Easy Ways To Add Movement To Your Middle School Writing Class

Adding Movement To Your Middle School Writing Class Can Help To Increase Creativity

Movement is a helpful tool in any middle school classroom. Depending on the time of day, the need for movement activities may change. In the morning, movement activities may be a way to wake sleepy students up and help them stay focused and alert. With later classes, movement can help students to release extra energy in a way that isn’t disruptive.

Why Movement Is Important

Writing tends to be a sedentary activity. When most people think about a middle school writing classroom, they envision a quiet room filled with students writing away in their composition notebooks or typing on their chromebooks. And sometimes that is the case. But there are other times when students are so filled with energy that they can’t help but distract their classmates or find other ways to get off task. There are also times when they are so tired that their notebook pages are covered with drool instead of ink. That’s when I like to include a little movement in the classroom.

My Favorite Writing Movement Activity: Writing Walk

Movement activities don’t have to be elaborate. They can be as simple as putting some music on and having the class take a two minute dance break, or leading the students in some light stretching before transitioning to the next part of the lesson. However, my favorite movement activity is the writing walk.

The writing walk is a fun activity that allows students to move and write at the same time. I like to use it whenever I’m teaching figurative language or creative writing. But it works well for journaling or free writing lessons as well.

How To Implement The Writing Walk

The writing walk is just what it sounds like. Basically, I take my students for a walk and pause every so often to allow my students to write about their surroundings. Here’s how it’s done.

Step 1: I prepare the students by telling them the purpose of the writing walk. It might be to practice writing descriptive paragraphs or figurative language. Sometimes I’ll give them a handout with space for them to write down their observations. Other times, I’ll just have them write in their journals. 

Step 2: I remind the students of my behavior expectations. This is important if we are taking a writing walk around the school building because I don’t want to run the risk of distracting other classes. I remind the students that we need to be quiet and respectful throughout the activity in order to give our classmates the space they need to think and get their ideas down on paper.

Step 3: We take a walk around the school, or outside in the fields. I pause every once in a while, and tell the students that they have five to seven minutes to look around and write something about our location in their notebooks. If we are working on figurative language and descriptive writing, they might choose to write a metaphor about the lockers in the hallway, or a brief description of the soccer field, or a few sentences about the smells and sounds in the school cafeteria. If we are doing a free write, they can look around and journal about whatever they would like. When it looks like the students have finished writing, we continue with our walk until we come to our next stop.

Step 4: We return to the classroom, and students are given the opportunity to share their writing. They can share with a partner, or we might have a whole class sharing session. I might have the students use this writing in a larger assignment, but I usually just use this as an activity for them to practice writing.

Final Thoughts

The writing walk is a fun way to get middle school students up and moving when they need it. It’s also a great excuse to head outdoors on sunny days when your students just want to be outside in the fresh air. Try adding movement to your middle school writing classroom, and see the difference it makes for your students!