how to teach essay writing in primary school

Essay Writing: A complete guide for students and teachers

P LANNING, PARAGRAPHING AND POLISHING: FINE-TUNING THE PERFECT ESSAY

Essay writing is an essential skill for every student. Whether writing a particular academic essay (such as persuasive, narrative, descriptive, or expository) or a timed exam essay, the key to getting good at writing is to write. Creating opportunities for our students to engage in extended writing activities will go a long way to helping them improve their skills as scribes.

But, putting the hours in alone will not be enough to attain the highest levels in essay writing. Practice must be meaningful. Once students have a broad overview of how to structure the various types of essays, they are ready to narrow in on the minor details that will enable them to fine-tune their work as a lean vehicle of their thoughts and ideas.

In this article, we will drill down to some aspects that will assist students in taking their essay writing skills up a notch. Many ideas and activities can be integrated into broader lesson plans based on essay writing. Often, though, they will work effectively in isolation – just as athletes isolate physical movements to drill that are relevant to their sport. When these movements become second nature, they can be repeated naturally in the context of the game or in our case, the writing of the essay.

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Planning an essay

The Boys Scouts’ motto is famously ‘Be Prepared’. It’s a solid motto that can be applied to most aspects of life; essay writing is no different. Given the purpose of an essay is generally to present a logical and reasoned argument, investing time in organising arguments, ideas, and structure would seem to be time well spent.

Given that essays can take a wide range of forms and that we all have our own individual approaches to writing, it stands to reason that there will be no single best approach to the planning stage of essay writing. That said, there are several helpful hints and techniques we can share with our students to help them wrestle their ideas into a writable form. Let’s take a look at a few of the best of these:

BREAK THE QUESTION DOWN: UNDERSTAND YOUR ESSAY TOPIC.

Whether students are tackling an assignment that you have set for them in class or responding to an essay prompt in an exam situation, they should get into the habit of analyzing the nature of the task. To do this, they should unravel the question’s meaning or prompt. Students can practice this in class by responding to various essay titles, questions, and prompts, thereby gaining valuable experience breaking these down.

Have students work in groups to underline and dissect the keywords and phrases and discuss what exactly is being asked of them in the task. Are they being asked to discuss, describe, persuade, or explain? Understanding the exact nature of the task is crucial before going any further in the planning process, never mind the writing process .

BRAINSTORM AND MIND MAP WHAT YOU KNOW:

Once students have understood what the essay task asks them, they should consider what they know about the topic and, often, how they feel about it. When teaching essay writing, we so often emphasize that it is about expressing our opinions on things, but for our younger students what they think about something isn’t always obvious, even to themselves.

Brainstorming and mind-mapping what they know about a topic offers them an opportunity to uncover not just what they already know about a topic, but also gives them a chance to reveal to themselves what they think about the topic. This will help guide them in structuring their research and, later, the essay they will write . When writing an essay in an exam context, this may be the only ‘research’ the student can undertake before the writing, so practicing this will be even more important.

RESEARCH YOUR ESSAY

The previous step above should reveal to students the general direction their research will take. With the ubiquitousness of the internet, gone are the days of students relying on a single well-thumbed encyclopaedia from the school library as their sole authoritative source in their essay. If anything, the real problem for our students today is narrowing down their sources to a manageable number. Students should use the information from the previous step to help here. At this stage, it is important that they:

●      Ensure the research material is directly relevant to the essay task

●      Record in detail the sources of the information that they will use in their essay

●      Engage with the material personally by asking questions and challenging their own biases

●      Identify the key points that will be made in their essay

●      Group ideas, counterarguments, and opinions together

●      Identify the overarching argument they will make in their own essay.

Once these stages have been completed the student is ready to organise their points into a logical order.

WRITING YOUR ESSAY

There are a number of ways for students to organize their points in preparation for writing. They can use graphic organizers , post-it notes, or any number of available writing apps. The important thing for them to consider here is that their points should follow a logical progression. This progression of their argument will be expressed in the form of body paragraphs that will inform the structure of their finished essay.

The number of paragraphs contained in an essay will depend on a number of factors such as word limits, time limits, the complexity of the question etc. Regardless of the essay’s length, students should ensure their essay follows the Rule of Three in that every essay they write contains an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Generally speaking, essay paragraphs will focus on one main idea that is usually expressed in a topic sentence that is followed by a series of supporting sentences that bolster that main idea. The first and final sentences are of the most significance here with the first sentence of a paragraph making the point to the reader and the final sentence of the paragraph making the overall relevance to the essay’s argument crystal clear. 

Though students will most likely be familiar with the broad generic structure of essays, it is worth investing time to ensure they have a clear conception of how each part of the essay works, that is, of the exact nature of the task it performs. Let’s review:

Common Essay Structure

Introduction: Provides the reader with context for the essay. It states the broad argument that the essay will make and informs the reader of the writer’s general perspective and approach to the question.

Body Paragraphs: These are the ‘meat’ of the essay and lay out the argument stated in the introduction point by point with supporting evidence.

Conclusion: Usually, the conclusion will restate the central argument while summarising the essay’s main supporting reasons before linking everything back to the original question.

ESSAY WRITING PARAGRAPH WRITING TIPS

●      Each paragraph should focus on a single main idea

●      Paragraphs should follow a logical sequence; students should group similar ideas together to avoid incoherence

●      Paragraphs should be denoted consistently; students should choose either to indent or skip a line

●      Transition words and phrases such as alternatively , consequently , in contrast should be used to give flow and provide a bridge between paragraphs.

HOW TO EDIT AN ESSAY

Students shouldn’t expect their essays to emerge from the writing process perfectly formed. Except in exam situations and the like, thorough editing is an essential aspect in the writing process. 

Often, students struggle with this aspect of the process the most. After spending hours of effort on planning, research, and writing the first draft, students can be reluctant to go back over the same terrain they have so recently travelled. It is important at this point to give them some helpful guidelines to help them to know what to look out for. The following tips will provide just such help: 

One Piece at a Time: There is a lot to look out for in the editing process and often students overlook aspects as they try to juggle too many balls during the process. One effective strategy to combat this is for students to perform a number of rounds of editing with each focusing on a different aspect. For example, the first round could focus on content, the second round on looking out for word repetition (use a thesaurus to help here), with the third attending to spelling and grammar.

Sum It Up: When reviewing the paragraphs they have written, a good starting point is for students to read each paragraph and attempt to sum up its main point in a single line. If this is not possible, their readers will most likely have difficulty following their train of thought too and the paragraph needs to be overhauled.

Let It Breathe: When possible, encourage students to allow some time for their essay to ‘breathe’ before returning to it for editing purposes. This may require some skilful time management on the part of the student, for example, a student rush-writing the night before the deadline does not lend itself to effective editing. Fresh eyes are one of the sharpest tools in the writer’s toolbox.

Read It Aloud: This time-tested editing method is a great way for students to identify mistakes and typos in their work. We tend to read things more slowly when reading aloud giving us the time to spot errors. Also, when we read silently our minds can often fill in the gaps or gloss over the mistakes that will become apparent when we read out loud.

Phone a Friend: Peer editing is another great way to identify errors that our brains may miss when reading our own work. Encourage students to partner up for a little ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’.

Use Tech Tools: We need to ensure our students have the mental tools to edit their own work and for this they will need a good grasp of English grammar and punctuation. However, there are also a wealth of tech tools such as spellcheck and grammar checks that can offer a great once-over option to catch anything students may have missed in earlier editing rounds.

Putting the Jewels on Display: While some struggle to edit, others struggle to let go. There comes a point when it is time for students to release their work to the reader. They must learn to relinquish control after the creation is complete. This will be much easier to achieve if the student feels that they have done everything in their control to ensure their essay is representative of the best of their abilities and if they have followed the advice here, they should be confident they have done so.

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Classroom Q&A

With larry ferlazzo.

In this EdWeek blog, an experiment in knowledge-gathering, Ferlazzo will address readers’ questions on classroom management, ELL instruction, lesson planning, and other issues facing teachers. Send your questions to [email protected]. Read more from this blog.

Four Strategies for Effective Writing Instruction

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(This is the first post in a two-part series.)

The new question-of-the-week is:

What is the single most effective instructional strategy you have used to teach writing?

Teaching and learning good writing can be a challenge to educators and students alike.

The topic is no stranger to this column—you can see many previous related posts at Writing Instruction .

But I don’t think any of us can get too much good instructional advice in this area.

Today, Jenny Vo, Michele Morgan, and Joy Hamm share wisdom gained from their teaching experience.

Before I turn over the column to them, though, I’d like to share my favorite tool(s).

Graphic organizers, including writing frames (which are basically more expansive sentence starters) and writing structures (which function more as guides and less as “fill-in-the-blanks”) are critical elements of my writing instruction.

You can see an example of how I incorporate them in my seven-week story-writing unit and in the adaptations I made in it for concurrent teaching.

You might also be interested in The Best Scaffolded Writing Frames For Students .

Now, to today’s guests:

‘Shared Writing’

Jenny Vo earned her B.A. in English from Rice University and her M.Ed. in educational leadership from Lamar University. She has worked with English-learners during all of her 24 years in education and is currently an ESL ISST in Katy ISD in Katy, Texas. Jenny is the president-elect of TexTESOL IV and works to advocate for all ELs:

The single most effective instructional strategy that I have used to teach writing is shared writing. Shared writing is when the teacher and students write collaboratively. In shared writing, the teacher is the primary holder of the pen, even though the process is a collaborative one. The teacher serves as the scribe, while also questioning and prompting the students.

The students engage in discussions with the teacher and their peers on what should be included in the text. Shared writing can be done with the whole class or as a small-group activity.

There are two reasons why I love using shared writing. One, it is a great opportunity for the teacher to model the structures and functions of different types of writing while also weaving in lessons on spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

It is a perfect activity to do at the beginning of the unit for a new genre. Use shared writing to introduce the students to the purpose of the genre. Model the writing process from beginning to end, taking the students from idea generation to planning to drafting to revising to publishing. As you are writing, make sure you refrain from making errors, as you want your finished product to serve as a high-quality model for the students to refer back to as they write independently.

Another reason why I love using shared writing is that it connects the writing process with oral language. As the students co-construct the writing piece with the teacher, they are orally expressing their ideas and listening to the ideas of their classmates. It gives them the opportunity to practice rehearsing what they are going to say before it is written down on paper. Shared writing gives the teacher many opportunities to encourage their quieter or more reluctant students to engage in the discussion with the types of questions the teacher asks.

Writing well is a skill that is developed over time with much practice. Shared writing allows students to engage in the writing process while observing the construction of a high-quality sample. It is a very effective instructional strategy used to teach writing.

‘Four Square’

Michele Morgan has been writing IEPs and behavior plans to help students be more successful for 17 years. She is a national-board-certified teacher, Utah Teacher Fellow with Hope Street Group, and a special education elementary new-teacher specialist with the Granite school district. Follow her @MicheleTMorgan1:

For many students, writing is the most dreaded part of the school day. Writing involves many complex processes that students have to engage in before they produce a product—they must determine what they will write about, they must organize their thoughts into a logical sequence, and they must do the actual writing, whether on a computer or by hand. Still they are not done—they must edit their writing and revise mistakes. With all of that, it’s no wonder that students struggle with writing assignments.

In my years working with elementary special education students, I have found that writing is the most difficult subject to teach. Not only do my students struggle with the writing process, but they often have the added difficulties of not knowing how to spell words and not understanding how to use punctuation correctly. That is why the single most effective strategy I use when teaching writing is the Four Square graphic organizer.

The Four Square instructional strategy was developed in 1999 by Judith S. Gould and Evan Jay Gould. When I first started teaching, a colleague allowed me to borrow the Goulds’ book about using the Four Square method, and I have used it ever since. The Four Square is a graphic organizer that students can make themselves when given a blank sheet of paper. They fold it into four squares and draw a box in the middle of the page. The genius of this instructional strategy is that it can be used by any student, in any grade level, for any writing assignment. These are some of the ways I have used this strategy successfully with my students:

* Writing sentences: Students can write the topic for the sentence in the middle box, and in each square, they can draw pictures of details they want to add to their writing.

* Writing paragraphs: Students write the topic sentence in the middle box. They write a sentence containing a supporting detail in three of the squares and they write a concluding sentence in the last square.

* Writing short essays: Students write what information goes in the topic paragraph in the middle box, then list details to include in supporting paragraphs in the squares.

When I gave students writing assignments, the first thing I had them do was create a Four Square. We did this so often that it became automatic. After filling in the Four Square, they wrote rough drafts by copying their work off of the graphic organizer and into the correct format, either on lined paper or in a Word document. This worked for all of my special education students!

I was able to modify tasks using the Four Square so that all of my students could participate, regardless of their disabilities. Even if they did not know what to write about, they knew how to start the assignment (which is often the hardest part of getting it done!) and they grew to be more confident in their writing abilities.

In addition, when it was time to take the high-stakes state writing tests at the end of the year, this was a strategy my students could use to help them do well on the tests. I was able to give them a sheet of blank paper, and they knew what to do with it. I have used many different curriculum materials and programs to teach writing in the last 16 years, but the Four Square is the one strategy that I have used with every writing assignment, no matter the grade level, because it is so effective.

‘Swift Structures’

Joy Hamm has taught 11 years in a variety of English-language settings, ranging from kindergarten to adult learners. The last few years working with middle and high school Newcomers and completing her M.Ed in TESOL have fostered stronger advocacy in her district and beyond:

A majority of secondary content assessments include open-ended essay questions. Many students falter (not just ELs) because they are unaware of how to quickly organize their thoughts into a cohesive argument. In fact, the WIDA CAN DO Descriptors list level 5 writing proficiency as “organizing details logically and cohesively.” Thus, the most effective cross-curricular secondary writing strategy I use with my intermediate LTELs (long-term English-learners) is what I call “Swift Structures.” This term simply means reading a prompt across any content area and quickly jotting down an outline to organize a strong response.

To implement Swift Structures, begin by displaying a prompt and modeling how to swiftly create a bubble map or outline beginning with a thesis/opinion, then connecting the three main topics, which are each supported by at least three details. Emphasize this is NOT the time for complete sentences, just bulleted words or phrases.

Once the outline is completed, show your ELs how easy it is to plug in transitions, expand the bullets into detailed sentences, and add a brief introduction and conclusion. After modeling and guided practice, set a 5-10 minute timer and have students practice independently. Swift Structures is one of my weekly bell ringers, so students build confidence and skill over time. It is best to start with easy prompts where students have preformed opinions and knowledge in order to focus their attention on the thesis-topics-supporting-details outline, not struggling with the rigor of a content prompt.

Here is one easy prompt example: “Should students be allowed to use their cellphones in class?”

Swift Structure outline:

Thesis - Students should be allowed to use cellphones because (1) higher engagement (2) learning tools/apps (3) gain 21st-century skills

Topic 1. Cellphones create higher engagement in students...

Details A. interactive (Flipgrid, Kahoot)

B. less tempted by distractions

C. teaches responsibility

Topic 2. Furthermore,...access to learning tools...

A. Google Translate description

B. language practice (Duolingo)

C. content tutorials (Kahn Academy)

Topic 3. In addition,...practice 21st-century skills…

Details A. prep for workforce

B. access to information

C. time-management support

This bare-bones outline is like the frame of a house. Get the structure right, and it’s easier to fill in the interior decorating (style, grammar), roof (introduction) and driveway (conclusion). Without the frame, the roof and walls will fall apart, and the reader is left confused by circuitous rubble.

Once LTELs have mastered creating simple Swift Structures in less than 10 minutes, it is time to introduce complex questions similar to prompts found on content assessments or essays. Students need to gain assurance that they can quickly and logically explain and justify their opinions on multiple content essays without freezing under pressure.

Thanks to Jenny, Michele, and Joy for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.

Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at [email protected] . When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.

You can also contact me on Twitter at @Larryferlazzo .

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• Professional development
• Knowing the subject

First steps in essay writing for primary school students

It is often difficult to get young learners closer to understanding the main purpose and development of an opinion essay.

Posted by Karina Castro

This resource could become an easy starting point to help them generate ideas and produce consistent lines. A good source of inspiration is essential for this kind of task. A couple of months ago I found an essay in pictures by Neil Gaiman published in The Guardian. It is part of Gaiman’s larger work Art Matters, and of public access. It explains the importance of reading, libraries preservation and daydreaming.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2018/sep/06/neil-gaiman-and-chris-riddell-on-why-we-need-libraries-an-essay-in-pictures?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The use of this material could benefit students both by connecting them with a different kind of literature and encouraging them to write their own ideas on the topic.

1. Start by showing on your classroom screen the different parts of the essay (or print them and paste them all over the classroom). Select students to read them aloud and invite them to make comments and provide their own opinion: Do they agree? What would they add to each sentence? What other ideas would they include?

2. Encourage your students to join in groups and write down their own ideas starting by those of the author. Eg: Reading is important because…; Books are …, etc.

3. Ask students to check grammar and spelling. Help them when necessary.

4. Share their final works.

You may take notes on the board of those sentences whose contents reflect their strongest points of view and guide them to reorder them so that they have a logical connection and result in a clear statement of what they think on the issue.

After that first try, you could encourage your students to write about different topics like:

- Our environment needs our help

- Learning languages is our gate to the world

- A creative mind will always make a free person

You may use any other topic you are working with or they suggest. This time you should let them work on their own: alone, in pairs or in small groups. Make sure they can count on you during the process.

Cross-curricular - Language + Art

As the last step for this task, you could join the Art teacher, who can work with the students to illustrate each of their lines/ideas. The final result would be a real “essay in pictures” which could decórate your classroom, the school’s reception, one of the school’s corridors or, why not, become the central part of the school’s Art Display this year! Give it a try, and writing an opinion essay won’t be that tough (or boring) for your students next time!

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Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

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An Equitable (and Engaging) Way to Teach Writing in Elementary School

When teachers tie writing instruction to what students are reading, learners begin with a more level playing field.

“I don’t know what to write about.” This was the sentence I most dreaded and, unfortunately, heard too often in the classroom.

For some time, like many elementary school teachers, I taught writing in a way that invariably led to that response from my students, which made me think there had to be a better approach.

At the time, I used a common instructional approach that emphasized sentence structure, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling—but didn’t spark joy in writing, connect it to what we were reading, or build knowledge on important topics. Skills were taught as stand-alone topics, devoid of meaningful content.

During a typical writing block, I’d give students a prompt like “Write about a small moment in your life or something that took place over the weekend.”

I taught in a diverse school in Washington, D.C., and for some of my students, the question was easy. They might write about a museum visit, a day at the beach, or an outing with their dog. But for other students, often those from low-income families, the question failed to elicit comparable answers. Instead, it simply highlighted inequities among my students and led to gaps in their performance.

Building Knowledge and Skills

I eventually became an assistant principal, but the problem stuck with me and continued to trouble my teaching colleagues. We knew there had to be a better way, and together we began doing some research. We looked into knowledge-building curricula—materials that help students learn about important topics while developing critical skills at the same time. Research shows that increasing students’ background knowledge on important topics supports their understanding of texts and ability to absorb and retain information.

So, with a literacy approach that explicitly emphasizes the development of knowledge and skills, writing and reading lessons are deeply intertwined, rather than being taught as two separate and disconnected blocks. Writing assignments are rooted in the texts that students are reading, and texts connect important topics like history, science, or art.

I’m grateful that my school went on to adopt this kind of knowledge-building approach. What a difference it made. To give you a sense of the change, in a fourth-grade class, students studied the American Revolution and read engaging, complex texts, like Liberty! How the Revolutionary War Began and excerpts from A Young People’s History of the United States . They enthusiastically participated in thoughtful discussions on what they read and dove into related writing assignments; for example, they took the perspective of someone who lived in the period and wrote an essay on whether the colonists were or were not justified in declaring independence from Britain.

The result? Over time, our learners improved in literacy. We saw improvements in the quantity and quality of student writing. The experience they gained in answering text-based questions and supporting their work with text evidence also helped prepare them for standardized tests. We used rubrics to measure growth, and we took notes on how students responded to writing tasks and monitored and recorded their progress.

Specifically, we saw growth in students’ use of academic vocabulary in both speaking and writing. For example, when studying a unit on food, students became adept at using words like esophagus , intestine , and villi . They were also able to answer more in-depth questions and apply their deeper knowledge to their writing.

Anecdotally, we saw that they were more eager and excited to write, and their confidence grew. Thankfully, we rarely heard a student say they didn’t know what to write about. On the rare occasion that did happen, we guided them toward the texts we were reading as a source of inspiration. The approach was both effective and equitable.

6 Steps to Build Knowledge and Improve Literacy

My colleagues and I made the switch to this approach as a team. We worked together to research curricular options, adopted a program we liked, and implemented it well. If you’re in that position too, count your blessings. You can check out independent reviewers like EdReports.org for write-ups of programs and study a curriculum closely before selecting it.

If you’re not in a school taking up a new adoption and want to try some of the approaches I’ve recommended here, it’s still a good idea to engage colleagues who are also interested in this work.

And whether you’re working on your own or with peers, here are some suggestions for trying out the practices I’ve recommended:

• Pick a topic that’s worthy of study, meaning it might anchor teaching and learning over the course of several weeks.
• Develop an essential question around your central topic that sparks student inquiry and fosters critical thinking and deeper learning. Come back to the question in discussions and during lessons.
• Find grade-level texts that fit in with that topic. Look for books that have received literary awards or that former students have loved and wanted to savor.
• Layer fiction and nonfiction, introduce primary sources, and even weave in a study of fine art like paintings or photography.
• Listen to audio clips, and watch excerpts from films to offer access points for students with different backgrounds and language skills.
• Share this knowledge-rich approach to literacy instruction with your school’s specialists, like art, music, dance, and physical education teachers. I loved how our second-grade students, when studying the American West, were so inspired by the text, The Buffalo Are Back , that they worked with our music teacher to write a song about the buffalo.

As an assistant principal, I often heard my teachers rave about our new approach to English language arts. They particularly noted how much more fun students were having in class and how much more they were writing. That’s a far cry from the days when I had to hold my breath and hope I didn’t get that dreaded response when giving my students a writing assignment.

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The Measured Mom

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Simple writing lessons for the primary grades

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I’m so excited to launch something that’s been in the works for several months!  Each Wednesday, you can look forward to a simple writing lesson for primary grades — it’s a collaboration between This Reading Mama and The Measured Mom.

Simple writing lessons.

What comes to mind when you hear those words?  Maybe it’s a collection of writing prompts that students respond to in their daily journals.  Perhaps you’re thinking of a series of worksheets to help children practice capitalization, parts of speech, and proper spelling. Or maybe you’re hoping for a curriculum which simplifies your teaching by listing every lesson from September to May.

The fact is that teaching writing is not as simple as prompts, drills, or a prescribed curriculum.

  What are simple writing lessons?

1. Simple writing lessons differ from traditional writing instruction.

In our writing series you won’t find a series of daily prompts. You will find lessons which show students how to find and choose their own topics.

You probably won’t find children completing a piece of writing in a single sitting.  You will find students taking some of their writing all the way through the writing process over days or even weeks.

You won’t find children limited to writing only the words they can spell.  You will  find students spelling any of the words in their vocabulary — according to their own developmental level.

You won’t find a series of lessons mapped out before the year begins.  You will learn to choose what to teach based on your students’ current needs.

2. Simple writing lessons are taught as students follow the writing process.

If you’re focused on the process, then you’re interested in the journey.  The destination is important, but you’re most interested in what it takes to get there.

Quality writing instruction takes students through the writing process – over days or even weeks.

Pre-writing: Writers decide on a topic and brainstorm ideas.

Drafting: Writers write sentences and paragraphs, reread what they’ve written, and get suggestions from others.

Revising: Writers rearrange words or sentences, add or delete, replace words, and make sure their writing is fluent.

Editing: Writers correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

Publishing/Sharing: Writers create a final copy of their work and share it.

  3. Simple writing lessons include a mini-lesson in which teachers clearly model a skill or strategy.

Mini-lessons are just that: mini.  They can be as short as 2 minutes and might take as long as 15.   Teachers model the lesson with their own writing.

Hundreds of possibilities exist for mini-lessons!  Here are just a few:

• Choosing a topic
• How to stretch a word and write the sounds you hear
• Using quotation marks correctly
• Reread your writing to check for fluency
• What to do when you’re “stuck”
• How to follow an editor’s checklist

4. Simple writing lessons leave the bulk of time for students to write independently.

We didn’t teach our toddlers to talk by drilling them on blends and word endings.  We talked  with them in real and meaningful ways.

We don’t need to drill our children on the skills of good writing.  Instead, we give them opportunities to write in real and purposeful ways – and we support and teach them as they grow.

Primary students should be given at least 20-30 minutes to write independently – ideally on a daily basis.

5. We choose simple writing lessons based on observations of our student writers.

A teacher’s manual might tell me that the next writing lesson is about how to insert information by using a caret.  But my first grader takes 20 minutes to write a single sentence and is clearly not ready for this advanced revising skill.

Or maybe the prescribed lesson is for putting periods at the end of sentences. My first grader has been doing that correctly for a year.  Clearly she needs to learn something else.

Choosing what to teach based on our students’ needs isn’t easy.  But the more you do it, the more proficient you’ll become.  And The Measured Mom and This Reading Mama are here to help!

6. Simple Writing Lessons for Primary Grades:

Our lessons are designed for students in grades 1 and 2.  But you might find that your kindergartner or third grader will also benefit.

• Pre-writing: Make an expert list
• Pre-writing: Use a graphic organizer
• Drafting: Choose a tiny topic
• Drafting: Make it interesting for the reader
• Drafting: Ask questions
• Drafting: Use invented spelling
• Revising: Put boring words in jail
• Revising: Re-read your writing
• Editing: Use a spelling dictionary for kids
• Editing: Use a checklist
• Publishing: Make a book
• Publishing: Share Your Writing

Free Spelling Games

Get this fun variety of sample spelling games from the membership site! The download includes resources for spelling CVCE words, long vowel teams, and multi-syllable words.

You May Also Enjoy These Episodes:

Reader Interactions

36 comments.

Ana Aciar Ochoa

May 28, 2020 at 9:37 am

What a great idea! Thank you!!! <3

Martha Waltz

May 28, 2022 at 1:23 pm

Where can I find your Simple Writing lessons to download?

Laura Cherney

June 2, 2022 at 9:05 am

Hi Martha! You can find Anna’s blog series on Simple Writing Lessons beginning here: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/simple-writing-lessons-for-primary-grades-series/ If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us at [email protected] Thank you!

September 9, 2015 at 12:53 pm

Hi! Thanks for sharing. These are great!! This helped me search for free printable worksheets that will be helpful for my classroom. I actually found a lot of free worksheets at EduCents.com. There’s a good compare and contrast freebie right now that my kids loved! They love Venn Diagrams, and so do I 🙂 🙂 I’m excited to try your boring words activity next.

Thanks again!

Ms. Bee from California!

Anna Geiger

October 4, 2015 at 3:19 pm

You’re very welcome – thanks so much for reading!

March 1, 2015 at 12:19 pm

please let me know some ideas of how to carry a mini-lesson for cohesive writing. It is for 3rd graders

March 1, 2015 at 12:49 pm

Can you give me some more detailsl about what you’re looking for, Athy?

sims 4 trailer

July 16, 2014 at 8:12 am

Hello, its pleasant post about media print, we all understand media is a enormous source of information.

Donna Valentine-Mutimbanyoka

June 23, 2014 at 2:59 am

Loving all YOU ARE SHARING., ITS GREAT HELP.I am qualified early childhood teacher in Botswana, and am planning to open my own preschool soon. God bless you

May 8, 2014 at 12:35 am

Thank you so much for replying to my post-now I can’t find it! So, I am replying to this one! I was also thinking of doing this writing at the kitchen table to “remove” it from the rest of school! ( Our homeschool does not have room for a table for us to work together at, but if we move next year, that will be a priority! )

They have fallen in love with Zotz candy, so I think we may do “Zotz and Zotz” of writing!

May 14, 2014 at 12:58 pm

Great idea, Jenny! I’d love to hear how it goes.

January 5, 2014 at 6:45 am

Hi Anna, for some reason your link to “Revising: Re-Read Your Writing” doesn’t work this morning. I found the post on Becky’s site, but I thought I’d let you know. 🙂

January 12, 2014 at 4:41 pm

Thanks so much for alerting me to that, Heather. Fixed now!

October 16, 2013 at 12:16 pm

THANK YOU so much for this!!!!! My daughter (3rd grade) has always, always been a struggling writer.

We started out using Abeka’s Language Arts in first grade. It seemed to hop everywhere and the writing parts were more along the lines of: “Write a sentence about this picture” or “Use the following words to write about Abraham Lincoln”. How in the world could my first grader do that? She had no clue how to put ideas into words. Tears, frustration, pushing, exasperation… finally I just put it aside. I focused on the more phonics side of language and skipped the writing assignments.

For second grade, I created a fun parts of speech curriculum. I thought that understanding what a noun and verb is would help her create simple sentences, then from there, she could add adjectives and adverbs to make it more interesting. She understood everything very well, but could not write a sentence of her own creation. “I don’t know what to write!!!”, followed by loads of tears. I turned to Teachers Pay Teachers to find things that public school teachers use with their students… mostly more writing prompts. Second grade passed and it was another writing fail.

This year, I was determined to have a child who could create and write her own thoughts and stories. I’ve tried a few things on my own… still no results.

Sunday, I came across this series and decided to give it a try. Monday, my daughter made an expert list (mostly with my prompting). Tuesday, I took one of my expert topics (taking care of babies) and wrote a paragraph that was “all over the place” while she observed. On her own, she commented that I wrote about too many things. So I had her help me find the tiny topics. Then I chose one and wrote a new paragraph as she watched.

She was smiling (not crying) and I saw the light bulb turn on. She chose one of her expert topics (make-up) and wrote a list of tiny topics. Then chose the tiny topic (blush) and wrote a 27 word paragraph. She forgot everything about capitalization and punctuation, but I was so happy she actually created content that I didn’t even care.

I figured we’d repeat the same sort of thing today… pick an expert topic, break it down, write about a tiny topic… but her dad requested she write something for him today, and she was determined she would write a story not a non-fiction paragraph.

I hesitated sure that this would be an epic fail splashed with a boat load of tears, but I hated to squelch her enthusiasm. I printed out your fiction organizer ans had her start with that. She filled it out, told her story out loud, and then proceeded to write it out.

Today, my daughter wrote a story that nearly filled an entire page.

THANK YOU!!!!!

October 22, 2013 at 8:25 pm

Brenda, I want to thank you SO much for your comment. I can’t tell you how much it made my day to receive it! I love all the details you shared and appreciate knowing that our writing series helped your daughter overcome her writing block. As you know, all writers hit bumps along the way, so please feel free to come back here with questions or concerns about future writing projects. Thanks again!!

September 27, 2013 at 8:57 pm

Hi Anna, I’m excited to use this series with our two homeschooled kids, in 1st and 2nd grades. Right now I’m piecing together their writing curriculum, and I’m wondering, do you have a curriculum you’d recommend where I’d find all this good stuff in one package? It would be reassuring to me that I wouldn’t be leaving anything out. 🙂

Thanks, Heather

September 29, 2013 at 3:31 pm

Very good question, Heather – I’m not sure if something like that exists – partly because Writing Workshop is meant to be designed to respond to the child, and not to a prescribed curriculum. However, you can find lots of places with lists of possible mini-lessons, which I like to use as a reference. I put together a list of sample lessons to work from as we write this series — not how to teach, but a list of ideas. I will send it out to you via e-mail. Let me know if you’re looking for something else in particular!

January 15, 2017 at 11:10 am

This sounds great! I would love a copy too if you’re willing to share. Thank you!

January 15, 2017 at 12:11 pm

Hi Amy! I don’t email these out anymore, as I put all the resources together in my ebook, which is referenced in this post. However, if you follow by email I will eventually be sharing posts with suggested mini-lessons. 🙂

August 14, 2013 at 6:06 am

Looking forward to this series! I featured this post on Mom’s Library this week!

August 19, 2013 at 1:24 pm

Thank you so much for the feature, Ashley!

August 5, 2013 at 9:09 pm

I have one of your spelling games all ready to go. And I’m also hoping to get some of the word family games constructed. And I plan to use a couple math ideas for centers this year. And here you are helping me to get my students writing, too!! And, and, and… how I wish it were early July instead of late August. Thank you so much for all the wonderful ideas!

August 5, 2013 at 9:39 pm

Your comment brings a big smile to my face, Margie 🙂 Thanks so much for tuning in – as our little girl moves into first grade I should have lots more to share for older kids!

August 4, 2013 at 6:03 pm

This sounds wonderful! I’ll be following along 🙂

Thanks, Linda! I hope it’s really useful for you.

Shaunna @ Fantastic Fun and Learning

August 3, 2013 at 6:26 am

This is going to be a great series! I look forward to following along.

August 5, 2013 at 9:38 pm

Thanks for tuning in, Shaunna! We’re excited!

August 2, 2013 at 1:20 pm

Sounds like this is going to be a great series. I can’t wait to see more! 🙂

August 2, 2013 at 8:10 pm

I’m so glad you’re tuned in, Kirstylee! Becky and I are so pumped – it’s just love having a reason to pull out all my old teaching books and brain:).

Tenida Plummer

September 17, 2017 at 10:16 am

Thank you so very much Anna!!!! You have been a life saver in my classroom. The material and tips are so very helpful and saves a lot of my valuable time.

[…] Simple Writing Lessons for Primary Grades (a 12-part series) […]

[…]  wonderful explanation and guide to the writing process for budding writers from The Measured […]

[…] of the year is…’  I have been scrapping those altogether and instead going through the Simple Writing Series from The Measured Mom.  I am seriously considering switching to Primary Language Lessons next […]

[…] The Measured Mom – Check out her Simple Writing series. […]

[…] strategies for opening and closing sentences.    We are currently working through these Simple Writing Lessons for Primary Grades by The Measured Mom.  They are an excellent introduction.  She works with her first […]

[…] am super pumped to announce an upcoming and awesome series that Anna of The Measured Mom and I are tackling together: Simple Writing Lessons for Primary Grades {for 1st and 2nd grades}.  […]

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• Teaching & Learning

Inside the primary writing wars

“There’s what we call the reading war about how to teach reading, and there’s probably a similar kind of war about how to teach writing,” says Julie Dockrell.

Dockrell is chair in psychology and special needs at UCL Institute of Education (IOE). She has spent much of her career researching writing development, so is all too familiar with the disagreements that exist about the best way to teach this skill.

But while the so-called “ reading wars ” ushered in a global shift in how reading is taught - with schools increasingly adopting phonics-based approaches backed by the science of reading - writing has yet to experience a similar revolution. 

In fact, the writing wars have barely been acknowledged by the education mainstream.

“Not that many people talk about it,” Dockrell says. “But it’s clearly out there.”

Left behind

That could all be about to change. With broad agreement about the benefits of phonics, attention is now shifting: in July, the government in England announced a review of how writing is being taught in schools .

Some say that such a review is needed, including Andrew Percival, a deputy head at Stanley Road Primary School, in Greater Manchester.

“I think it’s absolutely the right time for some sort of guidance that tries to summarise what good practice in writing looks like,” he says.

“We’ve had the reading wars, and phonics has absolutely dominated the debate. But I think writing has been left behind somewhere.”

Why has writing taken second place for so long? And could a closer look at the research result in a sea change to classroom practice, just as it did with reading?

Unreliable assessment

According to a report from the National Literacy Trust, published in June, England is now facing what the charity calls a “crisis” in writing , with just one in three (34.6 per cent) young people between the ages of 8 and 18 saying that they enjoy writing in their free time. That’s a 26 per cent drop on the 2010 figure.

Meanwhile, in this year’s key stage 2 Sats, the proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in writing was 71 per cent - well below the 2019 figure of 78 per cent.

It’s clear that more needs to be done to support writing in schools, so why has the focus, instead, been solely on improving reading?

There are several reasons for this. First, this focus has been driven by a global assessment agenda that prioritises the assessment of reading, through tests such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls). 

“Those particular assessments are very widely and internationally used to leverage or influence what governments and policymakers do,” says Teresa Cremin, professor of education (literacy) at the Open University.

And even in one individual country, the assessment of writing can be notoriously unreliable. 

“What’s interesting is, if you look at standardised assessments for writing in English, there aren’t any below the age of 8,” says Dockrell.

“If you’ve got a seven-year-old who only writes 12 or 15 words, how do you judge that for the quality of the text? You can judge it for the grammar or spelling, and that’s easy, but, you know, the quality of the text is just really problematic.”

• Writing: Is this the best way to teach writing in key stage 3?
• Early years: When should we start teaching writing?
• Literacy: Four ways to support early writing through play

These challenges around assessment have contributed to writing being lower than reading on the political and research agendas - and it has received less financial investment as a result. 

In England, for example, the government has poured money into its English hubs, which were designed to focus primarily on three key areas: phonics, language development and reading for pleasure.

“It is the case, unquestionably, that the money has gone to reading, because the money is in the hubs and we have 34 of them across the country, and they are well funded to support a number of initiatives, none of which really focuses on writing,” says Cremin.

Investment in reading over writing isn’t only happening in the UK. According to Steve Graham, a professor at Arizona State University in the US, “this is a problem worldwide”.

In the US, for example, “there has been a concerted effort by both non-profits and other people to make reading a cornerstone of education”, says Graham. And while reading is, of course, important, the powerful lobby behind it makes it difficult for writing researchers to push for equal attention.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, you know, ‘We’re worried about whether it will take away attention from reading by saying that writing’s important,’” Graham says.

‘Writing is as demanding as playing a game of chess’

Graham’s partner, Karen Harris, also a professor at Arizona State University, agrees, adding that this pattern plays out in the classroom as well as at a policy level.

“One of the things that teachers we’ve worked with, not just in the States but in other countries, say is that reading is so emphasised and maths is so emphasised - and the tests in those subjects are so critical to the schools - that when something has to go, it’s writing,” she says.

It’s hard to change that, Graham explains, because while the success of phonics instruction has helped to communicate “what works” for reading, “the messaging is more complex” for writing.

“You just can’t say to people, ‘If kids become good spellers then they’re going to be great writers.’ That’s not going to be the case,” he says.

In fact, according to Debra Myhill, professor emerita of language and literacy education at the University of Exeter, writing is one of the most complex skills that children are asked to master.

“You could reduce reading to just two main strands. Basically, you’ve got to be able to decode, so just being able to look at letters on a page, know the sounds and create words out of them. And then there’s the comprehension of those words,” she explains.

But, “when it comes to writing, it’s a much more complex construct - a very different mental skill or social skill.” 

Children learning to write have to learn the act of physically shaping letters, which draws on fine motor skills.

They also have to develop skill in spelling, punctuation, grammar, generating ideas and understanding the best way to communicate those ideas, as well as drawing on vocabulary knowledge.

Managing all this, Myhill says, places incredible cognitive demands on young learners. And, unlike with reading, those demands don’t reduce as writers gain more experience.

“It’s difficult for young writers, but, actually, the research shows that even when you become an expert writer, the load is also immense,” says Myhill.

“In cognitive psychology, we talk about writing as being as demanding as playing a game of chess.”

The sheer complexity of writing makes it a more challenging topic to research than reading, with researchers tending to focus on a particular aspect of writing, such as handwriting or spelling, rather than writing as a “global construct”.

“There are lots of meta-analyses of interventions on writing instruction that will list different things that do work or don’t work. But to an extent, they all have weaknesses,” says Myhill.

This means it’s difficult to make sense of “what works” for teaching writing - and even more difficult to distil what we know from the research into a clear message that can be communicated to schools. 

And that, Graham says, has been to the detriment of writing at a policy level.

“If you don’t step out there and say, ‘This works,’ then people think, ‘Why should I bother doing this?’” he explains.

“You have people who are advocates for a kind of ‘simple view’ of writing. And there’s no ifs, ands or buts with them. From a policy point of view, that’s a smarter tactic than saying, ‘Oh, this is complex, and we don’t really know what we’re doing.’”

Caught vs taught

The search for a clear message is where the writing wars come in. There are, Graham says, two basic viewpoints about how people develop writing: one is that writing is “caught” and the other is that writing is “taught”.

From the “caught” viewpoint, the theory is that “all you basically need to do is have kids write for real purposes in meaningful situations, and they’ll be fine”, says Graham; whereas, from the “taught” viewpoint, it’s understood that children need to be explicitly taught certain skills.

The “caught” viewpoint is heavily associated with what is known as the “process approach”. This was developed by Donald Graves and became popular in the UK, the US, Australia and New Zealand in the 1980s. 

The process approach, as Dominic Wyse explains in a 2019 paper , places “learner choice and the development of the writer’s voice” at the heart of teaching.

To enact this, Graves encourages teachers to create a community of writers and set up a “publishing house” in their classroom.

“By which [Graves] meant - and I used to do this with kids, as a teacher - you actually make the books physically,” explains Wyse, who is a professor of early childhood and primary education at the IOE.

“In those days, you’d sew them together, you’d do the artwork and you’d put them in the reading area of the classroom, and the kids would read them and critique them and they became a resource.”

Finding the fun

In the process approach, children are given free choice over what they want to write and when they start and finish that piece of writing. One pupil might choose to spend “a whole term writing a long story”, while another might start to draft something and “after 10 minutes, start another piece because the first draft didn’t feel right to them”, says Wyse.

It is, Harris says, “for want of a great term, a constructivist or discovery-type approach” in which “you don’t teach anything explicitly or directly to the students”.

There are some clear benefits to the process approach. One is that it allows children to have an extended period of time to craft a piece of writing - something that is rare in most primary classrooms, says Wyse.

The approach is also popular, says Harris, because it prioritises rich discussion and children having fun with their writing.

“Except that a lot of kids are sitting in process classrooms not having any fun at all,” she caveats.

Research shows, she continues, that while the process approach does have a positive effect on writing, it is a “small effect”, and this method is therefore “not sufficient by itself” to help the majority of pupils to write well.

‘Too rigid’

So, process is at one end of the spectrum. At the other, we have explicit teaching of key skills, such as spelling. There is, says Graham, good evidence to support this approach.

“Teaching spelling, handwriting and typing has positive effects, not only on those skills but also on the overall quality of writing, because they interfere with other writing processes,” he says.

“There is also considerable evidence that if you teach kids how to engage in, you know, strategies for planning or revising, for evaluating, for monitoring their writing strategies around process, particularly if they’re genre-oriented - so, you know, a strategy for planning a persuasive text is different from one for planning a narrative text - that makes a difference.

“Teaching students, pretty much throughout school, how to construct sentences. Teaching kids transcription skills, how to take that from ideas, to sentences, to getting it on paper.”

Myhill agrees that one of the key messages from the research is that explicit teaching of the different components of writing is helpful.

This, she says, is something that teachers in England are already “very good at” because it has been prioritised by the national curriculum.

‘Neither the ‘caught’ nor ‘taught’ approach is adequate - it’s a combination of the two’

However, she worries that the focus on explicitly teaching skills has made the way that schools approach writing “a little bit too rigid and formulaic”.

“Pupils think that if you’re writing an argument, you must have a topic sentence, you must have ‘moreover’ and ‘however’ and all these things that you must put in, when what you really need is for writers to understand why they’re putting them in,” Myhill says.

Is there a risk of trying to force writing into a reading-shaped hole by latching on to one strand of instruction that has a strong evidence base? Wyse believes so. 

“The problem with seeing things in one way is that, as with phonics, this has been boiled down to a simple political message: synthetic phonics equals good; anything else equals bad.

“And I understand that politicians want to get messages across in a very crowded space. But you cannot do that with writing. It doesn’t boil down.”

Instead, he says, when it comes to writing, “balance is all”.

Graham, likewise, calls for balance: “I talked about the ‘caught’ and ‘taught’ approach, but I wouldn’t say either one of those is adequate. It’s a combination of the two.”

Breaking the rules

With that balance in mind, there are several strands that the research shows might be helpful to think about when it comes to considering “what works” for writing. 

One strand, Myhill suggests, is helping children to use metacognitive strategies to develop their writing. 

“There’s quite a lot of research that suggests that it’s very helpful for children to have metacognitive understanding of what they’re doing,” she says. 

If, for example, a child knows that they struggle with spelling, they might choose not to worry about that until the writing is complete, and then go back to pay particular attention to checking their spelling. 

Metacognitive understanding is also crucial for helping children to recognise when and how they can “break the rules” in their writing.

“When I say ‘rules’, I’m talking about conventions rather than literal, deep rules,” Myhill says. 

What makes a writer?

It’s important to share with pupils that sometimes a writer will move things around in a sentence, not because it’s grammatically incorrect but because it just doesn’t feel right or isn’t communicating the information in the best way, she explains.

“We need to get young children to be much more knowledgeable about the decisions they’re making as writers. The risk of saying that explicit teaching is known to be good is that it’s also known to lead to writers who can’t make decisions, which disables them later on,” Myhill says.

“So, explicit teaching has to raise explicit thinking about, well, why do we use ‘moreover’? How do you help children understand what a typical argument is like? But then, crucially, how do you help them to understand how they could do it differently?”

Positioning children as “authors” might be one way to help them to develop a sense of agency over their writing, suggests Cremin.

“I think one of the challenges we have is the way we position writers; we don’t position ‘writers’, we position ‘the teaching of writing’. And writers are not developed,” she says. 

“Gradually, I think we’ve moved to recognise that reading, as an act and an experience, is also related to being a reader, is choosing to undertake that experience. We need to make the same move in writing.”

‘Give the kids a voice, and find a way of helping that voice surface’

Helping pupils to see themselves as authors doesn’t mean doing lots of creative writing, Cremin stresses; it means helping children to see that you don’t have to have published “two short story collections” to be able to call yourself a writer.

“We’re all authors; we’re authoring, composing our work,” she says. “If writing is an act of identity performance and a matter of communication, what is it you want to say? Give the kids a voice, and find a way of helping that voice surface.”

Making sure that children have plenty of opportunities to write for specific and authentic purposes - where they can develop a sense of an audience and the best ways to communicate with that audience - is an important part of this, says Dockrell.

Traditionally, she explains, a lot of the extended writing that happens in primary schools involves either asking children to write a story or to write an experiential piece about, for example, what they did at the weekend.

“Now, the proportion of pupils that go on ever to write a story [in later life] is minimal. But there are other types of writing; for example, expository texts that children will need to use in science or history or geography, which really aren’t tackled,” Dockrell says.

A matter of time

Percival’s school offers one model of how this type of writing can be better supported. It has started to bring knowledge from the foundation subjects into its primary writing curriculum. 

For example, Year 5 pupils study an early civilisation in history. Once they have studied the topic and know it really well, they are then asked to write a piece about the impact that civilisation has had on the modern world.

“So, that would be writing a bit more like a historian might write - that more academic writing, rather than trying to turn it into a story or writing a newspaper report or something else anachronistic,” says Percival.

“A classic one would be to write a news report about the Vikings invading. That’s not really helping.”

Allowing pupils sufficient time to practise their writing is also critical, says Graham. A skill as complex as writing takes a lot of time to master and a lot of time to teach. 

Unfortunately, time is not something that most primary teachers have enough of. This is true, Graham says, all over the world.

“When I was doing workshops for teachers, I used to always start off by saying, ‘You need to double the amount of time kids are writing,’” he says.

“But immediately there were administrators in the audience who would push back and say, ‘Our teachers don’t have time to do this.’ And that’s a reasonable thing to say, right? We don’t have time to do what you’re suggesting.”

A complex transformation

With the primary curriculum already packed, is there anything that can be done to give teachers the time they need to focus on writing?

One way to encourage policymakers to make sure that writing is always a priority might be to pay more attention to the links between reading and writing.

Graham’s research shows that when you increase the amount of writing that pupils do, up to the age of about 11 or 12, the quality of their writing improves. Alongside this, there’s a corresponding improvement in reading comprehension .

Getting better at writing, then, makes children better readers - so even if reading were all that mattered, writing should still be a priority. 

When it comes to teaching approaches, though, there is a big difference between reading and writing. If policymakers are hoping the evidence might provide them with a phonics equivalent to roll out across schools, they are going to be disappointed. Transforming the teaching of writing will be a lot more complicated than that.

That’s because writing is just “so complex”, says Dockrell: “There’s nothing else you learn in school that is comparable.”

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How to Teach Essay Writing

Last Updated: June 26, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 88,977 times.

Teaching students how to write an essay is a big undertaking, but this is a crucial process for any high school or college student to learn. Start by assigning essays to read and then encourage students to choose an essay topic of their own. Spend class time helping students understand what makes a good essay. Then, use your assignments to guide students through writing their essays.

Choosing Genres and Topics

• Narrative , which is a non-fiction account of a personal experience. This is a good option if you want your students to share a story about something they did, such as a challenge they overcame or a favorite vacation they took. [2] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• Expository , which is when you investigate an idea, discuss it at length, and make an argument about it. This might be a good option if you want students to explore a specific concept or a controversial subject. [3] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• Descriptive , which is when you describe a person, place, object, emotion, experience, or situation. This can be a good way to allow your students to express themselves creatively through writing. [4] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• Argumentative or persuasive essays require students to take a stance on a topic and make an argument to support that stance. This is different from an expository essay in that students won't be discussing a concept at length and then taking a position. The goal of an argumentative essay is to take a position right away and defend it with evidence. [5] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source

• Make sure to select essays that are well-structured and interesting so that your students can model their own essays after these examples. Include essays written by former students, if you can, as well as professionally written essays.

Tip : Readers come in many forms. You can find readers that focus on a specific topic, such as food or pop culture. You can also find reader/handbook combos that will provide general information on writing along with the model essays.

• For example, for each of the essays you assign your students, you could ask them to identify the author's main point or focus, the structure of the essay, the author's use of sources, and the effect of the introduction and conclusion.
• Ask the students to create a reverse outline of the essay to help them understand how to construct a well-written essay. They'll identify the thesis, the main points of the body paragraphs, the supporting evidence, and the concluding statement. Then, they'll present this information in an outline. [8] X Research source

• For example, if you have assigned your students a narrative essay, then encourage them to choose a story that they love to tell or a story they have always wanted to tell but never have.
• If your students are writing argumentative essays, encourage them to select a topic that they feel strongly about or that they'd like to learn more about so that they can voice their opinion.

Explaining the Parts of an Essay

• For example, if you read an essay that begins with an interesting anecdote, highlight that in your class discussion of the essay. Ask students how they could integrate something like that into their own essays and have them write an anecdotal intro in class.
• Or, if you read an essay that starts with a shocking fact or statistic that grabs readers' attention, point this out to your students. Ask them to identify the most shocking fact or statistic related to their essay topic.

• For example, you could provide a few model thesis statements that students can use as templates and then ask them to write a thesis for their topic as an in-class activity or have them post it on an online discussion board.

Tip : Even though the thesis statement is only 1 sentence, this can be the most challenging part of writing an essay for some students. Plan to spend a full class session on writing thesis statements and review the information multiple times as well.

• For example, you could spend a class session going over topic sentences, and then look at how the authors of model essays have used topic sentences to introduce their claims. Then, identify where the author provides support for a claim and how they expand on the source.

• For example, you might direct students to a conclusion in a narrative essay that reflects on the significance of an author's experience. Ask students to write a paragraph where they reflect on the experience they are writing about and turn it in as homework or share it on class discussion board.
• For an expository or argumentative essay, you might show students conclusions that restate the most important aspect of a topic or that offer solutions for the future. Have students write their own conclusions that restate the most important parts of their subject or that outline some possible solutions to the problem.

Guiding Students Through the Writing Process

• Try giving students a sample timeline for how to work on their essays. For example, they might start brainstorming a topic, gathering sources (if required), and taking notes 4 weeks before the paper is due.
• Then, students might begin drafting 2 weeks before the paper is due with a goal of having a full draft 1 week before the essay's due date.
• Students could then plan to start revising their drafts 5 days before the essay is due. This will provide students with ample time to read through their papers a few times and make changes as needed.

• Freewriting, which is when you write freely about anything that comes to mind for a set amount of time, such as 10, 15, or 20 minutes.
• Clustering, which is when you write your topic or topic idea on a piece of paper and then use lines to connect that idea to others.
• Listing, which is when you make a list of any and all ideas related to a topic and ten read through it to find helpful information for your paper.
• Questioning, such as by answering the who, what, when, where, why, and how of their topic.
• Defining terms, such as identifying all of the key terms related to their topic and writing out definitions for each one.

• For example, if your students are writing narrative essays, then it might make the most sense for them to describe the events of a story chronologically.
• If students are writing expository or argumentative essays, then they might need to start by answering the most important questions about their topic and providing background information.
• For a descriptive essay, students might use spatial reasoning to describe something from top to bottom, or organize the descriptive paragraphs into categories for each of the 5 senses, such as sight, sound, smell, taste, and feel.

• For example, if you have just gone over different types of brainstorming strategies, you might ask students to choose 1 that they like and spend 10 minutes developing ideas for their essay.

• Try having students post a weekly response to a writing prompt or question that you assign.
• You may also want to create a separate discussion board where students can post ideas about their essay and get feedback from you and their classmates.

• You could also assign specific parts of the writing process as homework, such as requiring students to hand in a first draft as a homework assignment.

• For example, you might suggest reading the paper backward 1 sentence at a time or reading the paper out loud as a way to identify issues with organization and to weed out minor errors. [21] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source
• Try peer-review workshops that ask students to review each others' work. Students can work in pairs or groups during the workshop. Provide them with a worksheet, graphic organizer, or copy of the assignment rubric to guide their peer-review.

Tip : Emphasize the importance of giving yourself at least a few hours away from the essay before you revise it. If possible, it is even better to wait a few days. After this time passes, it is often easier to spot errors and work out better ways of describing things.

Community Q&A

• Students often need to write essays as part of college applications, for assignments in other courses, and when applying for scholarships. Remind your students of all the ways that improving their essay writing skills can benefit them. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/index.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/narrative_essays.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/expository_essays.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/descriptive_essays.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/argumentative_essays.html
• ↑ https://wac.colostate.edu/jbw/v1n2/petrie.pdf
• ↑ https://www.uww.edu/learn/restiptool/improve-student-writing
• ↑ https://twp.duke.edu/sites/twp.duke.edu/files/file-attachments/reverse-outline.original.pdf
• ↑ https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide/brainstorming.shtml
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/faculty-resources/tips-on-teaching-writing/situating-student-writers/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/faculty-resources/tips-on-teaching-writing/in-class-writing-exercises/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/revising-drafts/

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How to write a perfect essay

Need to write an essay? Does the assignment feel as big as climbing Mount Everest? Fear not. You’re up to the challenge! The following step-by step tips from the Nat Geo Kids Almanac will help you with this monumental task. 

Sometimes the subject matter of your essay is assigned to you, sometimes it’s not. Either way, you have to decide what you want to say. Start by brainstorming some ideas, writing down any thoughts you have about the subject. Then read over everything you’ve come up with and consider which idea you think is the strongest. Ask yourself what you want to write about the most. Keep in mind the goal of your essay. Can you achieve the goal of the assignment with this topic? If so, you’re good to go.

WRITE A TOPIC SENTENCE

This is the main idea of your essay, a statement of your thoughts on the subject. Again, consider the goal of your essay. Think of the topic sentence as an introduction that tells your reader what the rest of your essay will be about.

OUTLINE YOUR IDEAS

Once you have a good topic sentence, you then need to support that main idea with more detailed information, facts, thoughts, and examples. These supporting points answer one question about your topic sentence—“Why?” This is where research and perhaps more brainstorming come in. Then organize these points in the way you think makes the most sense, probably in order of importance. Now you have an outline for your essay.

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, WRITE!

Follow your outline, using each of your supporting points as the topic sentence of its own paragraph. Use descriptive words to get your ideas across to the reader. Go into detail, using specific information to tell your story or make your point. Stay on track, making sure that everything you include is somehow related to the main idea of your essay. Use transitions to make your writing flow.

Finish your essay with a conclusion that summarizes your entire essay and 5 restates your main idea.

PROOFREAD AND REVISE

Check for errors in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. Look for ways to make your writing clear, understandable, and interesting. Use descriptive verbs, adjectives, or adverbs when possible. It also helps to have someone else read your work to point out things you might have missed. Then make the necessary corrections and changes in a second draft. Repeat this revision process once more to make your final draft as good as you can.

Download the pdf .

Homework help

Science lab, (ad) national geographic kids almanac.

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A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing

February 7, 2016

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For seven years, I was a writing teacher.  Yes, I was certified to teach the full spectrum of English language arts—literature, grammar and usage, speech, drama, and so on—but my absolute favorite, the thing I loved doing the most, was teaching students how to write.

Most of the material on this site is directed at all teachers. I look for and put together resources that would appeal to any teacher who teaches any subject. That practice will continue for as long as I keep this up. But over the next year or so, I plan to also share more of what I know about teaching students to write. Although I know many of the people who visit here are not strictly English language arts teachers, my hope is that these posts will provide tons of value to those who are, and to those who teach all subjects, including writing.

So let’s begin with argumentative writing, or persuasive writing, as many of us used to call it. This overview will be most helpful to those who are new to teaching writing, or teachers who have not gotten good results with the approach you have taken up to now. I don’t claim to have the definitive answer on how to do this, but the method I share here worked pretty well for me, and it might do the same for you. If you are an experienced English language arts teacher, you probably already have a system for teaching this skill that you like. Then again, I’m always interested in how other people do the things I can already do; maybe you’re curious like that, too.

Before I start, I should note that what I describe in this post is a fairly formulaic style of essay writing. It’s not exactly the 5-paragraph essay, but it definitely builds on that model. I strongly believe students should be shown how to move past those kinds of structures into a style of writing that’s more natural and fitting to the task and audience, but I also think they should start with something that’s pretty clearly organized.

So here’s how I teach argumentative essay writing.

Step 1: Watch How It’s Done

One of the most effective ways to improve student writing is to show them mentor texts, examples of excellent writing within the genre students are about to attempt themselves. Ideally, this writing would come from real publications and not be fabricated by me in order to embody the form I’m looking for. Although most experts on writing instruction employ some kind of mentor text study, the person I learned it from best was Katie Wood Ray in her book Study Driven (links to the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon ).

Since I want the writing to be high quality and the subject matter to be high interest, I might choose pieces like Jessica Lahey’s Students Who Lose Recess Are the Ones Who Need it Most  and David Bulley’s School Suspensions Don’t Work .

I would have students read these texts, compare them, and find places where the authors used evidence to back up their assertions. I would ask students which author they feel did the best job of influencing the reader, and what suggestions they would make to improve the writing. I would also ask them to notice things like stories, facts and statistics, and other things the authors use to develop their ideas. Later, as students work on their own pieces, I would likely return to these pieces to show students how to execute certain writing moves.

Step 2: Informal Argument, Freestyle

Although many students might need more practice in writing an effective argument, many of them are excellent at arguing in person. To help them make this connection, I would have them do some informal debate on easy, high-interest topics. An activity like This or That (one of the classroom icebreakers I talked about last year) would be perfect here: I read a statement like “Women have the same opportunities in life as men.” Students who agree with the statement move to one side of the room, and those who disagree move to the other side. Then they take turns explaining why they are standing in that position. This ultimately looks a little bit like a debate, as students from either side tend to defend their position to those on the other side.

Every class of students I have ever had, from middle school to college, has loved loved LOVED this activity. It’s so simple, it gets them out of their seats, and for a unit on argument, it’s an easy way to get them thinking about how the art of argument is something they practice all the time.

Step 3: Informal Argument, Not so Freestyle

Once students have argued without the support of any kind of research or text, I would set up a second debate; this time with more structure and more time to research ahead of time. I would pose a different question, supply students with a few articles that would provide ammunition for either side, then give them time to read the articles and find the evidence they need.

Next, we’d have a Philosophical Chairs debate (learn about this in my  discussion strategies post), which is very similar to “This or That,” except students use textual evidence to back up their points, and there are a few more rules. Here they are still doing verbal argument, but the experience should make them more likely to appreciate the value of evidence when trying to persuade.

Before leaving this step, I would have students transfer their thoughts from the discussion they just had into something that looks like the opening paragraph of a written argument: A statement of their point of view, plus three reasons to support that point of view. This lays the groundwork for what’s to come.

Step 4: Introduction of the Performance Assessment

Next I would show students their major assignment, the performance assessment that they will work on for the next few weeks. What does this look like? It’s generally a written prompt that describes the task, plus the rubric I will use to score their final product.

Anytime I give students a major writing assignment, I let them see these documents very early on. In my experience, I’ve found that students appreciate having a clear picture of what’s expected of them when beginning a writing assignment. At this time, I also show them a model of a piece of writing that meets the requirements of the assignment. Unlike the mentor texts we read on day 1, this sample would be something teacher-created (or an excellent student model from a previous year) to fit the parameters of the assignment.

Step 5: Building the Base

Before letting students loose to start working on their essays, I make sure they have a solid plan for writing. I would devote at least one more class period to having students consider their topic for the essay, drafting a thesis statement, and planning the main points of their essay in a graphic organizer.

I would also begin writing my own essay on a different topic. This has been my number one strategy for teaching students how to become better writers. Using a document camera or overhead projector, I start from scratch, thinking out loud and scribbling down my thoughts as they come. When students see how messy the process can be, it becomes less intimidating for them. They begin to understand how to take the thoughts that are stirring around in your head and turn them into something that makes sense in writing.

For some students, this early stage might take a few more days, and that’s fine: I would rather spend more time getting it right at the pre-writing stage than have a student go off willy-nilly, draft a full essay, then realize they need to start over. Meanwhile, students who have their plans in order will be allowed to move on to the next step.

Step 6: Writer’s Workshop

The next seven to ten days would be spent in writer’s workshop, where I would start class with a mini-lesson about a particular aspect of craft. I would show them how to choose credible, relevant evidence, how to skillfully weave evidence into an argument, how to consider the needs of an audience, and how to correctly cite sources. Once each mini-lesson was done, I would then give students the rest of the period to work independently on their writing. During this time, I would move around the room, helping students solve problems and offering feedback on whatever part of the piece they are working on. I would encourage students to share their work with peers and give feedback at all stages of the writing process.

If I wanted to make the unit even more student-centered, I would provide the mini-lessons in written or video format and let students work through them at their own pace, without me teaching them. (To learn more about this approach, read this post on self-paced learning ).

As students begin to complete their essays, the mini-lessons would focus more on matters of style and usage. I almost never bother talking about spelling, punctuation, grammar, or usage until students have a draft that’s pretty close to done. Only then do we start fixing the smaller mistakes.

Step 7: Final Assessment

Finally, the finished essays are handed in for a grade. At this point, I’m pretty familiar with each student’s writing and have given them verbal (and sometimes written) feedback throughout the unit; that’s why I make the writer’s workshop phase last so long. I don’t really want students handing in work until they are pretty sure they’ve met the requirements to the best of their ability. I also don’t necessarily see “final copies” as final; if a student hands in an essay that’s still really lacking in some key areas, I will arrange to have that student revise it and resubmit for a higher grade.

So that’s it. If you haven’t had a lot of success teaching students to write persuasively, and if the approach outlined here is different from what you’ve been doing, give it a try. And let’s keep talking: Use the comments section below to share your techniques or ask questions about the most effective ways to teach argumentative writing.

Want this unit ready-made?

If you’re a writing teacher in grades 7-12 and you’d like a classroom-ready unit like the one described above, including mini-lessons, sample essays, and a library of high-interest online articles to use for gathering evidence, take a look at my Argumentative Writing unit. Just click on the image below and you’ll be taken to a page where you can read more and see a detailed preview of what’s included.

What to Read Next

Categories: Instruction , Podcast

Tags: English language arts , Grades 6-8 , Grades 9-12 , teaching strategies

58 Comments

This is useful information. In teaching persuasive speaking/writing I have found Monroe’s Motivated sequence very useful and productive. It is a classic model that immediately gives a solid structure for students.

Thanks for the recommendation, Bill. I will have to look into that! Here’s a link to more information on Monroe’s Motivated sequence, for anyone who wants to learn more: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/MonroeMotivatedSequence.htm

What other sites do you recommend for teacher use on providing effective organizational structure in argumentative writing? As a K-12 Curriculum Director, I find that when teachers connect with and understand the organizational structure, they are more effective in their teaching/delivery.

Hey Jessica, in addition to the steps outlined here, you might want to check out Jenn’s post on graphic organizers . Graphic organizers are a great tool that you can use in any phase of a lesson. Using them as a prewrite can help students visualize the argument and organize their thoughts. There’s a link in that post to the Graphic Organizer Multi-Pack that Jenn has for sale on her Teachers Pay Teachers site, which includes two versions of a graphic organizer you can use specifically for argument organization. Otherwise, if there’s something else you had in mind, let us know and we can help you out. Thanks!

Dear Jennifer Gonzalez,

You are generous with your gift of lighting the path… I hardly ever write (never before) , but I must today… THANK YOU… THANK YOU….THANK YOU… mostly for reading your great teachings… So your valuable teachings will even be easy to benefit all the smart people facing challenge of having to deal with adhd…

I am not a teacher… but forever a student…someone who studied English as 2nd language, with a science degree & adhd…

You truly are making a difference in our World…

Thanks so much, Rita! I know Jenn will appreciate this — I’ll be sure to share with her!

Love it! Its simple and very fruitful . I can feel how dedicated you are! Thanks alot Jen

Great examples of resources that students would find interesting. I enjoyed reading your article. I’ve bookmarked it for future reference. Thanks!

You’re welcome, Sheryl!

Students need to be writing all the time about a broad range of topics, but I love the focus here on argumentative writing because if you choose the model writing texts correctly, you can really get the kids engaged in the process and in how they can use this writing in real-world situations!

I agree, Laura. I think an occasional tight focus on one genre can help them grow leaps and bounds in the skills specific to that type of writing. Later, in less structured situations, they can then call on those skills when that kind of thinking is required.

This is really helpful! I used it today and put the recess article in a Google Doc and had the kids identify anecdotal, statistic, and ‘other’ types of evidence by highlighting them in three different colors. It worked well! Tomorrow we’ll discuss which of the different types of evidence are most convincing and why.

Love that, Shanna! Thanks for sharing that extra layer.

Greetings Ms. Gonzales. I was wondering if you had any ideas to help students develop the cons/against side of their argument within their writing? Please advise. Thanks.

Hi Michael,

Considering audience and counterarguments are an important part of the argumentative writing process. In the Argumentative Writing unit Jenn includes specific mini-lessons that teach kids how, when and where to include opposing views in their writing. In the meantime, here’s a video that might also be helpful.

Hi, Thank you very much for sharing your ideas. I want to share also the ideas in the article ‘Already Experts: Showing Students How Much They Know about Writing and Reading Arguments’ by Angela Petit and Edna Soto…they explain a really nice activity to introduce argumentative writing. I have applied it many times and my students not only love it but also display a very clear pattern as the results in the activity are quite similar every time. I hope you like it.

Lorena Perez

I’d like to thank you you for this excellence resource. It’s a wonderful addition to the informative content that Jennifer has shared.

What do you use for a prize?

I looked at the unit, and it looks and sounds great. The description says there are 4 topics. Can you tell me the topics before I purchase? We start argument in 5th grade, and I want to make sure the topics are different from those they’ve done the last 5 years before purchasing. Thanks!

Hi Carrie! If you go to the product page on TPT and open up the preview, you’ll see the four topics on the 4th page in more detail, but here they are: Social Networking in School (should social media sites be blocked in school?), Cell Phones in Class, Junk Food in School, and Single-Sex Education (i.e., genders separated). Does that help?

I teach 6th grade English in a single gendered (all-girls) class. We just finished an argument piece but I will definitely cycle back your ideas when we revisit argumentation. Thanks for the fabulous resources!

Glad to hear it, Madelyn!

I’m not a writing teacher and honestly haven’t been taught on how to teach writing. I’m a history teacher. I read this and found it helpful but have questions. First I noticed that amount of time dedicated to the task in terms of days. My questions are how long is a class period? I have my students for about 45 minutes. I also saw you mentioned in the part about self-paced learning that mini-lessons could be written or video format. I love these ideas. Any thoughts on how to do this with almost no technology in the room and low readers to non-readers? I’m trying to figure out how to balance teaching a content class while also teaching the common core skills. Thank you for any consideration to my questions.

Hey Jones, To me, a class period is anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour; definitely varies from school to school. As for the question about doing self-paced with very little tech? I think binders with written mini-lessons could work well, as well as a single computer station or tablet hooked up to a class set of videos. Obviously you’d need to be more diligent about rotating students in and out of these stations, but it’s an option at least. You might also give students access to the videos through computers in other locations at school (like the library) and give them passes to watch. The thing about self-paced learning, as you may have seen in the self-paced post , is that if students need extra teacher support (as you might find with low readers or non-readers), they would spend more one-on-one time with the teacher, while the higher-level students would be permitted to move more quickly on their own. Does that help?

My primary goal for next semester is to increase academic discussion and make connections from discussion to writing, so I love how you launch this unit with lessons like Philosophical Chairs. I am curious, however, what is the benefit of the informal argument before the not-so-informal argument? My students often struggle to listen to one another, so I’m wondering if I should start with the more formal, structured version. Or, am I overthinking the management? Thanks so much for input.

Yikes! So sorry your question slipped through, and we’re just now getting to this, Sarah. The main advantage of having kids first engage in informal debate is that it helps them get into an argumentative mindset and begin to appreciate the value of using research to support their claims. If you’ve purchased the unit, you can read more about this in the Overview.

My 6th graders are progressing through their argumentative essay. I’m providing mini lessons along the way that target where most students are in their essay. Your suggestions will be used. I’ve chosen to keep most writing in class and was happy to read that you scheduled a lot of class time for the writing. Students need to feel comfortable knowing that writing is a craft and needs to evolve over time. I think more will get done in class and it is especially important for the struggling writers to have peers and the teacher around while they write. Something that I had students do that they liked was to have them sit in like-topic groups to create a shared document where they curated information that MIGHT be helpful along the way. By the end of the essay, all will use a fantastic add-on called GradeProof which helps to eliminate most of the basic and silly errors that 6th graders make.

Debbi! I LOVE the idea of a shared, curated collection of resources! That is absolutely fantastic! Are you using a Google Doc for this? Other curation tools you might consider are Padlet and Elink .

thanks v much for all this information

Love this! What do you take as grades in the meantime? Throughout this 2 week stretch?

Ideally, you wouldn’t need to take grades at all, waiting until the final paper is done to give one grade. If your school requires more frequent grades, you could assign small point values for getting the incremental steps done: So in Step 3 (when students have to write a paragraph stating their point of view) you could take points for that. During the writer’s workshop phase, you might give points for completion of a rough draft and participation points for peer review (ideally, they’d get some kind of feedback on the quality of feedback they give to one another). Another option would be to just give a small, holistic grade for each week based on the overall integrity of their work–are they staying on task? Making small improvements to their writing each day? Taking advantage of the resources? If students are working diligently through the process, that should be enough. But again, the assessment (grades) should really come from that final written product, and if everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be doing during the workshop phase, most students should have pretty good scores on that final product. Does that help?

Awesome Step 2! Teaching mostly teenagers in Northern Australia I find students’ verbal arguments are much more finely honed than their written work.

To assist with “building the base” I’ve always found sentence starters an essential entry point for struggling students. We have started using the ‘PEARL’ method for analytical and persuasive writing.

If it helps here a free scaffold for the method:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Paragraph-Scaffold-PEEL-to-PEARL-3370676

Thanks again,

Thank you for sharing this additional resource! It’s excellent!

I’ve been scouring the interwebs looking for some real advice on how I can help my struggling 9th grader write better. I can write. Since it comes naturally for me, I have a hard time breaking it down into such tiny steps that he can begin to feel less overwhelmed. I LOVE the pre-writing ideas here. My son is a fabulous arguer. I need to help him use those powers for the good of his writing skills. Do you have a suggestion on what I else I can be using for my homeschooled son? Or what you may have that could work well for home use?

Hi Melinda,

You might be interested in taking a look at Jenn’s Argumentative Writing unit which she mentions at the end of the post . Hope this helps!

Mam it would be good if you could post some steps of different writing and some samples as well so it can be useful for the students.

Hi Aalia! My name is Holly, and I work as a Customer Experience Manager for Cult of Pedagogy. It just so happens that in the near future, Jenn is going to release a narrative writing unit, so keep an eye out for that! As far as samples, the argumentative writing unit has example essays included, and I’m sure the narrative unit will as well. But, to find the examples, you have to purchase the unit from Teachers Pay Teachers.

I just want to say that this helped me tremendously in teaching argument to 8th Graders this past school year, which is a huge concept on their state testing in April. I felt like they were very prepared, and they really enjoyed the verbal part of it, too! I have already implemented these methods into my unit plan for argument for my 11th grade class this year. Thank you so much for posting all of these things! : )

-Josee` Vaughn

I’m so glad to hear it, Josee!!

Love your blog! It is one of the best ones.

I am petrified of writing. I am teaching grade 8 in September and would love some suggestions as I start planning for the year. Thanks!

This is genius! I can’t wait to get started tomorrow teaching argument. It’s always something that I have struggled with, and I’ve been teaching for 18 years. I have a class of 31 students, mostly boys, several with IEPs. The self-paced mini-lessons will help tremendously.

So glad you liked it, Britney!

My students will begin the journey into persuasion and argument next week and your post cemented much of my thinking around how to facilitate the journey towards effective, enthusiastic argumentative writing.

I use your rubrics often to outline task expectations for my students and the feedback from them is how useful breaking every task into steps can be as they are learning new concepts.

Additionally, we made the leap into blogging as a grade at https://mrsdsroadrunners.edublogs.org/2019/01/04/your-future/ It feels much like trying to learn to change a tire while the car is speeding down the highway. Reading your posts over the past years was a factor in embracing the authentic audience. Thank You! Trish

I love reading and listening to your always helpful tips, tricks, and advice! I was wondering if you had any thoughts on creative and engaging ways to have students share their persuasive writing? My 6th students are just finishing up our persuasive writing where we read the book “Oh, Rats” by Albert Marrin and used the information gathered to craft a persuasive piece to either eliminate or protect rats and other than just reading their pieces to one another, I have been trying to think of more creative ways to share. I thought about having a debate but (un)fortunately all my kids are so sweet and are on the same side of the argument – Protect the Rats! Any ideas?

Hi Kiley! Thanks for the positive feedback! So glad to hear that you are finding value in Cult of Pedagogy! Here are a few suggestions that you may be interested in trying with your students:

-A gallery walk: Students could do this virtually if their writing is stored online or hard copies of their writing. Here are some different ways that you could use gallery walks: Enliven Class Discussions With Gallery Walks

-Students could give each other feedback using a tech tool like Flipgrid . You could assign students to small groups or give them accountability partners. In Flipgrid, you could have students sharing back and forth about their writing and their opinions.

I hope this helps!

I love the idea of mentor texts for all of these reading and writing concepts. I saw a great one on Twitter with one text and it demonstrated 5-6 reasons to start a paragraph, all in two pages of a book! Is there a location that would have suggestions/lists of mentor texts for these areas? Paragraphs, sentences, voice, persuasive writing, expository writing, etc. It seems like we could share this info, save each other some work, and curate a great collection of mentor text for English Language Arts teachers. Maybe it already exists?

Hi Maureen,

Here are some great resources that you may find helpful:

Craft Lessons Second Edition: Teaching Writing K-8 Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts and Mentor Texts, 2nd edition: Teaching Writing Through Children’s Literature, K-6

Thanks so much! I’ll definitely look into these.

I love the steps for planning an argumentative essay writing. When we return from Christmas break, we will begin starting a unit on argumentative writing. I will definitely use the steps. I especially love Step #2. As a 6th grade teacher, my students love to argue. This would set the stage of what argumentative essay involves. Thanks for sharing.

So glad to hear this, Gwen. Thanks for letting us know!

Great orientation, dear Jennifer. The step-by-step carefully planned pedagogical perspectives have surely added in the information repository of many.

Hi Jennifer,

I hope you are well. I apologise for the incorrect spelling in the previous post.

Thank you very much for introducing this effective instruction for teaching argumentative writing. I am the first year PhD student at Newcastle University, UK. My PhD research project aims to investigate teaching argumentative writing to Chinese university students. I am interested in the Argumentative Writing unit you have designed and would like to buy it. I would like to see the preview of this book before deciding to purchase it. I clicked on the image BUT the font of the preview is so small and cannot see the content clearly. I am wondering whether it could be possible for you to email me a detailed preview of what’s included. I would highly appreciate if you could help me with this.

Thank you very much in advance. Looking forward to your reply.

Take care and all the very best, Chang

Hi Chang! Jenn’s Argumentative Writing Unit is actually a teaching unit geared toward grades 7-12 with lessons, activities, etc. If you click here click here to view the actual product, you can click on the green ‘View Preview’ button to see a pretty detailed preview of what’s offered. Once you open the preview, there is the option to zoom in so you can see what the actual pages of the unit are like. I hope this helps!

Great Content!

Another teacher showed me one of your posts, and now I’ve read a dozen of them. With teaching students to argue, have you ever used the “What’s going on in this picture?” https://www.nytimes.com/column/learning-whats-going-on-in-this-picture?module=inline I used it last year and thought it was a non-threatening way to introduce learners to using evidence to be persuasive since there was no text.

I used to do something like this to help kids learn how to make inferences. Hadn’t thought of it from a persuasive standpoint. Interesting.

this is a very interesting topic, thanks!

Hi! I’m a teacher too! I was looking for inspiration and I found your article and thought you might find this online free tool interesting that helps make all students participate meaningfully and engage in a topic. https://www.kialo-edu.com/

This tool is great for student collaboration and to teach argumentative writing in an innovative way. I hope this helps!

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Essay for Primary School: Simple Guide for Kids [with Samples]

The age of primary school students ranges from 5 to 11 years. At this stage of education, children start developing their writing skills. They make their first steps to analyzing and proving their points of view. Besides, they study how to write an essay for elementary school.

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Correctly preparing all types of homework, from creative to persuasive writing, is something they should learn how to do. Surely, they need assistance in completing the first tasks. Right now, we will present to you the essentials of a good essay for primary school:

• A captivating topic;
• A precise and clear thesis statement;
• Several introductory sentences;
• Several supporting sentences;
• A strong concluding part.

If now you are looking for some hints for writing primary school essays, you have come to the right place. Especially considering the fact that children may approach the task in a variety of ways depending on how they prefer to study (which is easy to find out by taking a learning style quiz for kids). Below, our team has prepared tips and tricks for kids to nail their primary-level academic papers.

💡 How to Write an Essay for Primary School

An essay is one of the first written assignments you may get. So, we advise you to pay special attention to what your teacher says. Before assigning such a task, they give you explanations for preparing a primary school essay.

Usually, elementary school essays are meant to fire up kids’ imagination and expose their writing skills. No matter what the purpose is, you should approach the task with care.

What should an essay for primary school include?

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• A captivating topic ; Selecting a topic is the first thing you will do after you get your assignment. Carefully examine the task’s details and think about something appropriate for your elementary level. Brainstorming your ideas is an excellent place to start.
• A precise and clear thesis statement; Make sure your thesis statement is accurate and brief. Without a clear thesis, your essay will not have a central idea and will be hard to develop. A precise statement tells the reader what your writing is about. Besides, it exposes how good your grip on the central idea is.
• Several introductory sentences; A great introductory paragraph can help you grab your readers’ attention. You can start by including a quote, telling an anecdote, or asking a question. In the introduction, the author also identifies the purpose of the essay and the topic. The paragraph ends with a thesis statement and prepares the reader for the supporting sentences.
• Several supporting sentences; This part of your essay will include the position you presented in the thesis statement. It will either offer an idea or defend it. It can be done in several ways: you can include reasons, examples, and supporting points.
• A strong concluding part. The conclusion wraps up the essay, but it emphasizes all the principal points you have argued throughout your essay. It is the last chance to sway your reader by explaining why the topic is relevant to them. Ending your essay with a strong concluding part shows that the thesis statement has been defended.

Essays for primary schools do not require research or analytical data. All you need is to present your ideas on the specified or chosen topic. Mind the proverb, “the written word remains” while writing your first elementary level essay.

The thing is:

The essay structure explained above will work for assignment kids will face in elementary school, middle school, high school, and up to college level. Teaching kids to write a traditional five-paragraph essay is essential for their academic success. It helps explain to them how to argue their ideas in a coherent and structured manner.

If you need more help with writing essays or with essay proofreading , you are welcome at our site.

✨ Topics for Primary School Essays

See the primary school essay topics that are manageable for an elementary level. It should be interesting for a kid but also informative and engaging for the readers.

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These topics will get an A+ for your next school assignment:

• Our world in 50 years; 
• My first day at school ; 
• Future profession ; 
• My summer holidays ; 
• My family ; 
• My journey through primary school ; 
• When I grow up … etc.… 

You can find a good topic but have no idea how to write a good paper on it. These five essay prompts can be helpful if you need some inspiration.

• What is your favorite day of the week, and why? Think about a day of the week you enjoy the most. Why do you like it? Most of us wait for weekends to rest and spend time outside and with our families and friends . If that’s your case, describe how your usual Sunday looks and explain why you enjoy it.
• What do you like the most about winter ? This is another great topic to consider, especially for creative writing. Everyone can pick at least several things they enjoy about winter. Whether it’s the snow, the winter sports, the holidays, or the winter break, write about something you like. It’s a fun and engaging topic for everyone.
• Who’s your hero ? All of us have a person they admire. It can be your father, your friend, or a celebrity. Think about the qualities or their actions that make them so special. You can try to tell a little bit about their biography and explain how they influenced you.
• What’s a good friend ? You probably have a best friend. In this essay, you can try to explain what qualities do you personally appreciate in them. If you haven’t found a best friend yet, you can try to think about what kind of people you enjoy interacting with.
• Your biggest dream . People are born with the ability to dream. What is your biggest dream? Is it to learn how to drive a boat or visit savanna and see the big five? This essay lets your imagination and your creativity run wild.
• The car I dream about .
• Explain what friendship means to you.
• Describe your parents .
• How do you understand happiness ?
• Write how you help your classmates with autism to feel included.
• The most important event of my childhood.
• Discuss why physical activity is important for children and what types of activity you like best.
• Do you like to take part in competitive sports ?
• Explain why you like or don’t like figure skating .
• A person who inspires me: my mother .
• What dog would you like to have?
• Describe your visit to Disneyland or any other theme park.
• My travel to Dresden .
• What challenges did you face in primary school ?
• Do you believe in online- friendship ?
• What do you do when you feel stressed ?
• Tell about your puppy and how you take care of it.
• The reasons my teacher is the brightest figure in my life.
• Describe the kindergarten you went to and explain why you liked or didn’t like it.
• How did you deal with bullies in the kindergarten .
• How I won the fight by losing it .
• Write about your favorite primary school teacher.
• Why everyone should have a pet .
• Explain how you interact with other kids at school.
• Tell about the most exciting event in your life.
• Explore how eating healthy food can help you to do better at school.
• Describe your first visit to a museum .
• The difference of being a child in the past and today .
• Write about your trip to Yellowstone National Park and what you liked the most about it.
• What makes a good parent ?
• How does your dream home look like?
• Do you remember what difficulties you faced while learning to write ?
• Tell about your favorite holiday .
• What do you like about Christmas ?
• How I learned to ride a bicycle.
• Describe the lessons you have in primary school and which of them is your favorite.
• Write about your physical education teacher .
• Discuss the pre-school education facility you’ve visited.

Sometimes such prompts can help you better than primary school essay writing samples. First of all, it gives you a direction by leaving you with the questions that only you can answer. Second, it shows you a variety of topics and themes available. Nevertheless, we still encourage you to look at some simple essays for primary school for better results.

All in all:

Essays are the most common academic paper that might seem easy to a writer. Our free tips will help you to get through any kind of paper. Still, if you are stuck on essay writing, you can always ask us for help!

Get an originally-written paper according to your instructions!

Thank you for reading the article! Share it with peers and leave a comment below to let us know your opinion.

Further reading:

• Essay Topics for Grade 8, 9, 10, 12
• What Does an Excellent Essay Look Like?
• 1000-Word Essays: Quick Answers
• Breaking Down the Types of Essays
• A Complete Guide to Essay Writing
• How to Write a Good 5 Paragraph Essay
• The Basics of Effective Essay Writing: Becton Loveless, Education Corner
• 50 Writing Prompts for Elementary School Children: Janelle Cox, ThoughtCo
• Student Writing Models: Thoughtful Learning K-12
• Elementary Archives: JournalBuddies.com
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Being a primary school teacher of English language, I have discovered that many students leave primary school without basic essay writing skills. This is because as teachers, we do less to help and guide the learners in this aspect. We do less because we lack the knowledge and ability to guide the learners perfect this writing skills yet it is considered the production stage of language learning. Kindly help me. Guide me further so that I can also guide my learners.

Thanks for the feedback. Keep up your excellent work!

A great suggestion for primary teachers and parents!

Glad you liked the article, Mung 🙂

This is a very good method to preach the acknowledgments on report writing towards people.

Thanks, Tayyaba 🙂

Thank you for your great effort and help. Your blog has taught me many things! Thanks for this fantastic blog post on writing primary school essays.

Thanks for the post on writing essays for primary schools. It’s a real help for me and my son, who just starts to learn how to write essays.

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Teach. Learn. Grow.

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Anchor your writing instruction in big ideas students can remember

Years later, when one of my journalism students won a Los Angeles Times award for news writing, I thought more deeply about the instructional changes I had made. I also thought about the social and emotional factors that likely enabled this once-timid reporter to tackle tough issues and blossom into an adept writer. What I realized from this exercise is that many of my instructional shifts had more to do with “leaning in” and getting to know my student as a writer, along with “letting go” of some outdated notions about what good writing is.

These are the three most important lessons I learned that I’d like to pass along.

Lesson #1: Writing instruction begins with a shared language for talking about writing and a shared understanding of the purposes for writing

Anchoring your instruction in a few big ideas that students can remember helps simplify the experience for everyone—and writing is always an experience.

As a new English language arts teacher, I often made writing more complicated than it needed to be. In my journalism classes, things were simple: we focused on the 5Ws and H (who? What? When? Where? Why? How?). It was easy for every student to remember and internalize these guiding questions.

If only there were a similar list of questions I could apply to other writing tasks! Over time, I found that there was. And at NWEA, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with current and former teachers to hone that list of essential questions down to the following five.

If anchoring your instruction in big ideas students can remember resonates with you, like it did for me, I encourage you to try incorporating these five essential questions into your writing curriculum.

We’ve even compiled these big ideas for growing writers into a free resource aimed at building a shared language for talking about writing with students. To that end, we’ve created a student version , too.

1. Why am I writing?

This question encourages students to ponder their purpose for writing. Often, their immediate response to this question is, “I’m writing because my teacher assigned me this essay/report/research paper.”

If we can get students to push past the idea of writing as an assignment and toward writing as a form of communication, we may see a dramatic increase in their motivation and writing quality. “What do you want to accomplish with this piece of writing?” becomes the question, not “What kind of writing does your teacher want from you?”

Writing is always the intellectual product of the writer, and the more we can encourage students to see themselves as writers and to take ownership of their writing, the better the results. Before students write, it’s critical they know and understand their purpose for writing, as this purpose informs so many other choices they will make.

2. Who are my readers?

This question forces students to consider their audience . When writers can anticipate the needs of their audience, they increase the effectiveness of their communication.

If the only audience a student ever has for their writing is a teacher, they lose the opportunity to make writerly decisions based on different audiences, such as considering their unique feelings and opinions about a topic, their different vocabularies (e.g., familiarity with code switching, idioms, or jargon), and their varying degrees of background knowledge. This is why giving students authentic writing tasks is so important . Authentic writing engages students in the same cognitive processes they use to write for real-world situations, such as applying for a job, taking civic action, or even communicating with family and friends.

3. What am I writing?

This question gets students to think more deeply about the task , genre , and form for their writing. While some of this information is likely included in the writing assignment, it’s still important for students to work through the task details on their own.

Students will make more informed writing decisions when they are able to clearly articulate the expectations and success criteria for a writing task . The writing genre provides another framework for students to think about their purpose for writing. Each genre’s unique features have developed over time through socially agreed-upon conventions, and experienced writers understand how to use these features to communicate more clearly with their audiences. Finally, form —or format—describes the type of text to be produced, and today’s writers have more forms to choose from—both analog and digital—than ever before.

When students put time and thought into their purpose, audience, and task, they have a greater command over their writing and what they want it to accomplish. And that’s when we get to see students’ communication skills and creativity truly shine through.

4. How am I presenting ideas in my writing?

This question addresses the myriad of choices a writer must make when they embark on a task, including decisions about writing development , organization , style , and conventions . Too often, this is where we ask students to start, and it can be overwhelming to make all these decisions before a student has wrapped their head around what they plan to write and why. In addition, while these writerly decisions are important, we may place too great an emphasis on a student’s final written product when a focus on their writing process may have more instructional utility.

My advice to students is, “Don’t sweat the small stuff when it comes to presenting ideas in your writing.” The ideas themselves are what’s most important. They’ll have numerous opportunities to practice and hone their writing development, organization, style, and conventions with every piece they write and over an entire lifetime.

5. How am I using the writing process?

This question reminds students that writing is both a product and a process . And the writing process is where much of the learning and critical thinking takes place.

Though writing is often taught as a sequence of forward-moving steps, the writing process is recursive and iterative, not linear . For example, writers go back and forth between planning, drafting, translating, reviewing, and revising to meet their writing goals, and writing goals can be self-generated or revised at any time during the writing process.

Writing itself is a work in progress that includes collaboration, self-regulation, and self-evaluation in addition to the other steps students typically learn. The more frequently students engage in and reflect on their own writing process, the more likely they are to develop productive and efficient writing habits, as well as growth mindsets that can help them overcome writing challenges in their school, career, and personal lives.

Lesson #2: Writing instruction is most impactful when it extends through professional learning communities (PLC) that offer students school-wide support for writing

As students move from grade to grade, a strong and coordinated PLC can help them build on what they already know about writing and focus on becoming even more expressive and effective writers.

In my first year of teaching, a colleague and I had an opportunity to attend a professional learning summit on writing. One session led by Harry Noden taught us how his Image Grammar could help students expand, vary, and improve their sentence structures. The majority of our student population was multilingual learners, and we rightly suspected that focused practice on writing, even at the sentence level, could increase language development in English . In part, this is because writing has a slower pace, provides a permanent record, and calls for greater precision in word choice.

We accurately assumed that sentence writing would benefit all our students , too. And once we were satisfied with the results, we leveraged our PLC to encourage a school-wide adoption of teaching grammar with Noden’s “brushstrokes.” We saw students quickly embrace the concept of “brushstrokes” because it positioned them as “artists” painting with words. This artistry was reinforced by the quality of their sentence writing. Often shared aloud, these sentences could be chill inducing they were so beautiful. For many students, this was their first proof they could be excellent writers, once they learned how.

Lesson #3: Writing outcomes can be improved through the use of common assessments and common rubrics at the school, district, or even state level

Common assessments and common rubrics help educators develop a shared understanding of how to evaluate writing. This includes providing students with meaningful feedback and grading writing more consistently across a school, district, or even state.

Coordination among teachers can help establish a school-wide writing community that all students can tap into for peer review. It can also lead to greater consistency in writing instruction and evaluation. Such consistency builds trust between students and teachers, which in turn can strengthen students’ view of themselves as learners and increase their motivation to learn .

When students don’t have to figure out individual teacher preferences for writing—and they feel confident every teacher will grade their writing for substance not style—they can focus their mental energy on becoming better writers. This includes developing their own sense of how to use language(s) effectively for personal, academic, and civic purposes.

One way to foster student-teacher collaboration is to encourage students to enter writing contests . Student writing contests can range from local to national, and it’s worth some extra effort to find ones that are a good fit for your students. Once my journalism students began entering (and winning!) writing contests, these events became an annual tradition. My students also became more willing to work on their digital portfolios throughout the year.

At the district level, common assessments and common rubrics can help leaders identify schools that need more support, such as more professional learning for educators or more high-dosage tutoring for students . They can also identify schools that have model instruction and can serve as resources for others. If you’re looking for a place to start in your district, the Literacy Design Collaborative offers common analytic rubrics for several writing genres , and the New York Performance Standards Consortium provides a robust set of performance-based assessments and rubrics .

Districts that use state rubrics in their common writing assessments help ensure all educators have similar expectations of student writing. If your state assesses writing, check the state department of education website for newly released writing assessments and their accompanying rubrics. And if your state doesn’t assess writing, they may still offer writing materials for teachers to use.

Finally, NWEA is often asked about the connection between MAP® Growth™ and writing. MAP Growth does not include writing prompts, so it can’t take the place of high-quality formative assessment in the classroom ; it simply wasn’t designed to assess students’ writing. But MAP Growth can provide insights into students’ strengths and opportunities for growth, and these insights are especially helpful when educators use an integrated approach to reading and writing instruction.

The MAP Growth instructional areas for reading, for example, offer some information about how well students understand literary text, informational text, and vocabulary. Students who are performing below grade-level for vocabulary would likely benefit from more explicit vocabulary instruction, including more strategic exposure to roots and affixes. This expanded vocabulary knowledge can later be applied to students’ writing. One approach is to have students “speak in synonyms,” a kind of oral rehearsal that can be done with peers or small groups and then integrated into a piece of student writing. Meanwhile, students who struggle to comprehend informational text might benefit from a self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) approach to writing . This method teaches students to recognize, internalize, and utilize important genre features in writing. And since reading and writing are related, SRSD can help improve students’ comprehension of informational texts, too.

A recap of lessons learned

Writing is hard, and teaching writing may be harder still. As educators, we continually learn new lessons about how to help our students (and ourselves) become better writers. I hope the three lessons I’ve shared here are helpful to you and bring you closer to having every student see themselves as a capable writer or, better yet, an artist painting with words.

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Key Tips On Writing Good Compositions For Primary School

• Primary School Composition Writing

6 Tips On How to Write a Good Composition For Primary School Students

Writing is one of the creative ways for us to express thoughts and perspectives on a variety of subjects. However, for your child, it can be challenging to express what they want to convey accurately.

After all, it isn’t the same as talking to your friends, since in composition, they look for proper language. Unfortunately, Singlish isn’t proper English, and it’s not allowed in any paper! Moreover, writing literary compositions is essential, so long as your child remains in school. In fact, it can even extend to adulthood, since most jobs require some writing skills.

Telling your child to “Read more books”, “Write more compositions”, or “Use better phrases” can be too generic Sure, practice makes perfect, but you also have to work smarter, not harder.

Effective written communication is important in relaying information and conveying thoughts. Hence, it is important for your child to take note of these tips that can help them get one step closer to writing an impactful composition.

Before we delve into the nitty-gritty, let us understand what is composition writing all about.

Composition writing is tested in Paper 1 of the English language paper. It requires students to write a narrative essay based on a given theme and at least one of three picture prompts. The length of the essay is 150 words for P5 and P6 students (and lower for P1 to P4 students).

Students are assessed on their ‘Content’ and ‘Language’. To score well for the former, students need to demonstrate creative, logical and relevant ideas that align with the topic. Language, on the other hand, focuses on more technical aspects such as grammar, punctuation and spelling. A well-written composition will present clear and coherent ideas expressed in an appropriately creative manner.      

But before you read this post… you might want to download this ebook first.

More than 18,725 parents have downloaded this ebook for their children. A compilation of some of the best compositions from our students.

• Common Test / Exam Compo Topics
• Strong Intros
• Descriptive Scenes
• Impactful Endings
• Powerful Vocabulary

1. Study the theme

Most picture compositions are composed of:

• Introduction
• Conflict / Problem

These four connect with one another to create a singular theme. It gives direction and purpose to the story to make it easy and enjoyable. When bringing out the central idea, it’s important to identify the keywords. For this, advise your child to look at the title.

Determine the Type of Composition

When it comes to the title, there can be three types of compositions :

• Positive (e.g. A Memorable Event, An Achievement)
• Negative (e.g. A Disappointment, A Bad Decision)
• Neutral (e.g. A Competition, A Promise)

Get your child to read the theme carefully and identify the keywords. They could help your child figure out the type of composition they have to write.

A) Positive Composition Type

Positive composition types refer to – as the name suggests – a happy or an uplifting theme. Topics that fall under this umbrella include “A Celebration”, “A Success” and “A Pleasant Surprise” to name a few. Writing these type of composition can seem deceptively easy at first. However, the challenge lies in successfully incorporating a problem element in the story while staying true to the theme.

B) Negative Composition Type

Negative composition types include topics such as ‘Making a Mistake’, ‘Something That Was Damaged’, ‘A Disagreement’ and ‘Being Anxious’. Such compositions feature unfavourable circumstances and detail how the protagonist navigates these challenges. The overemphasis on negative composition types in the past means that students may struggle to come up with fresh takes and instead, stick to overused plot ideas.

C) Neutral Composition Type

Finally, the neutral composition type arguably provides the most room for creativity and nuance. This category encompasses prompts like “Something Unexpected”, “A Long Wait”, “Being Curious” and “An Adventure”. Although this allows for students to come up with novel ideas, care must be taken not to write out of topic.

Encourage them to categorise their compo question as well. This can help because sometimes, children may make the mistake of writing an accident as “A Memorable Event”.

Yeah, no injury is worth remembering, since you probably won’t consider an incident that got you hurt as special.

2. Analyse/choose the pictures for your composition

A very common mistake is that children follow the topic… but they forgot to use any of the three pictures! This can prove fatal to their final marks because if none of the pictures are used, it’s an automatic fail in Content, which comprises half the marks in the picture composition.

There are many possible plots just from one theme. However, always ensure that your child chooses at least one of the pictures and incorporates it into the story. Make sure there is some focus of the object in the story. Otherwise, your child probably won’t score very high in Content.

Of course, your child might have trouble deciding what picture to use. To help your child’s decision, let’s take a look at last year’s PSLE’s Picture Composition as an example.

One thing your child should consider is their current vocab. Ask them, “If you were to select this picture, do you have the necessary words and phrases to effectively describe it?”

For example, some may find it easier to use the first picture and use it as the primary focus of their story, because they might know a variety of words for anger (e.g. furious, livid). Your child should keep this in mind when choosing the picture since it gives them a writing advantage.

Whether you are writing a picture composition for primary 3,4,5 or 6…You may ask, “Should my child always avoid a picture because they don’t have the vocabulary/good phrases for it?”

The answer is: No.

What this means is your child should take this chance to expand their vocabulary, so that they could write for a broader range of topics. Moreover, you never know when the pictures might come up again, albeit for a different theme.

3. Plan the Composition

Ever heard of, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail?” Your child should always plan for their picture compositions. While there is nothing wrong with writing on the fly, it is risky for less experienced writers. They may come face to face with the following problems:

• Sudden transitions: What happened between two sentences remain a mystery. (e.g. I chased the thief. I caught him)
• Change of pronouns: This happens when students decide to write from a third-person perspective and then switch to a first-person halfway, or vice-versa.
• Writing a meaningless introduction: If the composition is about A Bad Decision, your child should not describe trivial things like the weather.
• Lack of closure/weak ending: Your child may find themselves stuck in trying to solve the conflict they came up with or end the story.

Ask your child to pen down any ideas that come into their mind when they brainstorm for the topic.

Get them to lay out the following:

• The characters & the roles they play in the story
• The main problem
• The resolution.

Think of the story as climbing a hill, getting to the top, and coming down it. From there, your child should order the points like this:

Most importantly, make sure the essay is realistic!

Even though you and I wish it was possible, if someone got into a car accident, there is no way a doctor would just put plaster and send them home.

4. Writing the Introduction

The introduction is similar to a first impression: It helps readers decide if it is worth reading. That is why your child is encouraged to write compelling introductions.

True, memorizing introductions from model compositions does help, but it defeats the purpose of creative writing. Writing is like art; it tells the readers something about the writer, and no two pieces are the same.

With that said, here are some common ways your child can start off with:

Your child can begin the story with a direct speech. Get the protagonist to say something captivating and meaningful to the title. This can help move the plot along or open up a door to show what happened.

For example, in the PSLE question A Long Wait, your child may start with a line like this:

“I’ve been waiting for hours!” I grumbled.

Get your child to begin with actions, use vivid phrases to describe them. Doing this is a powerful way to capture the reader’s attention, and they’ll ask: Why is the character doing that?

An example would be:

Amanda tapped her fingers on the table, furrowing her brows as the seconds ticked by. She stared at the time in her phone and heaved a sigh for the umpteenth time.

C) Description

This could apply to:

• The character
• The setting

When doing this, ask your child to consider these questions:

• What is the character doing when the story began?
• How did he/she feel?
• What he/she would say at that point?
• Where did the story take place? (Note: For this one, get them to describe the setting via two out of the five senses. Alternatively, they can describe the setting as the story is written)

5. Writing the Body

Hoo, boy. This would be a long section, so fasten your seatbelts.

The most essential part of the compo is the body, because that is where most of the action is. When it comes to the body, there are three parts to consider:

A) Rising Action (Events before the conflict)

Most of the stories you and your child might have read would always include some problem that the protagonist has to face. Without it, there would be no story, and the plot can be dry. The same goes for any picture composition.

One of the mistakes students make is to state the problem right after the introduction. This runs the risk of an underdeveloped story, which can affect their Content marks. Your child needs to learn how to write the events preceding the main problem, then describe the conflict. This is better known as the rising action.

For example, your child can describe what the character(s) did or did not do that may have caused the problem they would face as the rising action.

It does not have to be long, but it must build up the story’s tension, which would lead to the climax.

​B) Climax (The main problem)

This is where the peak of the story occurs, and the turning point happens. Your child should aim to show as much action and the characters’ emotions as possible. Depending on the topic, your child may need to write one of these types of conflict:

• Internal conflict: A moral dilemma (e.g. Your best friend stole a wallet. Should you tell the teacher, or keep it to yourself?)
• External conflict (Man-made) : (e.g. a bully)
• External conflict (Natural): (e.g. a fire)

C) Resolution (Falling action)

The third part of the composition’s body is the resolution, or how the main character solves the problem. This is better known as the falling action. Unfortunately, many students would rush through by writing one or two sentences due to lacking time or ideas. This comes at the cost of a sudden transition.   

A thing to note is that most resolutions, primary school kids write would involve a figure of authority to solve the conflict for them. After all, in real life, most kids would turn to the adults, such as you or their teachers, to solve the problems.

If the story involves thieves, it would always have policemen included. In the case of a fire, no doubt there would be firemen. Rarely, the main character would solve the problem themselves.

It is true that some types of compositions(e.g. A Crime You Were Involved In) would leave them little choice but to involve the adults. If that happens, your child should describe the character’s attempts to do something about the problem before help arrives.

For a better resolution, your child should ask themselves two questions:

• What could the protagonist do to solve the conflict?
• How did he/she feel when they attempted to handle the problem?

6. Writing the conclusion

Once the resolution is done, remind your child to wrap up with an ending. That is where your child is supposed to tie up the loose ends and close the story. It is essential to give the readers an ending they are satisfied with, and not keep them in suspense.

What your child can write in the conclusion:

• Character’s reflections and thoughts about the story’s events
• Their feelings over what happened
• Their concluding actions or decisions of future actions.

Regardless, it’s advised for your child to always link the ending back to the theme or topic they are writing about.

It may sound like a lot to take in, but it’s possible for your child to learn how to write a good primary school composition. Writing is like any other skill; there are no shortcuts.

Once your child masters the six tips, all your child needs is time and practice. After all, it doesn’t matter how slowly your child progresses, as long as they don’t stop.

See more related articles on Writing Samurai:

• Common PSLE Composition Topics – How to Handle Them?
• PSLE English Composition – Marking Scheme with Pictures!
• Example Model Compositions Primary School Students
• Picture Compositions for Primary School Students

“Help! My child can’t write! How can I improve my child’s writing skills?”

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Teachers are using AI to grade essays. But some experts are raising ethical concerns

W hen Diane Gayeski, a professor of strategic communications at Ithaca College, receives an essay from one of her students, she runs part of it through ChatGPT, asking the AI tool to critique and suggest how to improve the work.

“The best way to look at AI for grading is as a teaching assistant or research assistant who might do a first pass … and it does a pretty good job at that,” she told CNN.

She shows her students the feedback from ChatGPT and how the tool rewrote their essay. “I’ll share what I think about their intro, too, and we’ll talk about it,” she said.

Gayeski requires her class of 15 students to do the same: run their draft through ChatGPT to see where they can make improvements.

The emergence of AI is reshaping education, presenting real benefits, such as automating some tasks to free up time for more personalized instruction, but also some big hazards, from issues around accuracy and plagiarism to maintaining integrity.

Both teachers and students are using the new technology. A report by strategy consultant firm Tyton Partners, sponsored by plagiarism detection platform Turnitin, found half of college students used AI tools in Fall 2023. Meanwhile, while fewer faculty members used AI, the percentage grew to 22% of faculty members in the fall of 2023, up from 9% in spring 2023.

Teachers are turning to AI tools and platforms — such as ChatGPT, Writable, Grammarly and EssayGrader — to assist with grading papers, writing feedback, developing lesson plans and creating assignments. They’re also using the burgeoning tools to create quizzes, polls, videos and interactives to up the ante” for what’s expected in the classroom.

Students, on the other hand, are leaning on tools such as ChatGPT and Microsoft CoPilot — which is built into Word, PowerPoint and other products.

But while some schools have formed policies on how students can or can’t use AI for schoolwork, many do not have guidelines for teachers. The practice of using AI for writing feedback or grading assignments also raises ethical considerations. And parents and students who are already spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on tuition may wonder if an endless feedback loop of AI-generated and AI-graded content in college is worth the time and money.

“If teachers use it solely to grade, and the students are using it solely to produce a final product, it’s not going to work,” said Gayeski.

The time and place for AI

How teachers use AI depends on many factors, particularly when it comes to grading, according to Dorothy Leidner, a professor of business ethics at the University of Virginia. If the material being tested in a large class is largely declarative knowledge — so there is a clear right and wrong — then a teacher grading using the AI “might be even superior to human grading,” she told CNN.

AI would allow teachers to grade papers faster and more consistently and avoid fatigue or boredoms, she said.

But Leidner noted when it comes to smaller classes or assignments with less definitive answers, grading should remain personalized so teachers can provide more specific feedback and get to know a student’s work, and, therefore, progress over time.

“A teacher should be responsible for grading but can give some responsibility to the AI,” she said.

She suggested teachers use AI to look at certain metrics — such as structure, language use and grammar — and give a numerical score on those figures. But teachers should then grade students’ work themselves when looking for novelty, creativity and depth of insight.

Leslie Layne, who has been teaching ChatGPT best practices in her writing workshop at the University of Lynchburg in Virginia, said she sees the advantages for teachers but also sees drawbacks.

“Using feedback that is not truly from me seems like it is shortchanging that relationship a little,” she said.

She also sees uploading a student’s work to ChatGPT as a “huge ethical consideration” and potentially a breach of their intellectual property. AI tools like ChatGPT use such entries to train their algorithms on everything from patterns of speech to how to make sentences to facts and figures.

Ethics professor Leidner agreed, saying this should particularly be avoided for doctoral dissertations and master’s theses because the student might hope to publish the work.

“It would not be right to upload the material into the AI without making the students aware of this in advance,” she said. “And maybe students should need to provide consent.”

Some teachers are leaning on software called Writable that uses ChatGPT to help grade papers but is “tokenized,” so essays do not include any personal information, and it’s not shared directly with the system.

Teachers upload essays to the platform, which was recently acquired by education company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, which then provides suggested feedback for students.

Other educators are using platforms such as  Turnitin  that boast plagiarism detection tools to help teachers identify when assignments are written by ChatGPT and other AI. But these types of detection tools are far from foolproof; OpenAI shut down its own AI-detection tool last year due to what the company called a “low rate of accuracy.”

Setting standards

Some schools are actively working on policies for both teachers and students. Alan Reid, a research associate in the Center for Research and Reform in Education (CRRE) at Johns Hopkins University, said he recently spent time working with K-12 educators who use GPT tools to create end-of-quarter personalized comments on report cards.

But like Layne, he acknowledged the technology’s ability to write insightful feedback remains “limited.”

He currently sits on a committee at his college that’s authoring an AI policy for faculty and staff; discussions are ongoing, not just for how teachers use AI in the classroom but how it’s used by educators in general.

He acknowledges schools are having conversations about using generative AI tools to create things like promotion and tenure files, performance reviews, and job postings.”

Nicolas Frank, an associate professor of philosophy at University of Lynchburg, said universities and professors need to be on the same page when it comes to policies but need to stay cautious .

“There is a lot of danger in making policies about AI at this stage,” he said.

He worries it’s still too early to understand how AI will be integrated into everyday life. He is also concerned that some administrators who don’t teach in classrooms may craft policy that misses nuances of instruction.

“That may create a danger of oversimplifying the problems with AI use in grading and instruction,” he said. “Oversimplification is how bad policy is made.”

To start, he said educators can identify clear abuses of AI and begin policy-making around those.

Leidner, meanwhile, said universities can be very high level with their guidance, such as making transparency a priority — so students have a right to know when AI is being used to grade their work — and identifying what types of information should never be uploaded into an AI or asked of an AI.

But she said universities must also be open to “regularly reevaluating as the technology and uses evolve.”

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Mary S. Jones

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