4-6-8 Gathering Ideas for Writing

I don’t know what to write about? Have you heard this before?  I’m pretty confident that every teacher has heard this at some point!

The 4-6-8 strategy gives students something to write about.  As a whole class, have students brainstorm to list four characters.  Characters can be made up, from a book, or a movie.  Next, have students brainstorm to list six settings.  Last, students should brainstorm to list eight events.  This chart alone provides students with a whopping 192 possible combinations!

When students need something to write about, they chose one character, one setting, and one event.

For example:

Harry Potter on the playground baking a cake.

Llama in the treehouse watching a movie

Ramona at a friends house getting embarrassed.

Other options:

Use historical figures as characters.  Ex:  George Washington at the beach eating an ice cream cone.

Use the world’s biomes as the setting. Ex:  Grandma visits the aquatic biome to prepare for a marathon.

Use historial events as the event.  Ex:  Wilbur at the farm watching the civil war.

Have students create their own 4-6-8 mini poster to refer back to when they are stumped.

Really, the possibilities are endless and the stories that are created are FUN to read!