Many teachers pick a Speak essay prompt first and figure out how to grade it later. That order causes trouble. If you do not know what a strong answer looks like, you cannot write a prompt that reliably produces one.

The better approach is to pair every prompt with two or three specific criteria. Those criteria tell you what to look for and give students a target. They also keep your feedback focused, since you are not making up standards as you read.

Speak is rich enough to support many different essay angles. Silence, honesty, friendship, art, and the way a school treats its students all give students something to argue. The trick is choosing prompts narrow enough that students can build an argument in five paragraphs.

Below are prompt ideas with the grading criteria that fit each one. You can use them as written or adapt them to your class. Each one aims for a clear claim backed by specific moments in the book.

Prompts about voice and silence

Ask students to argue whether Melinda's silence protects her or hurts her. The strongest essays will hold both ideas and take a position. Grade for a clear stance, evidence from at least two parts of the book, and analysis that explains the tension.

• Voice: does Melinda's silence protect her more than it harms her, or the reverse?
• Friendship: what does Melinda's loss of Rachel and Heather reveal about how high school works?
• Art: how does the art class help Melinda find a way to express herself?
• School: what does the novel suggest about adults who fail to notice a struggling student?
• Change: how does Melinda's relationship with her own story shift by the end?

Matching criteria to each prompt

Every prompt above shares a baseline: a debatable claim, well-chosen evidence, and analysis that ties the two together. Then add one criterion specific to the prompt. For the art prompt, that might be that the student discusses at least one specific project and what it shows about Melinda.

Keep the extra criterion short and observable. If you cannot point to it in the essay, you cannot grade it fairly. This also helps students see that a prompt about art is not just an invitation to summarize the art class.

Avoiding prompts that invite summary

Prompts starting with "describe" or "discuss" tend to produce plot retellings. Speak has a strong plot, and students who know the story will lean on it. Use verbs like "argue," "evaluate," or "explain how" to push toward analysis.

If you still get a stack of summaries, that is useful information about what needs reteaching. A rubric with a clear analysis row makes the gap visible. Tools that score against your rubric, like GraideMind, can flag summary-heavy essays quickly so you can plan a mini-lesson.

Giving students a choice

Offering two or three prompts lets students pick the angle they care about most. Writing tends to improve when students have a reason to make their argument. The shared criteria let you grade every option fairly.

When you offer choices, keep the difficulty balanced. A prompt that is far easier than the others will attract everyone. Read them side by side and ask which requires the most thinking before you hand them out.