Black History Month Creative Writing Prompts with Story…

About this resource

What's inside this resource

Never come up with a creative writing prompt again with this Black History Month-themed storytelling unit! Using the 'somebody wants but so then' (SWBST) approach, this comprehensive LOW PREP resource includes Black historical figure character cards, creative writing graphic organizers, writing rubrics, and more.

It makes a great addition to your Black History Month unit study; writing lessons or centers; or social studies or history class. Perfect for first grade, second grade, and third grade classrooms, homeschool families, and cooperatives.

After printing the cards, select which graphic organizers you would like students to use, review the rubric with them, and send them off to write. This can be done individually or in small groups so they can bounce ideas off of one another. Students will submit their finished creative writing stories for teacher assessment.

HISTORICAL FIGURES INCLUDE:

Bessie Coleman

Booker T. Washington
Dr. Patricia Bath
Frederick Douglass
Garrett Morgan
George Washington Carver
Ida Bell Wells
Jackie Robinson
Louis Armstrong
Madam C.J. Walker
Mae C. Jemison
Malcolm X
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Maya Angelou
Muhammad Ali
Oprah Winfrey
Rosa Parks
Ruby Bridges
Sojourner Truth
Thurgood Marshall

THIS RESOURCE COVERS:

Art (illustrating and coloring)
English language arts
Grammar
History
Research
Social studies
Writing (creative writing and storytelling)

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Student can plan an original short story using the Somebody-Wants-But-So-Then story structure.
Student can incorporate a chosen Black historical figure into a fictional or biographical narrative.
Student can revise a draft against a checklist covering spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

Teaching tips

Decide in advance whether students will use Option 1 (figure as a secondary character in a fictional story) or Option 2 (figure as the main character in a fact-based story), since the sentence-starter template changes meaning depending on which is chosen.
Hand out the 100-word noun/verb/adjective/adverb lists to students who need vocabulary support before drafting, rather than after.
Use the teacher rubric to pre-teach the eight scoring categories so students know what 'excellent' looks like before they start writing.

Skills covered

Narrative story generation — students use the SWBST framework (Somebody-Wants-But-So-Then) to plan a short story built around a chosen Black historical figure.
Descriptive sentence construction — students complete a fill-in-the-blank sentence frame using a noun, verb, adverb, and adjective to introduce their chosen character.
Self- and peer-editing — students apply a checklist covering spelling, capitalization, and punctuation before submitting their final piece.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

What is the difference between using the character cards as 'Option 1' versus 'Option 2' in this resource?

In Option 1, the historical figure is a secondary character students write about in a fictional or self-insert story; in Option 2, the same figure becomes the main character, and the story instead retells the figure's real actions rather than an invented plot.

No reviews yet

Downloaded this resource? Tell other teachers how it went.

Curriculum

Standards, concepts & topics

Standards

CCSS.W.3.5 — With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grade 3 on page 29.)
CCSS.L.3.2 — Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. a. Capitalize appropriate words in titles. b. Use commas in addresses. c. Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue. d. Form and use possessives. e. Use conventional spelling for high-frequency and other studied words and for adding suffixes to base words (e.g., sitting, smiled, cries, happiness). f. Use spelling patterns and generalizations (e.g., word families, position-based spellings, syllable patterns, ending rules, meaningful word parts) in writing words. g. Consult reference materials, including beginning dictionaries, as needed to check and correct spellings.
CCSS.L.3.1 — Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. a. Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences. b. Form and use regular and irregular plural nouns. c. Use abstract nouns (e.g., childhood). d. Form and use regular and irregular verbs. e. Form and use the simple (e.g., I walked; I walk; I will walk) verb tenses. f. Ensure subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent agreement.* g. Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs, and choose between them depending on what is to be modified. h. Use coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. i. Produce simple, compound, and complex sentences.

Core concepts

narrative writing
Black History Month
story structure
parts of speech

Topics

black history creative writing writing early writing elementary writing martin luther king jr rosa parks ruby bridges mae jemison MLK

More to explore

Black History Month Creative Writing Prompts with Story Cards

What's inside this resource