descriptive writing assignment middle school

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Descriptive Writing Activities for Middle School

By  MARISSA DESPINS  Updated April 08, 2024

Halloween is my favorite time of year to work on descriptive writing. Haunted houses, pumpkin patches, and spooky cemeteries make great settings for descriptive stories. In this post I will take you step by step through one of my very favorite descriptive writing activities for middle school. It is a fun activity to do in the weeks leading up to Halloween, as it keeps the kids engaged and focused when things start to get a little crazy.

Download this engaging descriptive writing activity to use in your classroom by clicking on the image or button below!

Descriptive Writing activities for middle school

Read on for step by step instructions for these engaging descriptive writing activities for middle school!

1- Student Notes

We begin our unit by reviewing some of the key elements needed for great Halloween stories. These include scary settings, creepy characters, an engaging plot, and spooky Halloween elements. To make sure we all have the same core understanding of these important literary elements, we take notes and place them in our Interactive Notebooks. This way, we can refer back to them throughout the writing process.

2- Story Building

The next step in our story writing process involves choosing the characters, settings, plot, and Halloween items we want to include in our stories.

Each student is asked to sort through image cards, and choose the elements that they want to use in their stories. I like to give students a lot of different cards to choose from. This way, we ensure that there is something to engage each student. It also ensures that we have a wide variety of different stories being written.

3- Replacing Boring Words

During the next phase of our writing, we begin to plan out our stories. We use templates to help us describe the different characters, plot, setting, and Halloween elements we have chosen.

After students have written their descriptions, I encourage them to use these Overused Word Replacement Fans to make their writing more exciting. Like a mini thesaurus, these fans help the kids replace boring words, and brainstorm exciting ways to describe the key elements in their stories.

I made several of these fans to keep in our classroom. It was easy to simply cut out the templates, laminate them, and attach them together with a binder ring. I keep them on the side of our classroom throughout the school year. This way, students can easily grab them whenever they are looking for words to spice up their writing.

For a great freebie featuring lists of over 250 words for students to use to improve the mood and tone of their writing, check out our guide to using mood words!

4- Drafting and Publishing

Drafting and publishing is the most important part of these descriptive writing activities for middle school. After students have planned out their stories, we begin writing our first drafts. We use templates to work through our beginning, middle, and end. These templates work great because they encourage students to write COMPLETE stories. Nothing is worse than reading through an engaging introduction and climax, only to have it end with “And then I woke up”. Please tell me that I am not the only teacher that has had to read through stories like this! By using these templates, students focus on making sure their stories have a strong beginning, middle, and end before moving on to their good copies.

When drafting and editing are complete, students complete their good copies. I pass out some different Halloween themed writing papers for students to use. When they are done, we spend some time sharing our writing with the class. It is a great way to spend the final English class before Halloween – especially if you turn off the lights, turn on some spooky mood music, and read by flashlight!

I hope this post inspires you to try out some spooky descriptive writing with your middle school learners. If you do happen to try this out, let me know all about it in the comment section!

For additional Halloween based writing activities, check out our Halloween worksheets and Halloween STEM ideas!

Interested in checking out these descriptive writing activities for middle school?

Click here or on the image below to grab this resource to use in your own classroom!

Looking for more Halloween activity posts?

Check out some of my previous posts here:

Halloween Short Stories for Middle School

More Spooky Halloween Short Stories

Halloween Activities for Middle School

Spooky Halloween Activities for Upper Elementary

Looking for a FREE resource to teach the Elements of Literature?

Click  here  or on the images below to  download a FREE activity  to teach plot! It includes detailed student notes and fill in the blank notetaking templates!

Interested in signing up for my email list?

If you are interested in signing up for my email list, you can do so by clicking on the link below. I periodically send out emails with free resources, teaching tips, and exclusive deals. Signing up will also give you immediate access to some of my best selling Interactive Notebook resources – foldable activities, graphic organizers, and other fun activities.

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by Michelle Boyd Waters, M.Ed.  

A Plethora Of Writing Examples For Middle School (& High School)

October 14, 2014 in  Pedagogy

When I started my first job as a professional newspaper reporter (This job also served as an internship during my junior year in college — I just didn’t leave for about 6 years.), I quickly realized that all my experience, and all my years of journalism education had not been enough to help me write stories about drug busts, fatal car accidents and tornadoes. All the theoretical work I’d done, and all of the nifty little scholastic and collegiate stories I had done, did not prepare me for real world writing.

At that point, I had to find a solution quickly. After all, I had a deadline to meet, and it was only a few hours away.

One of my colleagues, who also served as a mentor, had the solution. She introduced me to the newspaper’s “morgue.” This was a room filled with filing cabinets in which we kept old — dead — stories arranged by reporter. Whenever I wasn’t’ sure how to write a story, all I had to do was check the morgue for similar stories. If I needed to write a story about a local drug bust, for example, I’d find another story on a similar incident, study its structure, and mentally create a formula in which to plugin the information I’d gathered.

Once I’d gained more experience, and had internalized the formula for that particular type of story, I felt free to branch out as the situation — and my training — warranted.

I do the same thing when I want to write a type of letter, brochure, or report that I’ve never written before.

This is what writing looks like in the real world.

Of course, if you’re a new teacher like me, there is one problem with providing mentor texts to my students: I have a dearth of middle school level writing sitting around in my file cabinets.

Fortunately, the Internet is full of sources, so I scoured the bowels of Google to find examples. I know how busy you are, so I’m sharing.

Expository writing examples for middle school

Below are several sources of expository writing samples for middle school students.

• The Write Source Expository Writing Samples
• Holt, Rinehart, Winston Expository Essay Models

Finally, here is an article in the New York Times that will help you teach your students  real-world expository writing skills .

Descriptive writing examples for middle school

• Descriptive Writing Samples from Novels
• Milwaukee Public Schools Descriptive Essay Samples (p. 137)
• Holt, Rinehart, Winston Descriptive Essay Models

Narrative writing examples for middle school

• Writing Samples by Steve Peha (PDF)
• The Write Source Narrative Writing Samples
• Oregon Department of Education Scored Writing Samples (Ideas and Organization)
• Oregon Department of Education Scored Writing Samples (Sentence Fluency and Conventions)
• Oregon Department of Education Scored Writing Samples (Voice and Word Choice)
• Oregon Department of Education High School Scored Narrative and Argumentative Writing Samples
• Holt, Rinehart, Winston Narrative Essay Models

Argumentative/persuasive writing examples for middle school

• The Write Source Persuasive Writing Samples
• Holt, Rinehart, Winston Persuasive Essay Models

Reflective writing examples for middle school

• Reflective essay examples from Lake Washington Girls Middle School

If you know of any other online writing example sources, please feel free to share them in the comments below.

Related topics: Argumentative Writing , Informative Writing , Mentor Texts , Narrative Writing

About the author 

Michelle Boyd Waters, M.Ed.

I am a secondary English Language Arts teacher, a University of Oklahoma student working on my doctorate in Instructional Leadership and Academic Curriculum with an concentration in English Education and co-Editor of the Oklahoma English Journal. I am constantly seeking ways to amplify students' voices and choices.

This is very, very helpful. Thank you for sharing!

As a new middle school teacher (coming from elementary) this was very helpful and encouraging.

Thank you very much for letting me know. I’m glad that I was able to help you!

Thank you! I’m glad I can help.

Your welcome

This is super helpful. Thank you!

These links are a fantastic help. Thank you!

This helped me BUNCHES! Thanks so much!

thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! XD

These links are now dead 🙁

Thank you for notifying me! I have updated the post to include new (live!) links. Some of them are geared towards high school, but I think we can still use them as exemplars of what we want our students to aim for.

Comments are closed.

60 Descriptive Writing Prompts for the Classroom

Writing amazing descriptions are what makes movies, books, plays, and games so much fun. Without adequate descriptions, they wouldn’t be very interesting. Teaching kids to write with tons of descriptions takes time and energy. Instead of using your brainpower to come up with fun, descriptive writing prompts, try using these 60 prompts that kids will love. Be sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom to sign up to have a PRINTABLE list of all prompt ideas emailed directly to you!

Describing Personal Events – Fiction or Nonfiction

Use these descriptive writing prompts to let students reflect on their past and future. They will love sharing their lives with the class and using descriptive writing to do so.

• Describe the most interesting person you have ever met.
• Talk about a person you envy in detail. What do they look like or what do they have.
• Describe an inspirational friend or family member.
• Tell us about a place you love to visit with plenty of detail.
• Think of your favorite sport or hobby. Describe an object you would use to play that sport or do that hobby.
• Tell us about the first time you rode a bicycle.
• Imagine you are on a walk or hike, tell us all about it.
• Describe your favorite happy memory.
• What are you like first thing in the morning? Describe it.
• Detail your favorite outfit. Why do you love it so much?
• Describe your own face and what makes you unique.
• What type of music makes you happy? Talk about it in detail.
• Describe a time you felt excited.
• Tell us about a time something totally unexpected happened.
• Describe the house you currently live in (or one you grew up in).

Describing Hypothetical Scenarios

Hypothetical scenarios are super fun to write about. They are a great tool for descriptive writing prompts because they let kids use their imagination a little bit.

• Pretend you came across a spooky place or haunted mansion. Tell us what you see and hear.
• You’re at the art museum. Talk about a piece you see there. It can be a sculpture, painting, or something else.
• You found a lucky object, describe it to us.
• Invent a pet you’ve never had and tell us about it.
• Write about a day at the beach using all five senses.
• Tell us about a trip to an amusement park using all five senses.
• You’re at the zoo! What do you see and hear?
• Imagine you wake up in the hospital. What would you see and hear? What would you do?
• You have to describe Thanksgiving to an alien. How would you tell them what it is?
• It’s a snow day! Talk about what you experienced.
• Tell a time traveler what a smartphone is!
• Imagine you meet someone famous! Who are they and how is your experience?
• Describe a peaceful place you’ve visited or made up.
• Your birthday party is crashed by all sorts of birds! What’s it like?
• Monkeys took over your kitchen to bake a pie. What’s inside?

Describing Food and Other Objects

Food is the perfect way to describe things in our writing. These descriptive writing prompts allow kids to write about the good and bad of food, as well as other objects.

• Your parents served the worst vegetable ever for dinner. Describe it in detail.
• Your sister brought in something nasty from outside. What is it? Tell us all about it.
• The best dessert ever is __________. Tell us how it tastes.
• How is your favorite food made? Use tons of details using the senses.
• How would you describe a field of green grass?
• Tell us what you would do in a field of wildflowers on a summer’s day.
• Describe a normal trip to the grocery store. Walk us through the whole trip.
• What is your least favorite meal? Use details to describe why that is.
• Tell us about your favorite drink. Talk about the color, the taste, and whether it’s hot or cold.
• Something in the trash stinks. What is it?
• You wake up and smell something amazing coming from the kitchen. Tell us what you smell.
• You’re having a campfire with your friends. Describe what you see, hear, smell, and taste.
• What is the most disgusting food you have ever tried?
• You accidentally ate dog food! What’s it taste like?
• Your mom poured you a glass of sour milk on accident! Describe it.

Random Descriptive Writing Prompts

Use these random descriptive writing prompts to get the creative juices flowing in the classroom. Some are silly and some are more serious, but they will all help build students’ writing skills.

• Do you think using descriptive writing is important?
• Describe your bed sheets, pillows, and other objects in your room.
• Tell us about your favorite day. Talk about the weather, what you would wear, where you would go, etc.
• Describe the Fourth of July to someone with tons of detail.
• Walk us through a typical day at school. What might you see, hear, smell, and do?
• Pick your favorite teacher and describe them in detail.
• Use tons of descriptive words to describe a sunset!
• Pick a classmate in the room and write about their best qualities.
• Write a descriptive story using these 3 things: a whole pizza pie, a bucket of slugs, and a pack of wolves.
• Write about how it would feel to sit in the hot summer covered in a blanket.
• Tell us how you imagine it would feel to be trapped in a giant freezer.
• Describe a place you have dreamed about that doesn’t exist.
• Tell us about a trip to the dentist gone wrong!
• Write about something that makes you laugh.
• Tell us about something that annoys you. It could be the sound of someone chewing, noises on the chalkboard, etc.

If you liked these descriptive writing prompt ideas, fill out the form below to have a printable list emailed directly to you so that you always have it!

60 Descriptive Writing Prompt Ideas

This FREE printable list of 60 descriptive writing prompt ideas can be sent straight to your inbox! Simply drop your personal email address below & I’ll send it right over! 

*Using a school email address makes it very likely that you won’t receive your freebi e! 

Use these pre-planned descriptive writing prompts to make your descriptive writing lessons easier! All you have to do is pick one, model it for your students, and let the creative process begin!

To learn more about Teaching Descriptive Writing , check out these fun ideas.

You may also enjoy using my Weekly Descriptive Writing Prompts ! They are available in paper and digital forms. Simply pin the image below to save this post for later!

More posts you may love:

55 Narrative Writing Prompts for Upper Elementary Students

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Middle School Writing Rubrics

In my book Blended Learning in Grades 4-12 , I shared the following middle school writing rubrics with my readers. Unfortunately, the short links I provided in my book have timed out, so I wanted to share these on my blog so any middle school teachers interested in using them have access! Feel free to make a copy and adjust as needed.

bit.ly/6-8ArgumentativeWritingRubric

bit.ly/6-8InformativeWritingRubric

bit.ly/6-8NarrativeWritingRubric

I will be posting the high school writing rubrics as soon as I can get them reformatted in a shareable version. If you have rubrics you use, love, and are willing to share, I’d love to crowdsource rubrics here!

45 Responses

Thank you for this wonderful resource! I love getting the emails from your site.

What are your thoughts on putting the high score description in the 2nd column next to the criteria? Students’ eyes are naturally drawn to the columns in order of left to right, so putting the high scoring description makes it the first thing they look at. It sets the tone for them, as if to say, “Do this! This is the best!”

Thank you again for providing this rubric. The descriptions and criteria are very well-written.

You are absolutely welcome to edit and rework them! My co-teacher prefers rubrics that start with 4 on the left side for those exact reasons. Mentally, it works better for me this way. That said, they are easy to copy and change!

Thanks so much!

[…] Middle School Writing Rubrics | […]

Thank you so much for sharing such a valuable resource!

Hello, are the high school rubrics available on the website, or in the book?

They are in the book, Carly. They are also so similar to the middle school rubrics that I did not want to publish a separate post for them.

Dear Ms Tucker

I was browsing and came across you rubrics for students writing. I read them and immediately fall in love with the simplicity of their structure. Thanks for making these resource available, easing research time.

I deem it a pleasure to be able to use them for my assessment.

You’re welcome, Emileta!

I’m glad these will save you time!

These are awesome rubrics! Thank you so much for sharing! They are a great resource.

Any ideas for a poetry rubric. I hate “grading” poetry. I truly believe students should have absolute freedom, but Texas TEKS say otherwise…..so…..

I so appreciate the clarity and ease of understanding these rubrics provide!!

I tend to agree with you. However, if you are expected to assess poetry, I’d start with the language in the TEKs and work backward. What do the TEKs want you to assess when it comes to poetry? Figurative language, sensory details, thematic progression? I’d isolate each “skill” or element of poetry they want you to assess then use those as your criteria and describe what that skill or element looks like in each stage–beginner, developing, proficient, mastery.

Thank you so much for sharing your rubrics with teachers! Extremely helpful and greatly appreciated.

You’re so welcome, Vanessa!

Take care. Catlin

Thank you for sharing your rubrics.

Thank you so much for sharing the rubrics. I use them in class for students’ projects.

Thank you so much for this lovely set up! It has helped a lot of new teachers!

Words can not describe how grateful I am.

Thank you so much! I am always having trouble teaching language art since I feel much comfortable with numbers..

You’re welcome, Helen! Happy to help 😊

Thank you for this very helpful resources, appreciated it!

You’re welcome, Shiela!

Thank you so much for this resource! This is the best rubric I’ve seen for middle school writing!

Thank you, Anna!

Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful resource!!! You are amazing!!!

You’re welcome, Michelle! So glad these are useful. 😊

Thank you so much for providing these! I’m “Yearbook Teacher” and these are wonderful since I have no clue how to grade written work (I normally teach a CTE course but with virtual/hybrid staff is spread thin.

Nick Pascual

You’re welcome, Nicolas! I’m so glad these are useful 😊

It appears 28 possible points can be earned……the sum of points earned would be at what grade level…..for example, if a student earned all 4’s on the Argumentative Writing Rubric what grade level would his writing rank…….or are their ranges for the sum of points……I would prefer to have a grade level…..

Hi MaryIsabel,

I assess on a 4 point mastery scale, so the final score calculates an average then that number 1, 2, 3, 4 is inserted into the grade book (if you have a mastery-based grade book option). Otherwise, you will need to convert your number on a scale.

Thank you. You are so kind. God bless you.

You’re welcome, Jennifer!

I am unable to open the rubrics. Are they still available for teacher to access?

Hi Jennifer,

The short links are below each image of the rubric, and they force you to make a copy. You’ll need to be logged into your Gmail account so your copies save in your Google Drive.

These are excellent! Thank you for sharing Dr. Tucker!

You’re welcome, Laura!

Life saver! Thank you for sharing!

You’re welcome, Carolyn!

Thank you so much for sharing these rubrics! I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been mentioned in the posts above. Love the idea of creating a “rubric bank” available to all who may need it.

You are very welcome, Carolina! I’m thrilled they are useful.

Good Evening , Ms. Tucker

Have you published a persuasive writing rubric?

Hi Yolanda,

I do not have persuasive rubrics. I focused on argumentative writing instead.

THIS IS A LIFESAVER!! THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!!!!

You’re very welcome, Tammy! 😊

WOW! I’m so loving these… as we are developing our standards for our program, this gives us a total jump start! By chance, do you have the High School writing rubrics?

My high school versions are very similar to these. Here is an example: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TLkY6Yt-AdXdwCwvXJ7YAqzsoYZmT6G3QiT_yefAHV8/edit

Good luck with your rubrics! AI can be a very helpful resources when generating rubrics with the skill descriptions!

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20 Creative Writing Activities For Middle School: Poem Ideas, Prompts, Story Starters, And Worksheets

April 10, 2024 //  by  Stephanie Ledford

Some students are prolific writers, needing no help putting pen to paper and telling their stories. However, there are other students who need a little more direction in order to get their stories out. Whatever the case may be, these 20 creative writing activities for middle school will have all of your students showing their creative prowess.

1. I Am From

After reading the poem “Where I’m From” by George Ella Lyon, have students write their own “I Am From” poems. Using a template, all students will be able to create wonderful poems illustrating their own unique backgrounds.

Learn More: Made by Teachers

2. Found Poems

Using the words of others, students create their own “found poems.” By taking a snippet here and a line there, they can arrange them in their own creative ways to create new, interesting poems. Reading a book as a class? Have them use the book to create a found poem!

Learn More: Read, Write, Think

Your middle schoolers are sure to feel like poets in the making with this creative assignment. Encourage them to connect themselves to something bigger, like their families, their culture, or their historical background as you task them with creating poems using their own names. Prompt them to begin their writing process by having them use the letters of their names to inspire a new line of poetry that they think reflects who they are as a person.

Learn More: Mama Smiles

4. Chain Stories

This assignment has each student start with a blank piece of paper. After giving them a writing prompt , every student begins writing a story. After your chosen time limit is up, they stop writing and pass their story to the next person in their group who then has to continue telling the story. When each story returns to its original author, the activity is complete.

Learn More: Creativities ESL

5. Visual Character Sketch

Being able to add depth to a character can be difficult for many students. By allowing a student to create a visual sketch, you are allowing them a different approach to writing a character description.

Learn More: Adobe Education Exchange

6. What If…

“What if” writing prompts are a great way to get your learners’ creative juices flowing. By posing a question, they’re given a starting point, and it’s up to them to decide what twists and turns their stories will take. Will they write a sad, action-packed, or scary story? The possibilities are endless!

Learn More: Journal Buddies

7. Descriptive Writing Prompts

Descriptive writing activities are another way for middle school students to practice their creative writing skills. They can give their descriptions their own unique twists by using their different writing styles to describe common objects. And hey, they might have a different appreciation for the things in their everyday worlds after this assignment!

Learn More: Academic Writing Success

8. Scary Stories

Go through the entire writing process and teach your students how to write scary stories! Before you begin writing, though, read them some (age-appropriate) scary stories to give them the chills and an idea of what is expected in a scary story.

Learn More: Keep ’em Thinking

9. Daily Journal Writing

There is no better way to improve students’ writing abilities than to do daily writing. Each day, give students a different prompt and allow them to write for fifteen minutes. After, allow them the opportunity to share their story with their peers or the class.

Learn More: Daily Teaching Tools

10. So Much Depends Upon…

“ The Red Wheel Barrow “–such a simple yet eloquent poem. Following this lesson plan, your students will be able to write their own simple yet eloquent poems and feel like accomplished writers.

Learn More: NYLearns

11. An Ode to…

Reluctant writers are often intimidated by complicated writing ideas. By using a template like the one pictured above, your students will all be able to feel like poets as they create their own odes about a person, place, or thing.

Learn More: Crafting Connections

12. Story Starters

Story starters are a great way to help students begin their stories. If you have a digital classroom, the Scholastic story starter page is great because it can formulate much different writing prompts, helping engage all students.

Learn More: Scholastic

13. My Time Machine Trip

What is everyday life like in 1902? How about in 2122? Have students write stories about their experiences traveling through time using the attached worksheet. For those that need a little extra help, allow them to research time periods so they have an idea of what life was like then.

Learn More: K12 Reader

14. Writing and Math

This is a great assignment for a math class! Using the provided instructions, students are to write a story that explains to their boss the math they used while delivering packages. Since this assignment asks them to cover specific math concepts, make sure you cover them in class first (or hand this assignment to a math teacher and let them have at it!).

Learn More: Dr. Hamblin

15. How to Bake Cookies for Santa

Seasonal writing activities are a great way to get kids excited around the holidays! One way to get descriptive paragraphs out of your students is through these instructions on how to bake cookies for Santa. The great thing about this assignment is all levels of writers can participate. Those that are more advanced can provide more details and struggling writers can still feel accomplished by explaining the cookie-making process!

Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers

16. Diary Entry of a Literary Character

Another favorite among creative writing ideas is having students write diary entries in the voice of a character from literature. This can be a character from a book you read as a class or from a book they read on their own. Either way, it will showcase their creative writing skills and their knowledge of the character!

Learn More: Banana Magic

17. Write a Rant

Writing a rant is a good assignment to use when you are trying to teach about the different voices we use when writing. When writing a rant, you are going to use an angrier, more aggressive voice than if you were writing a children’s story. This is a great warm-up to get students ready to write persuasive essays.

Learn More: Teachers and Writers Magazine

18. Write a Newspaper Story

After reading through some newspapers to get ideas on how newspaper articles are formatted, have each of your students write their own article. When they are all done, you can compile a classroom newspaper!

Learn More: Nie Online

19. Coat of Arms

Studying Shakespeare? Maybe European countries where it was common to have a Coat of Arms? If so, this assignment is perfect for your class. Have students create a coat of arms and then write a few paragraphs explaining their choices.

20. A Letter to Yourself

Have students write letters to their future selves. Give them specific questions to answer like “where do you see yourself in five years? Are you happy with your life? Is there anything you would change?” And then in five years, mail the letters to their parents!

Learn More: Ms. Carota

Delightful Descriptive Writing Exercises and Worksheets

Descriptive writing is an attempt to give a clear description of people, places, objects, or events using descriptive language and informative details. Descriptive writing exercises can include:

1 Descriptive essay outline template

Descriptive essay outline template  (PDF)

2 Brainstorming for a descriptive essay about a place

This is an English language writing exercise for students to brainstorm ideas for a descriptive essay.

Brainstorming descriptive writing ideas (PDF)

3 Descriptive writing word sorting (with answers)

Descriptive writing word sorting (PDF)

4 Essential shapes vocabulary

This worksheet is designed to help students learning English become familiar with vocabulary for shapes. Students match the vocabulary to the pictures. 

(download PDF)

Related Resources:

5 descriptive sentences practice.

Writing descriptive sentences (PDF)

6 The Weekend Market (descriptive essay transitions with answers)

This is a transitions and linking words exercise for a descriptive essay. Well placed transitions help make essays easier to read and understand.

Descriptive essay transitions exercise (PDF)

7 Descriptive Paragraphs ( transitions exercise with answers)

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WriteAtHome Descriptive Writing for Middle School

Has your child shown an interest in writing? If they have, you might want to continue reading to learn more about WriteAtHome and their courses for middle school and high school learners . We have had the privilege of trying out their descriptive writing course .

Descriptive Writing for Middle School

I received digital access to this product as well as reimbursement for the time spent writing this review in exchange for my honest thoughts. This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

This was our first time taking a course with an outside writing coach or instructor. I admit I wasn’t sure how it was going to go, but I thought why not try something new. I am so glad that we did. With just one assignment, I could see a difference in Austin’s, 11 years old, writing skills.

What the Course Entitles

The basics of the course she is taking are:

• 8 weeks long
• 1 quiz per week
• 1 writing lesson per week

It started with week one learning to take criticism. This is where I was slightly concerned about this course but excited too. Austin can be sensitive to criticism, something we have been working, and I saw this as another way to work on that and learn for future independent learning .

Now each week she is working on correcting, editing, and adding to her pieces from each week based on the feedback from her writing coach .

What We’re Learning From WriteAtHome

One thing we have learned in the past is that when there is creativity, my kids thrive. This descriptive writing course is not telling her what to write, but instead giving them a small idea or a direction to take, and letting them go with the idea. For example, one assignment was noun description. Describing a person, a place, and a thing, all of the students choice.

Over the past 5 weeks she has been working on two different topics: Crime Scene and Guess Which Zoo Animal ? Week one and week two she wrote the first drafts of these topics, and each week has been about revising them following the feedback and tasks of the week. It is all about learning to write in the most descriptive way .

This course has taught her so much in the short amount of time that she has been taking it, and it has boosted her confidence. She has always enjoyed writing on her own, but now she wants other people to read what she is writing, and she looks forward to reading what her coach has written in the feedback.

Learning Time Management

In the WriteAtHome dashboard , Austin is able to see when assignments are due, and what she needs to be working, assignments are due each Thursday. I have let her work at her own pace on the quiz and her assignments, if she finishes in one day, great, if she takes the full week to work on it, great.

For me, this is her way to learn about time management . Yes she has woken up on Thursday morning and realized that she hasn’t worked on her assignment all week, and has gotten right to work on it. This has been a bit of an adjustment for her as we don’t usually have due dates, or assignments that she works on her own like this.

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APA Style for beginners

Then check out some frequently asked questions:

What is APA Style?

Why use apa style in high school, how do i get started with apa style, what apa style products are available, your help wanted.

APA Style is the most common writing style used in college and career. Its purpose is to promote excellence in communication by helping writers create clear, precise, and inclusive sentences with a straightforward scholarly tone. It addresses areas of writing such as how to

• format a paper so it looks professional;
• credit other people’s words and ideas via citations and references to avoid plagiarism; and
• describe other people with dignity and respect using inclusive, bias-free language.

APA Style is primarily used in the behavioral sciences, which are subjects related to people, such as psychology, education, and nursing. It is also used by students in business, engineering, communications, and other classes. Students use it to write academic essays and research papers in high school and college, and professionals use it to conduct, report, and publish scientific research .

High school students need to learn how to write concisely, precisely, and inclusively so that they are best prepared for college and career. Here are some of the reasons educators have chosen APA Style:

• APA Style is the style of choice for the AP Capstone program, the fastest growing AP course, which requires students to conduct and report independent research.
• APA Style helps students craft written responses on standardized tests such as the SAT and ACT because it teaches students to use a direct and professional tone while avoiding redundancy and flowery language.
• Most college students choose majors that require APA Style or allow APA Style as an option. It can be overwhelming to learn APA Style all at once during the first years of college; starting APA Style instruction in high school sets students up for success.

High school students may also be interested in the TOPSS Competition for High School Psychology Students , an annual competition from the APA Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools for high school students to create a short video demonstrating how a psychological topic has the potential to benefit their school and/or local community and improve people’s lives.

Most people are first introduced to APA Style by reading works written in APA Style. The following guides will help with that:

Many people also write research papers or academic essays in APA Style. The following resources will help with that:

Instructors will also benefit from using the following APA Style resources:

In addition to all the free resources on this website, APA publishes several products that provide comprehensive information about APA Style:

The APA Style team is interested in developing additional resources appropriate for a beginner audience. If you have resources you would like to share, or feedback on this topic, please contact the APA Style team . 

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Descriptive Writing Activity for Middle School ELA | Fun 6th 7th 8th Grade Idea

• PDF Frequently assigned in Easel

What educators are saying

Also included in.

Description

Kids often struggle when attempting to describe scenes, moments, and emotions with vivid and clear language. This fun writing activity helps students to stretch their minds by describing bright images of abstract shapes and textures without using shape or color names. After writing descriptive paragraphs for these images, the class gets to listen to the descriptions and guess which image they describe! My students have loved having this as a fun and lighthearted descriptive writing exercise!

This resource includes the following:

1 Teacher’s Instructions Page

1 Student Assignment Sheet

1 Student Voting Ballot

2 Abstract Shape/Texture Image Pages (4 Images Total)

1 Winner’s Certificate Page

I hope your students enjoy this activity as much as mine have!

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Related Product

When students are ready to start describing real-world landscapes, objects, and creatures, I love using specific photo prompts to get their creative juices flowing:

Descriptive Writing Photo Prompt Exercises

These products are also included in a 60-page Descriptive Writing Bundle, which can be purchased at a 20% discount here:

Descriptive Writing Bundle

Middle School ELA Game Bundle

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