Middle School Language Arts, Middle School Writing

Interesting Writing Ideas: 6 Alternatives to Essays

Linda Asaro
April 6, 2023

The word “essay” can elicit screams of frustration…and the kids don’t like them either! Although essays are a necessity, there are other forms of writing that we can and should teach. Read here for interesting writing ideas with some suggested great alternatives to essays in middle school.

blog post on interesting writing activities as alternatives to essays for middle school — Ditch the boredom with these alternatives to essays!

Why We Should Consider Alternatives to Essay Writing

Good writing will always be important. And we have to accept that knowing proper essay structure isn’t going away anytime soon. But when we overdo the essay, we are limiting our students. They come to dread it, and we dread it as well. We really need to expose our kids to some different, interesting writing ideas.

In this day and age of artificial intelligence and easy access to finding anything on the internet, I do fear that students’ writing abilities will decline further. So while we have to “keep on keeping on” with essay writing, it is wise to have students engaged in other forms of writing/presentation that they will no doubt need to use more readily. There are many great alternatives to essays to consider in your classroom.

Interesting Writing Ideas: Slideshow Presentations

To start, a natural alternative to an essay is a slideshow presentation. When presenting information, slideshows are the way to go and one of the really good alternatives to essay writing. You have to take large amounts of information and summarize it into digestible content. When students do this, we call this “synthesizing” information, and it is a high-level skill that is difficult to teach. Therefore, creating slideshows is advantageous because kids will naturally synthesize.

I have personally found that my students are very engaged when creating slideshows. Here are some examples of good times to create slideshows as one of the alternatives to essays:

Slideshow ideas

End of Unit for a Content Area: I also teach social studies. At the end of a unit, I often have my kids create slideshows as alternatives to essays to show what they have learned. I prefer this to an exam or an essay, and so do they as it is much more creative and they feel less overwhelmed as they approach it slide by slide.
End of a Novel: The possibilities are endless here. You have to take your main focus of the novel (Were you teaching theme? Or character traits?) and have kids create a slideshow based on this.
Informational Reading Unit: Most language arts teachers are tasked with informational reading. I have my students pick a topic (from a list of topics that I give them and have articles for them for each topic). A great way to end this unit is to have kids present what they found on their topic via slideshow.

A few tips when assigning slideshows:

Be very specific with your directions. I usually assign around 10 slides for my 6th graders and list out what they need to do on each slide.
Have kids include graphics, videos, charts, pictures, etc. on each slide. It is important for kids to understand that slideshows are meant to be engaging. It is really one of the things that makes slideshows great alternatives to essays.
Talk a bit about design, and how it should be visually appealing. Using “Canva” is a great place for this and there is a free educator version with tons design ideas.
Be sure kids write in bullet points. They need to know that we don’t usually see long paragraphs in slideshows.
Remind kids that proper mechanics is a must for any type of presentation.
Copying and pasting is always an issue. Be sure to review your policies for plagiarism.

If you would like to check out my units that have slideshows as interesting writing ideas alternatives to essays, here are a few:

Informational Reading Native Americans Colonial America Age of Exploration

Video Presentations as Alternatives to Essays

Additionally, video presentations are an easy substitute for essays. There is no doubt that video is the way that many prefer to receive content. I believe you and your kids will love doing this as one of the alternatives to essays.

Video presentation tips:

Decide on how students will submit. For me, students can submit videos and links on Google Classroom™.
Consider technology in your school. Do students have access to laptops? Cameras? Do they all have cell phones? This is definitely your first step in assigning a video presentation.
Be sure to check with your district for any technology questions/rules.
As with slideshows, be very specific about what needs to be included, the length, etc. I find giving students a rubric “checklist” is most helpful when using videos as alternatives to essays.
You may want to take some time to go over video tips. For example, if kids will actually be appearing on the video, go over talking to the camera, editing out long pauses and filler words such as “um”, and creating an appropriate backdrop.
I have found Descript to be a great video option, and there is a free version. It’s very user-friendly, and gives you a transcript so you can edit your video right from there. It’s amazing! Again, be sure to check with your district.

Personal Narratives as Alternatives to Essays

Narrative writing is a genre that most of us teach, and it also has its issues with being difficult. Having students create personal narratives is a great way to ease into this type of writing. Because kids are writing about a moment in time that happened to them and that is important in their personal lives, they have instant access to the details of what the story was/should be.

If you are doing personal narrative writing, don’t make the mistake I did when I began teaching and have them do it in one or two lessons. Writing a personal narrative is a fantastic opportunity to teach higher-level skills because students already know the storyline. Incorporating lessons in theme, characterization, and internal monologue all come easier to students because of the nature of the personal narrative.

Help with personal narratives

If you are interested, I have an entire, month-long unit on personal narrative writing. I love this unit so much I don’t even mind grading them! I teach it at the beginning of the year because it immediately lets me get to know my students on a more personal level. Check it out here: Personal Narrative Complete Unit

interesting writing activities: personal narrative writing unit for middle school — Need an “all in one” unit? Click here!

To help even further, I have a free mini lesson on Literary Terms and Plot Structure that should be reviewed before starting. Grab yours here: Free Literary Terms and Plot Structure Mini Lesson

Podcasts

As a teacher/teacher-author, using content to gain an audience is crucial. One way to do this is through podcasting (and through a blog, obviously). I have a podcast, and let me tell you, it requires a whole different skill set. As I create my podcasts, I realize that it is such a valuable skill for kids to have. It provides a way for students who hate writing to perhaps shine a bit more brightly.

Why Podcasts?

You can absolutely have kids create a podcast to get the same result that you would with an essay (minus the spelling). So if you are having students write an essay about the theme of a book and provide evidence, they can create an outline and talk it through and achieve the same end goal as an alternative to essay writing.

Another benefit is that podcasts can feel more authentic and personal to the person creating it. Because you are literally putting your voice behind it, it naturally becomes something that you care about deeply.

Another benefit? They can’t rush through as easily. I have seen kids rush through essays and give it very little effort. It would be more difficult to rush through a podcast the way you do through an essay. It requires planning to execute.

Recording Options:

Students can upload audio files right on Google Classroom™. To record, there are many options. Here are some:

Garageband – https://apps.apple.com/us/app/garageband/id408709785
Quicktime – https://support.apple.com/downloads/quicktime
Audacity – https://www.audacityteam.org/
Vocaroo – https://vocaroo.com/

As with video, I would definitely recommend seeking out help from your technology department and/or administrators to see if they can recommend the best way to do this.

Interesting Writing Ideas: Speeches and Oral Presentations

Speeches aren’t for everyone. I can remember feeling sick all day on the days that we had to do some sort of public speaking assignment in school. Although I don’t have that same fear now as an adult, it’s something that I remember and am very sensitive about with my students.

With that said, providing these experiences in a classroom where kids feel safe and valued is a skill that we really need to teach. Here are some ideas to help your kids do their best:

Tips for oral presentations

Just like with any writing assignment, be very clear on what you want them to do. Include the length of the speech and any specifics that you want them to cover.
Talk to the class ahead of time about how they are feeling about giving an oral presentation. Talk about how many, many people do not like to do public speaking. Ask kids what else makes them nervous and what they do to power through it. Let them know that you are pulling for them and that you are excited to hear what they have to say.
If your room allows it, let kids use some sort of visual aid (slideshow, graphs, video clips, etc.). This is very “real life” when giving a presentation.
Depending on your class, you might want to give kids the option to do an alternative assignment. Although I believe that kids need to be exposed to this type of presentation, there could be circumstances within your class that make it too difficult.

Poetry: Very Interesting Writing Ideas

Finally, try adding in some poetry. Poetry is my passion. I fit it in whenever I can. I use it as bell ringers, for social studies projects, and as a full unit in language arts. With that said, I know everyone doesn’t share my passion. Here are some ideas for those of you who don’t understand how AMAZING poetry is (just kidding…no judgment):

I truly believe that kids will be as excited as you are about an assignment/unit of study. So if you are going in half-hearted, your kids will, too. Tell kids that if they like songs, then the like poems because poems are songs without the music behind it. Start your unit out with a popular song that they seem to gravitate towards…or a goofy song that they all know. My kids were obsessed with “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”…and yes, they are 6th graders. So we used it as part of our poetry study.
Having kids write poems freestyle is, believe it or not, the hardest way to start. Give them some structure, and perhaps teach one skill at a time. So for example, you might give them some parameters for writing a diamante poem, and having them incorporate a simile into it.
If you want to apply their current reading assignment, this is really higher-level thinking. Kids can, for example, write their poems from the point of view of a character, or summarize a theme with a poem. There are so many fun and creative ways to do this. These methods are sometimes a better and more personal connection to the book.
If you need ideas for some very interesting writing activities, writing poetry is the way to go. Check out my choice board. There are 15 different styles of poems, and the directions are very clear for students so they will be independent and met with success: Poetry Choice Board

15 different poetry writing activities for middle school

So overall, I would say keep doing essays, but consider trying some of the above ideas. I would love to know which one of these alternatives to essay writing you have tried. Please comment below!