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.
- Free Plan
Christmas Capitalization Worksheet
Reinforce capitalization rules for months, proper nouns, titles, the pronoun I, and more with a Christmas capitalization worksheet.
- Free Plan
Color by Parts of Speech Chameleon Worksheet (Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Conjunctions and Pronouns)
Practice identifying different parts of speech with this fun color-by-code worksheet.
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Roll to Create a Creature - Drawing Game
Use a die and a chart to create a creature to include in a narrative text or a comic strip.
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Lewis and Clark Expedition - RACES Writing Strategy Worksheets
Practice using the RACES writing strategy for text evidence with a Lewis and Clark Passage, graphic organizer, and worksheet.
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Boston Tea Party - RACES Writing Strategy Worksheet
Integrate reading, writing, and American history with a worksheet about the Boston Tea Party using the RACES writing strategy for text evidence.
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Winter and Christmas Break Activity Grids — Student Choice Projects
A grid of fun holiday activities for your students to complete in the weeks leading up to winter break.
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Leveled Paired Passage Worksheets-Mammals vs. Reptiles
Differentiate reading instruction with leveled nonfiction, compare and contrast passages, and worksheets.
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Christmas Writing Prompt Dice Game - Roll-a-Story
Roll a Christmas Writing Prompt and write a fun Christmas story with our printable Christmas Dice activities.
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Narrative Plot Structure Template
A template for students to use when planning the plot structure of a narrative text.
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Christmas Writing - December Writing Prompts
Inspire your students to write creatively with a set of 30 Christmas writing prompts for kids.
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3rd Grade English Worksheets - Christmas Printables
Add some Christmas spirit to your December grammar lessons with a printable pack of Christmas-themed 3rd-grade English worksheets.
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Roll to Create a Christmas Story - Writing Prompt
Roll the die to generate a fun Christmas writing activity with a roll-to-create Christmas worksheet.
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Procedure Sequencing Activity - Snowman
A worksheet to use in the classroom when learning the sequence of a procedure.
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Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences Poster
A poster to display in the classroom showing the components of a sentence.
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Writing the Alphabet - Handwriting Worksheet
Practice penmanship by tracing and writing uppercase and lowercase letters.
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Christmas - Simple, Complex, and Compound Sentence Sort
Practice reading, identifying, and writing simple, compound, and complex sentences with a Christmas cut and paste worksheet.
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Verb Tense Printable Christmas Activity Cards
Practice identifying past, present, and future tense verbs with a set of Christmas Verb Tense Task Cards!
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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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Super Synonyms List
Boost your students’ vocabularies with a synonyms list to reference in their daily writing lessons.
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Christmas Worksheet - Sentence Editing
Edit and correct capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and spacing errors with a set of Christmas Fix the Sentence worksheets.
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Grammar Grid Mystery Picture Worksheet- Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives (Bunny)
Follow the color-coded parts of speech guide to fill in the word grid and reveal a mystery image.
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Primary Sources - Firsthand Account Anchor Chart
Teach your students about primary sources and firsthand accounts with a printable primary source document anchor chart.
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Narrative Writing Planning Template
A template for students to use when planning a narrative text.
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Summer Santa on Vacation - Christmas Writing Prompts
Inspire hilarious Christmas narratives with a printable set of Santa on Vacation writing prompt worksheets.
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Developing Narrative Writing Skills - Grade 3 and Grade 4
An 18-slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching your students about the structure and language features of narrative texts.
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Types of Poetry - Anchor Chart Pack with Annotations
Introduce structured forms of poetry to your students with this set of 9 annotated poetry posters. .
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Snakes and Ladders Game Board Template
Create a fun activity for any subject area with this black-and-white board game template.
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Writing the Alphabet - Handwriting Poster
A poster to assist students when learning how to form letters.
- Free Plan
Verb Tense Worksheet
Provide students with additional verb tense practice with a past, present, and future tense worksheet.
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Christmas Activity Printable - Common and Proper Nouns Task Cards
Practice identifying common and proper nouns with Christmas Noun Task Cards!
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Winter Writing Prompts for Beginning Writers
Celebrate winter and your growing writers with Winter writing worksheets for Kindergarten and first grade.
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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