Historical Writing Prompts for Upper Elementary

Teaching students how to write a historical nonfiction 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 nonfiction texts 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 writing unit. Your students should be very familiar with the structure and language features of historical writing 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 text 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 writing prompts with your class:

1. Distribute the Prompt – Distribute the chosen prompt to your students. Read through it as a class and answer any questions about the upcoming task.
2. Planning Time – Provide students with time to plan their piece of writing. Ten minutes should be sufficient.
3. Writing Time – Provide students with an uninterrupted period of sustained writing time to complete their historical texts.
4. 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 Writing Resource Today!

This resource downloads as a full-color 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 writing skills while saving valuable preparation time for busy teachers.

More Resources for Teaching the Historical Nonfiction

Click below to browse more teacher-created, curriculum-aligned resources to use when teaching historical nonfiction to your students.

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