Middle School-Ready Writing

So, you totally learned everything there is to know about writing in elementary school?

Uh, of course not.

But we can promise you this—by the end of this unit, you will have accomplished everything a fifth grade writer has in a whole year.

It may sound ambitious. And admittedly, we here at Shmoop have been humbled by elementary schoolers on live television in the past. But no worries: in this course, you'll review writing the following:

• Narrative writing (stories)
• Argumentative writing (opinions)
• Expository writing (analysis or explanations)

To give context to all that writing, we'll be practicing writing with a backdrop of the Dust Bowl, the historical era in U.S. history in the 1930s when there was very little rain in the Midwestern states, which caused farmers' land to become very dry and, well, dusty. Misery, drama, and migration ensued.

What do you mean, that doesn't sound like fun?

Maybe your idea of fun is a little different than ours. We won't hold that against you. But in our humble opinion, dust, desolation, and standards-aligned middle school writing prep go together like peanut butter, dust, and jelly.

So let's get started.

Required Skills

Unit Breakdown