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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Exploring Procedural Writing Teaching Slides
Teach your students how to write a procedure using this detailed slideshow targeted at lower primary school students.
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Writing A Narrative Poster
Display this poster in your room as a visual reminder of the structure of a narrative.
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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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Upper Primary Handwriting Sheets
Fifteen handwriting sheets for upper primary.
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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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What's the Word? Mother's Day Descriptive Words
Describe the amazing mums in your students' lives with the help of a printable list of Mother's Day words.
- Free Plan
Editing Passage Task Cards - Year 5
A set of 20 editing passage task cards with answers.
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Editing Passages PowerPoint - Year 5
A 42 slide editable PowerPoint template containing editing passages with answers.
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Seven Sensational Story Starters PowerPoint
A 10 slide editable PowerPoint template of story starters to use in narrative writing.
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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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Contractions PowerPoint
A 24-slide editable PowerPoint template about contractions.
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Writing Sentences in Past, Present and Future Tense Worksheets
Practise verb tense by changing sentences into past, present and future.
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NAPLAN-Style Assessment Rubric - Persuasive Writing
A NAPLAN-style rubric designed to help teachers to assess students' persuasive writing.
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Narrative Prompts Posters
A set of 20 posters to display as narrative story prompts for students.
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Paragraphs in Narrative Writing Poster
A poster explaining how to write paragraphs in narrative texts.
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NAPLAN-Style Assessment Rubric - Informative Writing
A NAPLAN-style rubric designed to help teachers to assess students' informative writing.
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5 Persuasive Writing Prompts
Inspire your students through these relevant persuasive writing prompts.
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Narrative Sentence Starter Cards
Thirty sentence starter cards for narratives.
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Vivid Verbs Poster Pack
Teach your students to omit boring, overused verbs from their writing with a classroom set of vivid verb posters.
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Figurative Language Poster Pack
Remind your students about the most common types of figurative language with this set of classroom display posters.
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Editing Passages PowerPoint for Year 3
A 42 slide editable PowerPoint template containing editing passages with answers.
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Identifying Dependent Clauses Worksheet
Practise identifying dependent clauses in complex sentences with a dependent clause worksheet.
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Personal Recount Planning Template
A template for students to use when planning a personal recount.
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Sequencing Activity - Homework is Unnecessary (Persuasive Text)
A sequencing task using a persuasive text.
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Prefixes and Suffixes PowerPoint
Learn prefix and suffix concepts with an interactive teaching presentation.
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Metaphors Worksheet
Practise identifying and using metaphors with this differentiated metaphors worksheet.
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Writing Explanation Texts PowerPoint
A 33-slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching your students about explanation writing.
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Apostrophes of Contraction Worksheets
A set of three worksheets to use when learning about the apostrophe of contraction.
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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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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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Editing Passage Task Cards - Year 6
A set of 20 editing passage task cards with answers.
- Writing Worksheets
- Writing Templates
- Writing Posters
- Writing Games
- Writing Teaching Presentations
- Writing Labels, Signs & Decorations
- Writing Word Walls
- Writing Projects
- Writing for Preschool/Kindergarten
- Writing for Foundation Year
- Writing for Year 1
- Writing for Year 2
- Writing for Year 3
- Writing for Year 4
- Writing for Year 5
- Writing for Year 6
- Writing for Year 7