Scratching your head when it comes to engaging writing prompts? Check out a list of prompts designed for middle school classes, which includes topics for persuasive writing, expository writing, how-to essays, personal narratives, and...

Students create questions to pose to adults working in Middle School. In groups, students create a video interviewing the Middle School staff. They edit the video and format present it as an introduction to Middle School for perspective...

This is a fantastic collection of a wide variety of rubrics for writing, listening, and speaking! The resource contains over 14 rubrics for assessing such items as a summary, autobiographical sketch and narrative, speech, oral...

Introduce some nonfiction reading into your classroom! This resource contains seven comprehension questions pertaining to an article from The New York Times website about the first middle schoolers to ever win the United States Chess...

Looking for suggestions on how to organize a creating writing workshop? For topic suggestions appropriate for various grade levels? Check out a resource packet, designed for English language arts instructors, that is packed with ideas...

Whether you are teaching mainstream, advanced, or intervention language arts classes, you will find something helpful in a thorough writing packet. It includes prompts, rubrics, responses, helpful hints, graphic organizers, and many...

Never again will you need to worry about coming up with a writing prompt! This packet contains, as it says, 501 prompts that are suitable for fourth graders on up. The prompts are paired into four categories (persuasive, expository,...

No matter how difficult high school writing may seem, college writing presents challenges of its own. The fourth in a series of 24 handouts from The Writing Center at UNC breaks down the expectations for college writing. Scholars learn...

Middle schoolers write a nonfiction animal book. They research an animal to write about and use the templates provided to gather all sorts of information on their animal. Consider making a model book so your class has an idea of what it...

How do your pupils want to change the world? Find out with this writing prompt, inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s well-known speech. The resource provides the prompt and lines for writing.

What a pair! Older pupils interview younger ones and use what they learn to write a short, illustrated storybook that features the youngster as the main character. The youngster responds with a thank-you note in which they identify their...

Enhance a unit on historical fiction with an engaging writing lesson plan. Learners bring the Industrial Era to life as they compose their own historical fiction pieces based on primary source images of Pittsburgh steel workers. 

Students participate in an interview of a school employee. In this interview lesson, students develop appropriate interview questions and carry out an interview of a school employee to show that all jobs well done is worthy of respect....

Following a review of how to research and take notes, scholars define the term paraphrase and identify ways to organize information and finish reports. To put their newfound knowledge to the test, learners interview a peer, take notes,...

Practice expository and creative writing with your class. Pupils use magazines to find pictures, cut them out, and create a collage. This work of art is then used as a writing prompt. They describe the collage in either a creative or...

A straightforward and thorough packet of reading exercises would be a solid addition to any reading unit. With worksheets that address various writing and reading skills, including word roots, narrative writing, evaluating text, and...

When would two paws up denote a blockbuster film in your classroom? Only when young writers create movie reviews from a pet's perspective in this imaginative expository writing practice. This engaging topic begins with a class discussion...

Have your older students assist young children with writing in this community service and literacy lesson. Middle schoolers become partners with a local elementary school. They assist the grade school children in writing a pattern book...

William Shakespeare penned some of the richest and most fascinating works of literature—or did he? Middle schoolers read three brief informative passages and conduct additional research to evaluate the claim that Shakespeare did not...

Practice persuasive writing skills in this thorough lesson plan. After selecting issues and discovering viewpoints, middle schoolers write letters or brochures created to express the individual's perspective. The ideas are presented to...

There's nothing like the prospect of writing a scary story to get your middle schoolers' writing juices flowing! In the activity presented here, pupils listen to scary short stories read to them by the teacher. Then, a discussion ensues...