Writing Teaching Resources
Teaching writing strategies and the writing process this school year? Explore a comprehensive collection of teacher resources for elementary and middle school ELA teachers — all created by teachers!
Stocked with graphic organizers, 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 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 in elementary and middle 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 Middle 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 prioritizes:
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 grades, 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 organize their thoughts and arguments for penning their essays, reports and research papers.
3. Using Graphic Organizers
Technically graphic organizers 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 organizers 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 organizers 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 summarize the main point or argument of their essay helps students be more focused and organized 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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Soccer vs. Football -Differentiated Paired Passage Worksheets
Differentiate reading instruction with nonfiction texts, compare and contrast activities, and response to text writing opportunities.
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Build a Sandcastle-Writing and Craft Activity
Excite your students for the upcoming summer with a narrative writing and craft activity.
- Free Plan
Inquiry Project - Template
A diverse template to help students craft inquiry questions to produce different types of research projects.
- Plus Plan
List of Adjectives - Words to Describe Mom
Describe the amazing moms in your students' lives with the help of a printable list of motherly adjectives.
- Free Plan
Noun, Verb, and Adjective Sort - Worksheet
Help students learn the difference between nouns, verbs, and adjectives with this cut-and-paste sorting worksheet.
- Free Plan
Storyboard Template
A template for use when planning a narrative text.
- Free Plan
Narrative Writing Planning Template
A template for students to use when planning a narrative text.
- Free Plan
Opinion Texts Writing Task - Zoos Are No Place for Animals
A writing activity to help students construct a detailed and reasoned opinion text.
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Informative Writing - Animal Research Task
Use a printable animal research organizer booklet for students to record facts about animals when learning to write informative texts.
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Statement, Question, Command, Exclamation – Cut and Paste Worksheet
Identify statement, command, question, and exclamation sentences with a Types of Sentences Cut and Paste worksheet for 2nd grade.
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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).
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Letters A–Z Printable ABC Worksheets
Learn the letters of the alphabet and their sounds with printable ABC worksheets
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Prepositions Practice Worksheet
Use prepositions and prepositional phrases to describe the location with a prepositional phrase worksheet.
- Free Plan
Amelia Earhart Constructed Response Worksheet
Use this passage, second grade writing prompt, and worksheet to help students write a constructed response paragraph about Amelia Earhart.
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End of Year Scoot and Glyph Activity
End the school year with an activity in which students get to share their summer plans, get moving, and create a work of art.
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Is/Are Subject Verb Agreement Task Cards
Practice using is and are correctly using a set of Subject-Verb agreement task cards.
- Free Plan
Readers Theater – Play Writing Template
A template for students to use when writing their own Readers Theater script.
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Author Study Flip Book – Editable Template
An editable flip book template that covers a range of topics when studying a particular author.
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'Spaceman' Finger Spacing Template
A 'Spaceman' and 'Spacewoman' template to help children when writing.
- Free Plan
Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences Poster
A poster to display in the classroom showing the components of a sentence.
- Free Plan
"Facts About..." Template
Get a sense of separating fact from opinion in texts with this graphic organizer.
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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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Emotive Language Task Cards
Get students exploring emotive language examples with this set of task cards perfect for your persuasive writing unit.
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Subordinating Conjunctions Task Cards
Use this set of 24 task cards to help students practice identifying and constructing sentences using subordinating conjunctions.
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Simple, Compound and Complex Sentences Worksheets
Use this set of five grammar worksheets to teach about the structures of simple, compound and complex sentences.
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Weathering and Erosion – RACES Writing Strategy Worksheets
Combine reading, writing and science with two worksheets about weathering and erosion using the RACES writing strategy for text evidence.
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Persuasive Writing Project (The Best Cookie)
Help students plan out persuasive writing with this ‘The Best Cookie’ persuasive writing project.
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Find The Imposter! Interactive Suffix Game
Practice using the suffixes -s and -es to pluralize words with an exciting FInd the Imposter Interactive activity.
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Cursive Worksheets — Cursive Letter Families
Trace and write cursive letters with a pack of Cursive Letter Family worksheets.
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Cinco De Mayo Vocabulary Cards and Writing Center
Create a vocabulary and writing center with a Cinco de Mayo word wall and writing templates for primary grades.
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Henry Ford - RACES Writing Strategy Worksheets
Provide students with Social Studies and Writing instruction using the RACES strategy for constructed response paragraphs.
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Dear Future Student – Trifold Template
Use this template with your class to write about interesting grade-level information, experiences, and tips for incoming students.