The transition from middle school to high school is challenging. You go from being the oldest students in the building to the youngest. You go from being the experienced students in sports and activities, to being the novice. Academics can be a whole new challenge knowing every class counts towards your climb to graduation and your grade point average.

         All is not a new experience when it comes to writing in the Language Arts Departments. With The Write Tools curriculum being taught through the K-12 school system, students are steadily building steps to improve on a writing system.

         These past few weeks, the English 1 CT classes have focused on using writing prompts from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee to build and develop well-composed paragraphs. From determining topics, to audiences, to key words, to brainstorming, to webbing, to filling in the “four core,” students have built foundations to start writing. From there, naming big ideas and supporting details help build the body of the paragraph, while transitions and other finishing touches help conclude the writing process.

       The English 1 CT classes finished the unit by picking one of seven writing prompts – involving current school issues – to complete their own paragraph using The Write Tools techniques.

       With the use of The Write Tools, one transition from middle school to high school is a little smoother.