Guided Writing Activities Teaching Resources
Get guided writing activities, prompts, and more to help your students develop their writing muscles in your classroom. This elementary school teaching resource collection was created by the expert ELA teachers on the Teach Starter team.
These curriculum-aligned resources will save you time on your ELA lesson plans with classroom-ready printable and digital worksheets and activities that you can edit to differentiate instruction for individual learners.
What Is Guided Writing?
Guided writing is a technique used to help individuals improve their writing skills by providing them with a structure or set of guidelines to follow while they write. This can include prompts, examples, or specific instructions to help the writer focus their thoughts and organize their ideas more effectively. The goal of guided writing is to help the writer improve their writing skills and develop their own unique style over time.
What Does Guided Writing Look Like in the Classroom?
In a classroom setting, guided writing typically involves you, the teacher, providing students with a specific topic or prompt to write about, along with a set of guidelines or instructions to follow. This could include a specific word count, a specific format (such as a persuasive essay or a descriptive paragraph), or a set of key points that the student should address in their writing.
You may also provide examples of well-written pieces that students can use as a model for their own writing as well as giving feedback on the students' writing so that they can improve their writing skills.
Guided writing can take place in a whole-class setting, where a teacher leads the class through the writing process, or in small groups or one-on-one sessions where a teacher can provide more personalized instruction and feedback.
How Does Guided Writing Help Students Improve Their Writing?
Not sure if you want to add guided writing to your instruction techniques? Our teacher team has dug through the educational research on the topic for a more in-depth view.
Research has found that guided writing can be effective in improving various aspects of students' writing skills. For example, studies have shown that guided writing can:
- Improve students' writing fluency, increasing their ability to generate written text quickly and easily
- Enhance students' writing accuracy, including improved grammar, spelling, and punctuation
- Increase students' writing complexity, helping students achieve a higher level of sophistication and maturity in their writing.
- Help students develop a greater sense of self-efficacy
- Encourage students' motivation to write
- Facilitate the provision of feedback and support from the teacher
Of course, the effectiveness of guided writing will depend on the specific approach and context in which it is implemented. For example, some research has suggested that guided writing may be more effective when it is used in conjunction with other writing instruction methods, such as independent writing, peer review, and self-reflection.
In general, when guided writing is well-designed, it can be an effective tool for improving students' writing skills, but we suggest using it as part of a comprehensive writing instruction program.
- Plus Plan
Writing Out Loud: Dialogue Punctuation Worksheet
Practice using quotation marks in writing with a Punctuating Dialogue worksheet.
- Plus Plan
Let's Research! Digital and Print Poster Project Templates
Conduct, organize, and display research about books, people, planets, animals, states, and countries with a versatile set of printable and digital poster templates.
- Free Plan
What's Missing? - Alphabet Worksheet
A set of worksheets to practice writing the letters of the alphabet in order.
- Plus Plan
Revising Our Writing - Adding, Deleting, and Rearranging Worksheet
Practice revising writing by adding, deleting, and rearranging text for substance and clarity.
- Plus Plan
Punctuation BINGO
A set of 20 BINGO game boards and cards to practice recognizing and naming end punctuation.
- Plus Plan
General Writing Checklist (Printable Poster for the Classroom)
A writing checklist poster to use with your primary students across multiple genres.
- Plus Plan
Opinion Writing Teaching Slides
Teach your students about the structure and language features of opinion texts with an interactive teaching slide deck.
- Plus Plan
Using Possessive Nouns - Task Cards
Practice writing phrases using the correct singular or plural possessive noun with a set of task cards.
- Plus Plan
Christmas Writing Prompts for Beginning Writers
Celebrate Christmas time and practice those writing skills with your young sentence writers.
- Plus Plan
On the Farm - Vocabulary and Writing Prompts
Inspire young farmers to read and write about the farm with farm-themed writing prompts and word wall cards.
- Plus Plan
Ocean Writing Center
Build stronger vocabulary and writing skills with an ocean-themed writing center.
- Plus Plan
Fall Themed Informational Writing Prompt Worksheets
Celebrate Autumn and write an informational piece using these handy fall writing prompt worksheets.
- Plus Plan
Lewis and Clark Close Read Comprehension Pack
Enhance your students' comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills with a close reading passage and activity pack about the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
- Plus Plan
Benjamin Franklin - Constructed Response Worksheet
Learn facts about Benjamin Franklin with an informational reading and writing activity focusing on the constructed response format.
- Plus Plan
Possessive Nouns - Interactive Clipcards
Provide digital possessive noun practice activities for your learners with a Google Interactive activity.
- Plus Plan
Adverbs Scoot
Build vocabulary and grammar skills with a game of Comparative and Superlative Adverbs SCOOT!
- Plus Plan
Writing Process Posters-Classroom Display
Create a beautiful visual word wall in your classroom to support your students in the mastery of the writing process!
- Plus Plan
Has/Have Subject Verb Agreement Task Cards
Practice using has and have correctly using a set of Subject-Verb agreement task cards.
- Plus Plan
Irregular Plural Noun Match-Up
Practice using irregular plural nouns with an Irregular Plural Noun Matching Activity.
- Plus Plan
Past, Present, and Future Verb Tense Matching Activity - Irregular Verbs
Master past, present, and future tenses of irregular verbs with a butterfly matching activity.
- Plus Plan
Past, Present, and Future Verb Tense Matching Activity - Regular Verbs
Practice using past, present, and future tenses of regular verbs with a butterfly matching activity.
- Plus Plan
Descriptive Adjectives SCOOT! Game
Build vocabulary and grammar skills with a game of Adjective SCOOT!
- Plus Plan
Adjective Emoji Four in a Row
Match emoji picture cards with their corresponding descriptive adjectives with a fun game of Four-in-a-Row.
- Plus Plan
Has/Have, Do/Does Subject Verb Agreement Interactive Activity
Practice building sentences using has, have, do, and does with this Google Slides Interactive subject-verb agreement activity.
- Guided Writing Activities Games
- Guided Writing Activities Templates
- Guided Writing Activities Writing Templates
- Guided Writing Activities Worksheets
- Guided Writing Activities Interactive Activities
- Guided Writing Activities Task Cards
- Guided Writing Activities Word Walls
- Guided Writing Activities Sorting Activities
- Guided Writing Activities Posters
- Guided Writing Activities Graphic Organizers
- Guided Writing Activities Instructional Slide Decks
- Guided Writing Activities Matchup Games
- Guided Writing Activities Mini Book
- Guided Writing Activities Board Games
- Guided Writing Activities Craft Activities
- Guided Writing Activities Writing Checklist
- Guided Writing Activities Checklists
- Guided Writing Activities Bingo
- Guided Writing Activities Card Games
- Guided Writing Activities Dominoes
- Guided Writing Activities Labels Signs Decorations
- Guided Writing Activities Bulletin Board Displays
- Guided Writing Activities Projects
- Guided Writing Activities Cut and Paste Worksheets
- Guided Writing Activities Color by Code
- Guided Writing Activities Dice Games
- Guided Writing Activities Flashcards
- Guided Writing Activities for Pre-K
- Guided Writing Activities for Kindergarten
- Guided Writing Activities for 1st Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 2nd Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 3rd Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 4th Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 5th Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 6th Grade