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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Super Synonyms List
Boost your students’ vocabularies with a synonyms list to reference in their daily writing lessons.
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Author's Purpose Anchor Chart
A poster highlighting the three main reasons an author writes a piece of text - to persuade, to inform, to entertain.
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Fall Color By Part of Speech Worksheet - Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs
Use this color by part of speech worksheet as a fun fall activity with your students.
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Inquiry Project - Template
A diverse template to help students craft inquiry questions to produce different types of research projects.
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4th Grade Writing Worksheets: Tornado Text-Based Writing
Enhance your students' comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills using 4th Grade writing worksheets and a high-interest reading passage about Tornadoes.
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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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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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Writing Procedural Texts Teaching Slides
Use this procedural writing PowerPoint to teach your students about the purpose, structural elements and language features of procedure texts.
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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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How to Make Fairy Bread Flipbook
Use this “How to Make Fairy Bread” procedural writing activity to help familiarize your students with the structural elements of procedure texts.
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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.
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Springtime Sentence Building - Interactive Activity
Build a strong sentence-writing foundation with an interactive spring sentence-building activity.
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Complete and Incomplete Sentence Task Cards
These task cards are best used as independent practice or formative assessment assignments during sentence structure lessons.
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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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Build a Sandcastle-Writing and Craft Activity
Excite your students for the upcoming summer with a narrative writing and craft activity.
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Readers Theater – Play Writing Template
A template for students to use when writing their own Readers Theater script.
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Procedural Writing Topic Cards
Use these ideas for procedure writing with your students to help them hone their procedural writing skills.
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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.
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'Spaceman' Finger Spacing Template
A 'Spaceman' and 'Spacewoman' template to help children when writing.
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Identifying Procedural Language Worksheets
Help your students identify procedural language with this set of three worksheets.
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Imaginative, Opinion and Informative Paragraphs PowerPoint
A 22 slide editable PowerPoint Template to use when teaching your students about the structure of imaginative, opinion and informative paragraphs.
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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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Cursive Writing Worksheets PDF - Alphabet
Practice writing the alphabet in cursive with a pack of printable cursive alphabet worksheets.
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Analyzing Persuasive Techniques Worksheets
Get students analyzing persuasive techniques and their effects on audiences with this set of three texts with accompanying questions.
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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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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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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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OREO® Opinion Writing Poster
Help students remember the structure of opinion texts with this fun OREO® acronym.
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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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Write About It! Spring Sentence Writing Worksheets
Introduce new writers to writing complete sentences in early grades with a group of kindergarten writing prompts about spring.