Ideas for Setting Up a Middle School Writing Classroom

Writing skills are developed through direct instruction.

Writing skills are vital for middle school students' success. By teaching the art of writing, teachers can help their students develop an invaluable form of expression and communication for high school and beyond. Middle school teachers can use writing contracts, in which students agree to write a certain number of pieces in a semester. This will help young writers develop the sense of accountability they'll need be successful in high school.

Language Skills

Mastering the English language requires daily practice. The daily oral language (DOL) approach includes practicing capitalization and punctuation and recognizing parts of speech. Give middle school students sentences with capitalization and punctuation errors to correct and have them underline different parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs. Have the students practice combining simple sentences into compound or complex sentences.

Word Study

Introduce a "Word of the Day" to increase your middle school students' vocabulary. Provide words in context so students learn to use them correctly and accompany each new word with a list of antonyms and synonyms so they will better understand a word's meaning. Study word origins to aid in defining and spelling new words. Have the students complete word analogies such as part-to-whole, antonyms-synonyms or general-to-specific. Encourage the students to apply their new knowledge to their writing assignments.

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers help students organize their thoughts. Teaching them how to use graphic organizers, such as pro and con charts, story maps and sequence charts, will help them learn to stay on topic and demonstrate a smooth flow to their writing. Graphic organizers are also helpful because they can contain a large amount of information that's easily transferable and they visually represent the "big picture" about a topic.

Writer's Workshop

Students need time to practice and receive frequent feedback to become better writers. A writer's workshop provides both. Students are allotted a set amount of time--usually an hour--each day to brainstorm and write rough drafts and final drafts of essays. While the class is writing, individual students can meet with the teacher to receive feedback on their work.

References

• The Northern Nevada Writing Project's Secondary Writing Guide; "A Writer's Workshop ..."; Jan Alex; 2004
• Teacher Tap: Graphic Organizers
• Reading Rockets: Word Study: A New Approach to Teaching Spelling