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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Capitalization Task Cards (Grades 2-3)
Reinforce capitalization for proper nouns, the pronoun ‘I,’ and the beginning of sentences in text with this set of 24 task cards (extension included).
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Biography Timeline Template
Use this multipurpose timeline template for a variety of assignments, projects, and more!
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Cursive Practice - Sentences
A set of 6 sheets to practice writing sentences in cursive.
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How to Make a Paper Airplane – Procedural Writing Worksheet
Explore how to make a paper airplane while your students fine-tune their procedural writing skills.
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Story Ideas - Character, Setting, and Complication Cards
A fun way to help your reluctant writers choose something to write about.
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Persuasive Writing Planning Template
A planning template to use when writing a persuasive or opinion text.
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Capital Letter and Period Scavenger Hunt Worksheet
A reading passage and 2 engaging worksheets that explore the importance of capital letter and periods.
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Verb Past Tense Worksheet
A worksheet with simple and irregular past tense verbs added to complete the sentences.
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Themed Letter Writing Template Pack
Print and use a letter writing template each month to encourage your students to write friendly letters.
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How to Plant a Garden – Procedural Writing Project
Get your students writing high-quality procedure texts with this fun “How to Plant a Garden” procedural writing project.
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Build a Procedure Text – Cut and Paste Worksheets
Use these different examples of procedure writing to teach your students about the structural features of procedure texts.
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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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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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Rainforest Bird Craft & Writing Template
Pair a fun bird craft and informational writing to create a fun jungle-themed bulletin board.
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Coordinating Conjunctions Worksheet
Distribute this coordinating conjunctions worksheet to help your students practice joining clauses with conjunctions to form compound sentences.
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Inspiring Story Starters - Task Cards
Get your students writing during Read Across America week with this set of inspirational narrative story starter task cards.
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Subordinating Conjunctions Game Show Interactive Activity
Use this interactive digital activity to assist your students in practicing identifying and constructing sentences using subordinating conjunctions in a fun way!
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Adverb List Posters
Display this poster set (including a list of adverbs) in your classroom to encourage your students to explore and use adverbs in their writing!
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Adjective and Adverb Scoot Game
Scoot! This fun active learning game will have your students up and about on an adverb and adjective adventure around your classroom!
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Persuasive Writing Graphic Organizer Pack
Help students gather their thoughts during persuasive writing with this differentiated set of graphic organizers.
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Opinion Paragraph - OREO Planning Template
Help your students write well constructed opinion paragraphs using the OREO acronym with these planning templates.
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Persuasive Techniques Worksheet Pack
Explore persuasive techniques with your students using this nine-page worksheet pack perfect for your persuasive writing unit.
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Informative Text Writing Task – How Does the Water Cycle Work?
A scaffolded writing task for students to complete when learning about the informative text type.
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Persuasive Vocabulary Word Wall
Help your students enhance their persuasive writing skills with a set of 40 persuasive vocabulary word cards.
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Exploring Opinion Pieces PowerPoint - Grade 1 and Grade 2
A 35 slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching your students about the structure and language features of opinion pieces.
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Prepositions Practice Worksheet
Use prepositions and prepositional phrases to describe the location with a prepositional phrase worksheet.
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Powers of the Legislative Branch Comprehension Pack
Learn about the leaders and responsibilities of the Legislative Branch of the United States government with a reading passage and comprehension worksheets.
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Write With Your Senses: Daily Descriptive Writing Prompts
Inspire your students to write descriptively using our 20 daily descriptive writing prompts slide deck and graphic organizer.
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Dia De Muertos Vocabulary and Writing Prompts
Learn and use the language of Mexican tradition with a Dia de Los Muertos vocabulary word wall and writing activity.
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Memorial Day - Poppy Craft Template
Reflect on Memorial Day and Veterans Day with this poppy template and reflective sentence starters.
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Adverbs Activity - Grammar Charades
Have some fun and build grammar skills with an adverb charades activity.
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Reflexive Pronoun Worksheet
With this worksheet, students will understand reflexive pronouns and how they are used in sentences.