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.
Give the Gift of Yourself This Christmas
SHARON’S BLOG
Do your children and teens wish they could communicate better with the special people in their lives? Sometimes it’s hard to talk or to come up with something brilliant to say. Other times they may have trouble connecting with family members.
At this time of year, they may be wondering what to give that special family member or friend. But do they know that once in a while, the family member doesn’t want a new item? What they really would value is something personal from your child.
The following pages allow your children and teens to jot down their thoughts and ideas and then share them with others. Their gift now becomes personal and meaningful.
Each prompt comes with a free, colorful page you can print out for them and they can write on. Collect them all and begin a journal, if you wish. If your children plan to give them as gifts, they can give certain pages as presents or gather all the pages into one gift.
These prompts are suitable for people in grades 5 – 12.
Ready? Let’s do this . . . (more…)
Thanksgiving Prompts—Good for the Soul
We want our students and our children to develop attitudes of gratefulness, to say thank you without being prompted, and to appreciate any worldly goods and advantages they have.
Use these four Thanksgiving prompts to get them thinking about their blessings and how they can bless others. (more…)
Intro to Writing, Parts 1 and 2
Intro to Writing
Do your students get stuck when they have to write a paragraph or an essay?
I have a secret I’d like to share with you.
Your students do not have to write a paragraph or a whole essay every time they put pencil to paper. One of the best ways to unplug the fear of writing is to do some of the prepare-for-writing tasks but never write the whole paragraph or essay.
It’s called practice, as when members of a basketball team practice dribbling or passing. The team does not play a game every time they get together. They practice pieces of the game.
So let’s practice brainstorming and organizing ideas. (more…)
How to Create a Paragraph: Middle School Chart
Solid Help for Writing a Paragraph
Do you have trouble coming up with ideas to put in your paragraphs?
Would you like help organizing each paragraph so it is not a jumbled mess?
Check out this chart below, along with one that is filled in, to make your life a little easier.
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…)
