Writing Teaching Resources
Teaching writing strategies and the writing process this school year? Explore a comprehensive collection of teacher resources for primary English teachers — all created by teachers!
Stocked with graphic organisers, writing prompts, templates, worksheets and so much more, this collection of printable and digital activities is designed to help you as you help your students become more effective communicators and unleash their creativity and imagination.
Save time on lesson planning with resources that are aligned with the Australian curriculum (including version 9!) and have been through a careful review process by an expert member of our teacher team to ensure they're ready for your classroom and your students!
Are you looking for tips and tricks to add to your teacher toolkit this school year? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including engaging activities for teaching writing inprimary school and a look at some of the different writing strategies your students will need to learn.
11 Writing Strategies Kids Should Know by the End of Primary School
We can't talk about teaching kids to write without talking about the different writing strategies that can help them do just that!
When it comes to teaching our students to become confident writers who articulate their ideas effectively, here are some of the strategies our teacher team prioritises:
1. Brainstorming
Brainstorming is something we often do in the classroom, and it's a crucial part of learning to generate the ideas that will drive students' writing as they progress through their educational journey. Kids should know how to create a list of potential topics or points related to a particular writing assignment.
With younger students, this is often done as a whole group by writing ideas and points on chart paper. In upper years, students transition over to using text-based materials to generate ideas and talking points.
2. Outlining
Before diving directly into any assignment, our students should be able to create a structured framework or outline. Teaching students how to create this outline will help them organise their thoughts and arguments for penning their essays, reports and research papers.
3. Using Graphic Organisers
Technically graphic organisers are classroom tools, so you may not think of their use as a writing strategy per se. However, learning to use these tools is another means of providing kids with the tools they need to organize their ideas and information before they sit down to write.
These organisers are particularly useful for expository writing — students can use them to outline main ideas, supporting details, and transitions.
Students can also take advantage of story maps when they are working on narrative writing to plot the key elements of a story, such as characters, setting, conflict, rising action, climax and resolution.
Graphic organisers such as the OREO strategy and hamburger paragraph are also great tools for students to use when working with opinion and persuasive texts.
4. Freewriting
Writer's block is the enemy of creativity, and it can easily frustrate young students who don't know where to begin.
When students freewrite, they write continuously without worrying about grammar or punctuation. This writing strategy can be extremely freeing — hence the name! — and helps frustrated writers move past that writer's block, generating fresh ideas.
5. Peer Editing
Learning to review and provide constructive feedback on each other's work is a great writing strategy to employ in your classroom to help students improve their writing quality and enhance their editing skills.
The strategy allows your students to learn from one another, and it arms them with an important tool they can use well into the future — calling on peers to provide a critical eye to a piece of writing.
6. Using Sensory Language
Working on descriptive writing? With this writing strategy, students engage the reader's senses through vivid and sensory language to create a more immersive experience.
7. Including Transitions and Connectives
As students become more proficient in the writing process, learning to use transitional words and phrases allows them to create smooth transitions between sentences and paragraphs. This strategy makes their writing more coherent and polished.
8. Incorporating Evidence
In persuasive, opinion and expository writing, students are taught to support their claims with evidence and examples to strengthen their arguments.
It takes some practice to train your students to use evidence in their writing, so it's often a good idea to start with something simple, like the R.A.C.E.S. strategy.
9. Crafting a Thesis Statement
In expository, opinion and persuasive writing, crafting clear and concise thesis statements that summarise the main point or argument of their essay helps students be more focused and organised in their writing.
This strategy can also have the effect of empowering students to express their ideas confidently and persuasively.
10. Incorporating Introductions and Conclusions
With this strategy, students practice crafting effective introductions and conclusions that grab the reader's attention and leave a lasting impression.
11. Following a Revision Checklist
Teaching your students to use a revision checklist is a strategy that will help them be more self-reflective, evaluating their own writing against the checklist criteria and becoming more aware of their strengths and weaknesses.
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For and Against Worksheets
Explore 'for' and 'against' arguments for five different topics with this set of 'for' and 'against' sorting activities.
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Procedural Writing Prompt Task Cards
Need some procedural writing ideas? Download these task cards to use as a writing activity during your procedure writing unit.
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OREO® Persuasive Writing Posters
Help students remember the structure of persuasive texts with this fun OREO® acronym.
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Printable Graphic Organiser Worksheets
A collection of 14 different blank graphic organisers to use in a variety of ways in all subject areas.
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Persuade Me Persuasive Writing Prompts
Encourage students to write persuasive texts with these engaging task cards or teaching slides.
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5 Persuasive Writing Prompts
Inspire your students through these relevant persuasive writing prompts.
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Prefixes and Suffixes PowerPoint
Learn prefix and suffix concepts with an interactive teaching presentation.
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Persuasive Device Definitions – Match-Up Worksheet
Have students match the persuasive devices with their definitions using this simple one-page worksheet.
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Free Letter Tracing Worksheets - State Fonts
Use letter tracing worksheets to help your students develop their handwriting and fine motor skills.
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Coordinating Conjunctions Worksheet
Distribute this coordinating conjunctions worksheet to help your students practise joining clauses with conjunctions to form compound sentences.
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Persuasive Writing Graphic Organiser Pack
Help students gather their thoughts during persuasive writing with this differentiated set of graphic organisers.
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Sequence a Procedure Text – Cut and Paste Worksheets
Use these procedural writing examples to teach your students about sequencing instructions in a logical order.
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Inflectional Endings - Spelling with Suffixes Worksheets
Spell words with the inflectional endings -ed, -ing, -s, -es and -ies with a pack of printable practise worksheets covering inflected endings.
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How to Make Fairy Bread Flipbook
Use this “How to Make Fairy Bread” procedural writing activity to help familiarise your students with the structural elements of procedure texts.
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How to Make Waffles – Procedural Writing Project
Get your students writing high-quality procedure texts with this fun “How to Make Waffles” procedural writing project.
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Text Connectives Posters for Upper Primary Students
Display this set of 8 grammar posters to remind students the types and examples of sentence connectives and conjunctions.
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Find the Adverbial Phrases Worksheet
Use this simple yet effective adverbs worksheet to assess students’ ability to identify adverb groups (adverbial phrases) in sentences.
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Informative Texts Writing Task - Firefighters
Guide your students through writing an informative essay about Firefighters with a printable Fact File writing prompt and writing scaffold worksheets.
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How to Make a Pizza Interactive Activity
Use this “How to Make a Pizza” procedural writing interactive activity to model the purpose, structural elements and language features of procedure texts.
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Modal Language Interactive Activity
Explore the language of modality with your students using this digital game perfect for your persuasive writing lessons.
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Rhetorical Questions Sorting Activity
Explore rhetorical question examples with your students using this set of 28 sorting cards perfect for literacy groups
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Building Strong Sentences Teaching Presentation
Share this 15-slide teaching presentation with your students to help them understand the key grammar concepts of compound sentences,coordinating conjunctions and clauses.
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Procedural Writing Activity - How to Make a Sundae
Inspire students to generate procedural writing texts with a fun, summer-themed end-of-year writing assignment and craft.
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Common Spelling Rules PowerPoint
Boost your students' spelling skills with an instructional slide deck teaching the different spelling rules.
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Persuasive Devices Crossword
Familiarise your students with the most common persuasive devices with an engaging crossword puzzle.
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Procedural Writing Posters
Display this set of 5 procedural writing posters in your classroom during your procedural writing unit.
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Packing in Meaning with Noun Groups Worksheet
Explore the concept of noun groups with this 2-page worksheet.
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Cursive Writing Worksheets PDF - Alphabet
Practise writing the alphabet in cursive with a pack of printable cursive alphabet writing worksheets.
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Persuasive Writing Planning Flipbook
Explore the persuasive writing structure in this engaging persuasive writing flipbook.
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Days of the Week - Months in a Year Word Search Worksheets
Practise reading and spelling the days of the week and months of the year with printable Day and Month Word Search worksheets.
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Modal Language Matching Activity
Have students explore high modality and low modality language with this matching game to use during your persuasive writing unit.
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Parts of Speech Word Cards Sorting Activity
Engage your students with this parts of speech group activity where they sort 112 word cards into categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, coordinating conjunctions or prepositions).
- Writing Worksheets
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- Writing for Preschool/Kindergarten
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