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Checklists are used for many academic tasks, and writing is a common one. Are they really effective? Absolutely! This post will explore why checklists are used, research results, and how to use writing checklists to improve student writing in the classroom.

Why Are Writing Checklists Used in the Classroom?

When children have the opportunity to address their own mistakes within the writing process, it makes their learning more meaningful. They can fix mistakes as they go and develop their writing skills that much faster. Think of famous authors like Roald Dahl or Judy Blume. Good writers use checklists, revise, and edit over and over again to get it just right.

A writing checklist is an effective tool to use when writing because…

• It guides students to develop the skills needed when writing.
• It shows reluctant writers a simple way to include the necessary elements.
• It provides a reference to use throughout the writing process.
• It helps students stay focused on each step of the process.
• It gives students tools for review and peer-editing.
• It ensures students include key elements of that particular type of writing.
• It encourages students to establish organization throughout their paper.
• It reminds students to “check over” their paper for effective revising strategies and proper editing rules.
• It holds students accountable by providing expectations.
• It keeps students on task.
• It ultimately helps significantly improve students’ writing.
• It can help communicate the criteria of an effective paper to parents.
• It can eliminate extra work for the teacher and student if the teacher grades the paper and wants the student to fix any mistakes.
• It can develop students’ metacognitive awareness of their intellectual processes (see research below).

What Research Supports the Fact that Writing Checklists Improve Writing?

There have been several studies to support the effectiveness of using checklists. Let’s take a closer look at their findings…

Dr. Kathleen Dudden Rowlands (Educational Specialist)

Kathleen Dudden Rowlands wrote an article titled Check it Out! Using Checklists to Support Student Learning . The article states, “Kathleen Dudden Rowlands recommends using checklists to support student learning and performance. Well-designed checklists identify steps students can take to complete complex tasks which scaffolds students’ metacognitive development and fosters the confidence and independence needed for internalizing these steps for future tasks.” Read more HERE !

Atul Gawande, MD, MPH (Surgeon and Writer)

Atul Gawande explores how experts in their fields need checklists to avoid mistakes and how checklists improve outcomes. The description of his book, “The Checklist Manifesto”, states, “Atul Gawande makes a compelling argument that we can do better using the simplest of methods: the checklists. In riveting stories, he reveals what checklists can do, what they can’t, and how they could bring about striking improvements in a variety of fields, from medicine and disaster recovery to professions and businesses of all kinds. And the insights are making a difference.” Read more about his book HERE !

Annette Marines (Librarian, USCS) and Aaron Zachmeier (Instructional Designer, USCS)

Marines and Zachmeier looked at how checklists improve writing, information literacy, and analytical thinking skills. In 2017, they studied several scenarios comparing results of students using a checklist with students who didn’t use a checklist. Their findings indicated that checklists help improve student performance. For more details, click HERE !

How Do You Use Writing Checklists in the Classroom?

Now that you know checklists are important and effective in the classroom, how can you use them for writing?

• When creating a writing checklist, think about the expectations of the task and what you want your students to accomplish. Are they writing a paragraph or an essay? What type of writing are you assigning? Make sure to include the elements of writing for that particular type of writing. For example, in narrative writing, checklist items might include: Do you have a beginning, middle, and end? Do you offer a solution to the problem? Did you develop the characters throughout the story? Did you provide suspense?
• Make sure the checklist is well-crafted, simply-stated, and in a practical order to guide the students through the assignment. Don’t make it too lengthy because you want your struggling readers to understand it as well.
• Tell students the purpose for the checklist. (It will guide you to a quality of writing and remind you of the expectations of the assignment. It will help you become an amazing author!)
• Tell students that experts like surgeons, pilots, and the best authors use checklists!
• Provide the checklist at the beginning of the assignment so they can use it throughout the writing process- pre-writing, rough draft, revising, editing, peer-editing, and final copy. Remind them to go over the checklist one more time before the publishing stage!
• Go through each item on the checklist. Demonstrate examples or use a mentor text to explain each step.
• Ask students to turn in the checklist with their published piece. This will help them realize its importance and make them accountable for the items on the checklist.

Writing checklists are found in all my Step-by-Step Writing   Programs ®  which are aligned to each grade level. Do you want to try our FREE writing checklists aligned to primary or upper elementary grades for a variety of writing types? Click on the BOX below and see how to get them for FREE !

I hope you found some useful tips!

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Editing Checklist for Self- and Peer Editing

About this printout

This helpful tool will give your students the opportunity to edit their own writing and then observe as their peers edit the same work.

Teaching with this printout

More ideas to try, related resources.

Before you begin, be sure to model and discuss each step of the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing), preferably using a whole-class story or class newsletter article. Please note that the revising stage precedes editing. Student should have already worked through content revisions before reaching the editing step. When they are ready for the editing stage of the writing process, students should edit their writing and then meet with a partner to engage in peer editing. Prior to having students use this tool independently, it is important to model its use. To do this, display sample text on an overhead projector, document camera, or SMART Board so that all students can view it. Model the use of the self-edit column with the displayed text, with you assuming the role of author. Then have a volunteer fill out the peer-edit column so that all students can hear and view the process. Finally, discuss what went well and what could be improved in the editing steps that were modeled. This tool serves multiple purposes, including:

• The self-edit step

encourages students to evaluate specific features of their writing, increasing self-awareness of writing conventions keeps the pen in the writer’s hand for the initial editing phase

• The peer-edit step

helps build a learning community in which peers work collaboratively heightens the awareness of various print and grammatical conventions for the peer editor and the author

• Use a fish-bowl technique to allow the class to view a self- and peer-edit session of two of their classmates. To do this, first choose one student to model the self-editing phase. It is helpful to select a student who has a good understanding of the criteria on the rubric, such as proper grammar and punctuation. That student works through the items in the self-edit column as the other students observe. It is helpful to put the editing checklist on an overhead projector or document camera so all students can see the process. After the self-edit is complete, discuss the process with the students. Next, choose another student to serve as the peer editor for the piece that was just self-edited.  Have the two students sit in the middle of the class so that all students can see and hear them as they work through the peer-editing phase. Afterward, include the entire class in a discussion about the process itself and ways in which the editing session will help the author and peer editor improve on their writing.
• Have students work in groups of two or three to edit one piece of writing. The interaction between peers will help make the editing process more explicit. While the students are working in groups, move from group to group to check their understanding of the editing process and use of the checklist. Try to notice groups that lack comments in the “Comments and Suggestions” columns and encourage them to use this section to provide feedback to the writer, particularly for criteria that lack a check mark. To guide them, you could ask, “What do you think you could write in the ‘Comments’ section to help the writer fix this error?” Be sure to tell students that if they are unable to mark a check in the “After completing each step, place a check here” column, they must indicate the reason why they cannot check it in the “Comments and Suggestions” column.
• If your school uses a team approach for grouping students (a group of students who all share the same content area teachers), consider encouraging other team teachers to use this checklist in their respective content areas. Consistency in the editing process will help students understand that the editing process can apply to all written pieces, regardless of the content area.
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Checklist: Academic writing

Published on October 16, 2020 by Shona McCombes . Revised on July 23, 2023.

Academic writing is a formal style of writing used in universities and scholarly publications. When writing an essay , research paper , research proposal , thesis , or dissertation , you have to use academic style.

Use this checklist to make sure you’ve followed academic conventions in style, tone, and structure.

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Table of contents

Other interesting articles.

I avoid informal terms and contractions .

I avoid second-person pronouns (“you”).

I avoid emotive or exaggerated language.

I avoid redundant words and phrases.

I avoid unnecessary jargon and define terms where needed.

I present information as precisely and accurately as possible.

I use appropriate transitions to show the connections between my ideas.

My text is logically organized using paragraphs .

Each paragraph is focused on a single idea, expressed in a clear topic sentence .

Every part of the text relates to my central thesis or research question .

I support my claims with evidence.

I use the appropriate verb tenses in each section.

I consistently use either UK or US English .

I format numbers consistently.

I cite my sources using a consistent citation style .

Your text follows the most important rules of academic style. Make sure it's perfect with the help of a Scribbr editor!

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The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s of academic texts and by native English editors. Making it the most accurate and reliable proofreading tool for students.

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If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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McCombes, S. (2023, July 23). Checklist: Academic writing. Scribbr. Retrieved April 2, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-writing/academic-writing-checklist/

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Say hello to our free narrative writing checklists

FREE NARRATIVE WRITING CHECKLISTS

Teach your students to independently check their own narrative/story writing with these beautiful narrative writing checklist PDFs and rubrics. 

There are three age variations in the bundle Junior (Ages 5 – 7), Middle (7 – 11) and Senior (11 – 15). Each bundle contains both a student checklist for independent assessment and a student/teacher rubric for conferencing. Check the preview for a visual example. 

Each age group has been stylised and written to appeal to different age groups.

With six to a page, you can easily print these out and distribute to students and reuse them over and over. 

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE NARRATIVE CHECKLISTS HERE

The version you are looking at is the free PDF version. If you are looking for the premium editable version, you can find it at

EDITABLE NARRATIVE CHECKLIST AND RUBRICS

Give your students the tools they need to write great stories.

Kevin has worked in education for over two decades. He has a Masters degree in Educational Technologies and runs two companies providing educational content to schools, students and teachers.

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A Foolproof Editing Checklist to Take Your Work from 0 to 100

You've just finished writing a blog post, sweat pouring from your brow much as words poured from your fingertips a second ago.

You're about to press publish when suddenly… a small, niggling voice pipes up in your mind.

“You should probably proofread that, at least…” the voice says snidely. 

You resist. Your writing feels good! Or at least, good enough to send. Why bother with the whole editing bit?

The voice is correct. Although many people think writing is the hard part, the toughest part of any writing process is the editing. Editing is what takes your writing from good to great.

If you're an academic, editing will help polish your work and make it more professional.

If you're a blogger, editing will help you earn more trust with your readers.

If you're into creative writing, editing helps you carve out motivations, characterizations, and tell a better story.

I'll break down exactly how I recommend incorporating editing into your writing process.

Understanding the Basics of Writing and Editing

Let's start by explaining the stages of the writing process. Though many people think the process is simply: write → publish, it's a little more complex than that.

Prewriting (Brainstorming)

Gather and organize your thoughts. Understand the assignment or purpose, consider your audience, and come up with ideas. Techniques like free writing, clustering, and mind mapping can be useful here.

Once you have your ideas, you start to put them into sentences and paragraphs. This is where you write your first version or rough draft. It doesn't have to be perfect; the main goal is to get your ideas down on paper.

Here, you rethink and reorganize your paper. You might rearrange sections, add or delete paragraphs, clarify ideas, and ensure that your argument is well structured and supported. The focus is on clarity and meaning.

Refine your draft by fixing grammar, punctuation, spelling, and other mechanical errors. You might also look at sentence structure, word choice, and consistency in style and tone. This is where you polish your work.

Proofreading

This is the final check before you consider your piece complete. You're looking for any last-minute errors or typos that might have been missed during the editing stage. It's often helpful to read the paper aloud or have someone else review it.

Publishing (or Sharing)

Finally, once you're satisfied with your work, you share it with your intended audience. This could mean turning it in to a teacher, posting it on a blog, submitting it to a journal, or any other way of making your writing public.

This isn't a linear process all the time. Sometimes you'll be editing and realize you need to go back to the revision portion, or even back to brainstorming. You may also find yourself proofreading as you write, instead of at the end. 

Writing for students in high school is slightly different to writing in academic settings – high school writing is more about foundational skills like clear sentences and organized thoughts. Academic writing requires specialized knowledge, critical analysis, and adherence to specific formats. Keep those standards in mind when editing your work.

Key Elements to Check in Your Writing

This is a bit labor intensive, but the best way to go through your piece and make sure it's perfect is by taking each section and sentence and making sure it fits and flows perfectly. 

Here are some of the biggest issues to tick off your list:

Check for complete sentences – no sentence fragment allowed.

Example: "Because I like to read."

Corrected: "I like to read."

Ensure each body paragraph has a topic sentence.

Example: "It's a popular sport. Many people love soccer because it's exciting and unites fans globally."

Corrected: "Soccer is beloved worldwide for its excitement and ability to unite fans."

Ensure each sentence conveys clear ideas.

Example: "She went to the place with the thing for that stuff."

Corrected: "She went to the library to borrow a book."

Avoid the passive voice – go for active voice.

Example: "The cake was eaten by him."

Corrected: "He ate the cake."

Scrutinize your word choice to convey the right message. 

Example: “She talked really bad.”

Corrected: "She spoke inappropriately."

Check for grammatical errors, grammar mistakes, and proper grammar.

Example: "She don't like chocolate."

Corrected: "She doesn't like chocolate."

Check for common spelling pitfalls.

Example: "I have a reciept."

Corrected: "I have a receipt."

Check punctuation, including exclamation marks and proper punctuation.

Example: "Its raining outside, isn't it!"

Corrected: "It's raining outside, isn't it?"

Avoid unnecessary words, filler words, and long sentences.

Example: "I just really think that, you know, maybe we should, like, consider going to the store or something."

Corrected: "Maybe we should go to the store."

Ensure proper capitalization. Each proper noun gets a capital letter.

Example: "i love paris in the springtime."

Corrected: “I love Paris in the springtime.”

Make your content interesting.

Example: "The Renaissance was an important time in history."

Corrected: “The Renaissance, a vibrant period of rebirth, profoundly influenced art, science, and thought.”

Advanced Editing Techniques

When you're ready to go a step further, there are a few final i's to dot and t's to cross to finalize your editing, both for students and professionals. These are a bit more big picture. 

Use body paragraphs to structure your writing . 

You want to ensure that each paragraph has a point, and that everything in that paragraph supports your main point. 

Sometimes on tricky pieces, I will print out my article, highlight my main point, and cross out any sentences that don't directly strengthen my main point.

You also need to understand the role of each phrase , word , and paragraph in enhancing readability. 

Short, clear sentences and paragraphs make content more scannable, especially online. 

Transition words help guide readers through an argument or narrative, and varied sentence structures can maintain reader interest. 

You should also think of editing skills not just as a checklist, but also as a way to improve your writing skill . 

As you consistently edit and refine your work, you begin to internalize the principles of good writing. 

Over time, you'll notice that you start avoiding common mistakes you used to make in your first drafts. It's very satisfying.

Formatting and Style

A boring but necessary item on any checklist for editing – make sure you're following the rules. Especially relevant for students, your teacher has probably assigned you MLA style or APA style. Students and professionals alike will have to adhere to font regulations, too.

Double check you're in Times New Roman, if that's what the assignment calls for. It's really annoying to get docked points for a simple format mistake.

Curious about the best Microsoft fonts? Read here.  

Resources for Effective Editing

Where to begin? Don't worry, you're not starting from a blank slate. There are tons of online resources and tools for editing. (Almost all of these are all free – I know what students' and freelancers budgets are like!)

Grammarly . It's a free Chrome extension, powered by AI, that finds spelling issues, grammar mistakes, but also can go into clarity and where to cut unnecessary words. Perfect for students, veteran marketers, and everyone in between.

ProWritingAid . This AI editor does a similar job – it will correct your misspellings, simplify jargon, and help trim your writing to be more concise.

Hemingway Editor . This resource is a free app that is all about picking out common writing issues, like if your sentences are too complex, or if you've got a lot of passive voice.

Readable is a great resource for giving you a sense of the reading level, either the well-known Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level or another metric. Great for students. 

OneLook Thesaurus. This will solve your overused word problem. Not only does it work as a traditional thesaurus, it's also good for finding that word that you can't quite remember. 

Students bonus: Your local writing center . Most colleges will have a center dedicated to helping you write. Here's a sample of what UMass Boston's will give you: “We offer individual writing consultations in person and online where we work collaboratively with writers and provide feedback on any writing, from class essays to cover letters to theses and dissertations to manuscripts for publication and anything in between.” Pretty great resource, huh?

Your friendly peer editor . If you're really stuck in the editing process, I recommend asking one of your fellow students or peers very nicely – or even hiring a professional – to give your piece a once-over. 

Final thoughts on this checklist

Running your piece through a checklist like this one is the best way to polish your article. It gives you a sense of professional pride. For students, it's a good way to keep grades up or just feel like your assignment is done. 

My last three piece of advice:

Read it out loud . This is the fastest, cheapest, and best way to edit. You'll find stale sentences, missing commas, boring bits, and forgotten clauses. 

If you can, print it and read it on a physical copy . Especially for students submitting an assignment, changing the format can really help your eye spot hidden errors. 

Have fun . Editing can feel like a drag, but I like to gamify it a bit with this kind of checklist. Remember, you're skilling up, like a video game character. Do your best and enjoy the process. 

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Different Ways to Use Checklists in Writing Workshop

I could feel the excitement coursing through me as I fastened the metal seatbelt over my lap. “Wow,” I said, swiveling my head around and gazing out through the small window in front of me, “this plane is smaller than I imagined it.”  Glancing to my left, I waited for a response from my friend, Louis.  But none came.  Instead, I watched as he checked instruments, gauges, and controls all around the small cockpit.  He appeared to have slipped into another world, running through a routine unknown to me.  “Okay, check,” he whispered to himself.  Over and over again he carefully and methodically performed a series of small actions, a series I know now designed to assure that all was in order in his Piper PA-32 airplane.  Finally, he turned to me smiling and said, “My checklist.  Ready to take off?”

A short number of years ago, doctor and surgeon Atul Gawande published his ground-breaking book entitled, The Checklist Manifesto   (Picador, 2011). While working as a staff developer at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, I learned a little of Dr. Gawande’s work and its influence on the new materials being drafted to support young writers in a writing workshop.  The premise of the work seemed simple, yet genius:  in an effort to help kids make sense of the sheer volume of knowledge about writing, as well as the complexity of it (not to mention the common core state standards), we would offer them  checklists for different types of writing. These checklists would one day become part of the Writing Units of Study  in a book called, Writing Pathways (Heinemann, 2014).  Similar to the mental checklist I watched my pilot friend Louis run through that cloudy day in his little Piper aircraft, writing checklists would be designed to support writers in making sure necessary components were in order.

Whether or not your school now utilizes the Calkins Writing Units of Study  (Heinemann, 2014) or another resource, it is important to remember John Hattie’s body of research that emphasizes a need for learners to have crystal clear targets for learning, as well as to receive meaningful, actionable feedback about their progress toward those targets.  Growing up as a young writer, I do not remember many clear goals for my writing outside of the requirement that they be grammatically and conventionally correct.  Today, we can celebrate the research that teaches us the importance of tools that can lay out clear, attainable goals for writers, as well as possible avenues of teaching for teachers.

Student-facing checklists can be a powerful tool.  While rubrics are helpful for teachers, checklists are helpful for students.  Checklists can serve to provide clear targets for writers as they strive to craft pieces within narrative, informational, opinion or argumentative writing, or any type of writing.  Those included in  Writing Pathways  provide descriptive language that is “student-facing”, language such as this in the grade 6 narrative checklist, “I used paragraphs purposefully, perhaps to show time and setting changes, new parts of the story, or to create suspense for readers.  I created a clear, logical sequence of events” (Heinemann, 2014).  Each descriptor is followed by three check-off boxes written in growth mindset language: “Not yet,” “Starting to,” or “Yes!”

Back in January, co-author Melanie Meehan offered some wonderful uses for checklists in her post entitled, Writing Checklists: Tools for Independence and Goal-setting .  Allow me to add to the list she started:

• Lenses for analyzing student writing on-demands.  When embarking on a unit of study in a certain type of writing, many teachers ask writers to compose a fairly quick piece of writing that showcases all they know about that type of writing.  Checklists can provide lenses through which we can study those on-demand pieces, allowing teachers to begin imagining avenues for teaching- both whole class lessons, as well as small groups.  When sitting down with colleagues to analyze student work, teachers can keep a checklist close by that lays out a clear vision for that type of writing.
• Self-assessment and goal-setting.  Checklists can also be used with students for self-assessing writing and setting goals.  However, if such an experience is to be meaningful, writers need some explicit demonstration on how a proficient writer (teacher) goes about leaning on a checklist to self-assess and set goals.   Just like I am certain a veteran pilot once showed my friend Louis how to lean on a checklist when he was learning to fly, our writers need teaching in how to meaningfully use a checklist.  One powerful way to go about this is to share your teacher-written draft and demonstrate a thoughtful rereading of it.  For example, a sixth grade teacher might show how she rereads for an elaboration descriptor that calls for the following:  “ I developed realistic characters, and developed the details, action, dialogue, and internal thinking that contribute to the deeper meaning of the story”  (Heinemann, 2014).  Students benefit from explicit demonstrations that show thoughtful consideration of their writing, as this is not typically an innate skill.  Following the demonstration, I personally have found it also more effective to invite students to do this work independently with a writing partner, rather than working in isolation.
• Guides for partner shares.   Perhaps midway through a unit, a mid-workshop interruption, or maybe an end-of-workshop teaching share time can allow time for writers to revisit a checklist.  During these times, students can self-assess either their work of the day or their overall progress in drafting or revision.  What goals have they met?  Where lies still more work to be done?  Teachers can support writers by, again, providing a quick demonstration on how such a sharing session might sound.
• Teacher-student goal-setting conferences.   Checklists can be overwhelming for some writers.  This is why it is important to encourage students to select maybe two or three goals from the checklist, negotiating with them what feels most inspiring and within reach.  A student can write his or her goals down into the writer’s notebook, while you the teacher make a quick note in your conferring notes.  This provides you a line of inquiry when returning later to confer with that student.
• Regular writing conferences.   When conferring with writers during the writing process, checklists can be a helpful tool to keep and carry.  Since the checklists I use are divided up into different descriptors within the categories of “Structure,” “Development,” and “Conventions,” I find them quite helpful when conducting a writing conference.  For example, during the research phase of a writing conference, I will often listen for where a student’s strength lies:  is it in structure?  Or development?  Or perhaps grammar/conventions?  Glancing at my checklist, I will then give the student a compliment from the area I have assessed as a strength, and pull a teaching point from one of the other areas.
• Showing growth over time.   A math colleague of mine once taught me that pre-assessments, although meant to provide a teacher a sense of what a students knows and can do now, also hold a purpose unseen– to show growth.   At or toward the end of a unit of study, consider inviting students to revisit their old on-demands alongside a checklist they used- celebrate their progress! It is important for kids to know and appreciate their growth as writers.

Needless to say, my flight with Louis that day was successful (and quite fun!).  I never forgot the power of a checklist and its ability to serve a pilot in making sense of the complex work of flight preparation.  As we as teachers of writing all know, writing is also a complex process, filled with many considerations and challenges.  I invite you to consider some of these suggestions as you work to support the young writers with whom you work.  Also, what ways do you use checklists?  We would love to hear from you!

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Published by Lanny Ball

For more than 29 years, Lanny has taught, coached, presented, staff developed, and consulted within the exciting and enigmatic world of literacy. With unyielding passion and belief in the possibility of workshop teaching, Lanny has worked to support students, teachers, and school administrators around the country in outgrowing themselves as both writers and readers. Working first as a classroom teacher, then as a coach and TCRWP Staff Developer, Lanny is now a literacy specialist, working and living in the great state of Connecticut. Outside of literacy, he enjoys raising his three ambitious young daughters with his wife, and playing the piano. Find him on this blog, as well as on Twitter @LannyBall. Lanny is also a former co-author of a blog dedicated to supporting writing teachers and coaches that maintain classroom writing workshops, twowritingteachers.org. View all posts by Lanny Ball

4 thoughts on “ Different Ways to Use Checklists in Writing Workshop ”

Thank you, Lanny. I am anxious to try out using the checklist for partner conferences. since our goal is writing independence, it makes perfect sense to use them throughout the writing process!

Thanks for this informative post, Lanny. I appreciate the way you added on to Melanie’s list.

Student-centered checklists are beyond valuable. I didn’t use enough of them early on in my teaching career (because I didn’t know better) other than for editing. Eventually, I realized the importance of using them throughout the writing process.

You are so welcome, Fran! It sounds like the way you use checklists to inform your instruction is precisely the type of work Hattie recommends in terms of making learning targets clear for your writers. And I must agree with you about where writing energy will go if we begin with conversations about conventions– “…hard to breathe life into stilted form” is a wonderful art metaphor for this cautionary suggestion. Thank you for your wonderful and articulate comment!

These student-centered checklists are invaluable tools – I use them regularly in teaching writing across grade levels. I incorporate the structure & development lists in minilessons at the start of a unit to help create a vision of where we’re going – they’re visual maps. I refer back to checklists as needed for modeling the writing AND for how to self-assess. They do work beautifully with partners. Again – these are priceless tools and I celebrate your sharing their value & different uses here!

And: I save the conventions list for teaching points near the end of a unit. I so relate to your statement about not remembering much feedback about writing in school except that it be “grammatically and conventionally correct.” If we focus on this first, that’s where student energy goes; it doesn’t invite authentic, meaningful writing. If writers can get their ideas, what they’re trying to say on the page first – then we can sculpt them into form! Otherwise it’s hard to breathe life into stilted form.

Thank you for this post!

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Visual Writing & Editing Checklist for Students

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Being able to self-check your written work is an important executive function skill for all students. I've created a new free download that gives your student a writing and editing checklist they can use at their desk or have hanging on the wall.

This writing and editing checklist is based on the CUPS editing checklist introduced in The Write Genre (2004) by Lori Jamison Rog and Paul Kropp.

When I was working with older writers, 2nd grade, and above I used a modified version of this checklist that I added to. Many of the children I was working with had difficulty keeping their letters on the line and spacing their words appropriately. So I added these two things to look for when editing their work.

Many children can benefit from visual reminders, not just written checklists. So I've included clip-art on these checklists to help give students a visual reminder that corresponds with what they are to check their work for.

Since each student is different, I've included a variety of checklists, some with color, others black and white, some with clip-art, and others without. Just pick which option you think would be best for your student to use.

There are also individual checklists that can be used at a child's desk as a reminder.

I've also included Google Slide versions that you can access in this PDF file. If you are working virtually with students, they can still benefit from a checklist during written work. You can also send a checklist to them to use at home.

Get Your Free Writing & Editing Checklist

Enter your email address in the box below and click the “click here” button. You will then be directed to a success page and a special offer I have just for you (this is optional).

Head to your email inbox and look for an email from Heather at Growing Hands-On Kids and your download will be in that email. Click the green button in that email to confirm and download your free printable.

Once you have downloaded it, head to your “downloads” folder or wherever you have downloads stored on your computer and open and print it. It does help to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed and updated to the latest version for the best printable experience.

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Need more resources for handwriting? Check out my resources below.

• When Should I Teach My Child to Write?
• Activities to Improve Letter Formations
• How to Fix Poor Spacing in Handwriting
• Activities for Fine Motor Skill Development

Heather Greutman, COTA

Heather Greutman is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant with experience in school-based OT services for preschool through high school. She uses her background to share child development tips, tools, and strategies for parents, educators, and therapists. She is the author of many ebooks including The Basics of Fine Motor Skills, and Basics of Pre-Writing Skills, and co-author of Sensory Processing Explained: A Handbook for Parents and Educators.

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CONTENT DISCLAIMER: Heather Greutman is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant. All information on the Website is for informational purposes only and is not a replacement for medical advice from a physician or your pediatrician. Please consult with a medical professional if you suspect any medical or developmental issues with your child. The information on the Websites does not replace the relationship between therapist and client in a one-on-one treatment session with an individualized treatment plan based on their professional evaluation. The information provided on the Website is provided “as is” without any representations or warranties, express or implied.

Do not rely on the information on the Website as an alternative to advice from your medical professional or healthcare provider. You should never delay seeking medical advice, disregard medical advice, or discontinue medical treatment as a result of any information provided on the Website. All medical information on the Website is for informational purposes only.

All activities outlined on the Website are designed for completion with adult supervision. Please use your own judgment with your child and do not provide objects that could pose a choking hazard to young children. Never leave a child unattended during these activities. Please be aware of and follow all age recommendations on all products used in these activities. Growing Hands-On Kids is not liable for any injury when replicating any of the activities found on this blog.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITY The Website was developed strictly for informational purposes. You understand and agree that you are fully responsible for your use of the information provided on the Website. Growing Hands-On Kids makes no representations, warranties, or guarantees. You understand that results may vary from person to person. Growing Hands-On Kids assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions that may appear on the Website.

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5 High-Impact Writing Strategies for the Elementary Grades

Simple, effective exercises can help elementary students develop the foundational writing skills they need for their academic journey.

When considering writing as part of the instructional day, teachers may think only of the type of writing where students engage in storytelling or informational pieces. While the ability to leverage student choice and produce fiction and nonfiction text is beneficial for all grade levels, it’s important to consider how writing can be incorporated and layered across all content areas, as well as develop the deep foundational understanding to prepare young writers for authoring texts.

For us as teachers, it’s vital that we share a common language and understanding about the types of high-impact writing strategies that students can engage in and how to effectively implement them in the classroom. 

1. Handwriting in the Early Grades

In the digital age, prioritizing handwriting education during phonics instruction remains instrumental in nurturing well-rounded learners and sets them up for success when more stamina is required of them. The tactile experience of handwriting establishes a profound connection between language and sensory perception, contributing increased cognitive development .

Teachers can adopt a common path of movement language (language used to describe how to form the letters) when teaching the letters. In addition to that, providing students with multisensory ways of forming the letters helps create a strong understanding of the letters’ features.

A practical example of this type of instruction is having students trace a lowercase a in a tray full of salt, repeating the path of movement language, “over, around, down.” Then, students practice writing the letter using a pencil or dry erase marker. As the teacher models the directionality, it’s important to ensure that students know what “over,” “around,” and “down” mean and look like and that the teacher is using on-the-spot intervention for correction.

2. Dictated Sentences

Utilizing dictated sentences in elementary phonics instruction holds profound importance in nurturing early literacy skills. This strategy serves as a powerful bridge between decoding individual phonemes and comprehending them within a meaningful context. 

For example, in a phonics lesson where students are practicing decoding and spelling words with a short i vowel and have practiced reading the high-frequency words they and the , the teacher may end the lesson with students writing the dictated sentence, ”They will fill the big bin with wigs.”

This method encourages the application of phonics knowledge in real-word scenarios, promoting fluency and automaticity. In addition, dictated sentences provide a valuable opportunity for students to hone their listening skills, enhancing their ability to discern and reproduce distinct phonetic elements accurately and to authentically apply irregularly spelled high-frequency words in context. This practice benefits students of any grade level working on phonics skills.

3. Writing to Read

Another foundational type of writing that prepares students for more demanding types of writing in later grades is writing to read. This is an interactive approach to early writing instruction where the teacher models early literacy and print concepts starting as early as prekindergarten through early kindergarten. Through collaboration with the students, the teacher models drawing pictures and sentence creation.

Teachers can start by engaging students in a conversation around an event in a book or nursery rhyme they read together. Then, the teacher offers a prompt: “In the story, the characters went to play at the park. That gives me an idea for a story. What kinds of things do you like to do at the park?” Students can share multiple ideas for the story, and the teacher chooses one to model. 

While the teacher explicitly models drawing and develops a sentence about the drawing, the students offer ideas on where to start writing, count the words in the story, identify the sounds they hear as the teacher spells out each word, and notice where spaces will occur. The more that students engage in this type of instruction, the more responsibility we can hand over to them, and they can write the story along with us. As students are given more opportunities to apply early writing principles and rereading strategies, they begin to understand the reciprocal relationship between reading and writing.

4. Reading to Write

When the foundations for early writing have been established, students can quickly move into another layer of high-impact writing, which is writing about the texts that they’re reading. 

Even starting in kindergarten, encouraging students to write and/or draw in response to reading across multiple content areas is a valuable strategy that helps deepen comprehension and understanding of a particular topic, as explored in Linda J. Dorn and Carla Soffos’s book Teaching for Deep Comprehension .

These “writing about the reading” prompts require students to analyze, synthesize, and connect ideas, fostering a deeper understanding of the material. For example, if first-grade students are working on story elements, after reading a story, a student might write, “The character in the story is a bear who lives in the forest. The problem in the story is that he is sad, but he solves his problem when he learns to be happy.” 

This expression encapsulates comprehension, language reinforcement, and academic vocabulary. As students progress through grade levels upward to 12th grade, the scaffold of giving the students a prompt for writing about the text should decrease as they develop enough self-regulation to write about their own thinking.

5. Writing About Learning

Similar to reading to write, this strategy is solely focused on writing about what the student has learned, why the learning is important, and when to use the learning. This type of writing can happen as early as kindergarten, but in a highly scaffolded manner that mostly focuses on articulating why the learning is important.

Students up to 12th grade can benefit from writing about their learning because it keeps the purpose of what they’re learning in various content areas relevant and promotes quick retrieval of the information.

This strategy also promotes metacognition , because it helps learners organize their thoughts and reflect on their learning process. For instance, a second-grade class could collaboratively study the nature of bees in a nonfiction text. Then, because the teacher focuses on the skill of identifying and explaining main ideas and details, a student may write, “I learned the main idea by using headings and key details. Knowing main ideas helps us understand the most important information in a text.”