There's nothing like the prospect of writing a scary story to get your middle schoolers' writing juices flowing! In the lesson presented here, pupils listen to scary short stories read to them by the teacher. Then, a discussion ensues where everyone shares what they thought were the scariest parts of the stories. The elements that make up a good scary story emerge from this discussion. After writing their stories, middle schoolers get into groups of three and share them. They get feedback from everyone, then go back and write a final draft. A nicely designed language arts writing lesson.