Story Generation from Prompt
Create a complete original story from a single picture or title prompt.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Ask for the problem before any writing starts. These prompts supply an intriguing situation and no complication, and a student who begins without one produces description. The ending prompt — and nobody ever mentioned it again — is the most demanding, since the whole story has to justify that last line, and it is the best item on the board for a student who can already produce a complete narrative. Fifteen minutes covers one story planned and told.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentPresent the item and wait 5 seconds of quiet before helping.Log as correct
- Question promptAsk a story-grammar question: who, where, what was the problem, what happened next?Log as cued
- Two choicesOffer two possible next parts of the story and let the student pick and say it.Log as cued
- ModelTell that part yourself; the student tells it back in their own words.Log as cued
Adjust it
Use fewer parts, and keep a first-next-last visual on the table.
Ask for the retell without the pictures, with a feeling or a reason added to each part.
Matching IEP goal
Given a picture or story prompt, Student will tell a story that includes a character, setting, problem and ending in 4 of 5 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than one question prompt.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Ten story prompts, several of them openings or endings rather than topics: write a story that begins, the door had never been unlocked before; a backpack that got heavier every morning; a kid who could hear one minute into the future; a story that ends, and nobody ever mentioned it again; a town where it never stopped raining. Each supplies a hook and leaves the structure to the student.
What to listen for
Listen for a complete episode rather than an interesting premise. Students at this level produce vivid openings and unresolved endings, and the resolution is the element to insist on. Watch whether the character has an internal response — a story where things happen and nobody feels anything is a sequence rather than a narrative.
Carrying it home
Story prompts work aloud in a car. Giving an opening line and taking turns adding sentences is a game rather than homework, and it builds the same structure.
What's in this activity
- Write a story that begins: The door had never been unlocked before.
- Write a story about a backpack that got heavier every morning.
- Write a story about the last day of summer.
- Write a story about a kid who could hear one minute into the future.
- Write a story about a dog that followed you home.
- Write a story that ends: And nobody ever mentioned it again.
- Write a story about a town where it never stopped raining.
- Write a story about finding a letter with your name on it.
- Write a story about the new kid who knew your secret.
- Write a story about a bike that wasn't there this morning.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Fourth through eighth, for students who can already produce a complete narrative and need to generate one from nothing.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all ten prompts play free.
- Should the story be spoken or written?
- Spoken first for most students. Writing adds a mechanical load that can hide what the narrative structure actually looks like, and a story told aloud can be written afterwards.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.