Use this set of 5 historical recount writing prompts to assess your students’ writing skills.
Historical Recount Writing Prompts for Upper Primary
Teaching students how to write a historical recount helps them develop their understanding of chronology, historical events and informative writing. By learning to recount events from the past in a clear and logical order, students strengthen their research, sequencing and written communication skills. Historical recounts also encourage students to think critically about significant moments in history and consider how people experienced them.
This resource has been designed by our team as an assessment tool to use at the end of your historical recount writing unit. Your students should be very familiar with the structure and language features of historical recounts before engaging with this resource.
Each writing prompt in this set focuses on a different topic. The five topics included are:
- Incredible Inventions
- Exciting Expeditions
- Momentous Moments
- Famous Finds
- Amazing Achievements
Students are encouraged to choose their own ideas based on the broad topics above. For example, a student might choose the ‘Famous Finds’ prompt and then write a historical recount about the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb. Another might choose the same prompt, but write about the discovery of the ancient city of Machu Picchu.
Teachers may wish to use a single prompt for all students, or students could choose whichever prompt they prefer.
Using These Historical Writing Prompts in Your Lessons
You might like to follow the process below when using these historical recount writing prompts with your class:
- Distribute the Prompt – Distribute the chosen prompt to your students. Read through it as a class and answer any questions about the upcoming task.
- Planning Time – Provide students with time to plan their piece of writing. Ten minutes should be sufficient.
- Writing Time – Provide students with an uninterrupted period of sustained writing time to complete their historical recounts.
- Editing Time – Provide at least five minutes at the end of the writing period for students to read over and make adjustments to their writing.
Download This Historical Recount Resource Today!
This resource downloads as a full-colour PDF or an editable Google Slides file. Click on the Download button to access your preferred version. Please note that you will be requested to make a copy of the Google Slides file on your personal device.
This resource provides a practical and engaging way to develop students’ historical recount writing skills while saving valuable preparation time for busy teachers.
More Resources for Teaching the Historical Recount Genre
Click below to browse more teacher-created, curriculum-aligned resources to use when teaching the historical recount genre to your students.
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Historical Recount Structure Sorting Task – The Moon Landing
Teach your students about historical recount structure with this cut-and-paste sequencing worksheet.
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Introduction to Historical Recounts Teaching Slides
Use this age-appropriate, visually engaging slide deck to teach your students about the purpose, structure and features of historical recounts.
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Historical Recounts Examples – Comparison Task
Explore historical recounts examples through a detailed comparison of two accounts of the RMS Titanic disaster, helping students analyse how historical events can be represented in different ways in texts.
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