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Middle School Students Suggest School Improvements Essay Lesson Plan

Background: This Lesson Plan activity had its birth in a story published last May in the Spokane (Washington) Spokesman-Review. The East-Valley School District was looking for ways to improve their children's lives, so they turned to the kids of their community for advice. Among the school-related ideas they heard (I'm paraphrasing here):

Give us more home ec stuff. Some kids want to learn to cook. We could have dinner at school.
How about anti-smoking classes?
How about a science club for chemistry and dissecting stuff?
A center where we can meet after school with pool tables, a big screen TV, and maybe lessons in salsa dancing.
What about self-defense classes for girls?

Lesson Plan Goals: This lesson will:

encourage students to think critically;
challenge students to organize their thoughts in a short, concise, and thoughtful essay/opinion piece; and
engage students in careful self- or peer-editing.

Lesson Plan: Feel free to adapt these steps to meet your needs/goals.

Share the activity idea with students. You will be asking them to respond thoughtfully to this question: What kinds of classes, activities, resources, or facilities would middle school students like their community to provide for them in school or after school?
Set the ground rules for the activity, to include:
- Write a concise essay of 50-200 words (200 max) that presents your best idea(s) for making your school (or after school) life better.
- Essays might include positive suggestions for improvements to class offerings, school or after-school activities, community resources or facilities, etc.
- No grumbling allowed. This isn't a gripe session. It's a forum for positive ideas --- ideas that your community or school might even consider!
Let students think about their essays for at least a day before they write them. Allowing that time will enable students to consider -- and perhaps organize -- their ideas.
Provide students with class time to write a rough-draft essay. (This exercise can be done as word processing practice or as a pencil-and-paper activity.)
A day or two later, allow time for students to edit and rewrite their essays. (Option: Assign editing/rewriting as homework.)
When completed, students might exchange their essays with a classmate for peer editing.
Invite students to share their essays with classmates. Post essays on a classroom bulletin board or pass them on to the school principal or local school board. Students might choose several essays to send to the local newspaper for possible publication.