55 Writing Prompts for Middle School

The following is a group poem created by second grade students of Michelle Fleer, a teacher-consultant with the Dakota Writing Project . Though college students are technically adults, being a 19-year-old in college is not the same as being a 30-year-old with a career and, possibly, a family. Regardless, college students have had enough life experiences to think critically about themselves, the people around them, and the world. Because students still write journals in some classes, I think they still distinguish this from blogging. I think they see journaling as writing, but not blogging quite yet. Although, I think that is starting to change as they start blogging for classes. I think blogging will be viewed as more official writing in the future.

Even reluctant writers tend to get more excited about writing when presented with irresistible story writing prompts. Above all, though, a strong creative writing assignment should be interesting to you and your students. For some, the idea of creative writing assignments in ELA is exciting. You might have students in your classroom who are regularly honing their writing skills at home, on their own time. On the other hand, you may have some students who haven’t done much creative writing at all. In fact, they might look at writing as less an opportunity and more as a punishment.

Finish this sentence: “I wish that I ..”

Not really, but yes at the same time. I think many teachers panic when students deviate from the 5 paragraph essay that they know and understand.

Sometimes a writer just needs a quick, simple prompt to prime their creative juices. Here are even more resources to support your student’s writing adventures. Write an essay on what friendship means to you and why people become friends. Imagine your school is considering making all students wear uniforms. Do you think this is right or wrong? Write a letter to your school giving your position on this subject and supporting your position with convincing reasons. Explain your reasons.

Language Arts Worksheets By Topic

Four in ten (41%) have students journal on a weekly basis. Creative writing exercises are a fun and interesting way to improve your writing skill.

If you take time and review their work, you can learn a great deal about your middle school students from their admission essay editor writing. Creative middle school writing prompts can keep students motivated and interested in writing.

Who Should Use These Story Writing Prompts

This activity is designed to get students started writing. Students will, by no means, finish a piece at each station.

Although not everyone will be asked to write a long academic paper for their jobs, the reflection that goes behind this type of writing is critical for everyone. The process of making thinking transparent and clear to others is essential to knowing the why behind the what. The notion of form al texts supports the idea of knowing how to communicate with various audiences. The more registers a person has in his or her arsenal, the more effective that person will be when communicating with a diverse group. To carry an idea out to see if it is “true” to the thinker or not, I think this is so important. I want students to grapple with the complexity of a subject, to see it from all sides by way of a formal written response. Further, I think breaking down that response into its finer parts help me to teach the components that would go into an extended response.

Write a manual on how to use a certain phone app or device

Eileen Kennedy, special education teacher at Medger Evers College, works with native speakers of Caribbean Creole who are preparing to teach in New York City. Sometimes she encourages these students to draft writing in their native Creole. The additional challenge becomes to re-draft this writing, rendered in patois, into Standard English. Considering the theme of sibling rivalry, for instance, students identify possible scenes with topics such as “I Had It First” and “Calling in the Troops” .

• ’ Students fold up their questions and drop them into a hat.
• Describe a day in the life of being a goldfish in a fishbowl at a pet shop.
• A personal narrative is a creative way to tell a true story.
• However, they may be lacking inspiration and not know where to start.
• Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life – Written by James Patters, this is a comic of sorts that deals with middle schoolers’ biggest issues .

Learn More. Just as we should encourage our students to read for fun and wider educational benefits, we should also work to instil similar attitudes towards writing. To do this means we must work to avoid always framing writing in the context of a chore, that bitter pill that must be swallowed for the good of our health. But what about descriptive writing activities? In this activity, we endeavor to bring that same level of enjoyment to instruction writing while also cleverly reinforcing the criteria of this genre.

Student Publishing & Book Creation

Try texting couplets (great for practicing rhythm and rhyme!), picture-inspired poetry , and nonfiction-inspired poetry . This is an end of the year activity for any middle school class. It includes an instruction page and a scoring rubric, so it’s ready to use! Could be adapted for use with 5th or 9th grade very easily. For additional persuasive writing ideas, learn how to write a one-minute persuasive speech or explore more persuasive writing samples.

• It takes writing out of the box and will help get their imaginations going.
• Hicks and Johnson give each of the “characters” a different color packet of Post-it Notes.
• What is your favorite place in all the world?

Moreover, many see tremendous value in longer writing assignments that require students to organize their thoughts and fully develop complex ideas . They see longer, formal writing assignments as an important juxtaposition to the more informal and often more truncated styles of expression in which their students regularly engage. Use the following writing ideas prompt list with your middle school students as a fun way to get your class interested in writing and to help them develop their language skills. As the school year progresses, you’ll notice students becoming more comfortable writing—and each student will have the chance to share his or her unique point of view. So get to it and use this awesome list of middle school writing prompts with your writers today, I think you’ll be glad you did. Use our wonderful list of middle school writing prompts for students to help them build important writing skills while improving their ability to express their unique thoughts and ideas. Just over three-quarters report having students complete a research paper (77%) or a multimedia project (77%) at some point during the current academic year.

Why Story Starters and Writing Prompts Work

If you’re looking for a mentor text that pairs well with this one, try “My Name” by Sandra Cisneros. Writing skills are essential for building a solid educational foundation in children.

Writers of all ages get writer’s block, including children. Kids often experience writer’s block when they have an assignment that’s too broad or open-ended. This is why writing prompts for kids should be fun, easy to understand, and relatively straightforward.

Reflective Writing Prompts

Putting pen to paper can help students in so many ways. 1.1 Putting pen to paper can help students in so many ways. Nowadays, journaling may seem outdated, especially with new technology everywhere we go. But having kids do a journal can be helpful in so many ways, that I don’t think it should be passed up. Self-driving cars are the way of the future. But self-driving cars will put millions of delivery drivers, truckers and taxi drivers out of work. Should companies be allowed to create new technology that ends so many jobs?

As they use persuasive writing prompts, they’ll become more adept critical thinkers and will learn how to craft an argument, defend a position, and provide supporting evidence. It can be tough for reluctant writers to know where to begin. Although their daily lives likely include all sorts of sources of inspiration, middle school students may feel overwhelmed or insecure about sharing their deepest thoughts. Story starters are a great way to help students begin their stories.

Creative Writing Exercises for Middle School

The writing teacher can’t stay on the sidelines. “When I modeled for my players, they knew what I wanted them to do.” The same involvement, he says, is required writing assignment for middle school to successfully teach writing. A better connection, the students usually suggest, would be to use one of those electrical connectors that look like pen caps.

• Imagine you find an old letter tucked inside a library book.
• Learn more about your students’ interests and lives as well as their writing strengths and weaknesses with this All About Me writing activity.
• They make a case for why they are different than how they are perceived.
• Make a list of three different story ideas about dragons.
• And finally another sentence of something negative.