Building Flexibility in Middle School: 5 Journal Prompts to Strengthen Executive Function Skills

Posted In Writing On April 16, 2025

Building flexibility in students is one of the most powerful ways to support their executive function development and prepare them for academic and life success. Flexibility—the ability to adapt to changing conditions, shift strategies, and manage emotions when routines are disrupted—is a foundational executive function skill that influences how students behave, learn, and grow. In this blog post, we’re sharing five journal prompts you can use with your middle schoolers to encourage metacognition, self-reflection, and student empowerment while teaching executive function skills through writing.

Using reflective journaling is one of the most effective student engagement strategies because it taps into students’ real-life experiences and challenges. These prompts not only align with executive function instruction but also foster student’s self-regulation, increase student confidence, and meet student learning needs. The prompts below are intentionally designed to support executive function learning while helping you build a culture of self-awareness and resilience in your classroom.

Journal Prompts for Building Flexibility

Reflecting on Past Flexibility

• “Flexibility is the ability to adapt to changing conditions by revising plans or switching strategies. Think about the last time that you showed good flexibility. It could have happened in class or at home. Maybe it was when you managed your emotions during a changing situation, understood another’s perspective, or did something new even though it was difficult. Describe how your body and mind felt before and after you showed flexible thinking.”

This prompt promotes metacognitive awareness by helping students identify when they’ve successfully used flexible thinking. It also supports students’ social skills by connecting flexibility with empathy and emotion regulation—essential components of any executive function system.

Struggling to Adapt

• “It can be challenging to accept that there are multiple ways to solve a problem. Think of a time when you had trouble considering a new way to solve a problem. For example, you may have struggled to understand another person’s ideas or become frustrated at learning a new method. Describe in detail how your body and mind felt before and after you were able to use flexible thinking strategies to manage this change.”

This prompt helps students recognize the internal discomfort that comes with change—and how flexible thinking can help them manage that discomfort. It’s an important step in solving executive function challenges and improving student performance.

Strengths and Growth Areas

• “Understanding your strengths and areas for improvement is essential for growth. Think about what areas of flexibility you do well at and those you need to work on. Explain how gaining additional flexible thinking skills could help you throughout your lifetime. Provide enough details so that your readers understand how improvement in your flexibility skills could help you in the future as a student, employee, or parent.”

This exercise connects the use of flexibility to real-life applications. Helping students visualize the long-term benefits of building flexibility can improve academic performance, boost student motivation, and encourage future-oriented thinking.

Flexibility in Creative Composition

• “Time travel has always captured the imagination of humankind. Think about and select a situation when you wish you had a time machine to change how you managed your emotions while experiencing a life change. For example, maybe a close friend moved away, or you started at a new school. Then, write a story about a fictional character who travels back in time to help you use flexible thinking strategies for your selected situation. Provide enough details so your readers understand your story.”

This creative journal prompt blends storytelling with executive function instruction, making abstract concepts more tangible. It’s also a wonderful way to integrate executive functioning tools into language arts while addressing student behavior and emotional growth.

Persuasive Letter to a Teacher

• “Executive functions are often overlooked as important skills for students. Flexible thinking is one of the most important executive function skills students can use to help manage their thoughts and emotions when changes happen. Imagine that your teacher does not see value in teaching your class flexibility skills. Write a letter to your teacher persuading her to teach these skills to your class. Include enough specific details to support your opinion and convince her that your position is correct.”

This prompt encourages student voice and advocacy—key aspects of student empowerment. By explaining the impact of flexibility, students internalize its importance and work to improve their communication skills as well.

Continue Building Flexibility with Us

Looking for more resources?

• Explore additional flexibility journal prompts for grades 1–4
• Find more flexibility prompts for high school
• Sign up for our newsletter to receive weekly strategies, tools, and printable activities.
• See our best practices for executive function instruction and integrate them into your school-wide executive function curriculum.

Let’s keep building flexibility, one reflective moment at a time.