Rather than provide students with story starters, writing prompts, or fill-in-the-blank sentences, provide them with lessons and resources that help them to choose their own topics.

Model the use of this grid by choosing one of the topics in the squares and beginning your own narrative. If you teach kindergarten or first grade, draw a picture of the story you wish to tell and then label your picture, or write a single sentence taking time to stretch out words.

 Remember, we're constantly demonstrating how writers focus their work. So if you choose the family box, narrow your focus.  Write about the time you and your sister built a fort under the table, or describe the antics in the backseat of the car on a family vacation. Then place a check in your "family box."

Some students will do just as you did: placing a check in the box each and every time a story is inspired by that topic.  Other students will color in their boxes, determined to write about each topic before the year is over. And it won't be long before a student realizes that a piece about a birthday party covers family, game, and surprise and wants to put a check in all three boxes.  It doesn't matter how the student uses the grid (or if she chooses to use it at all.) What's important is that students are learning that our lives provide endless topics to explore.