3 Strategies for Teaching Writing You Need to Try This Year

Finding the most effective strategies for teaching writing is critical for building students’ writing skills. In this post, I’ll share the top 3 strategies for teaching writing that you need to try out in your classroom this school year.

Strategies for Teaching Writing

Writing is one of the most important skills to teach. Students will need written communication skills throughout their lives, and as teachers we are helping them build the foundation for those skills during their school years.

Without the right strategies for teaching writing, it can become a difficult subject to teach and a boring subject for students to learn. However, there are a ton of effective strategies to try.

These 3 must-try strategies for teaching writing will keep your writing lessons fun, effective, and engaging for your students.

1. Short & Effective Writing Mini-Lessons

Start each writing period with a targeted 10-minute mini-lesson on the focus skill for the day. Each mini-lesson should focus on one specific skill. For example, one mini-lesson would cover how to write a strong “hook” or leading sentence in your writing. Another whole mini-lesson could cover a strong topic sentence.

During a mini-lesson, make sure to model the writing skill you are teaching. Use mentor texts to help students see how the skill is applied in writing. Anchor charts are a great tool to use during mini-lessons to help students consolidate their understanding of the skill.

Breaking down the writing process into bite-sized pieces will help students build confidence in their writing. It will also help them feel like writing is more manageable.

It’s critical to keep the mini-lesson as brief as possible to keep students engaged and to allow them plenty of time for practicing the writing skill.

2. Targeted Daily Writing Tasks for Students

After teaching your mini-lesson, allow students to apply the skill in a targeted writing task. Just like the mini-lesson, the daily writing tasks should be short and precise. These activities should allow students to build upon the previous lessons as they work toward being able to write a complete piece.

As students complete their daily writing tasks, they are building a writing piece–which we call their “masterpiece”–one component at a time. Each day they have the opportunity to immediately practice and apply the mini-lesson skill.

Working in a step-by-step fashion like this takes away the pressure and intimidation of students immediately writing a complete piece. These daily activities help students feel strong and confident in their writing skills.

Have students set up and maintain an organized writing notebook at the beginning of the year. Students can use these notebooks for drafts, editing, and revisions. Another option is to use binders with dividers to organize different types of writing and any notebook reference sheets you might use.

3. Keep All Students on the Same Pace

These short writing mini-lessons and writing tasks are most effective when all students can stay on the same pace in their masterpiece writing project.

Manage your early finishers by setting up a routine with students. Early finishers can work on a different story or report in the back of their writing notebook while others finish their daily task on their masterpiece.

I have my students follow two rules for the extra stories that they write. First, they have to write in the same genre that we are studying and practicing with at that time. Second, they have to attempt to use the skills and strategies covered in the mini-lessons.

I hope you’ll try these simple writing strategies with your elementary students as they become more confident writers!