Can you believe that tomorrow is October first? The school year, as it always does, is flying fast, and we’re now smack dab in one of my favourite seasons: autumn. The air is crisp, my classroom expectations are established, and there are so many opportunities to inspire my writers. Let me tell you about some of the fun fall writing for secondary students:
CREATE A FALL MAGAZINE:
This is such a fun fall writing activity, one I use every fall semester. I start by taking my students for a walk to a nearby park where they can be inspired by the beauty of the season.
They do a poetry scavenger hunt (check it out here) and then, once we’re back in the classroom, I give them a variety of autumn-based activities that allow them to write in a variety of genres.
For example, they will use descriptive writing to capture their experience in the park and their feelings about fall. Writing in a magazine format is something far different than what they usually do for me, so the novelty factor gets them engaged right away.
Then, after they’ve gotten some feedback on their descriptive writing, I’ll give them options to do some expository and persuasive writing as well.
There are several options that focus on fall events like pumpkin carving, football, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and even the voting age (for my American friends).
The students use links I provide them to do their writing on the templates you see in the pictures. The end result are pages that look very professional. Students feel a lot of pride in what they produce and are actually excited about putting it all together! You can check it out here.
FIND SOME SCARY INSPIRATION:
Halloween provides even more opportunities to engage your writers. When I’m short on time, I pull quick writing activities from my Halloween Writing resource and get my students to practice their skills for idea development, description and narration. These writing activities can be used for skill building and/or pre-writing for longer assignments. They are also perfect for some collaboration and group work.
If you have more time to devote to a narrative writing activity, Halloween is the perfect time for that. Students just love creating a scary tale, and the process gives them multiple opportunities to practice descriptive and narrative writing. These stations are also a fun way to teach them about important elements of fiction, like setting, atmosphere, point of view, and character (note: they have been updated to a more ink-friendly version!)
These scary stations take students through the process of inspiration, pre-writing, drafting and revision. The end result is a polished story with lots of focused, well-developed ideas and carefully chosen and effective language. Your students will love the process and you’ll enjoy reading them too (if you aren’t too terrified!).
The stations are available in print and digital form, so regardless of the format, you can get your students engaged and learning!
I’m so excited to dive into these activities during the marvellous month of October. I’m going to check the weather forecast to pick the best day to take my students on our poetry scavenger hunt in the park, and then I’ll plan accordingly.
There’s nothing like some outdoor inspiration and some movement to spark the students’ creativity. And, by providing them with some interesting ways to illustrate their descriptive, narrative, expository and persuasive skills, all of us will be pleased with the end result.
Have an amazing autumn!
Here are all of the ideas for fall writing for secondary students that I referred to above:
🎃 Fall Magazine
💀 Halloween Speaking, Listening & Writing
👀 5 Halloween Writing Activities
👻 Scary Story Writing Stations
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