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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Writing Out Loud: Dialogue Punctuation Worksheet
Practice using quotation marks in writing with a Punctuating Dialogue worksheet.
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Contractions Dominoes
Build vocabulary and spelling skills and have fun with contraction word games.
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Nonfiction Text Features – All About Me Project
Implement a text features project with an “All About Me” theme to explore informational text features with your students.
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Using Commas in Dates and Series -Task Cards
Practice correct comma placement in dates and series with task cards
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Past, Present, and Future Verb Tense Sentence Sort
Identify sentences written in past, present, and future tense with task cards designed for primary grades.
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Writing Sentences in Past, Present, and Future Tense Worksheets - Grades 1/2
Provide students with additional verb tense practice with worksheets focusing on changing sentences into past, present, and future tense.
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Past, Present, and Future Tense Worksheets - Grades 1/2
Provide students with additional verb tense practice with worksheets focusing on changing verbs into past, present, and future tense.
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Alphabetical Order Task Cards (Grades 1-2)
Give your students some practice putting words in alphabetical order with a set of 20 task cards.
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Opinion Writing for 1st Graders - Worksheet Bundle
Help your first graders learn how to write an opinion piece using these handy writing prompt worksheets.
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Spring Writing Prompts Worksheet
Explore creative writing in your classroom with these 3 fun story writing prompts for Spring.
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Positional Words Worksheets – Where Is the Dinosaur?
Download this differentiated set of dinosaur-themed positional words worksheets, designed to support learners at different levels.
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Common and Proper Nouns - Google Interactive Activity
Identify common and proper nouns by sorting words in their context.
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Just Joking! Cursive Joke Book Practice Worksheets
Trace 10 cringe-worthy jokes in cursive font and rewrite each joke independently in cursive on the lines.
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Sentence Starter Task Cards
Practice writing simple sentences with these 16 sentence starter task cards.
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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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Cursive License and Application
Get your students excited about mastering cursive writing by giving them a cursive license.
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My Nobel Peace Prize – Upper Grades
Encourage students to think about how they could make the world a better place with our Nobel Peace Prize writing template.
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Planning an Informative Text
A planning sheet that can be used to write an informative text.
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Ending Punctuation - Cut and Paste Worksheet
A cut and paste worksheet to practice adding the correct punctuation marks.
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Adverbs of Frequency Poster
Use this eye-catching poster in your primary classroom when teaching children about adverbs of frequency.
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Spot the Prepositional Phrase – Task Cards
Identify the prepositional phrase within a sentence with this set of 16 task cards.
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Find and Color - Verb Tense Worksheet
Differentiate between different verb tenses through this 1-page coloring worksheet.
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Wheely Wonderful Words – Overused Adjectives
Banish overused adjectives with a handy adjective-synonym word wheel!
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Color by Parts of Speech - Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives - Seal
A fun activity to use when learning about nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
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Comical Chronicle Worksheets for 2nd Graders
Practice different parts of speech with your 2nd graders using this set of 10 ad-lib style stories.
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Punctuation Parking Lot Game
Practice recognizing and using end punctuation with our set of punctuation cards and matching game board.
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Write a Biography PowerPoint
Use this age-appropriate biography PowerPoint to teach your students about the purpose, structure and features of biographical texts.
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Find It! Noun Game
Practice recognizing and using nouns with this set of 5 game boards.
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Grade 4 Daily Warm-Up – PowerPoint 1
A 70-slide PowerPoint presentation containing a variety of quick warm-up activities.
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Nouns Sorting Activity
Practice recognizing and sorting nouns into categories using these 24 picture common noun cards.
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All About Nouns Worksheet
Identify different types of nouns in sentences, and write sentences containing each kind of noun.
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Biography Research Graphic Organizer
Provide students with this biography research graphic organizer to help them gather key life details and take organized notes for writing a well-structured biography.