Last week, middle school participated in a book scavenger hunt in order to familiarize themselves with the books we have in our commons and in my classroom. As they are required to keep reading going outside of class, I wanted to reduce the “I have nothing to read” comment by illustrating to them that we have a wealth of diverse selections right here at school. They were tasked with finding 35 things about different books ie. “Features a color in the title,” or “has a female author.” The winner in each class got to choose an activity for the class to participate in the following week. This week, middle school began their journey into research writing for the year. I usually do this unit later in the year, but I figured that, by moving it up sooner, the students could enjoy the benefits as they write papers for other classes. 6th grade will work on biographies, 7th on world events, and 8th will begin writing persuasive papers. We started with practicing summarizing and paraphrasing and will continue with topic selection and how to find reputable and credible educational sources.