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5 Tips for Teaching Writing in Upper Elementary
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Teaching writing in upper elementary is so exciting and I know as a teacher I love seeing my students grow as writers. The biggest thing sometimes is how do we get started? Today I wanted to share 5 Tips for Teaching Writing in Your Classroom. My goal as a teacher is always researching and thinking of ways to get my kids to want to write.
Tip #1 for Teaching Writing is to… Model, Model, Model.
Model, Model, Model: Yes, you want model good writing skills for kids to see. Use anchor charts, your smart boards, white boards, your writer’s notebooks. Write with your students. Let them see you write and help you write. Write together!
- Assign an open ended prompt (ie: Best Day Ever) and show students the writing process steps one-by-one as students help along.
- Act it out while writing. Prompt students to help you in writing your story.
- Let them hear you THINK as you write. Let them see you mess up, make changes and truly write!
- The students no matter what age will LOVE watching their teachers go through the writing process on each story as they are writing their own.
>>>Shop the Writer’s Notebook Here<<<
Tip #2 for Teaching Writing is providing ideas and Writing Prompts
Creative Writing Prompts: Are you thinking and using great prompts that will motivate and encourage writing. You need to change up writing genres every so often. You cannot always rely on Narrative or Expository Writing. You can have students write Book Reviews, Recipes, How-To’s, Songs, Poems, Plays, Mysteries, and much more. Your goal is to grow writers in all Genres! So changing it up and trying different types of writing will encourage students to grow in different areas, and you never know, some may really show their skills in one area and surprise themselves.
Tip #3 for Teaching Writing is having a Writing Center Area.
Writing Tools: When your students begin writing they should have all the tools needed to make their writing time smooth. When I say tools I mean an area with all the necessities: Dictionaries, thesaurus, WORD WALLS, markers, pens, pencils, sharpener, erasers, paper, sticky notes, notebooks, helpful writing tools. This could be a little nook in your teaching area. The students should know that if they need something they can visit the area and get tools to help them be the best writer ever.
- You can visit my Pinterest Boards: to see some great examples of classroom writing center areas. I love how many teachers organize it to meet their students needs. It doesn’t have to take up tons of space, but having an area set aside will really help your little writers.
Tip #4 for Teaching Writing is Having Students Publish Their Work.
Publishing Their Writing: Do you allow students to publish their writing? Have you taken the time to try out different publishing ideas? Of course, you complete the published works after the students went through the entire Writing Process. Students LOVE seeing their final work on display and take pride and getting to that point. Imagine all the hardwork and seeing it on display. After EVERY.SINGLE.PIECE of writing I would have my students publish their writing! It builds them up for some great writing. My students would work so hard on the writing process to SHOW OFF their writing at the end. I TOTALLY let my students share when they are ready with their published pieces. I noticed when I started allowing this in my classroom my students took pride in their work, and it helped GROW some fabulous writers!
Some PUBLISHED WRITING IDEAS I use are [see images for my student examples]
•FANCY paper to publishing paper [you can create or buy fancy paper].
•Writing booklets to create a cover, the writing, and the back.
•Index Card Booklets
•Powerpoint Presentations Published Pieces
•Using Large Chart Paper- allow students to decorate and write on chart paper
Tip #5 for Teaching Writing is to Revisit Previous Writing Samples.
Revisit Past Writing Samples: Now, what does look back mean? That means you have your students revisit and look back at their past writing
samples and see how they have grown as writers in your classroom. They sometimes want to improve their writing they completed at the beginning of the year. I allow this, it shows me how much they appreciate us taking time to revisit their past writing. I never allow my students to throw away ANY writing they complete in my classroom. I tell them that everything we complete is a masterpiece and we save everything.
samples and see how they have grown as writers in your classroom. They sometimes want to improve their writing they completed at the beginning of the year. I allow this, it shows me how much they appreciate us taking time to revisit their past writing. I never allow my students to throw away ANY writing they complete in my classroom. I tell them that everything we complete is a masterpiece and we save everything.
A Teaching Writing Freebie to Help You Today.
I truly hope that these 5 quick easy to use tips will help you in your writing class. As teachers we are always looking for new ways to grow our students to the best of our ability. Here is a sample of one my favorite writing resources that you can start using today to help your students.
Grab it here today
You can also visit this post for tips on how to teach the Writing Process: Click Here
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