Using Variety to Support Writing in Middle School

Middle school students may get inspired about writing if they’re offered exercises that support different methods of expression. June 18, 2024 Photo of middle school student taking notes LumiNola /iStock Teachers and students might have a range of feelings about writing instruction, from excitement to anxiety. The purpose of this post is to share how I’ve approached writing across contexts and found joy in using writing as a regular part of classroom instruction. Hopefully, these ideas will help middle school teachers find more and more opportunities to have students respond, naturally building writing as part of instruction and lessening the feeling of burden that sometimes comes with composing. We know that reading is an invisible process unless we have students share out loud from the page. So, how do we know what they’re thinking and how they’re processing what they’re reading about in class? Aside from discussion, which can often allow students to fly under the radar, writing is the only way I know to make this process visible. In my class, we use writing and composing to talk about how students can explore ideas and use language to build toward deeper thinking. Start of newsletter promotion. Learn How Your Peers Use Tech Plug into our monthly newsletter, The Wired Classroom , to see how other teachers like you are using tech to transform the learning experience. Sign me up! End of newsletter promotion. Drawings and Digital Composing With Adolescent Readers Often, definitions come first. What do I mean when I say the word writing ? Some might automatically think of the essay form—the routine five-paragraph (or more) approach. While essays can be fruitful expressions of thought, they aren’t necessarily the highest form of communication. So, what is? Maybe writing that fits the contexts and circumstances that the author needs. Maybe we should first broaden composition by thinking about how writing can be redefined and used with middle school students. This way of writing means that a variety of exercises—short jotting or a long-form response, a brief sketch note or a full digital presentation—can be part of writing and […]

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