What are Would You Rather Questions?

Would you rather questions are prompts where kids are given two options to choose from. A simple example is: Would you rather have cookies or ice cream for dessert? They are a great way to increase engagement in your classroom whether it’s during your morning meeting or literacy centers. Students really enjoy thinking about and answering the questions!

What are the Benefits of Implementing Would You Rather Prompts?

There are tons of benefits of using would you rather questions and activities with your students. Some include:

1. Promotes Student Engagement

Would you rather questions are a great way to get students engaged and excited. Kids love silly questions that will get them and their classmates giggling. They also love relatable questions that they can connect to. As teachers, we know that when students are invested and engaged, their learning outcomes are much better. It’s also something that all students can participate in.

2. Increases Motivation to Write

Think about it… Would you rather write or talk about something that is interesting to you or about a topic that doesn’t feel timely or relatable? Of course we’d all pick to write or talk about a topic that interests us. Would you rather questions offer students a simple choice to pick from that they can easily get invested in. It’s a great way to get even your most reluctant writers to get pencil to paper.

3. Builds Community

Would you rather activities are also a great way to build community in your classroom. When students share their ideas and find commonalities with others, it helps build the foundation for building relationships with their peers. Also, respectfully disagreeing in a safe environment helps build a health learning community in your classroom.

4. Strengthens Communication Skills

Another benefit to incorporating would you rather questions for kids is that these types of questions help students develop and strengthen their communication skills, which will benefit them for many years to come. They will communicate their opinion and provide reasons for their choice as part of the learning experience.

5. Develops Students’ Ability to See Others’ Perspectives

Perspective taking is such an important life skill. Being able to see a situation from someone else’s point of view helps us to empathize with others and engage with them respectfully.

6. Improves Listening Skills

If you implement would you rather questions in a whole group, small group, or partner format, students will practice their listening skills as their peers state their opinion and share their reasoning.

7. Critical Thinking Skills

These types of questions help students develop and strengthen their critical thinking skills, which has long-term benefits. The prompts encourage students to make a decision and the follow up discussion afterwards is when they need to explain why they made the decision they did by providing reasons.

8. Enhances Flexible Thinking

Students learn that there isn’t always one right answer. There are pros and cons. Listening to others share their ideas and provide their reasoning will help them understand this.

How Can Teachers Use Would You Rather Questions?

There are many different ways teachers can use would you rather questions and activities with their kids. Some of our favorites include:

• morning work
• morning meeting activities
• attendance procedure tasks
• sub plans activities
• literacy center
• writing center
• fast finisher tasks
• homework
• filler activities
• fun seasonal activities
• whole class discussion
• class book

3 Tips for Using Would You Rather Activities

Below are some tips for using the would you rather questions for kids in your classroom.

1. Explicitly Teach How to Respond to a Prompt

Students tend to speak in more informal language because that’s how they often speak with others. One great tool to promote formal or academic language is a sentence starter or sentence frame. This helps structure or frame a students’ thinking into a clear form of communication. An example is, “I would pick ____ because…”. You could also provide a sentence frame for when students are responding to a peer. An example is, “I agree / respectfully disagree with ____ because…”.

2. Make it a Routine

Consider making would you rather activities a part of your daily routine. One idea is to have students answer a would you rather question as they enter the classroom each morning or when they leave at the end of the day. Students thrive with routines. They’ll quickly learn the routine and look forward to it.

3. Have Fun With It!

When your students see you having fun with thinking about and answering the prompts, they’ll have more fun with it too. Don’t be afraid to giggle or be playful!

Would You Rather Activities

In closing, we hope you found this information about would you rather questions for kids helpful! If you are looking for would you rather activities, head on over to our teacher store!

The post Would You Rather Questions for Kids at the Elementary Level appeared first on Clutter-Free Classroom | by Jodi Durgin.

Below are 8 helpful tips you can use for assessing writing skills of students at all of the stages in the writing process to ensure you know your students’ strengths and weaknesses. This will help you support your students in growing as writers by planning purposeful mini lessons and differentiated small group and one-on-one instruction. In addition, it will equip you with the knowledge to confidently share writing progress with students’ parents through report card notes and parent-teacher conferences.

1. Use formative assessments

Utilize formative assessments throughout the writing process to notice what students are doing well, catch mistakes, give helpful feedback, and reteach skills to students. There are 3 main formative assessment strategies for assessing writing skills and providing feedback during the writing process. Check out the 3 writing assessment examples below: One-on-one conferences, small group intervention, and informal observations.

Individual conferences

Individual conferences are a great writing formative assessment strategy for assessing writing skills. The teacher works with students one-on-one as the rest of the class continues to write. Focus on giving thoughtful feedback on each student’s work based on the skill you focus on in the whole group lesson. You could also use this as an opportunity to have students ask you specific questions they have about their writing. To make this more manageable, you could set a goal of conferencing with 5 or so students a day, each day of the week, during their writing time. Each conference does not need to take more than 5 minutes to give feedback effectively. Be sure to provide positive feedback along with any other constructive criticisms of students’ work.

Small group conferences

Small group conferences are another effective writing formative assessment strategy for assessing writing skills. The teacher works with small groups of students who need work in the same skill areas. Let’s say you have three students who are struggling with the organization of their writing. Meet with them at the same time! Use this time to reteach the skill they need and then have them practice while giving feedback in real time. For small group conferences, pull 1-2 groups each day of the week, and you have likely met with all students by the end of the week! This is a huge time saver for the teacher because they can meet with more students quickly.

Informal observations as students work

Informal observations are a third quality formative assessment for writing skills. One way to give feedback very efficiently is to use sticky notes to write one specific thing the student did well and one clear place they can improve. I called them a “glow” and a “grow.” You could do this while students are working on their writing, OR you could do this during your prep period. I would use this strategy to quickly give feedback when my writing block was broken up by specials time. So, while my students were at PE, art, or music, I would leave sticky note feedback while they were gone. You can even make a quick list of students struggling with the same things during this time to pull for a small group so that you can reteach the skill later. Of course, you could use this tip without the sticky notes to make it even more time-efficient! This strategy is so much more effective than just walking around during writing time telling students “good work.”

2. Teach and reteach common errors to whole group

If there is a skill that most of your class is struggling with, teach or reteach the lesson! Rather than repeatedly reteaching to an individual or small group of students, plan another lesson around the skill they are struggling with. Model the skill for students and have them practice just that skill if possible. Show an example of other students’ writing from years past (names covered, of course)or show your own example. This alone is a great discussion starter. Students should be able to notice the mistakes or areas for growth in the author’s writing. You can then discuss why that skill is something authors should think about.

3. Use rubrics

Give students a rubric at the beginning of the writing process to have a list of what the expectations are for the writing piece. This will help them go back through their writing independently and understand how you are assessing their writing skills and what you are looking for. Rubrics can be adjusted to fit what you are learning at the time and can be easily made. If you work on descriptive language and complete sentences, let the rubric reflect that plus any other non-negotiable skills you have taught already, like capitals, ending punctuation, and complete sentences. Rubrics also save you a ton of time giving the same feedback if students know what is expected before writing. Then, students use the rubric like a checklist to ensure they have not left anything out before turning in their writing assignments.

4. Employ peer feedback and conferences

As the year goes on and students are more familiar with writing expectations, students can be paired up for peer conferences to discuss their writing in detail. With preparation like modeling and specific rubrics, students can give great feedback to their peers. Students shift their perspectives to be readers and authors at the same time. Just hearing their work read aloud by a peer brings to light revisions the author might want to make to their writing. Sometimes it’s even easier for students to critique others’ writing than their own! This is a great strategy for students to recieve feedback on their writing, without you having to be involved in assessing their writing skills during this step.

5. Utilize student reflections

After finishing a writing piece, students can reflect on their writing. Did they feel they did their very best work? What are they most proud of? What challenges did they face? Students can reflect on the writing process and gain the awareness needed to become stronger writers. This also gives them the opportunity to assess their own writing skills so they can identify their strengths and weaknesses.

6. Administer summative assessments

After students have completed the entire writing unit, students can take a benchmark or summative assessment. Students should be able to show what they learned throughout the unit here. For example, if you taught a whole unit on persuasive writing, students should write their persuasive writing piece using all the characteristics of a persuasive essay. These assessments are often used as test grades or project grades. Teachers can look at how students’ writing comes together after they have gone through the whole writing process. Summative assessments show students’ cumulative knowledge and are great for portfolios! Summative assessments are an effective tool for assessing students’ writing skills.

7. Grade less

Seriously, do not grade everything. You have been giving feedback throughout the writing process, and students have revised and edited their work several times. Pick 2-3 critical skills like sentence variety, evidence, or correct usage of commas. Grade only the important objectives at that time and focus on giving feedback on those key areas only. This simplifies the process of assessing students’ writing skills.

8. Keep the comments short

Instead of leaving a whole paragraph of comments or notes throughout your students’ writing, keep it short. Leave one positive comment and one area for overall improvement at the end of the writing assignment. This, combined with the use of a rubric, is a HUGE time saver when grading summative assessments. After students have gotten feedback throughout the writing process, you don’t need to leave novels at the end of their final drafts!

Resources for Assessing Writing Skills

Below are resources for assessing writing skills.

Quarterly Writing Assessments

Assessing writing skills of students periodically is simple with this seasonal writing projects resource. It gives you a snapshot of their writing abilities throughout the year, I created a set of print-and-go seasonal writing projects for each grading period. There are four seasonal projects, so you’ll be good to go for the entire school year! Each project is differentiated for grades 2-5 and can be used with ANY of the assessment tips above. They each come with both digital and print-and-go resources for the writing process steps, such as detailed instructions, graphic organizers for planning writing, differentiated writing paper, rubrics for easy assessing, and a student reflection activity! These seasonal writing projects are PERFECT for putting together a yearlong writing portfolio, parent conferences, and end-of-term grades!

Weekly Writing Assessments

If you are looking for more regular writing practice resources that can be used as formative assessments for assessing student writing, check out these paragraph of the week resources!

In closing, we hope you found these tips for assessing writing skills helpful! If you did, then you may also be interested in these posts:

• Benchmark Writing Assessments for Elementary Teachers
• How to Teach Writing to Elementary Students
• How to Integrate Writing in Math at the Elementary Level

The post 8 Tips for Assessing Writing Skills in Your Elementary Classroom appeared first on Clutter-Free Classroom | by Jodi Durgin.

What are Benchmark Writing Assessments?

Benchmark writing assessments are an assessment tool that teachers administer at pre-determined points throughout the school year. They provide a snapshot of students’ current writing abilities, so teachers can accurately communicate students’ progress towards grade level standards and use the information to design data-driven instruction.

Why are Benchmark Writing Assessments Important?

Writing benchmarks are an essential tool for elementary teachers because of several reasons. First, they provide a snapshot of students’ current writing abilities. This allows teachers to accurately communicate students’ growth in their writing skills throughout the school year to parents and school personnel. It also allows them to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses so they can create data-driven instruction to address misconceptions and areas of need. Pinpointing these areas and planning and delivering intentional instruction helps students grow at a much faster rate. Finally, benchmark assessments prepare students with the skills and experience they need for future writing assessments. They’ll learn time management, independent work skills, and more.

How to Implement Benchmark Writing Assessments

Below are the steps for how to successfully implement benchmark writing assessments.

1. Download the Benchmark Writing Assessments Resource

The first step is to download the benchmark writing assessment resource. It is available in my Clutter-Free Classroom Teachers Pay Teachers store.

What Does the Seasonal Writing Bundle Include?

The seasonal writing bundle includes the following resources:

• 4 seasonal writing activities that help you document student growth throughout the course of a school year
• printables for all parts of the writing process (brainstorm, draft, and final draft) so you don’t need to supplement with additional resources
• multiple stationery options so you can differentiate based on your students’ needs
• 3 versions of photos and illustration templates per season so you can choose which one you like best
• rubrics that help make expectations clear to students and make grading quick and easy for you
• self-assessment activities that help you guide students through reflecting on the experiences
• feedback forms to help you identify student strengths, set goals for each student, and develop future lessons
• teacher guides to walk you through how to implement the resources in your classroom
• digital versions of all the resources so students can access them at home or in school

Why Do Teachers Love this Seasonal Writing Bundle?

Below are 5 reasons elementary teachers love this writing assessment resource:

• The resources document student progress over the course of a school year, which make them great for including in writing portfolios and sharing with families during parent-teacher conferences.
• It includes print and go resources, which saves you lots of time planning and prepping.
• It includes clear instructions, expectations, and rubric guidelines for students, so it makes it easy for students to understand the criteria for quality writing.
• There are digital and printable formats so teachers can access students in class and at home.
• They serve as great formative assessment tools that can be used year after year.

2. Check out the Included Information and Resources

This resource includes helpful information about the resource, as well as about writing instruction in general. Here is a short excerpt from the resource:

“A top-down web is a graphic organizer that presents topics and sub-topics in a hierarchical way, using varied shapes and placement on the page to represent the connections among the topics. It is often used to improve reading comprehension to frame students’ thoughts and help them to understand the information they are reading. They also work amazingly well as a tool for designing the structure of writing.”

As part of this step, select which resources from the seasonal writing bundle you are going to use. It is packed with tons of differentiated resources to choose from. Choose which ones work best for you and your students.

3. Select Dates for When You Will Administer the Assessments

The next step is to select the dates for when you will administer the assessments. When you are creating your curriculum map at the beginning of the school year, be sure to include the assessments you will administer throughout the school year (including these writing benchmark assessments).

4. Print and Prep the Materials for the School Year

These resources are quick and easy to print and prep. By prepping everything at the beginning of the school year, you’ll be able to quickly grab what you need off of the shelf. Consider asking a parent volunteer to print and prep the materials for the school year. This is a helpful time saver!

5. Administer the First Assessment

I recommend administering either the summer writing assessment or fall writing assessment at the beginning of the school year. It will help you get a baseline as well as some insight into what skills your students are entering your classroom with at the start of the school year.

6. Score the Assessments Using the Rubric

Use one of the rubrics included in the seasonal writing packet to analyze and score each writing piece.

7. Provide Feedback to Students

The packet also includes a writing feedback form that provides space for you to document students’ strengths and future goals. There is also a student reflection form that guides students through identifying what they are proud of about their writing piece, what they found challenging, and what their goals are for writing. Consider meeting with students via a one-on-one conference format and using the prompts on these templates to guide the conversation.

8. Organize and Analyze the Class-Wide or Grade-Wide Data

I recommend organizing the information using a data tool like Google Sheets, Numbers, or Airtable. Import all of the information and take time to identify patterns in what students did well with, as well as what they struggled with. You can also use this time to group students by what they need help with. This will be helpful as you work on the next step.

9. Plan Data-Driven Instruction Based on Results

This is a very important step. You are going to use all of the information you gathering and analyzed to design instruction that addresses your students’ needs. If your whole class struggled with a specific writing skill, plan a small series of whole group lessons based on that skill. If you had 4-5 students all struggle with a skill that the rest of the class has mastered, then plan a small group lesson for that group of students that targets that skill.

10. Repeat Steps 5-9 for the Other Assessments

In closing, we hope you found this post about writing benchmark assessments helpful! If you did, then you may also be interested in these posts:

• Math Benchmark Assessment Ideas for Elementary Teachers
• How to Assess Elementary Students Using Formative Assessments
• How to Teach Writing to Elementary Students Using the 6 Steps of the Writing Process

In addition, you may be interested in the writing benchmark assessment resource I highlighted in this post. It’s available by itself or as part of my Clutter-Free Classroom Writing Collection. Learn about them below!

The post Benchmark Writing Assessments for Elementary Teachers in 2024 appeared first on Clutter-Free Classroom | by Jodi Durgin.

What are Writing Prompts?

Writing prompts are topics that students base their writing off of. It can be a word, phrase, sentence, paragraph, quote, symbol, image, object, or action. The purpose of a writing prompt is to invite students to write about a topic using their schema.

What are the Different Genres of Writing Prompts?

There are tons of different kinds of writing prompts including the following: Creative, informative, opinion, narrative, procedural, descriptive, review, persuasive, poetry, and letter writing.

What are Examples of Writing Prompts?

Below are some examples of writing prompts.

Creative Writing Prompts

• When I found my pet in my backpack at school, I…
• I bit into my lunch and was shocked to find…
• We knew getting a ___ as a pet wasn’t a good idea, but…

Informative Writing Prompts

• Research and writing an informative piece about your favorite animal.
• Teach a kindergartener about something you know a lot about.
• Explain what school is to your younger self.

Opinion Writing Prompts

• Do you think there should be school on Fridays? Why or why not?
• What is your favorite season? Why?
• What month would you want your birthday in? Explain why.

Narrative Writing Prompts

• Write about something that happened at school yesterday.
• Tell about a time you had a lot of fun at recess. What did you do? Who were you with?
• Share a time you were a really good friend or someone was a really good friend to you.

Procedural Writing Prompts

• Explain how to get ready for school in the morning to a kindergartener about to start school.
• Give step-by-step directions for how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
• Teach your younger self how to make your bed.

Descriptive Writing Prompts

• Describe what your home looks like.
• Explain in detail what your favorite toy or book looks like.
• Describe what your favorite food tastes like.

Review Writing Prompts

• Write a review of a book that you have read this month.
• Write a review of your school.
• Give a review of the last movie you saw.

Persuasive Writing Prompts

• Pretend you are running for class president. How could you persuade people to vote for you?
• Persuade your teacher to not assign homework for tonight.
• Convince a friend who doesn’t like vegetables to try carrots for the first time.

Poetry Writing Prompts

• Write an acrostic poem for the month you were born in.
• Write a poem about your favorite sport or activity.
• Create a haiku about your favorite color.

Letter Writing Prompts

• Write a letter to your firmed about what you did last weekend.
• Pretend you are your pet. Write a letter to yourself from them.
• Write a letter to a family member or friend you don’t see very often.

Why are Writing Prompts Important?

Writing prompts are important for elementary teachers to incorporate because they are fun and engaging ways for students to practice their writing skills. They help motivate even the most reluctant writers to practice their writing skills. Most importantly, using daily writing prompts facilitates opportunities for students to practice their writing skills every day. The more students write, the better they will get at it and the more confident and successful they will feel.

Monthly Writing Prompts Resources

Learn about the monthly writing prompts resources below.

What is the Monthly Writing Prompts Bundle?

This year-long monthly writing prompt bundle contains 10 months worth of writing activities that cover the following writing genres: Creative, informative, opinion, narrative, procedural, descriptive, review, persuasive, poetry, and letter writing. These monthly writing prompts are designed to provide students with regular writing practice, teach a systematic approach to writing, and build a love of writing amongst students. These monthly printables will transform your young authors into excellent writers!

What is Included in the Monthly Writing Prompts?

The monthly writing prompts bundle includes the following:

Writing Journal Covers and Table of Contents for Each Month

This monthly writing prompt resource includes 4 cover options for each month so you can choose which one fits you and your students’ needs best. In addition, it includes table of contents printables for students to use to organize their many pieces of writing.

Thematic Paper for Each Month

The monthly writing prompt bundle includes 6 versions of thematic writing paper for each month, so you can differentiate based on your students’ needs.

Lists of Writing Prompts for Each Month

There are a collection of lists of prompts for each month. Each month has a list of prompts for the following writing genres: Creative, informative, opinion, narrative, procedural, descriptive, review, persuasive, poetry, and letter writing prompts. Having these lists will ensure your students engage with lots of different types of writing throughout the school year

Assessment Tools for Each Month

The monthly writing prompt bundle includes tons of assessment tools. First, it includes rubrics that help make expectations clear to students and make grading quick and easy for you. Second, it includes self-assessment activities that help you guide students through reflecting on the experiences. Third, there are feedback forms to help you identify student strengths, set goals for each student, and develop future lessons.

Digital Versions of All the Resources

There are digital versions of all the resources so students can access them in school and at home.

Learn about the individual monthly writing prompts included in the bundle below.

In closing, we hope you found this information about monthly writing prompts helpful! If you did then check out these other writing posts:

• Paragraph of the Week Writing Activities
• How to Teach Informative Writing
• How I Got My Reluctant Writers to Love Writing

If you are interested in accessing all of our writing resources (including this writing prompt bundle), then we recommend checking out our Elementary Writing Resource Collection. You can learn more about it below!

The post Monthly Writing Prompts for Elementary Students in 2024 appeared first on Clutter-Free Classroom | by Jodi Durgin.

The seasonal writing bundle will help you collect this data at the start of the school year, as well as periodically through the year! It includes a writing formative assessment for each of the four seasons:

• Autumn Writing Formative Assessment
• Winter Writing Formative Assessment
• Spring Writing Formative Assessment
• Summer Writing Formative Assessment

At the end of the school year, you’ll have four writing samples that show your students’ growth in writing. These writing samples are great for sharing with parents during conferences. You can also share them with your students’ teacher for the following school year. They are a great way to compare their writing from the different parts of the year because they follow the same format, which allows you to compare apples to apples. This is a great resource for your whole team, or better yet, your whole school to do.

This blog post will explain how to teach writing to elementary students using the 6 steps of the writing process and will share more information about these writing assessments for elementary students.

6 Steps of the Writing Process

Here is some information about the six steps of the writing process, which is also called the 6 stages of writing. This information will help you with how to teach the writing process to elementary students.

1. Pre-Writing

The first step of the writing process is pre-writing. Prewriting involves considering purpose for writing, brainstorming ideas, using graphic organizers to connect those ideas, and designing a coherent structure. There are different ways to work through the prewriting phase and it is important to identify which is best for your students.

It is often helpful to engage students in a whole-class brainstorming session to come up with ideas to get them started. You could instead have them brainstorm general ideas in small groups. Graphic organizers help all students to organize their ideas during the prewriting stage. We’ve included a variety of options for you to choose from in our seasonal writing bundle resources.

2. Planning and Organizing

The second step of the writing process is planning and organizing. I recommend using a top-down web. A top-down web is a graphic organizer that presents topics and sub-topics in a hierarchical way, using varied shapes and placement on the page to represent the connections among the topics.

It is often used to improve reading comprehension to frame students’ thoughts and help them to understand the information they are reading. They also work amazingly well as a tool for designing the structure of writing.

There are five different styles of top-down webs included in this seasonal writing packet. Some include lines to help with fine motor skills while others are open. There are also options for simple and more complex paragraphs as well as multi-paragraph essays. Select the one that is best for your students. You can easily differentiate to meet their varied needs by using multiple styles within your classroom.

3. Drafting

The third step of the writing process is drafting. Students work independently at this stage. As they write their drafts, circulate the room, confer with each of them and offer constructive criticism. Observe areas with which students show challenge and informally assess areas in which an individual conference, small group intervention, or a whole class mini-lesson would be beneficial. The seasonal writing packet includes three options for drafting.

4. Revising and Editing

The fourth step of the writing process is revising and editing. This is best done in a 1:1 conference between the student writer and an adult. Teach students to reread their own work more than once as they think about whether it really conveys what they want to tell their reader. Reading their work aloud to classmates and other adults helps them to understand what revisions are needed.

Show students how to revise specific aspects of their writing to make it more coherent and clear. You can model reading your own writing and do a think-aloud about how you could add more details and make it clearer in a mini lesson.

Be cautious not to “over-correct” a student’s writing, but instead certain areas to focus on during each editing session.

Set goals for your students and assess them on their progress in those areas. Teach them how to be resourceful in finding the correct spelling of misspelled words.

5. Rewriting

The fifth step of the writing process is rewriting. Have your students incorporate the changes discussed during your writing conference as they carefully rewrite their drafts.

If you are using the seasonal writing printables, then select the final copy stationary that is best for each student. There are two options of each stationary style. The first has a black bar with white text and the other is a printer-friendly version.

6. Publishing

The final step of the writing process is publishing. There are a variety of ways to publish student writing, but the seasonal writing pages were designed specifically to help showcase additional measures of student growth and progress. Have them illustrate a scene to supports their paragraph at the bottom of the page. Encourage them to do their personal best.

Add a photo of the student taken in that season to the top section. If you live in an area with four seasons, we recommend taking the photos outside to reflect each season. At the school I taught at in Massachusetts, there was a beautiful tree on the property. It served as the perfect location for taking students’ pictures for this activity. The tree changed with the seasons. If you live in a climate that lacks major seasonal changes, you could use fun props to create a “photo booth” for each season.

When you use our full-year seasonal writing portfolio option and include these drawing and photos it really shows how much a child changes and advances throughout your time together. This is a wonderful way to document progress and provides a precious keepsake your students’ families will cherish in the future.

It’s important to note that each one can stand on its own. This means you can use it with your students without administering the others. For example, you can just use the fall and spring ones to show students’ growth from the beginning of the year to the end. You do not have to use all four of the elementary writing assessments. You can decide what works best for you and your classroom.

3 Resources for Teaching Writing

I hope you found this information about how to teach writing to elementary students through the 6 steps of the writing process helpful! If you need resources for assessing your students’ progress throughout the school year, then I highly recommend checking out the resources below.

1. Quarterly Writing Assessments

The seasonal writing bundle includes 4 writing formative assessments. You can learn more about the resources in the Winter Writing Assessment blog post and Spring Writing Assessment blog post. They also provide additional information about how to teach elementary writing. Check out the resources below!

• Autumn writing assessment
• Winter writing assessment
• Spring writing assessment
• Summer writing assessment
• Bundle of all 4 writing assessments

2. Monthly Writing Prompts

These monthly writing prompts are a great fast finisher activity and writing center. Students love using the prompts to craft unique stories and parents love to see how their child’s writing grows throughout the school year.

3. Paragraph of the Week Writing

In addition, you may find these Paragraph of the Week helpful for how to teach the writing process to elementary students. Paragraph of the Week is a proven, step-by-step, scaffolded system. It makes teaching kids how to improve sentence structure and write a paragraph easy by guiding them through the writing process. This resource pairs perfectly with the seasonal writing resources. Learn more about it in this post all about paragraph of the week!

The post How to Teach Writing to Elementary Students in 2024: 6 Steps of the Writing Process appeared first on Clutter-Free Classroom | by Jodi Durgin.

What is Informative and Explanatory Writing? What is the Difference?

Informative writing and explanatory writing are both about the author sharing information with readers.  Informative writing provides facts and is meant to educate and inform readers. Explanatory writing, on the other hand, incorporates opinions into the writing. It is meant to persuade the reader to think a certain way about a topic.

What is the Purpose of Informative Writing?

The purpose of teaching informative writing is to teach students how to communicate information in written form. They do this by writing teaching books. These teaching books empower them to teach others about topics they research or know a lot about. In the process of developing an informative writing text, students accomplish a few things. First, they increase their knowledge about the topic they choose through research. Second, they develop a non-fiction author’s voice. Third, they learn the power of writing in helping them to communicate their ideas.

What do my Students Need to be able to do in their Informative Writing?

Your elementary students are likely required to learn informative writing. This is definitely the case if your state adopted the Common Core or TEKS.  Read below to learn what specific research standards your grade level covers.

Informative Writing Standards in Common Core

Kindergarten

• Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic. (ELA.W.K.2)

First Grade

• Write informative/explanatory texts in which they name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure. (ELA.W.1.2)

Second Grade

• Write informative/explanatory texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a concluding statement or section. (ELA.W.2.2)

Third Grade

• Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. (ELA.W.3.2)
• Introduce a topic and group related information together; include illustrations when useful to aiding comprehension. (ELA.W.3.2.A)
• Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details. (ELA.W.3.2.B)
• Use linking words and phrases (e.g., also, another, and, more, but) to connect ideas within categories of information. (ELA.W.3.2.C)
• Provide a concluding statement or section. (ELA.W.3.2.D)

Fourth Grade

• Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. (ELA.W.4.2)
• Introduce a topic clearly and group related information in paragraphs and sections; include formatting (e.g., headings), illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. (ELA.W.4.2.A)
• Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic. (ELA.W.4.2.B)
• Link ideas within categories of information using words and phrases (e.g., another, for example, also, because). (ELA.W.4.2.C)
• Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. (ELA.W.4.2.D)
• Provide a concluding statement or section related to the information or explanation presented. (ELA.W.4.2.E)

Fifth Grade

• Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. (ELA.W.5.2)
• Introduce a topic clearly, provide a general observation and focus, and group related information logically; include formatting (e.g., headings), illustrations, and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. (ELA.W.5.2.A)
• Develop the topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples related to the topic. (ELA.W.5.2.B)
• Link ideas within and across categories of information using words, phrases, and clauses (e.g., in contrast, especially). (ELA.W.5.2.C)
• Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. (ELA.W.5.2.D)
• Provide a concluding statement or section related to the information or explanation presented. (ELA.W.5.2.E)

Informative Writing Standards in TEKS

Kindergarten

• Recognize characteristics and structures of informational text, including: (i) the central idea and supporting evidence with adult assistance; (ii) titles and simple graphics to gain information; and (iii) the steps in a sequence with adult assistance. (TEKS 8D)
• Dictate or compose informational texts. (TEKS 11B)

First Grade

• Recognize characteristics and structures of informational text, including: (i) the central idea and supporting evidence with adult assistance; (ii) features and simple graphics to locate or gain information; and (iii) organizational patterns such as chronological order and description with adult assistance. (TEKS 9D)
• Dictate or compose informational texts, including procedural texts. (TEKS 12B)

Second Grade

• Recognize characteristics and structures of informational text, including: (i) the central idea and supporting evidence with adult assistance; (ii) features and graphics to locate and gain information; and (iii) organizational patterns such as chronological order and cause and effect stated explicitly. (TEKS 9D)
• Compose informational texts, including procedural texts and reports. (TEKS 12B)

Third Grade

• Recognize characteristics and structures of informational text, including: (i) the central idea with supporting evidence; (ii) features such as sections, tables, graphs, timelines, bullets, numbers, and bold and italicized font to support understanding; and (iii) organizational patterns such as cause and effect and problem and solution. (TEKS 9D)
• Compose informational texts, including brief compositions that convey information about a topic, using a clear central idea and genre characteristics and craft. (TEKS 12B)

Fourth Grade

• Recognize characteristics and structures of informational text, including: (i) the central idea with supporting evidence; (ii) features such as pronunciation guides and diagrams to support understanding; and (iii) organizational patterns such as compare and contrast. (TEKS 9D)
• Compose informational texts, including brief compositions that convey information about a topic, using a clear central idea and genre characteristics and craft. (TEKS 12B)

Fifth Grade

• Recognize characteristics and structures of informational text, including: (i) the central idea with supporting evidence; (ii) features such as insets, timelines, and sidebars to support understanding; and (iii) organizational patterns such as logical order and order of importance. (TEKS 9D)
• Compose informational texts, including brief compositions that convey information about a topic, using a clear central idea and genre characteristics and craft. (TEKS 12B)

15 Informative Writing Mini Lesson Ideas

Below are 15 informative writing mini lesson ideas for elementary teachers:

• Defining informative writing
• Writing like an informational writer
• Differentiating between facts and opinions
• Selecting a topic
• Defining the research process
• Finding and evaluating sources
• Citing sources
• Taking notes using graphic organizers
• Paraphrasing information
• Summarizing information
• Organizing information
• Writing a lead
• Writing the body of the writing
• Strengthening writing
• Writing a conclusion

5 Informative Writing Resources for Teachers

Below are five resources that are great for teaching informative writing.

1. Monthly Writing Prompts

This year-long writing bundle contains 10 months worth of writing activities. They cover tons of different writing genres including creative, informative, opinion, narrative, procedural, descriptive, review, persuasive, poetry, and letter writing. These writing prompts were designed to do three things. First, provide students with regular writing practice. As teachers, we know how important it is for students to write daily to improve their writing skills. Second, teach a systematic approach to writing. This system for writing completely transforms how students understand writing structure. Third, build a love of writing amongst students. This might be the most important! These monthly printables will transform your young authors into excellent writers! Learn more about these monthly writing prompts!

2. Writing Graphic Organizer Activities

This writing resource provides meaningful practice to greatly improve your students’ writing skills. Each of the graphic organizers can be used over and over again and with any book you choose. It includes tons of different types of graphic organizers. Some examples are word choice charts, story maps, character webs, fact and opinion charts, two-column notes, Venn diagrams, and T-charts. Learn more about these writing graphic organizer activities!

3. Informative Paragraph of the Week Writing

Paragraph of the Week is a step-by-step process for teaching kids how to write a paragraph. It provides daily practice in both sentence writing and paragraph writing. Each weekly prompt breaks the writing process down into manageable pieces. This prevents students from feeling overwhelmed or reluctant to write. The format also allows for your advanced writers to focus on improving their craft. The 36 informative writing prompts, graphic organizers, writing paper, rubrics and more make it so easy. Everything you need is ready to print and go! Learn more about this informative paragraph of the week writing resource!

4. Biography Report

This biography report resource can be used to do a living biography museum. Students’ families come in to school and the students “perform” in character. The twist is that the students don’t dress in costume. It can be a hassle for the parents since most kids can’t put their own costume together. Instead, students make a poster board costume with a space for their head to pop through. It’s adorable and much easier for families!

In the past I’ve done the living museum and had students prepare a brief speech to recite in character. This year I opted to send it home as a homework project. I took their photos with their poster board and displayed them with the written report.

It can also be used as an independent research project in class or as a homework assignment.

5. Animal Research Project

This animal research project is a great opportunity for students to practice their informative writing skills. You can use it to do a simple animal study or a full integrated unit. From the graphic organizer worksheets to the writing stationary to the rubrics, you have everything you need.

We hope you found this information about how to teach informative writing to elementary students helpful! If you did, you may also be interest in these posts:

• How to Teach Research Skills to Elementary Students
• Tips for Organizing a Writing Center
• How to Teach Writing using the 6 Steps of the Writing Process
• Tips for Improving Student Writing Quickly and Easily
• How to Use Graphic Organizers to Improve Student Writing

The post How to Teach Informative Writing to Elementary Students (K-5) in 2024 appeared first on Clutter-Free Classroom | by Jodi Durgin.

For real.

It can be really challenging and extremely frustrating to teach writing to 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. I struggled with it for many years before I realized I was overcomplicating things.

By simply scaling it down to just one single paragraph a week, I was in awe at how quickly, easily, and drastically my students’ writing improved.

I’m so glad you are here because I pinky promise (which we all know is a very serious oath) you’ll find this info will be an absolute game changer in your classroom, too.

Get comfy because I am about to…

• help you identify why share everything you need to know about implementing and managing Paragraph of the Week
• answer the most frequently asked questions about teaching paragraph writing
• gift you with a free paragraph writing activity you can use in your classroom

Teaching Writing was Definitely Not my Favorite Thing to Do

I feel your pain.

You are in your classroom. It is time for writing. Kids groan. You feel defeated. 

Pretending you didn’t hear it, you’re secretly wondering, “Was that the kids groaning or did I accidentally expose my true feelings about our writing block and let the groan in my head slip out?”

You act casual…chipper even. Playing it cool, you start the lesson. You feel okay about it. 

With a deep sigh, albeit only in your head (you hope), you set them free to draft the next great American novel. 

Or perhaps since this is elementary school, you just want to get a decent paragraph out of them.

Heads go down. Bodies slump.

Then it happens. Some pencils start to move. You feel a flicker of hope…until you realize they are just doodling.

Ultimately, some paragraphs do get produced, but the quality is disappointing.

Like I said, I feel your pain. I was there. I was there for many years actually. But friends, like all great American novels, this tale has a happy ending. For those of you who likes to skip to the last page of a book, the happy ending for me was implementing Paragraph of the Week.

Why Teachers Dislike Teaching Paragraph Writing:

It is important to reflect on why you personally don’t love teaching writing, or perhaps you love teaching paragraph writing, but find there are obstacles in the way that prevent you from feeling truly successful at it.

Here are the five I hear most often from teachers (and experienced myself):

• LACK OF TRAINING: They don’t feel confident in their ability to teach writing.
• LACK OF RESOURCES: They have not been provided with the tools they need.
• WEAK RESOURCES: Too often, teachers are often expected to teach writing based on the lessons in their reading curriculum. Unfortunately, these usually seem like an afterthought from the publishing companies and are not effective.
• OVERWHELM: Grading writing feels like an immense task. The students aren’t engaged during the writing block. The needs of the students are so different.
• IT FEELS TOO DISCOURAGING AND FRUSTRATING: It is hard to do your best work when you feel defeated. You try your best with what you have, but your students present as bored and disinterested at best and reluctant, obstinate and emotional at worse.

Identifying your own dislikes or challenges are when it comes to teaching paragraph writing is important so you can find the support you need.

It is even more important, however, to analyze why your students either dislike or struggle with writing. Understanding where the problems lie will make it much easier to implement strategies to address their challenges and needs, improve their writing, and (dare I say) help them learn to enjoy the writing process.

Why Students Dislike & Avoid Writing

There are many reasons elementary students say they “hate” writing. It is extremely important to take the time to observe and understand why students avoid writing so you can address the reluctance and guide your students to solutions. These are some of the most common reasons children are reluctant writers.

• THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT. For many, the thought of picking a topic and getting started is an immediate roadblock that they can’t get past.

• THEY FEEL OVERWHELMED. Writing assignments are often open-ended, which causes anxiety.

• PAST FAILURES. Nobody wants their flaws pointed out. If a student has had bad experiences with a teacher marking up a written task with lots of corrections and notes, it can cause a lingering mindset that prevents future risk-taking.

• THEY DON’T CONNECT WITH THE TOPIC. When kids are asked to write about things they have not experienced or can’t relate to, they will struggle with putting pen (or #2 pencil) to paper.

• IT’S BORING AND IT TAKES TOO LONG. Students who are good writers with automaticity can build stamina to write for longer periods of time. However, the majority of kids find it to be a painful and laborious task that feels like it is dragging on forever.

Why Students Struggle with Writing

Now that we’ve identified some reasons why many typically developing students avoid writing, we need to chat about why writing is a challenge for so many others.

(Don’t worry, though. I have strategies to share with you for help to make writing a positive experience for ALL your students.)

There are many children who appear to dislike or be avoiding the writing process. In reality, what is perceived as laziness, a lack of motivation or even non-compliance is the result of a learning difference.

Writing is not a stand-alone activity. Written expression involves a collection of key skills.

Skills Needed for Writing

Students who have not yet developed the foundational skills to writing listed below will legitimately find writing to be a challenging task they are likely to shy away from.

Causes of Writing Difficulties in Grades 1-5

For some of your students, there may be gaps in the development of these key skills that are required for written expression. However, statistically there are far too many students who are struggling because of unidentified, untreated, or misdiagnosed learning differences.

These students (rather properly diagnosed or not) will require additional support, accommodations and/or modifications to reach their potential as writers. Below are the most commonly missed causes of student struggles.

1. Dyslexia
2. Dysgraphia
3. ADHD
4. Oral and Written Language Disability
5. Dysorthography
6. Specific Comprehension Deficit or Hyperlexia

Children may also struggle with writing because of hearing or visual impairments, behavioral or emotional disturbances, trauma, or sensory processing disorders.

Common Behaviors of Students with Writing Difficulties

• avoids writing tasks
• makes excuses for not writing
• asks to use the bathroom when it’s time to start writing
• says, “I don’t know what to write about.”
• sits for a long time without putting pencil to paper
• frequent erasing
• acts frustrated or irritable
• finishes very quickly
• uses smaller words when writing than speaking
• distracts others
• complains of headache or stomachache when writing

The topics of key skills, learning disabilities, disorders, and life events that impact learning are vast subjects that I can not do justice to in single blog post about teaching paragraph writing. However, there are a few points that I want you to take away from this article.

Key Takeaways:

There is always an underlying cause for why children have writing difficulties, lack interest in writing or demonstrate behaviors associated with reluctance and avoidance of writing.

Do not dismiss students’ behavioral actions and verbal expression of dislike of write to be because they find it boring.

Using a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach to teaching paragraph writing will help ALL your students become better writers, but it will be especially helpful for kids with learning and thinking differences. (More on this below.)

How to Improve Students’ Writing Skills 

So now you are probably thinking, “GREAT, TEACHING KIDS TO WRITE IS EVEN HARDER THAN I ORIGINALLY THOUGHT?“

Perhaps you are giving me the virtual stink eye and muttering, “I CAME HERE LOOKING FOR WAYS TO GET BETTER AT TEACHING THE WRITING PROCESS AND TO FIND NEW WRITNG STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS and all she’s done is stressed me out by telling me more about the challenges I’m facing.”

TAKE A DEEP BREATH.

EXHALE.

DON’T WORRY.

I’VE GOT YOUR BACK.

IT’S TIME TO LOOK AT THE GAME CHANGER!

Paragraph of the Week

Solutions to the Problems Elementary Teachers Face when Teaching Paragraph Writing

It turns out that it is actually quite easy to greatly improve student writing in a relatively short amount of time. Best of all, it is super easy to implement and manage. 

I know this from personal experience year after year as a classroom teacher.

I especially know this to be true from my current role as a homeschooling parent.

Speaking of which, if the fact that I have elected to use this tried and true system to teach my own children is not proof of how much I believe in it, then I don’t know what is.

Honestly, it’s so easy to use and so incredibly effective, it almost seems too good to be true.

What is Paragraph of the Week?

Paragraph of the Week is a systematic, scaffolded approach to teaching paragraph writing. 

By breaking down the writing process into sequential, easy to follow steps, and following a consistent weekly routine, writing becomes a non-threatening task. 

This spiral review method of routinely brainstorming, planning, organizing, drafting, revising, editing, and finalizing writing has proven to be an EXTREMELY effective way to greatly improve student writing.

What are the Benefits to Using a Paragraph of the Week System?

• MEETS THE NEEDS OF ALL LEARNERS: Your students’ current writing abilities most likely fall on a spectrum. You probably have reluctant writers, learners with written expression goals, and gifted young authors simultaneously needing your guidance and instruction. 

• PROVIDES CONSISTENT WRITING PRACTICE: As an educator, you are also bogged down with a million and one other responsibilities on any given day. It is hard to be consistent in planning and executing lessons that meet the needs of all your students. You may feel pressure to move ahead with multi-paragraph essays even if you don’t feel as though you’ve had enough time for properly teaching paragraph writing.

• ACTS AS A SPIRAL REVIEW: Paragraph of the Week provides your students with the spiral review approach to learning approach that has proven to be effective in other subjects and applies it to writing through repeated, but purposeful application. This system for writing fosters constant growth and improvement because young authors can build upon and revisit skills throughout the year.

• HELPS THEM INTERNALIZE THE WRITING PROCESS: Each week, the students work through a cycle of brainstorming, planning and organizing, drafting, revising, editing, and finalizing their writing. While they are doing this on a smaller scale of a single paragraph, they truly learn to understand the same writing process they will use on higher levels in the future.

Benefits Shared by Teachers Who’ve Use it

• IT TAKES SO LITTLE TIME, BUT THEIR GROWTH AND PROGRESS IS MASSIVE: Your learners will get daily writing practice with a minimal time investment. Scaling writing down to manageable, scaffolded steps and a consistent routine removes so much of the frustration and enables students to truly focus on growing as writers.

• IT IS SYSTEMATIC AND SCAFFOLDED: Thanks to the step-by-step, predictable sequence, the student checklist, and the expectation rubric, students are not left to wonder what makes excellent writing. Instead they have the tools they need for ongoing practice and a clear understand of what it takes to become an excellent writer.

• IT EMPHASIZES PROGRESS OVER PERFECTION: This skill is so important not just in writing, but in life. Having a specific framework for paragraph writing allows you, your students, and their families to compare “apples to apples” and get a very clear picture of how their writing abilities are strengthening over time. Instead of kids feeling defeated by having lots of edits made to a longer writing tasks, they get to see how quickly their writing is improving each week.

• THERE ARE 4 DIFFERENT VERSIONS INCLUDED: We know teaching is not one size fits all. It’s not even one size fits most. For that reason we have create and included FOUR different options for each of the weekly writing projects. They are showcased in the images below.

The 4 Versions of Paragraph of the Week

What is the Best Way to Use this Resource in my Classroom?

The really nice thing about these is that they are so flexible in how they can be used. Many teachers use this as their nightly homework. Others have loved using these printables as:

• no-prep centers
• morning work
• part of a daily writer’s workshop
• as no prep, activities to leave for a substitute teacher
• as test prep for state writing tests

How Does Paragraph of the Week Make Teaching Paragraph Writing Easier?

• There is an entire year (76 weeks) of paragraphs available in the bundle. You can even copy them all at once. Done!
• The routine is VERY easy to implement and manage.
• Since the process is so systematic, planning takes no time at all.
• They have all the ease of simple “print and go / no prep” printables, but with teaching built right into each of the pages.
• The scoring rubric allows for super simple, yet highly effective grading by providing a student-friendly checklist of the criteria for success. 

Which Students Get the Most from Paragraph of the Week?

This format makes paragraph writing accessible to ALL STUDENTS because it supports the students who need help while providing advanced writers opportunities for individual growth.

Children who struggle with written expression will benefit from the very specific procedure to follow, the spiral review of the skills, and the consistent practice that will come from guided practice.

Meanwhile, your more advanced writers can focus on continuing to improve their craft through the use of advanced vocabulary, transition words and experimentation with upper-level grammar skills such as quotations.

This resource truly lends itself to a span of ages, grade levels and developmental stages. For beginning writers, it establishes a framework on how to consistently write a solid paragraph. More experienced writers benefit from working within only one paragraph to really fine tune, experiment with, and expand their work as developing authors.

My Students Hate Writing. Will Paragraph of the Week Improve Student Engagement?

Students love the prompts. Each week they look forward to seeing what they will be writing about. The prompts are all not only student-friendly, but are 100% about a topic they know and they know very well: themselves. 

Since each prompt taps into thoughts and experiences that are specific to each individual, your class will learn more about each other and your students will find new ways to connect with their peers. This really helps to develop your classroom community. 

BUY THE PARAGRAPH OF THE WEEK RESOURCES

Do I Need to Start Using this at the Beginning of the School Year?

You can start at any time during the year. The prompts were intentionally written to be applicable to any time of the year. They do not need to be used in any specific order. Jump in at any time!

Is There Only One Way to Use Paragraph of the WEEK or is it Flexible?

This resource is EXTREMELY FLEXIBLE with lots of options to meet your needs. 

There are 4 versions of each prompt to pick from:

• full page packets
• half sheet writing task cards
•  individual prompt strips
• a digital version using Google Slides. 

Choose the method that works best for your learners.

The pages are not labeled with specific days of the week, so you can set your own schedule and pacing. 

What if I Already Have a Writing Curriculum?

These paragraph writing templates are highly effective alone, but they easily pair well with any writing curriculum.

Using these through the year will not only show real improvement in student writing, but will also provide documentation of student progress.

Why do Parents Love Paragraph of the Week?

I’ve heard so much positive feedback from parents. Here are the three benefits that come up most often:

• As homework, parents appreciate the consistency of this resource. They enjoy having clear and consistent expectations that enable them to help their child at home.
• Families have also articulated during conferences how wonderful it is to have “apples to apples” comparisons of their children’s writing over time because it really shows their growth and progress.
• The scoring rubric was designed as a checklist with a potential for earning 20 points. It clearly communicates to both parents and students what they are doing well on and what they need to focus on in the future. Since it is based on a 20 point scale, the score can easily be multiplied by five to convert it to a more traditional numbers-based or letter-based grading system that parents often prefer.

A Close Up Look at the Components of the Paragraph of the Week Resources

Paragraph Writing Rubric

Let’s start by looking at the rubric because it was meant to be a tool throughout the writing process and not as a cumulative assessment at the end.

This powerful tool saves teachers TONS of time in grading, while clearly documenting and communicating a student’s current strengths and weaknesses. Grading writing can be overwhelming and is often subjective. 

When a child sees their work marked up, they can feel extremely defeated. The criteria for success sheets eliminate that problem. 

The rubric simplifies the task of assessment, provides documentation of progress and growth, and allows you to focus on providing one or two pieces of quality feedback as opposed to marking up an entire paragraph.

The scoring rubric breaks down the expectations for paragraph writing into very clear, manageable criteria for success. Students don’t need to guess at what makes “good writing” because it is all explained to them. They can use it as they’re writing to guide them. The criteria, as well as the standard editing marks, can be used during revisions or writing conferences. The checklist can be used to easily assign a score to the work. There is room at the bottom for effective feedback and for goal setting for future assignments.

It was designed as a checklist with a potential for earning 20 points. It clearly communicates to both parents and students what they are doing well on and what they need to focus on in the future. Since it is based on a 20 point scale, the score can easily be multiplied by five to convert it to a more traditional numbers-based or letter-based grading system that parents often prefer.

Planning

The project begins with a clear, student-friendly prompt. It is so important that the topic is something they have experience with and can relate to their own lives.

There are images directly related to each prompt on every page. 

The brainstorming section was intentionally designed to allow for choice. Students can write lists, create Venn Diagrams, make T-Charts, create columns, or simply scatter ideas as they pop into their heads.

The box was specifically designed to fit sticky notes. This provides the option to record even more ideas, or organize thoughts differently, on those and easily attach them to the page.

The bottom of the planning page sets the stage for the actual paragraph writing by guiding the students to preselect their details and put them in the order they will write them. This box is helpful for several reasons.

• The students learn to understand the transition from brainstorming to writing.
• It gives them a recipe to follow as they write.
• You can quickly and easily check in with the students who need more support to ensure they are on the right track, that their details are all on topic, and that each detail can be developed into meaningful sentences BEFORE they go through all the work of writing it.
• Being proactive in setting the students up for success is much easier and more effective than needing to assist a student in making lots of changes to their work after they’ve written a lot

Drafting

The left margin lists the sequence and spells out exactly what the writer needs to do step-by-step.

Each of the weekly units does also include standard optional draft paper. These pages can be used as an additional step between completing the graphic organizer and publishing a final copy. Some teachers use it in place of the graphic organizer for students who already demonstrate strength in writing a structured paragraph. 

Finally, this design makes it easier for students to not only draft their paragraph, but also to later transfer their draft onto another page for publishing.

The organizer was intentionally designed using brain-based research, and strategies that are specifically helpful to students with language-based disabilities, but applicable and beneficial to ALL learners. I think you’ll find this tool especially helps make the process of teaching paragraph writing much easier.

HOW THE RESEARCH-BASED DESIGN HELPS SUPPORT ALL LEARNERS

FLEXIBILITY: For many students, the greatest struggle they have as writers is getting started. This format enables students to initially skip the topic sentence, compose all their details, and then use those details to construct the topic sentence.

I personally found this to be a very powerful strategy in my own classroom. Not only did it eliminate the reluctance to get started, but their topic sentences quickly became so much more interesting.

BRAIN-BASED: It uses a top-down web format, which helps the student understand the hierarchy of writing. Top-down webs are visual maps of main ideas and details.

VISUAL DISCRIMINATION:

• The details and the elaborations have been differentiated by black and grey shading. Each type of sentence in the paragraph (topic, supporting details, and closing) have been clearly identified.

• The draft page features alternating grey and white lines. They serve as a visual reminder to double-space their writing and provide ample room for revisions and editing.

• The organizer was designed to show the topic sentence indented. This format not only helps with the current writing project in front of them, but helps to embed the concept into their minds for when they construct paragraphs in other content areas or without the support of a graphic organizer.

NON-OVERWHELMING FORMAT: The manner in which each individual sentence has been isolated allows for revision and editing in a way that does not feel overwhelming. Changes can be made to each sentence, or an entire sentence can be completely rewritten without “messing up” their work.

When students need to “fix” a traditionally written draft, it typically feels overwhelming. It changes the formatting of their paragraph, causes confusion when copying it onto a final draft, and leaves them feeling frustrated as writers. Isolating the sentences eliminates all of those issues.

Revising and Editing

Revising is where the real magic happens as you help to improve student writing. The criteria for success scoring rubric can serve as a checklist during the revising and editing stages of writing. I suggest having the students first use the rubric to self-assess before conferencing with an adult.

The sheet includes editing marks as a handy reference. 

Although it is not a necessary step, I saw a remarkable gain in my students’ writing with the following:

• Going through their drafts and highlighting the nouns in yellow and the verbs in orange.
• Encouraging them to add adjectives to each of the nouns when appropriate.
• Examining their word choices for the verbs and challenged them to replace them with stronger verbs (example: I ran to the playground. I sprinted to the sunny playground.)

Year after year, this additional step resulted in their writing naturally becoming much more descriptive, and their word choices were constantly expanding.

Publishing and Sharing

The final steps in the Paragraph of the Week system include publishing a final copy and sharing it with others. The final copy can simply be written on the included stationary, or it can be typed into the digital version of the resource that is also included. 

Some teachers opt to skip the final copy weekly and instead have the students pick one of their weekly paragraphs each month to publish. While I do encourage you to make sure publishing and sharing is included in your routine, it does not need to occur weekly (although it often does). The goal to improve student writing is best achieved in the planning, drafting and revising steps.

Real world authors do not turn every piece of work they create into a book. You will have acquired the information you need about where they are at as writers from all the other steps. 

They will have had the consistent practice they need as writers from the process of getting to the publishing stage. So, while I do recommend each piece be turned into a written and illustrated published work that is stored sequentially to show the progress, I do support the decision to not take every single piece to that level.

Paragraph of the Week Publishing Ideas

If you do want to have your students create a weekly published copy, but find time to be a limiting factor, I suggest the following:

• Have them write the final copy at home.
• Use the writing of the final copy as handwriting, cursive, or keyboarding practice during those instructional times.
• Teach writing using a rotation or workshop format and make publishing be one of the stations.
• Have them publish their writing as morning work.
• Use the publishing step as a transitional activity. Copywork and illustrating are perfect for transitioning students from lunch, recess, or specialists such as music and physical education back into the classroom. Allow for a few minutes of publishing time as soon as they enter the classroom. Play relaxing music and keep the lights dim. You’ll find this not only serves the purpose of getting their writing published, but also decreases the behaviors and management issues that often arise during a transitional time.

Now for the EXCITING NEWS! This resource has recently been COMPLETELY UPDATED. In addition to the original resource getting a total makeover, the download now includes a FREE digital version you can use with Google Classroom as well as two other easy-to-use, paper-saving versions (half sheets and prompt slips).

Are you ready to make teaching paragraph writing a simple, highly effective, stress-free process?

The post Paragraph Of The Week: Improve Student Writing Quickly & Easily in 2024 appeared first on Clutter-Free Classroom | by Jodi Durgin.

Where I saw the struggle, frustration, and dislike for writing emerge from my students was when they were expected to write on their own in a journal or writer’s notebook. Unfortunately, this was something we worked on daily so I needed to find a solution (and quickly).

Sure, I always had 2 or 3 eager writers, but overall their writer’s notebooks were a cause of stress and aggravation… for all of us.

This blog post suggests ideas and resources for how to replace the chorus of groans with loud cheers and excitement about writing. Learn more below about how to motivate students to write!

Why Do Elementary Students Struggle with Writing?

Below are 5 potential reasons why your students struggle with writing.

1. Students Don’t Know What to Write About

My students did really well with the paragraph of the week activities and seasonal writing assessments we did, so it seemed like the problem wasn’t the process of writing. Instead, it seemed students struggled with getting started and coming up with quality topics and ideas to write about.

One thing that helped tremendously was an activity we did at the start of each new school year which had the students brainstorm a list of topics to keep in their writer’s notebook. This was a great resource for them throughout the year, served me well as part of my emergency sub plans, and reinforced the concept of writing about “small seeds” or “tiny ideas.”

2. They Feel Overwhelmed

Writing can feel very overwhelming for elementary students. One idea to consider is to practice writing daily so it becomes more routine. Another suggestion is to break down the steps of writing so students are focusing on one step of the writing process at a time. Learn more about the 6 steps of the writing process!

3. Perfectionism Gets in the Way

Some students may get stuck due to fear of making a mistake or the final product not coming out the way they want it to. One suggestion to consider is delivering a lesson on growth mindset.

4. Their Learning Difference Makes it Harder

ADHD, anxiety, dyslexia, and dysgraphia are just some examples of learning differences that make writing harder for students. Be sure to follow the accommodations and modifications in their IEPs and 504 plans to support them. Even if students do not have an IEP or 504 plan, implement differentiation strategies to support your students.

5. The Basic Skills Needed for Writing are Not Automatic Yet

If students struggle with forming their letters and that’s where all of their concentration goes, then it makes writing a paragraph extra difficult. Think about the purpose of the lesson. If it’s to brainstorm ideas, then consider having a student who struggles with the physical part of writing draw pictures or use a technology device.

5 Ways to Motivate Your Elementary Students to Write

Below are 5 ways to motivate your elementary students to write.

1. Pose Interesting Topics

Posing interesting topics makes writing a lot more fun for elementary students. Consider the time of year, what your students are interested in, and what is going on in the world around them. For example, if it’s the middle of October, consider posing some spooky topics or ones about costumes. Use their excitement about Halloween to elevate the writing experience. This is exactly what I did in my monthly writing prompts resource! Another example is if you are working on opinion writing and a student is really interested in Pokemon cards, then have them write a piece about why kids should or should not be able to trade Pokemon cards in school. Catering your topics to your group of students is a great way to get them excited about writing.

2. Offer Student Choice when Possible

Whenever you can, offer students choices. Consider offering them a list of writing prompts to choose from like I do in my monthly writing prompts resource. When students feel a sense of autonomy over what they are doing, then they are more engaged and invested.

3. Have Students Write Every Day

The more students write, the better they will get! When something is really difficult for us, we usually aren’t thrilled to do it. The best way to motivate them to write is help them improve by offering lots of opportunities to practice their writing skills. My favorite way to do this is through a monthly writing journal.

4. Follow a Solid Framework for Writing

Having a solid framework makes expectations clear and makes writing feel more routine. This helps students feel more comfortable and confident writing and will help them improve their writing skills. Learn all about the 6 step of the writing process so you can implement it in your classroom!

5. Celebrate Student Writing Often

Celebrating student writing can take many different forms. Some examples are hosting a coffee shop-themed poetry event, posting student writing on the hallway bulletin board for others to see, and inviting parents to come in to listen to student writing at a teddy bear picnic. The opportunities are endless!

The Secret to Motivating Elementary Students to Write

Back in the day, I used to have my students do journal writing, but found that many struggled with coming up a topic. Most kids would write the same genre of story in their journals (often starting with “Last night…”) over and over.  I decided to do something a wee bit more structured.

Each year, we began by making a personalized writer’s notebook (inspired by the About Me collage in the book, Judy Moody) and collected ideas in the Writer’s Idea Bank to use throughout the year when journaling. They always had the option of selecting a topic of their own, but the idea bank was a resource for those who struggled with ideas. While that solved the “I don’t know what to write about” problem, I observed many kids still really struggled with how to get started. 

Once they had that initial sentence on paper, they were off and running, but that blank page was often intimidating. That’s why why I created a the monthly writing journals. The first one I made was the October journal prompts so I could capitalize on their love of all things Halloween and the intrinsic motivation it brings. 

I was excited to introduce them to my class, but was not prepared for the positive impact they had on writing in our classroom almost immediately. By offering them prompts and a collection of thematic paper for them to write on, they magically went from dreading writing to choosing to do it during free time and indoor recess. They were seriously more enthusiastic about writing than I’ve ever seen. It was such a hit, I made sets for all other months in the year as well. 

What are the Monthly Writing Journals?

The monthly writing journals are a writing resource for elementary teachers. They are available as 10 individual months or as a year-long bundle. It includes writing activities that cover the following writing genres: Creative, informative, opinion, narrative, procedural, descriptive, review, persuasive, poetry, and letter writing.

These writing prompts are designed to provide students with regular writing practice, teach a systematic approach to writing, and build a love of writing amongst students. Use these writing resources for writing centers, morning work, fast finisher tasks, homework, sub plans activities, evidence for report cards, and samples for parent-teacher conferences.

These monthly printables will transform your young authors into excellent writers!

What do the Monthly Writing Journals Include?

The monthly journals include the following:

• 4 cover options for each month so you can choose which one fits you and your students’ needs best
• 6 versions of thematic writing paper for each month, so you can differentiate based on your students’ needs
• table of contents printables for students to use to organize their many pieces of writing
• monthly lists of creative, informative, opinion, narrative, procedural, descriptive, review, persuasive, poetry, and letter writing prompts, so your students will engage with lots of different types of writing throughout the school year
• student checklists to track how many of each types of writing students complete over the course of the school year, which will help you ensure that they are working on all types of writing – not just their two or three favorite types
• rubrics that help make expectations clear to students and make grading quick and easy for you
• self-assessment activities that help you guide students through reflecting on the experiences
• feedback forms to help you identify student strengths, set goals for each student, and develop future lessons
• digital versions of all the resources so students can access them in school and at home

Why Do Teachers Love the Monthly Writing Prompts?

Below are reasons why elementary teachers love the monthly writing prompts.

1. They motivate students to write.

Kids love seasonal and thematic activities. They are always much more motivated by topics that interest them.Changing the journals and prompts monthly eliminates the boredom that comes with the “same old same old” and keeps their interest level high. No lie, my kids actually cheered at the start of the month when the new prompts were revealed. They would actually beg me at dismissal on the last day of each month to let them have a sneak peek at the new month’s packet. I couldn’t believe we went from a chorus of groans to hooting and hollering in a joyous way when it came to writing.

2. They improve instruction.

The monthly journals drive my instruction. While I don’t formally correct their work, I use them to assess their writing skills and look for areas where improvement is needed. This information is used to plan whole-class minilessons at the start of writer’s workshop and also allows me to form small groups for guided instruction on specific skills. 

The journals provide lots of content to discuss during 1:1 writing conferences with each individual student. During our conferences, we review their writing samples, talk about their previous goals, look for examples of how they’ve applied the skills we’ve been working on and set new goals. Having these journals has allowed them to really see how much they are improving and motivates them to do even more.

3. Student progress is documented.

The monthly journals are another easy, yet an absolutely wonderful way to show how much gain a child has made as a writer throughout the course of the school year. They are perfect for sharing with families during parent-teacher conferences and are always a hit during our spring open house.

4. Kids regularly practice all genres.

Using this resource makes it very easy to get your students to regularly practice different types of writing. Each monthly packet includes creative writing story starters, narrative writing prompts, opinion and persuasive prompts, and even a collection of timely informational writing topics they can research and write about.

5. Early finishers know what to do.

The monthly writing journals also helped end the problem of early finishers. No longer did my students ask, “I’m done. What should I do now?” No longer did I need to prepare extra work for students who finished their other assignments quickly. They knew that when their work was complete they had two choices: read a book or write in their monthly journals.

6. Writing sub plans is super easy.

Planning for a substitute teacher suddenly became a whole lot easier. I never needed to find, prep, and write detailed instructions for a guest teacher to do in my absence anymore. Let’s face it, that never goes well anyway. With these journals as part of our routine, my sub plans simply include extended journal writing. Easy for me. Easy for the sub. Valuable for the kids.

How to Implement the Monthly Writing Prompts

This monthly writing prompt resource is so quick and easy to prepare for student use. In fact, the only prep needed makes a great job for parent volunteers or classroom aides because it is simple. You’ll just need to select and print which pages you would like to use with your students. Then you can have a volunteer make stapled packets for each student for each month. Each packet should have a monthly cover, the pages with the writing prompts, and multiple copies of the thematic writing stationary.

At the start of each month, you can do a big reveal of what the new monthly writing prompts are. Simply show off the cover of the new month’s writing journal and then read aloud some or all of the writing prompts.

Student can keep the current month’s packet at their seats so they are accessible at any time. This makes it a great fast finisher task.

3 Other Writing Resources Elementary Teachers Need

Below are 4 writing resources all elementary teachers need.

1. Paragraph of the Week

One of the parts of my writing instruction that was going really well at the time was when I implemented Paragraph of the Week. My students routinely wrote with enthusiasm when they were working on Paragraph of the Week activities. These activities follow a consistent structure, so students quickly learn what is expected of them and how to complete the tasks.

I loved using paragraph of the week because I was able to prep a whole year’s worth of writing activities at the beginning of the school year that I offered students meaningful writing practice. As I mentioned, they follow a consistent structure. This solid framework improves writing skills tremendously and makes it easier for parents to assist with it when it’s assigned for homework.

2. Seasonal Writing Assessments

In my classroom, I used 4 seasonal writing assessments (fall, winter, spring and summer) that became their seasonal writing portfolio. It documents their writing progress, looks great displayed on our bulletin board throughout the year, and ends up being one of the projects that parents save forever and ever. Learn more about these seasonal writing assessments!

3. Seasonal Writing Activities

Seasonal writing activities are a great way to motivate students to write. Check out these January writing activities, February activities, and March activities for inspiration!

In closing, we hope you found this post about how to motivate students to write helpful! If you did, then you may also be interested in these posts:

• Tips for How to Teach Writing to Elementary Students
• 10 Strategies for Increasing Student Engagement
• The Best Behavior Management Strategies for Elementary Teachers

The post How to Motivate Students to Write at the Elementary Level in 2024 appeared first on Clutter-Free Classroom | by Jodi Durgin.

Why are Graphic Organizers Important for Writing Instruction?

Graphic organizers are the most important step in the writing process because of the following reasons:

• Graphic organizers help students get their thoughts in order before they begin to compose a written piece.  
• During the pre-writing stage of the writing process, they can help young writers generate ideas and plan out what will be written.
• They allow students to organize information into logical patterns such as sequence, cause and effect, and problem – solution.  
• Many children become frustrated when they make errors in their writing and need to erase their work. It makes the task feel overwhelming. Graphic organizers decrease the need to erase because writers approach the task with a plan.
• When students use a graphic organizer as a prewriting activity they are able to produce a more coherent and focused text.

13 Different Types of Graphic Organizers

Below are 13 different types of graphic organizers, which are all included in my elementary writing graphic organizer resource.

1. Word choice charts
2. Visualizing organizers
3. Story maps
4. Sequencing organizers
5. Summarizing organizers
6. Character webs
7. Main Idea and Details
8. Topic webs
9. Fact and Opinion Charts
10. Two-column notes
11. Can, Have, Are Charts
12. Venn diagrams
13. T-charts

How to Use Graphic Organizers to Improve Student Writing

Graphic organizers are tools for writing and just like the tools in a hardware store each serves a different purpose. Below are the 13 different types of graphic organizers I’ve used most often with my students and a brief explanation of how to use each graphic organizer to improve your students writing in specific areas.

Word Choices Charts

These charts help writers brainstorm strong vocabulary specific to the subject of their story or report.

Visualizing Organizers

These graphic organizers enable the students to gather and plan sensory details which makes their writing more descriptive.

Story Maps

These are the perfect tool for planning the key elements of their writing. It reminds them to think through the story and determine who will be their characters, where the story will take place, and identify the problem and the solution.

Sequencing Organizers

These help children to put the events of their story in a logical order. They can be structured as beginning, middle and end or as first, next, then, and finally. These organizers are typically used for narrative writing, but are also great for process writing as well.

Summarizing Organizers

These work much like the sequencing organizers. Teachers and students can determine which best meets their needs.

Character Webs

These help writers organize details about the character in a narrative writing piece. It focuses on character traits which describe a character based on his words and actions. These are great for helping the students to not only develop their characters on a deeper level, but also for teaching them how to strengthen their writing with “show don’t tell” details.

Main Idea and Details

One of my favorite types of graphic organizers is the one for main idea and details. These helps writers to identify the most important idea about a topic and then support that idea with key details.

Topic Webs

These allow writers to think about the most important ideas related to a topic. They usually begin as a brainstorm of all ideas and students can then narrow down their thinking from there.

Fact and Opinion Charts

These are key for supporting writers when they are composing persuasive or opinion pieces. They can use them to form their opinion and identify and organize the facts that support their thinking.

Two Column Notes

These are an effective, researched-based method of taking notes and organizing information as a student reads book or views videos on a topic. The notes can then be used to draft their own informative pieces.

Can, Have, Are Charts

These are the perfect tool for younger or struggling writers who need support in their writing. After categorizing facts about a topic into three columns, the child can then use the chart in sequence to form complete sentences (i.e. Bats can fly. They have wings. Bats are nocturnal.) or even write complete paragraphs by adding a topic and closing sentence.

Venn Diagrams

These help when writing compare and contrast essays. The students first use critical thinking skills to sort the information they have gathered. They then use the diagram as a guide to organize their writing.

T-Charts

These are also used to compare to topics. They are much like the Venn Diagram, but do not require the student to note similarities. They are a good starting point for writers to use prior to introducing the Venn Diagram.

To save teachers time and help them easily meet their students’ needs, I have designed a Graphic Organizer to Improve Student Writing resource. It includes each of the organizers listed above.

I have also created a collection of graphic organizers for reading. The themed topics increase student interest and motivation. Best of all they can be used with ANY book so you can use the same organizer multiple times. Students may complete the same organizer, but with different books at their own reading level for simple modify learning. 

I hope you found this information about the different types of graphic organizers and how to use them to improve writing helpful. If you did, then you may also be interested in the following posts:

• The Best Monthly Writing Prompts for Elementary Teachers
• How to Teach the Writing Process at the Elementary Level
• 15 Elementary Math Journal Ideas that get Students Writing in Math

The post 13 Different Types of Graphic Organizers and How to Use Them to Improve Student Writing appeared first on Clutter-Free Classroom | by Jodi Durgin.

What are Writing Notebooks?

Writing notebooks, which are also often referred to as wrier diaries or writing journals, are a tool students use to record writing topic ideas. It helps them to begin to live like a writer, whom often keep a notebook with them and jot down ideas for writing topics based on what they observe about the world around them and their life experiences.

Why Teachers Love Writing Notebooks

Elementary teachers love writing notebooks because they help students collect writing topics, so when it comes to write a piece, they already have a collection of ideas to pull from. Also, it helps students see themselves as writers.

How to Implement Writing Notebooks

Below are suggestions for how to introduce and implement writing notebooks in your elementary classroom.

1. Read Aloud Judy Moody

In my classroom, I started each school year by reading aloud Megan McDonald’s book Judy Moody. It’s a fun book for all grade levels, but is PERFECT for 3rd graders because the book starts off on Judy’s first day of 3rd grade – Hello text-to-self connection!

I created a whole bunch of activities that go with the book Judy Moody and used them throughout the first week of school in addition to teaching my procedures and routines and completing some back to school printable activities.

2. Invite Students to Bring In Materials to Make a Collage

In the book, Judy needs to create an All About Me collage as her first assignment. I spring-boarded off of this and we made a collage on the Friday of the first week. Except instead of making it on poster board, we made them on the cover of black and white composition notebooks, which was used for their writing notebooks. Students brought in pictures, ticket stubs, articles, brochures, magazine clippings, etc. that tell about them.

I always did this on the first Friday afternoon for a few reasons. First, it’s fun! It introduces “Fun Friday,” which is the time each week where I sneak in a little craftivity. Second, we work on brainstorming ideas for their writer’s Idea banks throughout the first week and this way we were ready to hit the ground running on the first full Monday. Third, all that Modge Podge stinks, so it’s nice to have a few days of “air time”.

3. Secure the Materials to the Cover of the Notebooks

Finally, I Modge Podge the heck out of their writing notebooks to seal them. This works really well! They look great and last all year long.

In closing, I hope you found this post about personalized writing notebooks for elementary students helpful! Even if you don’t read Judy Moody to your class, I would encourage you to have the kids make personalized journals. They really help them to take ownership of their writing and they make such wonderful keepsakes at the end of the year. If you decide to move forward with this, I recommend sending your students home with a letter to request families send in the needed items.

The post Personalized Writing Notebooks for Elementary Students – 2024 appeared first on Clutter-Free Classroom | by Jodi Durgin.