself with friends, or do you have to pretend to be somebody else? Why?
Inspiration is important
I hope you’ve had a wonderfully creative and thought provoking session with your students as a result of what we’ve shared with you today.
Please let us know if you have suggestions on future writing prompts or other teaching resources you’d like us to make for you next.
We publish more every week for you to use for free – so please don’t forget to bookmark and Pin so you don’t miss out on all the new resources!
Thanks and see you again soon,
– Matt & Hayley
