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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Coordinating Conjunctions Worksheet
Distribute this coordinating conjunctions worksheet to help your students practice joining clauses with conjunctions to form compound sentences.
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Subordinating Conjunctions Worksheet
Use this worksheet to enable students to practice identifying and constructing sentences using subordinating conjunctions.
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Subordinating Conjunctions Game Show Interactive Activity
Use this interactive digital activity to assist your students in practicing identifying and constructing sentences using subordinating conjunctions in a fun way!
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Exploring and Building Narrative Characters PowerPoint
A 14 slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching younger students about how to build a character for a narrative text.
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Conjunctive Adverb Interactive Activity
Use this engaging interactive activity in your classroom to teach students what conjunctive adverbs are and how to use them in their writing.
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Relative Adverb Scoot Game
Use this relative adverbs scoot game as a warm up or active learning activity to add some color to your grammar lesson!
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Persuasive Writing Graphic Organizer Pack
Help students gather their thoughts during persuasive writing with this differentiated set of graphic organizers.
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Opinion Paragraph - OREO Planning Template
Help your students write well constructed opinion paragraphs using the OREO acronym with these planning templates.
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Friendship Writing Prompts
Encourage positive relationships by using our friendship writing prompts in your classroom.
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Synonyms and Antonyms - Build a Sentence Interactive
Build strong vocabulary and sentence-writing skills with an interactive synonyms and antonyms sentence-building activity.
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Cursive Worksheets — Cursive Letter Families
Trace and write cursive letters with a pack of Cursive Letter Family worksheets.
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How to Write a Limerick - Worksheet Pack
Use this 2-page worksheet when teaching students how to write a limerick.
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Spelling CCVC Words - Worksheets (Differentiated)
Develop students’ ability to segment and blend the sounds in CCVC words with this set of differentiated worksheets.
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ARMS and COPS Writing and Editing Posters and Checklists
Encourage your students to proofread and edit their writing using the C.O.P.S. and A.R.M.S acronym with a pair of printable writing anchor charts.
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Spring Writing Prompts for Beginning Writers
Celebrate a new season with Spring writing worksheets for primary grades.
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Contributions of Cultures Around the World – Research Project
Research the cultural contributions from countries around the world with this research activity.
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Lower Grades - Synonyms or Antonyms? Sorting Activity
Identify synonyms and antonyms with a sorting activity designed for lower elementary students.
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CVC Phoneme Manipulation Worksheets - Short O
Manipulate the individual phonemes in “short o” CVC words to create new words with this set of differentiated worksheets.
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Verb Tense Worksheet
Provide students with additional verb tense practice with a past, present, and future tense worksheet.
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Conjunctions Anchor Charts for Upper Elementary Students
Display this set of 9 grammar posters to remind students the types and examples of sentence connectives and conjunctions.
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Write About It! Pumpkins - Differentiated Writing Prompts
Differentiate writing instruction in primary grades with a group of leveled fall writing prompts about pumpkins.
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Identifying Positive, Comparative, and Superlative Adverbs - Task Cards
Identify positive, comparative, and superlative adverbs in sentences with a set of twenty task cards.
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Google Slides - Adjectives Interactive Activity
Provide your students with engaging, interactive activities to help them improve their usage of descriptive adjectives.
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Westward Expansion Close Reading and Writing Pack
Enhance your students' close reading strategies, vocabulary, and writing skills with a Westward Expansion reading passage and accompanying activities.
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Navajo Code Talkers Constructed Response Worksheet
Discover the impact of the Navajo Code Talkers on the outcome of World War II with a cross-curricular constructed response worksheet.
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Direct Speech - Teaching Presentation
Teach the rules of punctuating direct speech in texts with an interactive teaching presentation
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Famous Historical Figures - Biography Graphic Organizer Packs
Dive into a research project on key figures in history with a set of Important Historical Figure graphic organizers.
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Descriptive Adjectives SCOOT! Game
Build vocabulary and grammar skills with a game of Adjective SCOOT!
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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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Has/Have Subject Verb Agreement Worksheet
Provide students with additional subject-verb agreement practice with a worksheet focusing on using has and have correctly.
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Do/Does Subject Verb Agreement Worksheet
Provide students with additional subject-verb agreement practice with a worksheet focusing on using DO and DOES correctly.
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Was/Were Subject Verb Agreement Worksheet
Provide students with additional subject-verb agreement practice with a worksheet focusing on using was and were correctly