Guided Writing Activities Teaching Resources
Get guided writing activities, prompts, and more to help your students develop their writing muscles in your classroom. This elementary school teaching resource collection was created by the expert ELA teachers on the Teach Starter team.
These curriculum-aligned resources will save you time on your ELA lesson plans with classroom-ready printable and digital worksheets and activities that you can edit to differentiate instruction for individual learners.
What Is Guided Writing?
Guided writing is a technique used to help individuals improve their writing skills by providing them with a structure or set of guidelines to follow while they write. This can include prompts, examples, or specific instructions to help the writer focus their thoughts and organize their ideas more effectively. The goal of guided writing is to help the writer improve their writing skills and develop their own unique style over time.
What Does Guided Writing Look Like in the Classroom?
In a classroom setting, guided writing typically involves you, the teacher, providing students with a specific topic or prompt to write about, along with a set of guidelines or instructions to follow. This could include a specific word count, a specific format (such as a persuasive essay or a descriptive paragraph), or a set of key points that the student should address in their writing.
You may also provide examples of well-written pieces that students can use as a model for their own writing as well as giving feedback on the students' writing so that they can improve their writing skills.
Guided writing can take place in a whole-class setting, where a teacher leads the class through the writing process, or in small groups or one-on-one sessions where a teacher can provide more personalized instruction and feedback.
How Does Guided Writing Help Students Improve Their Writing?
Not sure if you want to add guided writing to your instruction techniques? Our teacher team has dug through the educational research on the topic for a more in-depth view.
Research has found that guided writing can be effective in improving various aspects of students' writing skills. For example, studies have shown that guided writing can:
- Improve students' writing fluency, increasing their ability to generate written text quickly and easily
- Enhance students' writing accuracy, including improved grammar, spelling, and punctuation
- Increase students' writing complexity, helping students achieve a higher level of sophistication and maturity in their writing.
- Help students develop a greater sense of self-efficacy
- Encourage students' motivation to write
- Facilitate the provision of feedback and support from the teacher
Of course, the effectiveness of guided writing will depend on the specific approach and context in which it is implemented. For example, some research has suggested that guided writing may be more effective when it is used in conjunction with other writing instruction methods, such as independent writing, peer review, and self-reflection.
In general, when guided writing is well-designed, it can be an effective tool for improving students' writing skills, but we suggest using it as part of a comprehensive writing instruction program.
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Valentine's Day Informational Writing - Writing Prompt Activity Pack
Sweeten up your informational writing lessons with a Valentine’s Day Informational Essay pack.
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Narrative Writing Word Wall
A set of 44 vocabulary words related to narrative texts and narrative writing.
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Thanksgiving Fix Ups - Sentence Editing Worksheets
Edit and correct capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and spacing errors with a set of Thanksgiving Fix the Sentence worksheets.
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Christmas Writing Prompts for Beginning Writers
Celebrate Christmas time and practice those writing skills with your young sentence writers.
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Grammar TVs - Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns, Common Nouns, and More
Teach your students about nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, common nouns, and more parts of speech with a fun set of tv-themed parts of speech posters.
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Pumpkin Possessives Worksheet
Practice identifying possessive nouns with this fall-themed worksheet.
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Fall Color by Part of Speech - Nouns and Verbs Worksheet
Use this fall color by part of speech worksheet to review nouns and verbs.
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Pumpkin Parts of Speech Worksheets
Review three parts of speech by sorting nouns, verbs, and adjectives with these four pumpkin-themed cut-and-paste worksheets.
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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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Groundhog Day Vocabulary Cards and Writing Center
Create a vocabulary and writing center with a Groundhog Day for Kids word wall and writing template.
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Google Slides Interactive - Abbreviations Activity
Engage and excite your learners with a Google Interactive designed to teach the most common abbreviations in the English language.
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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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Adverbs Activity - Grammar Charades
Have some fun and build grammar skills with an adverb charades activity.
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Adverbs Scoot
Build vocabulary and grammar skills with a game of Comparative and Superlative Adverbs SCOOT!
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Adverbs Match-Up
Skip those comparative and superlative adverb worksheets and try out an adverb matching game.
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Has/Have Subject Verb Agreement Task Cards
Practice using has and have correctly using a set of Subject-Verb agreement task cards.
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Singular/Plural Subject Verb Agreement Board Game
Improve sentence structure and grammar skills with a board game focusing on singular and plural subject-verb agreement.
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Singular and Plural Subject-Verb Agreement Sort
Provide students with additional grammar practice with a sorting activity focusing on singular and plural subject-verb agreement.
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Find What Doesn’t Fit: Relevant Details Worksheet
Practice determining what details are relevant and irrelevant to a topic while providing a purposeful context.
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Positional Words Interactive Clip Cards
Practice using position words (prepositions) with this Google Slides interactive clip card activity.
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Descriptive Adjectives SCOOT! Game
Build vocabulary and grammar skills with a game of Adjective SCOOT!
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Let's Research! Digital and Print Poster Project Templates
Conduct, organize, and display research about books, people, planets, animals, states, and countries with a versatile set of printable and digital poster templates.
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Google Interactive Word Building-CVCe Words
Practice identifying consonant and vowel sounds while spelling CVCe (consonant-vowel-consonant-e) words.
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Punctuation Parking Lot Game
Practice recognizing and using end punctuation with our set of punctuation cards and matching game board.
- Guided Writing Activities Games
- Guided Writing Activities Templates
- Guided Writing Activities Writing Templates
- Guided Writing Activities Worksheets
- Guided Writing Activities Interactive Activities
- Guided Writing Activities Task Cards
- Guided Writing Activities Sorting Activities
- Guided Writing Activities Word Walls
- Guided Writing Activities Instructional Slide Decks
- Guided Writing Activities Posters
- Guided Writing Activities Bingo
- Guided Writing Activities Board Games
- Guided Writing Activities Matchup Games
- Guided Writing Activities Dominoes
- Guided Writing Activities Graphic Organizers
- Guided Writing Activities Checklists
- Guided Writing Activities Mini Book
- Guided Writing Activities Craft Activities
- Guided Writing Activities Writing Checklist
- Guided Writing Activities Card Games
- Guided Writing Activities Bulletin Board Displays
- Guided Writing Activities Labels Signs Decorations
- Guided Writing Activities Flashcards
- Guided Writing Activities Projects
- Guided Writing Activities Dice Games
- Guided Writing Activities Color by Code
- Guided Writing Activities Cut and Paste Worksheets
- Guided Writing Activities Active Games
- Guided Writing Activities for Pre-K
- Guided Writing Activities for Kindergarten
- Guided Writing Activities for 1st Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 2nd Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 3rd Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 4th Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 5th Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 6th Grade