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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U.S. Mountains and Rivers - Student Research Workbook
Research and write about the different major mountains, rivers, and land features in the United States with a printable workbook.
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Printable Book - Dinosaurs
Learn about dinosaurs with a printable book for preschoolers, kindergartners, and first-graders.
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Long A Word List
Introduce and explore words containing letter combinations that make the “long a” sound with this printable long A word list.
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Escape from Pete's Pumpkin Patch - Halloween Escape Room
Escape the evil witch who turns children into pumpkins at Pete’s Pumpkin Patch using inferencing, problem solving, and grammar skills
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Spelling Long A Words - SCOOT! Task Cards
Explore the different ways to spell the “long a” sound with a game of Scoot!
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How to Decorate a Christmas Tree - Kindergarten Writing Worksheet
Practice kindergarten writing skills with a Christmas procedural writing prompt.
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Irma Rangel Constructed Response Worksheet
Use this Irma Rangel worksheet and writing prompt to help students write a paragraph using text evidence.
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Holiday Messages - Printable Christmas Cards for Kids
Four holiday-themed Christmas cards for kids to make and send to loved ones, veterans, and other community members.
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Election Day Writing Craftivity
Learn about Election Day, the voting process, and procedural text with an election-themed writing and craft activity.
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Write About It! Winter Sentence Builder Pack
Differentiate writing instruction in primary grades with a group of leveled informational writing prompts about winter
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Valentine's Day Vocabulary Cards and Writing Center
Build a Valentine’s Day writing station with a printable word wall and writing prompt worksheets.
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New Year's Resolution and Goal Setting Workbook - Upper Grades
Learn about celebrations and make New Year’s resolutions with this 15-page activity booklet.
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United States Patriotic Symbols - Holiday Worksheets
Build and write sentences about patriotic holidays in the United States with a group of six holiday sentence-building worksheets.
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Spring Writing Prompts for Beginning Writers
Celebrate Spring and encourage creativity with Spring writing worksheets for Kindergarten and first grade.
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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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Which Letter? Worksheet - K or C
Practice identifying when to begin words with k vs. c with this printable two-page worksheet.
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Worksheet - Spelling Soft G Words & Hard G Words
Practice identifying the soft g sound and hard g sound with this printable two-page worksheet.
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Phonics Worksheets - Hard and Soft C
Practice identifying the different sounds made by the letter C with this printable two-page worksheet.
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Save Tom - Disguise a Turkey Persuasive Writing Prompt
A fun Thanksgiving writing activity to use with your students.
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Fall Parts of Speech Sort - Nouns Verbs Adjectives
Review three parts of speech by sorting nouns, verbs, and adjectives with a parts of speech sorting activity.
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Conjunctions Anchor Chart Pack
Display this set of 7 text connectives posters to remind students about the types of sentence connectives and conjunctions.
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The Substitute Monster - Halloween Craft and Write
This Halloween, inspire your struggling writers to write toe-curling tales using our Halloween writing prompts and craft templates.
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Roll to Create a Thanksgiving Feast - Creative Writing Prompts for Kids
A fun, hands-on Thanksgiving activity using a die and a chart to create a narrative text.
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Halloween Parts of Speech- Cut and Paste Worksheet
Have a bit of spooky fun identifying parts of speech by sorting Halloween nouns, verbs, and adjectives with a cut and paste worksheet.
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Fall Worksheet - Parts of Speech Cut and Paste
Have a bit of fall fun identifying parts of speech by sorting fall-themed nouns, verbs, and adjectives with a cut and paste worksheet.
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Write About It! I Am Thankful
Differentiate writing instruction this Thanksgiving with a group of “I Am Thankful” writing prompts for second grade and under.
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Changing Verb Tenses Interactive Activity
Provide your students with a digital learning environment to practice using past, present, and future tense verbs.
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Write About It! Halloween Costumes
Differentiate writing instruction in primary grades with a group of leveled Halloween writing prompts about Halloween costumes.
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Fall Vocabulary Cards and Writing Center
“Fall” into writing stations with a Fall word display and fall writing prompts for first grade.
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Halloween Writing Prompts - Bats
Differentiate writing instruction in primary grades with a group of leveled Halloween writing prompts about bats.
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Write About It! Spiders
Differentiate writing instruction in primary grades with a group of leveled informational writing prompts about spiders
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Biography Structure Sorting Worksheets
Teach biography structure with engaging sorting worksheets that help students understand the key sections of a biography using authentic text examples.