The school year is in full swing and FreeWritingPrompts.net is providing new fiction and nonfiction writing prompts for teachers and students in elementary, middle and high school.

"We get a lot of requests from teachers looking for new, creative ideas," said Kevin Savetz, the site's creator. "I think these prompts will generate a lot of great responses in students of all ages."

The new literary prompts are geared toward reader response assignments, meaning that they assign a book for the children to read and then ask specific questions in order to generate discussions and focused arguments. Some of the books assigned are classics for all ages, including Lord of the Flies, The Giver, and Of Mice and Men. The prompts ask students to consider theme, setting, voice, tone and metaphors when formulating their essays.

Besides fictional literature, there is a separate category devoted to nonfiction essays, memoirs and historical fiction. These include Kaffir Boy, The Watsons Go to Birmingham, and "Required Reading." Some of the prompts are designed to help teachers illustrate the difference between fiction and nonfiction to young students.

All 55 writing prompts at FreeWritingPrompts.net are free to print and use as a customizable DOC file. Categories include narrative, persuasive, comparative and creative prompts. There are even special prompts for holidays and creative writing. All prompts are arranged by grade level and category.

There are more than 80 sites in the FreePrintable.net family of free printables sites created by Savetz Publishing, Inc., a company devoted to creating useful and informative web sites of interest to consumers and small businesses.