Debate Your Past Self on an Idea a Class Changed

Use a seasonal or monthly sheet as a weekly journal entry, or pick the end-of-year letters for the last weeks of 8th grade. Read the planning step aloud first, since students write better when the chart is full.

Set your past and current positions on an idea side by side, then answer your past self in 9 lines. The directions on the page read: Read the topic. Write the idea and fill in both columns in Step 1. Then answer your past self on the 9 lines in Step 2, naming the evidence that changed your mind.

Yes, both. We made it for 8th grade writing topics, and it works the same at home or at school. At home, a student can work through it alone and then go over it with you, which shows quickly what is solid and what needs another look. In class it works as independent practice, homework or a warm-up, and you can print one copy or a full set.

It describes something that happened and then explains what it showed the writer. Compare How You Handled Two Setbacks Years Apart charts the reaction and result of each setback before students write about how they have grown.

Sheets here look back on all three years, such as Soundtrack for Your Three Years of Middle School, and look ahead, such as Spring Topic on Finishing Middle School Well. Thank Your Teachers in a Promotion Speech names teachers by role.

Several sheets ask for initials instead of real names, such as the arguments in Summer Topic on Stepping Away or Staying in an Argument. Students choose which memories to share, and the May sheet reminds them to talk to a trusted adult if stress feels like too much.