Guided Writing Activities Teaching Resources
Get guided writing activities, prompts, and more to help your students develop their writing muscles in your classroom. This elementary school teaching resource collection was created by the expert ELA teachers on the Teach Starter team.
These curriculum-aligned resources will save you time on your ELA lesson plans with classroom-ready printable and digital worksheets and activities that you can edit to differentiate instruction for individual learners.
What Is Guided Writing?
Guided writing is a technique used to help individuals improve their writing skills by providing them with a structure or set of guidelines to follow while they write. This can include prompts, examples, or specific instructions to help the writer focus their thoughts and organize their ideas more effectively. The goal of guided writing is to help the writer improve their writing skills and develop their own unique style over time.
What Does Guided Writing Look Like in the Classroom?
In a classroom setting, guided writing typically involves you, the teacher, providing students with a specific topic or prompt to write about, along with a set of guidelines or instructions to follow. This could include a specific word count, a specific format (such as a persuasive essay or a descriptive paragraph), or a set of key points that the student should address in their writing.
You may also provide examples of well-written pieces that students can use as a model for their own writing as well as giving feedback on the students' writing so that they can improve their writing skills.
Guided writing can take place in a whole-class setting, where a teacher leads the class through the writing process, or in small groups or one-on-one sessions where a teacher can provide more personalized instruction and feedback.
How Does Guided Writing Help Students Improve Their Writing?
Not sure if you want to add guided writing to your instruction techniques? Our teacher team has dug through the educational research on the topic for a more in-depth view.
Research has found that guided writing can be effective in improving various aspects of students' writing skills. For example, studies have shown that guided writing can:
- Improve students' writing fluency, increasing their ability to generate written text quickly and easily
- Enhance students' writing accuracy, including improved grammar, spelling, and punctuation
- Increase students' writing complexity, helping students achieve a higher level of sophistication and maturity in their writing.
- Help students develop a greater sense of self-efficacy
- Encourage students' motivation to write
- Facilitate the provision of feedback and support from the teacher
Of course, the effectiveness of guided writing will depend on the specific approach and context in which it is implemented. For example, some research has suggested that guided writing may be more effective when it is used in conjunction with other writing instruction methods, such as independent writing, peer review, and self-reflection.
In general, when guided writing is well-designed, it can be an effective tool for improving students' writing skills, but we suggest using it as part of a comprehensive writing instruction program.
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Using Commas in Dates and Series -Task Cards
Practice correct comma placement in dates and series with task cards
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Abbreviations I Have Who Has
Encourage reading and spelling abbreviations skills with a lively classroom game of I Have, Who Has?
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Abbreviations Bingo
Build vocabulary and spelling skills and have fun with abbreviation word games.
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Abbreviations Board Game
Engage and excite your learners with a lively Abbreviations Board Game designed to teach the most common abbreviations in the English language.
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Past, Present, and Future Tense Worksheets - Grades 1/2
Provide students with additional verb tense practice with worksheets focusing on changing verbs into past, present, and future tense.
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Dressing Up A Sentence - Interactive or Printable Activity
Encourage students to add more descriptive language into their sentence writing with this activity.
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Alphabetical Order Task Cards (Grades 1-2)
Give your students some practice putting words in alphabetical order with a set of 20 task cards.
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Subject-Verb Stomp! Verb Agreement Board Game
Play a game of Subject-Verb Stomp! to engage your learners and build better sentence-writing skills.
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Let's Research! Digital and Print Poster Project Templates
Conduct, organize, and display research about books, people, planets, animals, states, and countries with a versatile set of printable and digital poster templates.
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Contractions - I Have, Who Has? Card Game
Encourage correct spelling and usage of contractions in your Language Arts lessons with an engaging I Have, Who Has? Card game.
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Capitalization Task Cards (Grades 4-5)
Practice capitalizing less frequently occurring words (historical periods, events, languages, races, nationalities, and more) with 28 text task cards.
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What's Missing? - Alphabet Worksheet
A set of worksheets to practice writing the letters of the alphabet in order.
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Brainstorming Task Cards
A set of 24 task cards to practice the brainstorming techniques of drawing a picture, creating a mind map, and making a list.
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Brainstorming for Essays Worksheet
A worksheet to practice using Venn diagrams, mind maps, and cause and effect maps to brainstorm for various essays.
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Punctuation Parking Lot Game
Practice recognizing and using end punctuation with our set of punctuation cards and matching game board.
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Punctuation BINGO
A set of 20 BINGO game boards and cards to practice recognizing and naming end punctuation.
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SPLAT! Types of Sentences Card Game
Practice identifying the 4 kinds of sentences (interrogative, declarative, imperative, or exclamatory) with this set of 20 task cards.
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Adjectives or BUST! Card Game
Play this engaging adjective identification card game with a small group of students or as a whole class.
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Simple Sentence Dominoes - Set 3
A set of 30 dominoes to assist younger students with building simple sentences.
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Simple Sentence Dominoes - Set 2
A set of 30 dominoes to assist younger students with building simple sentences.
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Prepositions Bingo
Practice recognizing and using prepositions with this set of 20 bingo game boards and preposition cards.
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Prepositions Parking Lot Game
Practice recognizing and using prepositions with our game board with a set of 20 preposition cards.
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Writing Conference Form - Student Record
Use this writing conference form when discussing and observing students writing.
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Writer's Reflection Worksheet
Get your students into the habit of reflecting on their writing with this student reflection worksheet.
- Guided Writing Activities for For Kindergarten
- Guided Writing Activities for For 1st Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for For 2nd Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for For 3rd Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for For 4th Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for For 5th Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for For 6th Grade