Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Writing Prompts for Middle School
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...
Curated OER
Eastern European Studies
One worksheet, three projects. Learners explore Eastern Europe and mark Eastern European countries on a map. They then collect and record census data on thirteen different countries, and write a 3-5 page expository essay on one of the...
jc-schools
The Expository Essay
Did you ever create an awesome graphic organizer only to find that your class was completely baffled by how to use it? This resource not only provides you with a great graphic organizer for a standard five-paragraph essay, but also...
Curated OER
Writing the Essay
Relate the structure of the essay to the structure of a building. The class compares an essay to a building, with the writer being the architect, the introduction being the foundation, and so on. They use the visual representation of a...
Nancy Fetzer's Literacy Connections
Expository Paragraph
Upper elementary and middle school writers learn how to craft an expository paragraph by following the six steps detailed in a 48-page instructional guide. Learners learn how to write six different types of informational paragraphs: to...
EngageNY
End of Unit Assessment, Part 1: Drafting Body Paragraphs of an Essay to Inform
Anybody can write a body paragraph! Pupils analyze the development of ideas in a body paragraph from a model essay. Next, using what they've learned, they draft the body paragraphs of their My Rule to Live By informative essay.
Curated OER
Artist Online Report Form
Get those middle schoolers ready for writing excellent reports. This outline provides instructions and organized space to help learners gather information in a thoughtful and useful way. They research the life and works of an artist....
Learning Express
501 Writing Prompts
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,...
K20 LEARN
Introduction to Expository Writing
Move beyond the five-paragraph essay with a lesson introducing young writers to various forms of expository writing. Class members examine description, cause and effect, problem solution, sequence, and comparison forms. They create an...
EngageNY
Performance Task Preparation: Peer Critique and Mini-Lesson Addressing Common Errors: Revising Draft Essay to Inform
Time to revise! Using a writing evaluation rubric, scholars participate in a peer editing process to provide feedback on each others' informative essays. Next, pupils begin revising their drafts based on the feedback they receive.
Curated OER
Hunger in the World
Consider various aspects of world hunger in this writing activity. After taking a pre-test, middle and high schoolers play a map game, analyze and discuss world statistics, and write a report on an assigned country. The activity can...
Curated OER
Leading into Good Writing
Discuss the importance of a lead in writing with your upper graders. They examine several examples of leads from literature and practice writing leads for pieces of artwork. They then select a topic from a list and write an introductory...
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Water's Journey Expedition
Step into a scientist's shoes to go online and discover the Florida Springs Expedition, and participate in two activities focusing on how humans impact the environment. The first activity asks scholars to summarize the six dispatches at...
Poetry4kids
Twenty Fun Writing Prompts for Kids
Twenty prompts reinforce scholars' writing skills of essays and poems. Prompts cover topics such as superpowers, holidays, the weather, and more!
Curated OER
Expository Writing (Informational Brochure)
Design an informational brochure to urge people to move to a specific community. The purpose of this activity is to expose pupils to expository writing. After creating the brochure, they write a three-paragraph persuasive or...
EngageNY
Qualities of a Strong Literary Analysis Essay
Read like a writer. Scholars read a model literary analysis in preparation for a similar writing assignment before annotating each paragraph for the gist. Next, pupils devise a list of qualities of a strong literary analysis essay.
Anti-Defamation League
Lonnie Chavis of 'This Is Us' Writes about Racism
Scholars read and discuss an essay by 12-year-old actor Lonnie Chaves about racism, paying close attention to how racism presents itself in interpersonal and institutional ways. Learners reflect on how they experience or witness racism...
EngageNY
End of Unit Assessment, Part 2: Drafting Introduction and Conclusion of an Essay to Inform
A powerful introduction and conclusion can really pack a punch. Using the resource, scholars first read and discuss a model essay. Then, as part of the end of unit assessment, they draft the introductory and concluding paragraphs of...
Curriculum
Expository Writing
The beauty of the way this expository writing resource is structured is that the units can be presented as a complete writing workshop or sequenced throughout a course of study
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Informational Writing: Lesson 2 of 5
Introduce expository writing to your elementary learners. Young authors write a three-paragraph informational paper using the steps of the writing process. They follow guided lessons to experience each of five steps. Included are tons of...
Curated OER
Lyddie: An Instructional Unit Resource Guide
Katherine Paterson’s young adult novel Lyddie is the foundation of a differentiated instruction unit that not only explores the rise of industrialization and labor but women’s rights issues as well. After learners read the novel, they...
Teach Hub
New Year’s Resolution Classroom Activity
Create a sense of accountability among scholars with a lesson that focuses on making and keeping New Year's resolutions. Writers compose a five paragraph essay focused on three resolutions—promises to self improvement, to their family,...
Bulgarian Creative Writing Competition
Creative Writing Prompts For Every Season and Month
Winter, spring, summer, and fall! Every season is covered in a 14-page list of writing prompts. Included are story starters, reflection questions, poetry topics, and more.
William E.B. DuBois Elementary
Persuasive Writing Graphic Organizer
Take your pick of 16 graphic organizers, all designed for persuasive writing. Some provide space to prepare an entire essay or speech, while others provide space for brainstorming and organizing ideas before settling on concrete ideas...