Writing
Explore resources designed to improve writing instruction in elementary school. 
- View a visual diagram of all five practices
- Watch a topic overview and download planning templates
- Listen to an expert
Explore the subtopics below to learn more about the recommended practices:
To learn more about the research underlying these practices, view the IES Practice Guide, Teaching Elementary Students to Be Effective Writers.
Teaching Students to Use the Writing Process for a Variety of Purposes
Writing > Writing Process > Overview & Tools
The focus of this recommended practice is that strong writing involves following a process in which writers (1) plan, (2) draft, (3) share, (4) evaluate, (5) revise, (6) edit, and (7) publish a...
Resource Type
Overview
Tips for Using an Author's Chair Activity
Writing > Engaged Community > See How It Works
Learn how Author's Chair can be implemented in an elementary school classroom. To learn more about how this teacher uses Author's Chair, view the presentation, There Is a Larger Audience. Related...
Resource Type
Sample Material
Visual Diagram: Teaching Elementary School Students to be Effective Writers
Writing > Overview & Tools
Use this diagram as a visual reminder of the four interrelated practices that are recommended for helping elementary school students become effective writers. Teachers need to provide daily time...
Resource Type
Visual Diagram
Self-Reflection Tool: Activities for Sentence Structure Development
Writing > Foundational Skills > Overview & Tools
This tool can be used to identify ideas for focused instruction within three research-based instructional activities for sentence development: sentence framing, sentence expanding, and sentence...
Resource Type
Tool
Appositive Worksheet: How Do Experts Do It?
Writing > Foundational Skills > See How It Works
This sample material offers an example of different nonfiction sentences in a mentor text to show students how authors use appositives to craft sentences. Listen to the audio interview, Learning to...
Resource Type
Sample Material
Teaching Foundational Skills to Help Students Become Effective Writers
Writing > Foundational Skills > Overview & Tools
This recommended practice focuses on providing instruction on foundational writing skills, such as handwriting, spelling, sentence construction, typing, and word processing. This presentation...
Resource Type
Overview
Planning to Teach Sentence Construction
Writing > Foundational Skills > Overview & Tools
Use this tool to plan lessons using mentor texts to teach sentence construction. View the related sample materials and listen to the audio interview to learn more about using mentor text to teach...
Resource Type
Tool
Writing is a Thinking Activity
Writing > Overview & Tools
Dr. Steve Graham discusses the four recommended practices from the Practice Guide, Teaching Elementary School Students to Be Effective Writers. He describes how the process of writing instruction...
Resource Type
Expert Interview
Using Mentor Texts to Teach Foundational Skills: A Planner
Writing > Foundational Skills > Overview & Tools
Elementary school teachers can use this tool for organizing ideas and identifying mentor texts that can be integrated into lesson plans on grammar and sentence mechanics. Using this tool, teachers...
Resource Type
Tool
Keep It Simple
Writing > Foundational Skills > See How It Works
Teachers can use this template to teach sentence construction in different subject areas to show sentence patterns and to help students construct simple and complex sentences. Listen to the audio...
Resource Type
Sample Material
Teaching Writing Strategies
Writing > Writing Process > See How It Works
Teachers describe the strategies they teach their students to help them learn the writing process. They teach and model multiple strategies for every step of the writing process so that students...
Resource Type
School Example
Including Writing in Everything We Do
Writing > Daily Time > See How It Works
Watch a fifth-grade math class integrate writing practice into a geometry lesson. Students plan their writing using graphic organizers specifically tailored to writing in the context of a math...
Resource Type
School Example