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 Descriptive Adjectives - Tree Sloth Writing Prompt
Help your struggling writers build their skills with a descriptive paragraph prompt worksheet about tree sloths.
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Narrative Text Structure Anchor Charts
Brighten up your classroom narrative writing display with this set of narrative writing posters!
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Fairy Tales Word Wall Vocabulary
Build vocabulary and inspire fairy tale writing with sixty-eight fairy tale-themed vocabulary cards.
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Write About It! Winter Sentence Builder Pack
Differentiate writing instruction in primary grades with a group of leveled informational writing prompts about winter
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Fire Prevention Week Writing Prompts
Enhance writing skills during Fire Prevention Week with fire safety writing prompts for kids.
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Benjamin Franklin - Constructed Response Worksheet
Learn facts about Benjamin Franklin with an informational reading and writing activity focusing on the constructed response format.
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Direct Speech - Teaching Presentation
Teach the rules of punctuating direct speech in texts with an interactive teaching presentation
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Writing Out Loud: Dialogue Punctuation Worksheet
Practice writing dialogue correctly with a Punctuating Dialogue worksheet.
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Find What Doesn’t Fit: Relevant Details Worksheet
Practice determining what details are relevant and irrelevant to a topic while providing a purposeful context.
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Using Commas in Dates and Series - SCOOT! Game
Practice using commas in dates and series with a whole-class SCOOT game!
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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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Google Slides Interactive- Past, Present, and Future Verbs Activity
Develop student skills using the correct forms of past, present, and future tense verbs with this Google Slides Interactive activity.
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Google Interactive Sight Words - 1st Grade Dolch
Read, write, identify, and build all 41 Dolch first-grade sight words in an interactive Google Slides presentation.
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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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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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Find It! Noun Game
Practice recognizing and using nouns with this set of 5 game boards.
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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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Simple Sentence Dominoes - Set 1
A set of 30 dominoes to assist younger students with building simple sentences.
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Editing Checklist
Help your students with the editing process with this editing checklist.
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Veterans Day Vocabulary Cards and Writing Center
Help your kindergartners and first graders understand the meaning of Veterans Day with a Veterans Day Write the Room display.
- 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 Board Games
- Guided Writing Activities Matchup Games
- Guided Writing Activities Graphic Organizers
- Guided Writing Activities Dominoes
- Guided Writing Activities Bingo
- Guided Writing Activities Checklists
- Guided Writing Activities Writing Checklist
- Guided Writing Activities Card Games
- Guided Writing Activities Craft Activities
- Guided Writing Activities Mini Book
- Guided Writing Activities Bulletin Board Displays
- Guided Writing Activities Labels Signs Decorations
- Guided Writing Activities Active Games
- Guided Writing Activities Projects
- Guided Writing Activities Color by Code
- Guided Writing Activities Flashcards
- Guided Writing Activities Cut and Paste Worksheets
- Guided Writing Activities Dice Games
- 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