Approaching the end of the school year with middle school writers, we’re embarking on one of our final writing projects. However, discovering fresh inspiration within the writing process for my students has become daunting. Motivation levels are dwindling, and the allure of Michigan’s sunshine is hard to resist. Moreover, social tensions tend to run high during this time of year.
As a former kindergarten teacher, I vividly recall how spring felt like an eagerly anticipated gift. Everything seemed to fall into place effortlessly. In contrast, when I taught third grade, spring brought about its own set of challenges in terms of social dynamics. The sense of camaraderie among students would start to erode, and emotions became fragile.
Now, faced with seventh graders, I find myself grappling with capturing their dwindling attention and fostering collaboration in what seems like a state of inertia. So, how can I revitalize their engagement and reinvent our approach to checklists, revision strategies, and peer editing? The answer lies in transforming these parts of the writing process.
I created a list of skills I wanted students to identify and analyze within their essays. Then I plugged my list into Chatgpt and asked it to make my list into a fun and engaging scavenger hunt for my students. From there, I was able to revise and make adjustments.
Students could reframe the task of helping identify key elements within each other’s essays by setting the scene like a game and jumping in quickly. It then allowed me to facilitate conversations between partners since areas of their essays were more easily identified.
Here is a link to my simple scavenger hunt for seventh grade. You can quickly create your own using ChatGpt and a list of skills you want your writers to analyze. I used the following prompt along with my list, “Make this list of writing skills into a scavenger hunt for seventh-grade students to use with a partner’s writing piece.” For younger writers, this could be a shared writing activity. With upper elementary or middle schoolers, this serves as a way to re-engage your writers during this challenging time of year.
As your year comes to a close, what novel ways are you finding to reinvent elements of your writing workshop?
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
Betsy, I absolutely love this idea and although I am on summer break, I am already thinking about how I can use this next year. Learning never takes a break!
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