Writing Teaching Resources
Teaching writing strategies and the writing process this school year? Explore a comprehensive collection of teacher resources for primary English teachers — all created by teachers!
Stocked with graphic organisers, 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 are aligned with the Australian curriculum (including version 9!) and 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 inprimary 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 Primary 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 prioritises:
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 years, 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 organise their thoughts and arguments for penning their essays, reports and research papers.
3. Using Graphic Organisers
Technically graphic organisers 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 organisers 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 organisers 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 summarise the main point or argument of their essay helps students be more focused and organised 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
TEEL Paragraph Structure Poster and Worksheets
Explore the acronym TEEL to help with paragraph technique during persuasive writing lessons.
- Plus Plan
Writing An Information Report Poster
Display this poster in your room as a visual reminder of the structure of an information report.
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Dressing Up A Sentence Activity
An activity to help encourage students to add more descriptive language into their sentence writing.
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Developing Narrative Writing Skills PowerPoint - Year 3 and Year 4
A 18 slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching your students about the structure and language features of narrative texts.
- Free Plan
Emotive Language Cloze Passage Worksheet
Get students using emotive language examples in their persuasive writing with this differentiated cloze passage worksheet.
- Plus Plan
Phoneme Segmentation Worksheets - CVC Words
Use this worksheet pack to give students practice at segmenting words into phonemes.
- Free Plan
Identifying Informative Language Worksheets
A set of 3 worksheets to help your students identify informative language features in informative texts.
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Analysing Persuasive Devices Worksheets
Get students analysing persuasive techniques and their effects on audiences with this set of three texts with accompanying questions.
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Narrative Writing Planning Template
A template for students to use when planning a narrative text.
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Informative Paragraph Planning Template
A planning template for students to use when writing an informative paragraph.
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PEEL Paragraph Structure Poster and Worksheets
Explore the acronym PEEL to help with paragraph technique during persuasive writing lessons.
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Build a Procedure Text – Cut and Paste Worksheets
Use these different examples of procedure writing to teach your students about the structural features of procedure texts.
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Auto-Fill Customisable Spelling Activity Worksheets
Save time making custom spelling lists and spelling practise worksheets with an editable auto-fill spelling worksheet pack.
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Making Sentences – Cut and Paste Worksheets
A set of 10 cut and paste worksheets for making short sentences.
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OREO® Planning Template - Persuasive Paragraph
Help your students write well constructed persuasive paragraphs using the OREO acronym with these planning templates.
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Research Skills Worksheets - Note Taking
A set of 6 worksheets to help students identify key facts, details and vocabulary when researching information.
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Persuasive Techniques Posters
Support students to improve their persuasive writing with these persuasive techniques posters.
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Narrative Prompts Posters
A set of 20 posters to display as narrative story prompts for students.
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Sequencing Activity - Stop Polluting The Ocean (Persuasive Text)
A sequencing task using a persuasive text.
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Fact File Pack - Animals, Objects and People
A set of 6 fact files, covering a variety of topics.
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OREO® Persuasive Writing Posters
Help students remember the structure of persuasive texts with this fun OREO® acronym.
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Dotted Numbers 0-20 Handwriting Sheet
Get your students writing numbers from 0-0 with this number formation worksheet available in Australian school fonts.
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Informative Text Structure - Sorting Activity (Complete Set)
A set of 5 sorting activities to use in the classroom when learning about the structure of informative texts.
- Free Plan
Identifying Descriptive Language Worksheets - Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs and Adverbs
A set of 5 worksheets to help your students identify descriptive language in narrative texts.
- Free Plan
Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives Cut and Paste Worksheet
Have some fun identifying parts of speech by sorting school-themed nouns, verbs, and adjectives with a cut-and-paste worksheet.
- Free Plan
Simple, Compound and Complex Sentences Sort
Practise reading and identifying simple, compound and complex sentences with this sorting activity.
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Narrative Plot Structure - Story Mountain Template
Use a story mountain template to help your students write narrative texts.
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Editing Passage Task Cards - Year 5
A set of 20 editing passage task cards with answers.
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Persuasive Device Examples – Cut and Paste Worksheet
Match the persuasive writing techniques with the correct examples using this simple cut-and-paste worksheet perfect for your persuasive writing unit.
- Free Plan
Time Connectives Word Wall
Help your students demonstrate the passage of time in their writing with 35 time connective word cards.
- Free Plan
Persuasive Topic Cards - Upper Grades
A set of persuasive topic cards for upper primary.
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Informative Text Structure Sorting Task - The Apple iPad
A sorting task to help students learn about informative text structure.
- Writing Worksheets
- Writing Templates
- Writing Posters
- Writing Games
- Writing Teaching Presentations
- Writing Labels, Signs & Decorations
- Writing Word Walls
- Writing Projects
- Writing for Preschool/Kindergarten
- Writing for Foundation Year
- Writing for Year 1
- Writing for Year 2
- Writing for Year 3
- Writing for Year 4
- Writing for Year 5
- Writing for Year 6
- Writing for Year 7