Writing Teaching Resources
Teaching writing strategies and the writing process this school year? Explore a comprehensive collection of teacher resources for primary English teachers — all created by teachers!
Stocked with graphic organisers, writing prompts, templates, worksheets and so much more, this collection of printable and digital activities is designed to help you as you help your students become more effective communicators and unleash their creativity and imagination.
Save time on lesson planning with resources that are aligned with the Australian curriculum (including version 9!) and have been through a careful review process by an expert member of our teacher team to ensure they're ready for your classroom and your students!
Are you looking for tips and tricks to add to your teacher toolkit this school year? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including engaging activities for teaching writing inprimary school and a look at some of the different writing strategies your students will need to learn.
11 Writing Strategies Kids Should Know by the End of Primary School
We can't talk about teaching kids to write without talking about the different writing strategies that can help them do just that!
When it comes to teaching our students to become confident writers who articulate their ideas effectively, here are some of the strategies our teacher team prioritises:
1. Brainstorming
Brainstorming is something we often do in the classroom, and it's a crucial part of learning to generate the ideas that will drive students' writing as they progress through their educational journey. Kids should know how to create a list of potential topics or points related to a particular writing assignment.
With younger students, this is often done as a whole group by writing ideas and points on chart paper. In upper years, students transition over to using text-based materials to generate ideas and talking points.
2. Outlining
Before diving directly into any assignment, our students should be able to create a structured framework or outline. Teaching students how to create this outline will help them organise their thoughts and arguments for penning their essays, reports and research papers.
3. Using Graphic Organisers
Technically graphic organisers are classroom tools, so you may not think of their use as a writing strategy per se. However, learning to use these tools is another means of providing kids with the tools they need to organize their ideas and information before they sit down to write.
These organisers are particularly useful for expository writing — students can use them to outline main ideas, supporting details, and transitions.
Students can also take advantage of story maps when they are working on narrative writing to plot the key elements of a story, such as characters, setting, conflict, rising action, climax and resolution.
Graphic organisers such as the OREO strategy and hamburger paragraph are also great tools for students to use when working with opinion and persuasive texts.
4. Freewriting
Writer's block is the enemy of creativity, and it can easily frustrate young students who don't know where to begin.
When students freewrite, they write continuously without worrying about grammar or punctuation. This writing strategy can be extremely freeing — hence the name! — and helps frustrated writers move past that writer's block, generating fresh ideas.
5. Peer Editing
Learning to review and provide constructive feedback on each other's work is a great writing strategy to employ in your classroom to help students improve their writing quality and enhance their editing skills.
The strategy allows your students to learn from one another, and it arms them with an important tool they can use well into the future — calling on peers to provide a critical eye to a piece of writing.
6. Using Sensory Language
Working on descriptive writing? With this writing strategy, students engage the reader's senses through vivid and sensory language to create a more immersive experience.
7. Including Transitions and Connectives
As students become more proficient in the writing process, learning to use transitional words and phrases allows them to create smooth transitions between sentences and paragraphs. This strategy makes their writing more coherent and polished.
8. Incorporating Evidence
In persuasive, opinion and expository writing, students are taught to support their claims with evidence and examples to strengthen their arguments.
It takes some practice to train your students to use evidence in their writing, so it's often a good idea to start with something simple, like the R.A.C.E.S. strategy.
9. Crafting a Thesis Statement
In expository, opinion and persuasive writing, crafting clear and concise thesis statements that summarise the main point or argument of their essay helps students be more focused and organised in their writing.
This strategy can also have the effect of empowering students to express their ideas confidently and persuasively.
10. Incorporating Introductions and Conclusions
With this strategy, students practice crafting effective introductions and conclusions that grab the reader's attention and leave a lasting impression.
11. Following a Revision Checklist
Teaching your students to use a revision checklist is a strategy that will help them be more self-reflective, evaluating their own writing against the checklist criteria and becoming more aware of their strengths and weaknesses.
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18 Editing Worksheets - Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation
Use these sentence correction worksheets to add daily editing practise to your lesson plans.
- Plus Plan
Roll-a-Scary Story Starter - Halloween Writing Prompt
Inspire some spooktacular Halloween writing with a roll-to-create Halloween Writing Prompt creator.
- Free Plan
Narrative Plot Structure - Story Mountain Template
Use a story mountain template to help your students write narrative texts.
- Plus Plan
Simple, Compound and Complex Sentences Worksheets
Use this set of five grammar worksheets to teach about the structures of simple, compound and complex sentences.
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Narrative Sentence Starter Worksheets
Use our printable narrative writing prompt worksheets to boost your students' imaginative writing skills.
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Exploring Persuasive Texts PowerPoint - Year 1 and Year 2
A 35 slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching your students about the structure and language features of persuasive texts.
- Free Plan
Persuasive Text Structure Posters
Explore the structure of persuasive writing with this set of 15 posters.
- Plus Plan
Narrative Writing Planning Template
A template for students to use when planning a narrative text.
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Halloween Finish the Drawing - Preposition Worksheets
Finish the drawing to create a fun Halloween scene with a set of preposition worksheets.
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Year 1 Editing Passages
Use this set of Year 1 editing passages to help your students demonstrate their spelling, punctuation and grammar knowledge.
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Glorious Grammar Volume 1 - Worksheet Book
50 activities in one booklet which all revolve around learning grammar in the classroom.
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Punctuation Worksheets - Lower Primary
Download our no-prep punctuation worksheets to help your students practice their skills with using a variety of punctuation marks.
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Narrative Writing Checklist Pack
Use this narrative checklist pack when teaching your students how to edit their narrative writing.
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Narrative Writing Visual Prompts Presentation
A 19 slide teaching presentation containing visual narrative writing prompts.
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Persuasive Devices Teaching Slides
Explore persuasive language devices with your students using this detailed and age-appropriate slideshow perfect for your persuasive writing unit.
- Plus Plan
Character Profile Template Pack
Explore the personality, appearance, feelings and actions of a character from a narrative with this printable character profile templates.
- Free Plan
Persuasive Planning Template
A planning template to assist students in writing a well-structured persuasive text.
- Plus Plan
Simple, Compound and Complex Sentences Posters
Use these posters to show your students the attributes that make up simple, compound and complex sentences.
- Free Plan
Writing the Alphabet Chart - Tracing
A chart to assist students when learning how to form letters.
- Free Plan
Free Lined Paper Printable - A4
Use this free printable lined paper pack to encourage students to write and publish their work in your classroom writing station.
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For and Against Worksheets
Explore 'for' and 'against' arguments for five different topics with this set of 'for' and 'against' sorting activities.
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Halloween Grammar Practise Worksheets - Apostrophe Practise
Practise using apostrophes of possession and in contractions with a set of spooktacular Halloween Apostrophe worksheets.
- Free Plan
Narrative Text Structure Posters
A set of 8 narrative text structure posters to add to your classroom narrative writing display.
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Simple, Compound and Complex Sentences PowerPoint
A 23 slide editable PowerPoint template which introduces the attributes of simple, compound and complex sentences.
- Plus Plan
Nouns, Proper Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs and Conjunctions Posters
Enhance student understanding of the 8 parts of speech with these colourful, informative and easily-referenced grammar wall posters.
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Developing Persuasive Writing Skills PowerPoint (Year 3 and Year 4)
Teach your students about the structure and language features of persuasive texts with these interactive teaching slides.
- Free Plan
Animal Research Project - Informative Writing Booklet
Use a printable animal research organiser booklet for students to record facts about animals when learning to write informative texts.
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Developing Narrative Writing Skills PowerPoint - Year 3 and Year 4
Teach your students about the structure and language features of narrative texts with an engaging interactive Narrative Writing Teaching Slide Presentation.
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Types of Poetry Posters with Annotations
Use this set of 9 annotated posters when introducing structured forms of poetry to your students.
- Free Plan
Halloween Printables - Spooky Halloween Adjectives Worksheets
Bewitch your students into using descriptive adjectives with printable Halloween adjectives worksheets for Year 1 and Year 2 students.
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Identifying Persuasive Language Worksheets
Explore persuasive language with your students using this set of five persuasive texts on a variety of age-appropriate topics.
- Free Plan
Editing Passage Task Cards for Year 3
A set of 20 editing passage task cards with answers.
- Writing Worksheets
- Writing Templates
- Writing Games
- Writing Posters
- Writing Teaching Presentations
- Writing Labels, Signs & Decorations
- Writing Word Walls
- Writing Projects
- Writing for Preschool/Kindergarten
- Writing for Foundation Year
- Writing for Year 1
- Writing for Year 2
- Writing for Year 3
- Writing for Year 4
- Writing for Year 5
- Writing for Year 6
- Writing for Year 7