Description | Exposition | Narration | Opinion | Persuasion | All
Give your middle school students something intriguing to write about, whether they are reluctant, eager, or somewhere inbetween.
Free printables for how to create a paragraph, free tutorials on proofreading or in-text citations, current events, asking what they would read to a dog {and other important opinions}, story writing, and much more—you’ll find it all here.
Looking for engaging prompts for your teens? You’ll find those here. >>
Interested in writing prompts for the whole family? Could you use an assortment of prompts bundled together for certain topics or for varying grade levels? Free tutorials and printables included. Find them all here. >>
Thanks for visiting the Middle School Prompts page. If you have a prompt you would like to submit, please contact Sharon Watson.
3 Prompts to Celebrate the Olympics
Celebrate the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics with us. Here are three prompts and one BONUS prompt for your 5th-12th graders to enjoy as the festivities get underway! Some are light and fun. Others involve controversies and get your students thinking. Be sure to download the colorful worksheet in #1.
On your mark . . . get set . . .
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1. Let’s Pack
You’re packing to go to Paris, France, for the 2024 Summer Olympics, but you can pack only 26 things. It’s a good thing there are 26 letters in the alphabet because you are going to pack one item for every letter in it. What will you pack that begins with “A”? With “B”? With “Z”???
Composition: Let’s Make it Easier
You’ve just read the title of this post and are laughing uncontrollably. I get it. Writing is hard. My students confirm this, and so do yours.
Many moms report that their students have ideas in their heads but can’t get them on paper. Let’s start fixing that today.
What creates this strange head-to-hand disconnect? One major reason is that students don’t organize their thoughts or plan their papers. Big mistake. They think it’s a time waster; but you know otherwise.
The following is a short activity on opinion writing, devised for success. Practice these four steps to writing with your students. They won’t actually be writing this essay, which is one of the reasons this activity works so well.
(more…)New Tutorials to Document Sources
Okay. I’ll admit it. I abhor the nit-picky rules about citing sources and making a works-cited page. The rules are tedious. They’re boring. And they’re nerve wracking.
So, if it is hard for adults (which I like to think I am), what must our children and teens think of it? After all, writing a report is hard enough without all the “extra” stuff about citing sources.
On top of that, the rules change! About a year after The Power in Your Hands was published, with its lessons on citing sources and documenting a report, the Modern Language Association changed their rules.
What is a student to do?
(more…)Fun with Outlines. No, Really.
Could your students use a little help creating outlines? And what does a bowl of salad have to do with outlines?
My husband tells me he always made his outlines after he’d seen what he had written. I imagine this is fairly common.
But is an outline necessary? Not exactly. You can read about my sticky-note method here.
What is important, though, is organizing the material, and that is where students have trouble. They do not want to take the time to organize their thoughts, ideas, or material before they write.
Personally, I benefit from even a casual outline. That way, I don’t have to start with the introduction and work my way down to the conclusion; I have the pleasure of beginning wherever I like, where I feel the most comfortable. Then I can fill in the rest of my article later by using the organized points in my informal outline.
Whether your students use sticky notes or a more formal outline, they’ll benefit from these familiar outline ideas. (more…)
Conversation Starters
SHARON’S BLOG
Do your students ever have a hard time knowing what to say to people? Is small talk difficult? Is it easier for them to turn to an electronic device than to a real person?
Join us this week as we explore conversation starters, small talk, and communication.
Great for students in grades 5-12.
To print these prompts, click the Print icon at the bottom of this page.
7 Prompts on Wisdom
SHARON’S BLOG
Let’s use a quote from Confucius and a passage from Proverbs to get your students thinking about wisdom.
In this bundle of writing prompts centered around wisdom, your students will encounter these types of writing: opinion, personification, parallel construction, definition, and more.
These prompts are just right for students in grades 5 – 12.
So, what did Confucius have to say about wisdom? And do your students agree with him? (more…)
By the Beach
SHARON’S BLOG
Is it too early to dream about the beach? I think not!
This week’s fun prompts are beach themed and are great for your 5th – 12th graders.
The first set of prompts is from a recent news article that caught my imagination, and the second is from a goofy song by Phil Harris recorded in 1950. Well, maybe it wasn’t so goofy. It became so popular that it hit #1 on the Billboard charts soon after he released it.
Ready? Dive in! (more…)
