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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Simple Sentence Dominoes - Set 2
A set of 30 dominoes to assist younger students with building simple sentences.
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Simple Sentence Dominoes - Set 1
A set of 30 dominoes to assist younger students with building simple sentences.
- Free Plan
In My Classroom Concept Book
A printable concept book for children to discuss things around their classroom.
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Direct Speech Task Cards
Review all 16 task cards with direct speech in the text and correct the missing punctuation.
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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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Editing Checklist
Help your students with the editing process with this editing checklist.
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General Writing Checklist (Printable Poster for the Classroom)
A writing checklist poster to use with your primary students across multiple genres.
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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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General Writing Checklist
A writing checklist for primary students to use across multiple genres.
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Informative Texts Writing Tasks - Fact Files and Scaffolding Template
A set of 5 fact files and a scaffolding template that can be used to write an informative text.
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Persuasive Writing Planning Template
A planning template to use when writing a persuasive or opinion text.
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Writing Conference Form - Student Record
Use this writing conference form when discussing and observing students writing.
- Free Plan
Guided Writing Groups - Progress Tracker
Track student progress during guided writing sessions with this template.
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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 Games
- Guided Writing Activities Templates
- Guided Writing Activities Writing Templates
- Guided Writing Activities Worksheets
- Guided Writing Activities Interactive Activities
- Guided Writing Activities Task Cards
- Guided Writing Activities Sorting Activities
- Guided Writing Activities Word Walls
- Guided Writing Activities Posters
- Guided Writing Activities Instructional Slide Decks
- Guided Writing Activities Dominoes
- Guided Writing Activities Graphic Organizers
- Guided Writing Activities Board Games
- Guided Writing Activities Matchup Games
- Guided Writing Activities Bingo
- Guided Writing Activities Card Games
- Guided Writing Activities Writing Checklist
- Guided Writing Activities Checklists
- Guided Writing Activities Craft Activities
- Guided Writing Activities Mini Book
- Guided Writing Activities Labels Signs Decorations
- Guided Writing Activities Bulletin Board Displays
- Guided Writing Activities Active Games
- Guided Writing Activities Cut and Paste Worksheets
- Guided Writing Activities Dice Games
- Guided Writing Activities Color by Code
- Guided Writing Activities Projects
- Guided Writing Activities Flashcards
- Guided Writing Activities for Pre-K
- Guided Writing Activities for Kindergarten
- Guided Writing Activities for 1st Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 2nd Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 3rd Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 4th Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 5th Grade
- Guided Writing Activities for 6th Grade