writing strategies ks2

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Literacy | Primary schools

9 strategies for improving writing skills in primary school

By Michelle Casey

06 Jan 2023

In this article:

The importance of building writing skills in primary years

Understanding 5 basic writing skills, spelling and punctuation, handwriting, reading comprehension, sentence structure, how to improve learners’ writing in primary school, 1. teach the different writing styles, 2. encourage regular reading in the classroom and at home, 3. give learners a real-life situation to write about, 4. encourage students to keep a diary, 5. give learners opportunities to read aloud, 6. use sentence starters and prompts, 7. engage in cooperative writing, 8. get creative with the teaching, 9. encourage parents to help at home, how bedrock helps primary pupils develop strong writing skills.

Learners use writing as a vehicle through which to express themselves and their ideas, both in and out of the classroom, in every subject across the curriculum. By improving learners’ writing skills, you prepare them for success in wider life.

In this guide, you will find practical advice for teachers on developing fundamental writing skills within the primary classroom.

The ability to express ideas in writing is one of the most important of all skills. Good writing is a mark of an educated person and, perhaps for that reason, it is one of the most important skills sought by employers and higher education institutions (Conley, 2003; Schmoker, 2018).

Developing our learners as writers is more than just asking them to remember tricky spellings, handwriting joins or grammatical constructs. It is a process which is intricate and complicated, but if done consistently and thoroughly, gives learners a tool which is vital for their school years, across all subjects and in life after education.

Writing makes learners’ thinking and learning visible. It provides them with the opportunity to clarify and refine their ideas for others and to themselves.

For learners to progress in their writing, they must have a solid understanding of the 5 basic writing skills and plenty of opportunity to practise and develop these skills.

Grammar is the system and structure of a language and comes with certain rules . It underpins how words are put together meaningfully and sentences are constructed. When writers use good grammar, they can effectively communicate what they want the reader to know. Through learning about nouns , punctuation , tense and aspect , brackets , semicolons , and connectors , learners can make their writing clearer and control its impact on their readers.

Spelling instruction helps learners to develop a connection between letters and their sounds. It also helps learners to recognise high-frequency common exception words. Teaching students strategies for spelling supports them in communicating effectively through writing.

While sentences can be written without punctuation, writing becomes a lot more effective if punctuated correctly. Good punctuation allows writers to convey what they mean and enables readers to understand the intended message or meaning. Every piece of punctuation has a particular role; they all work to give clarity and meaning to our written words.

Read more about the rules behind punctuation.

Handwriting is an important skill for learners to develop. Poor handwriting can harm school performance.

If a learner views handwriting as something arduous, this can reduce their motivation to write. This lack of motivation may lead to a reduction in practice which can further compound handwriting difficulties.

When learners can write comfortably, legibly and at a good pace, it gives them more ‘mental space’ to think about the content and creativity of their writing, as opposed to the logistics.

Learn more about handwriting in primary school.

Reading comprehension is the capacity to read a piece of text and understand the meaning or intent. It is important in the development of writing skills. Before learners can write with meaning, they need to be able to read.

The skills developed in reading and reading comprehension activities feed into many skills required for effective writing. It helps them to:

• Sound out and blend words for meaning
• Extend their vocabulary and learn how to use it contextually
• See how words in a paragraph or in a sentence relate to each other

When the concept of reading at a base level has been achieved, learners can then start to think about a text critically ; they can infer meaning and intent and transfer this to their own writing. As well as this, reading comprehension relies on a strong understanding of vocabulary and grammar ; writing skills work together and strengthen one another.

For writing to progress, learners should have a good grasp of sentence structure. They should know the basic types of sentences : simple, compound and complex.

Learners should also be able to modify sentence structure for effect - for example, by using fronted adverbials or passive voice. Learning different ways they can structure a sentence helps learners convey their intended meaning in their writing.

Improve primary learners' writing skills

Explicit vocabulary and grammar instruction through a deep-learning algorithm to support learners of all abilities.

Teaching learners to recognise the different genres of writing and their characteristics and purpose will help them to implement these techniques in their own writing.

Throughout their schooling, learners should be exposed to a wide variety of nonfiction, narrative and poetry texts.

Within nonfiction , they will be exposed to explanation texts to inform; non-chronological reports to explain and persuasive texts to persuade and entertain, to name a few.

Within narrative texts , learners will examine stories with dilemmas, traditional tales and stories in a historical setting, among others.

Learners will also have the opportunity to explore poetry including structured poetry, visual poetry and free verse .

Learners should be given the opportunity to become familiar with a text type and its features. They should examine the language used, sentence structure, grammatical features and layout. They could highlight and annotate features of the text as they identify them - in this way, they form a kind of checklist for their own writing.

Well-chosen texts provide learners with good-quality models for their writing. In this way, they are exposed to rich language structures which lets them see how writing works and the effect it can have on the reader. Students draw on their reading experiences when producing their own writing.

Learners should be exposed to these high-quality texts across a range of genres, demonstrating a variety of writing styles. It is important that the texts chosen reflect the social and cultural diversity of the class while introducing them to a world outside the familiar.

This exposure can involve Independent Reading, Guided Reading, Shared Reading and just good old Reading for Pleasure, where the teacher or the learners take the lead.

According to the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE), ‘Reading texts to children that they are not ready to access independently exposes them to language they can own.’ This gives those struggling readers an opportunity to be enriched by high-quality vocabulary with the right scaffolding .

Learners should be given plenty of opportunities for regular reading in the classroom. Some schools implement a whole-school policy whereby one session per week or fortnight is blocked out for Reading for Pleasure.

Reading is often not only encouraged but required as part of homework tasks. It is normal for there to be certain expectations for reading sessions to be carried out at home. This is often a book from a specific level that the teacher has matched to the learner’s reading ability. However, whatever age-appropriate texts students are reading at home is beneficial: magazines, catalogues, leaflets, websites, and books from home.

Parents/guardians should be encouraged to read with students at home too; this gives learners another perspective on the text from their parent/guardian and (hopefully!) helps foster a love, or at least a like, for reading.

When learners are writing, they should be clear on who their intended audience will be. Will it be their peers? Younger students? The headteacher? The King? The MD of a company?

In being clear on their intended audience, learners can further develop their understanding that writing is a tool for communication and expression. And of course, writing is not limited to literacy lessons - writing is used across all subjects, which gives learners even more opportunity to write for an intended audience and purpose.

The teaching of writing is more effective when learners see the purpose of it, and with an audience in mind, they can adapt their tone accordingly.

Some examples of writing students could produce inspired by text or real life:

• A letter to the headteacher persuading him/her to allow a longer break time.
• A newspaper report on a school/ local event.
• Instructions on how to play Minecraft (or another game that is relevant and appropriate to them).
• Within a topic (e.g., superheroes), learners create their own superhero, then write an explanation text to explain the superhero’s powers, special gadgets, crimes/issues targeted and how they became a superhero.
• After reading a story or part of a story, learners write about an event from a character’s point of view not presented in the text.

Children could have access to free writing journals and, if possible (in the jam-packed curriculum we are all navigating!), time to develop their own personal writing projects, allowing their personal writing style to emerge.

With the popularity of diary-style series like Wimpy Kid and Tom Gates, the idea of keeping a diary may be very attractive to some learners. It is a good way to get children writing outside the classroom environment. Learners who keep a diary are twice as likely to exceed age expectations in writing .

According to the National Literacy Trust , the vast majority of children state that they enjoy writing more when they can choose what to write about. If learners can begin to derive pleasure from writing in this way, then hopefully this can be transferred to writing in a more formal setting.

Giving learners the opportunity to read aloud enables them to hear how punctuation and sentence structure combine in the sentences they read. It may even help them to think more deeply about perspective as they read from the point of view of new characters.

Reading aloud also provides the teacher with chances to correct misconceptions, such as mispronunciations and new vocabulary. These are all skills that can be channelled into their own writing composition.

As well as this, reading aloud is a good way to celebrate a student’s written work - they can present their achievements to their classmates.

Providing students with sentence starters can help with writing flow. It provides reassurance that they are on the right track in their writing. With all the different writing genres our learners are exposed to and then expected to write, it can be beneficial for some learners to have this scaffold .

Sentence starters could be in the form of a ‘word bank’ on the board or on a piece of paper, generated by the teacher. To give learners a little more ownership, this ‘word bank’ of sentence starters could be generated as a class and left on display.

More independent learners may enjoy coming up with their own word banks as they read texts; they can ‘magpie’ sentence starters they’d like to use for their writing.

Cooperative writing is a useful tool in helping learners on their writing journey.

One aspect of this is shared writing. It involves the teacher crafting a piece of writing on a whiteboard. The learners are encouraged to give input, often aided by teacher questioning and prompts. The result is a collaborative passage which learners can use to help with their independent writing.

Another type of cooperative writing is modelled writing. This requires less student input, but the students get to watch the act of writing. The teacher might write a sentence, and then articulate their thought process as to how the vocabulary in the sentence can be improved or what form of punctuation would work best here. In this way, learners can see the strategies the teacher draws on as he or she writes.

A third method of cooperative writing is guided writing. This involves the teacher working with a smaller group of children within the lesson (when the others are ‘on task’). This usually focuses on a specific objective that this group in particular needs support with, e.g., adding more detail to writing by using fronted adverbials. In this approach, the children usually produce their own writing in their English books with the teacher prompting and questioning.

Where possible, try to connect what the children are interested in with their writing. For example, if you have learners interested in Minecraft, they could write a letter of persuasion to the Prime Minister to persuade him to allow Minecraft lessons in school .

Another way of getting the children interested and excited about writing is to use humour. Show learners two emails to compare - both could be complaining about something. One could be written using formal language and the other could be written informally, bordering on being rude.

This lets learners see the effect of both pieces of writing.

Another way to use humour is in writing an explanation text. It could be about something perceived as mundane such as ‘How a Dishwasher Works’ but could be made humourous in the following way:

Children can then use this to write their own explanations in a similar way.

Another idea is to set something up to happen, e.g., to use the superhero topic again - have an adult in school dress up as a ‘thief’ and another adult as a superhero. They could burst into your classroom at an agreed time and have a very dramatic ‘chase’ around the room and the superhero could catch the ‘thief’. Of course, you would have to consider the children in your class and if this would be appropriate for them. This dramatic action could be a good springboard to inspire children to write.

It is important to encourage parental support with writing at home . Parents may need guidance in how they can help their children with writing at home. It might be a good idea to put together a list of ways they can help, for example:

• Allow children to help with everyday writing such as emails, shopping lists, writing birthday cards.
• Try to make sure your child has an area (no matter how big or small) where they can write, as well as the tools for writing.
• Let children write about what interests them: a recipe they have helped make, a film review, a similar story to one they have read, similar lyrics to a song they have heard.

Talking homework tasks are a good way to involve parents. Talking homework is used as part of Ros Wilson’s Big Write approach. Big Writing is when learners produce an extended piece of writing independently.

The night before the Big Write, learners are given a homework task to discuss their ideas with someone at home, for what they could write the next day. This means children are getting lots of input and parents are sharing in the learning.

To learn to write, students need a blend of different skills such as vocabulary knowledge, grammar knowledge, an understanding of sentence structure, fine motor skills and more. While some of these skills come down to dedicated instruction in the classroom, such as when transcribing and practising handwriting, some of the fundamental skills of writing can be boosted by a digital literacy curriculum such as Bedrock Learning.

Bedrock’s vocabulary curriculum teaches learners aged 6-16 the Tier 2 vocabulary they need to thrive, from Year 3 level all the way to advanced reading and vocabulary. Tier 2 vocabulary is taught through an intelligent Block system, ensuring each learner is placed into the right Block for their reading level - this ensures the texts are challenging, yet accessible. The smart Block system differentiates teaching for learners of different abilities, stretching confident readers and supporting struggling readers.

In addition to this, Bedrock’s core curriculum teaches vocabulary alongside a complete grammar curriculum, differentiated for primary and secondary learners . Grammar is taught through bespoke fiction and nonfiction texts , engaging teaching videos and mastery tasks , ensuring long-term retention.

Informed by the National Curriculum, Bedrock’s core curriculum not only teaches learners the grammar they need for their KS2 SATs , but also combines grammar and vocabulary instruction to boost reading comprehension and writing skills overall.

Discover how Bedrock’s curricula can support your learners throughout primary school - and beyond!

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• Pie Corbett Encourage Good Literacy Habits With These Shared Writing Techni

Pie Corbett – How to use the shared writing approach

Teach children to become better writers by using Pie Corbett’s shared writing approach in your classroom…

Learn how to use the Pie Corbett shared writing approach to guide pupils towards writing their own creative compositions…

Who is Pie Corbett?

What is shared writing, free pie corbett teaching resources, the stages of pie corbett shared writing.

Pie Corbett is an English educational trainer, writer, author and poet who has written over 200 books. Teachers love him for the way that he promotes creative approaches in the classroom. He is an experienced teacher, headteacher and Ofsted inspector.

Shared writing lies at the heart of teaching writing. This is the generic term for writing with and in front of children as a precursor to the class writing more independently.

It is the key moment at which writing is taught. If you don’t do shared writing, you’re not teaching writing.

You’ll use your assessment of children’s writing to decide on the key ‘progress points’ that you need to focus on during shared writing. This may be aspects of composition (eg using a short sentence for impact or handling speech marks) or a more general aspect of writing behaviour (eg using a plan to develop plot).

“If you don’t do shared writing, you’re not teaching writing”

There are two key, interrelated processes – ‘demonstration’ and ‘joint composition’. You need to pitch shared writing about one level above children’s own writing so that they are constantly engaged in progress.

Download our  Pie Corbett Ultimate KS2 Fiction Collection which contains 20+ fictional stories with accompanying lesson plans. Explore the included story then ask children to write their own versions…

• Demonstration I’ll show you how to do something
• Joint composition Now we’ll have a go together
• Mini-writing Children write, on a specific focus, using mini whiteboards for immediate feedback
• Independent writing You have a go on your own

1. Demonstration

This is where you show children how to do something in writing that is new, or difficult, and will help pupils make progress. You write in front of the children on a flip chart. You give a running commentary as you go, revealing the decisions you’re making.

This way, the children are witnessing a writer at work. Aim to make this part well focused and fairly brisk so that it holds children’s attention.

Talk 4 Writing with Pie Corbett in grade 5. Working on suspense writing with shared writing! #superfun pic.twitter.com/x7uu1rqNpG — Sean Andersen (@mrseanandersen) February 3, 2018

Centre on the key aspects that you need to teach. Try to avoid too many ‘useful comments’ that cloud the objectives.

Use coloured pens to make progress points stand out. As you write, invite children to offer comments and suggestions so that they are fully engaged and not just passive observers.

2. Joint composition

This is similar, except the children begin to take control, with you scribing their ideas. If ‘demonstration writing’ is ‘ I’ll show you and explain’ , then ‘joint composition’ is ‘ Now let’s have a go together and you explain’ .

There is a shift from the teacher as model towards the children doing more of the thinking, composing, explaining and working as writers.

Your job is to write down what children say on a flip chart, taking over the transcription. You’ll also need to remind, prompt and challenge, so that children’s writing remains focused on your progress points.

You need to constantly balance the focus between pushing children to ‘generate’ ideas and then ‘judge’ what works best. Pause to reread and listen to the flow of composition.

We read back to help us write on. What ends up on the board has to be the best work you can elicit from the children. In the same way, when children write their own version independently, what they end up with on their page has to be the best they can find within themselves.

“What ends up on the board has to be the best work you can elicit from the children”

The pace needs to be brisk, but have pauses for ‘thinking time’. On some occasions you may refer back to the model text to remind children of what effective writing sounds like, or to check a certain technique.

Children can use magpie books to jot down ideas. Ask your teaching assistant to create a word bank, listing everyone’s suggestions.

From dependence to independence

Formative assessment is taking place virtually all the time while you teach your class. It’s your role to pick up on what is happening and constantly try to move the writing forwards, deepening children’s understanding and engaging them.

Gradually you’ll take a step back so that children take on more and more responsibility, moving from dependence to independence.

Remember that if you analyse and explain to much, you can spoil the flow of joint composition. You’re aiming for a breathless sense of excitement as the text emerges. The key is to encourage the children to suggest ideas, test them out and then press on.

“You’re aiming for a breathless sense of excitement as the text emerges”

As the teacher, you are the gatekeeper of quality. Don’t accept anything shoddy. Remind the children of the key features they need to use in order to ensure progress.

Try pausing to hear several ideas and then ask the children to choose which they think will work best – and explain why.

Through constant teaching, these complex writing processes eventually become increasingly well-orchestrated, internalised and automatic, especially where such processes are articulated.

It is saying difficult things aloud that helps us all, in the end, to be able to say them silently in our heads. Eventually, the children hear the questions they need to ask. Aspects of writing become an automatic part of their repertoire.

They find they can hold an internal dialogue with themselves about the choices available and consider how effective a particular word or phrase will be, or how well their writing rereads. Writing processes have to become automatic habits.

3. Guided writing

This is a form of group teaching where you focus on children who have similar needs. This is based on your assessment of their writing and observing how they write.

‘Guide’ the group through the part of the writing process that everyone else is focused upon. For example, if the class is working on the ‘opening’ to a story, then your guided session will also focus on guiding the group through writing their openings.

Help children remind themselves of targets, progress points and writing processes. Revisit the model and toolkit. Try writing on mini whiteboards . This is because children are more likely to experiment. They can then copy the work into their journals.

The main point about guided work is that the children should be doing most of the thinking and writing. It is a scaffolded bridge from dependence towards independence.

Take time to reflect. Writers nearly always read their work aloud, and this is an important habit to develop with children. You read your work aloud primarily to ‘listen’ to it – to hear how it sounds, whether it flows and the effect it creates.

“The children should be doing most of the thinking and writing”

Make it a habit to always re-read a paragraph through and ask the children the following questions:

• Which are the best bits and why?
• Are there any places we could improve?
• Are there any mistakes?

This begins to develop the habit of editing and proof-reading. Finally, at the end of the session, it is worth asking:

• What have we learned about writing?
• To write this really effectively, what did we have to do?

List down children’s ideas as part of your writing toolkit. This final reflection can capture matters of technique (we had to use ‘show and not tell’) as well as writing habits (we had to concentrate).

It’s worth typing up the shared writing so that children can stick it into their journals. This is both for children’s pleasure and so that they can reference it when they’re writing.

Follow Pie Corbett on Twitter at  @PieCorbett . Browse more ideas for  National Writing Day .

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Improving Writing in Key Stage 2 (IPEELL)

This course helps teachers develop strategies to take their Key Stage 2 pupils beyond scaffolded writing.

Pupils will build confidence, improve self-assessment skills, and learn how to tackle writing challenges across different text types.

"Participating pupils made approximately nine months' additional progress compared to similar pupils who did not participate in the intervention." EEF, Using Self-Regulation to Improve Writing, 2014

About the course

This course is aimed at teachers and literacy leaders working in Key Stage 2.

Explore a learning environment outside the classroom

A class visit sparks imagination and will provide your pupils with a memory they want to write about.

Use transferable approaches to aid the organisation of writing

Discover methods to support the organisation of pupils' writing in any form and across all subject areas.

Encourage pupils to take ownership of their progress using self-assessment tools, peer assessment and goal setting

Learn how to support pupils' meta-cognitive skills so that they are able to identify success criteria and acknowledge areas for improvement.

Develop strategies to build positive attitudes toward writing in the classroom

Motivational messages are used successfully in a wide range of contexts, but rarely in academic subjects. Discover the empowering impact of this approach when setting writing tasks.

Format and price

The training takes place completely online and is delivered in two 90-minute sessions followed by one two-hour session.

£1,600 for a whole-school booking to be delivered on a mutually agreed date.

£250 for a single booking, £200 for additional colleagues and a £50 discount per booking for National Literacy Trust members. We'll add new scheduled dates to our events and training listing , and promote them in our newsletters - be sure you are signed up for our resources and training updates .

For more information, and to arrange training for your school, please email Ruth King: [email protected]

Feedback from previous participants

"Very practical. Easy to implement. Professional and engaging presenters." Participant, Bradford, 2017

"A really useful framework for making writing content explicit. Good for encouraging independence" Participant, Wiltshire, 2019

"Personally delivered. Excellent resources. Evidence of strategies that can be easily transferred" Participant, London, 2020

Resources related to writing

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Exciting writing! Resources to help improve KS2 English writing.

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Raising writing standards in Years 4 and 5: Winning at writing KS2

Winning at writing ks2: raising writing standards in years 4/5.

An innovative and sharply focused programme designed to support teachers of writers in KS2 to meet age-related expectations

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This innovative and sharply focused programme is designed to support teachers of writers in Years 4 and 5 to meet age-related expectations in the following aspects of their writing:

• Word and phrase choice
• Sentence structure
• Overall composition

The approaches and resources are designed to develop writing fluidity, stamina, and confidence.

What are the aims of the Winning at Writing KS2 programme?

The programme aims to improve KS2 writing outcomes for children whose writing:

• Has too little or too much detail
• Is repetitive or lacking in cohesion
• Demonstrates an insecure grasp of sentence structure
• Lacks a sense of direction, purpose and audience

This fully planned and resourced programme of writing units is designed to support the development of knowledge, improve writing skills and motivation for children who struggle with independent writing.

What are the benefits of participating in the Winning at Writing KS2 programme?

The Winning at Writing KS2 programme provides children with direction; writing fluidity; authorial voice; sentence control; variation of sentence structures; independence and most of all, motivation and confidence.

The focus on flow in writing, as well as improved language use and sentence control support children in making accelerated progress towards EXS in writing at the end of KS2.

Teachers will benefit from a heightened awareness, and deeper subject knowledge of the principles and elements that support precise, effective writing.

Impact and outcomes from the Winning at Writing KS2 programme

Teachers reflecting on the impact noted the following benefits:

Reluctant writers asking to write at home

Greater awareness of the reader

Teachers and children alike loving the creativity bringing the reader and the purpose back into writing

Children enjoy editing

Increased output

Improved use of writing tools and writerly strategies

Winning at Writing KS2 programme

Teachers will be provided with three sequences of lessons (with two alternative sequences for future flexibility). The three core sequences include 6 weeks of detailed lessons with a range of resources and a variety of innovate approaches to support the focus children with the skills and confidence required for age-related writing. The lessons are designed to be delivered as whole class teaching or used for targeted support with groups.  As such this programme has the potential to support whole school development of writing. These fully resourced plans are based on a carefully selected and focused use of high-quality texts.

Participants will engage in three training sessions.  All sessions are offered remotely, including a half-day launch event in which the programme rationale is set out, and the resources and approaches are fully introduced, explained and exemplified.

The Winning at Writing KS2 programme is delivered via a:

Half-day, online live launch event .  An introduction to the theory behind the programme, along with exemplification of the accompanying plans (focusing on sequence 1) and resources.

1 hour live webinar Mid-programme twilight session for sharing and trouble shooting for sequence 2.

Half-day live webinar Final CPD for exploring sequence 3, implementation of the strategies across the whole writing curriculum, and dissemination across the school. 

Joining the next project launch

The next programme will start in the spring term 2024, starting 15th February 2024.

To participate in this programme, please visit the  HFL Education Hub.

For further information or queries, please contact the HFL Events team at  [email protected]  or call 01438 544477.

Participation costs

The cost of this training is £225 (+VAT) for the first delegate and £170 (+VAT) for each additional delegate per school.

Find out more

Please register your interest or contact:

Kathy Roe, Deputy Lead Teaching and Learning Adviser (English)    Email: [email protected]

Ellen Counter, Teaching and Learning Adviser (English) Email: [email protected]

Express an interest

Want to find out more, or join one of our projects? 

Contact our Primary English team today to find out how we can help you.

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5 Effective Strategies for Teaching K-2 Students to Edit Their Writing

• October 24, 2015

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had some serious woes when it comes to teaching my students to edit their writing. Many, many times I’ve had a student tell me that their draft is done and that they’ve looked it over for mistakes. Then, when I look over it, I find countless capitalization, spelling, and punctuation errors! I’ve found this to be true even for students who have been taught those skills for several years in a row.

It’s hard for young writers to see mistakes in their writing, even when those mistakes may be obvious to us. Teaching students to edit not only involves teaching them capitalization, punctuation, and spelling rules, but also giving them strategies to help them “see” errors.

As I promised in my previous post on teaching revising , in this post I’ll be discussing strategies for teaching editing. I hope you’ll walk away with at least one new idea to try out in your classroom!

1. Teach editing in context, rather than through isolated grammar exercises.

Were you forced to diagram sentences in school? I was. Truthfully, I never figured out how to do it very well, but somehow I’ve managed to become a passable writer (I think, anyway…you tell me :)).

Clearly, there’s a disconnect between isolated grammar exercises and using proper grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling in the context of real writing. And I’ve seen this disconnect firsthand with my students.

A couple of years ago, when I was teaching second grade, I had two students who LOVED fixing incorrect sentences. We hardly ever did sentence fixing, but when we did, they were jumping out of their seats to show me mistakes!

Ironically, those two students were the same ones who were consistently forgetting to capitalize “I,” the first word in a sentence, and include periods in their writing. And since they were in second grade, they’d been taught those skills for almost 3 years at that point.

The bottom line is (and this is backed by research), editing needs to be taught in the context of real writing, not through disconnected grammar drills . Grammar drills are not only boring for many students, but they do not result in students using writing conventions correctly in their own writing.

So what do you do instead? Teach editing skills in context. And show students examples of correct use of conventions, rather than incorrect sentences. After all, we want them to imitate correct writing!

Let’s imagine that you want to teach your first grade students how to use commas in a list.

This skill fits perfectly into a how-to writing unit , so you plan to teach it during that unit.

To get started, you select a published, how-to mentor text that has a list of supplies the reader will need. (Example: To build a kite, you will need tissue paper, string, glue, scissors, and 4 straws.)

Read the mentor texts to your students in its entirety, and discuss the ideas with your students. You want the focus of the first read to be comprehension .

Then, later that day or on another day, bring the text back and show students how the author uses commas in a lis t. Use a document camera to enlarge the text so that students can see it clearly. Discuss the effect that the use of commas has on us, the readers (i.e., we can clearly see each item and understand what is needed for building a kit).

Next, engage in some guided practice with students. This could take the form of them helping you write a list of supplies for a how-to book you are modeling for them. If you use my K-2 Revising and Editing toolkit , you will have kid-friendly how-to texts that you can use for exactly this purpose.

Last, have students try this skill out in their own writing . Have them take a finished or partially completed piece of how-to writing and add a list of supplies (with commas).

Pretty simple, right? Use real texts and have students use the concept in their own, real writing. This strategy makes editing skills “stick” for students.

Of course, not all of your students will have mastered using commas after this lesson! You’ll probably have to repeat this a couple of times with different texts and different genres of writing.

And there’d certainly be nothing wrong with having them do a few comma-inserting exercises to follow up on that skill ( my writing units do just that, in fact). Just make sure to prioritize showing students correct usage in real mentor texts, and then having them apply those skills to their own writing.

2. Provide students with clear criteria to use when evaluating their writing.

If we want our students to go back and fix mistakes in their work, we have to clearly tell them what mistakes they need to look for!

The Common Core language standards are a great resources for finding out which editing skills students need to know in each grade level (keep in mind that they are cumulative, so you will likely need to review skills taught in grade levels below yours).

Once you are clear on what you want your students to be able to do, you can create rubrics and checklists to support them with editing. My K-2 Revising and Editing Toolkit has rubrics and checklists that are just for editing, as well as rubrics and checklists that integrate both revising and editing.

As I mentioned in last week’s post , it’s super important to spend time teaching each part of a rubric to students. Do lots of modeling and thinking aloud, so that they really learn how to use the rubric as a tool. You can cut apart the strips of the rubric to really break it down and make it “digestible” for young students.

In addition to using rubrics and checklists, another great way to provide students with clear criteria is through an editing flip book.

The purpose of this flip book is to give students a reference tool that encourages them to edit one piece of work multiple times.

Here’s how it works:

• Have students make the book (the printable supplies and directions are in my K-2 Revising and Editing Toolkit )
• Under each flap, guide them through writing the rules that they’ve learned in each area (C = capitalization, O = organization – handwriting and paragraphing, not content, P = punctuation, and S = spelling)
• Have students keep the completed flip books in their writing folders. If you teach a new skill, have them add it under the corresponding flap.
• When students are ready to edit a piece of writing, have them go through the flip book, one flap at a time. They should review what’s under one flap, and then read through their work one time, looking ONLY for that type of mistake.
• When students are finished, they should have read through their piece of writing FOUR times, looking for a different type of error each time (this helps them focus and find more mistakes overall).

Rubrics, checklists, and flip books all serve to provide clear criteria to our students, so they always know what they are expected to look for when editing their work.

3. Model, model, and model some more.

Students need to see you edit your writing and hear you think aloud as you edit. You can do this when you’re doing any type of shared writing throughout the day – it doesn’t have to take place during writing time!

My K-2 Revising and Editing Toolkit  has kid-friendly mentor texts that you can use for this purpose. You can use the “correct” version of a text to go through and highlight correct punctuation and capitalization in the text.

You can also use the incorrect versions of the text (also provided) to model how you fix mistakes in the work (although again, I recommend placing emphasis on correct usage).

4. Have students get help from their peers.

I would bet that when you are writing something important, you like to have a friend look it over for mistakes. Right? Well, the same thing applies to our kiddos!

In last week’s post, I talked about setting up a revising and editing table for your classroom. Please head over to that post to read more about how it works.

Basically, the revising and editing table is something you set up in your classroom during writing workshop time. It’s a place where students go to get help with revising and editing their work. The best part is that you don’t have to be providing that help! Once you teach the students how to use it and work together effectively, the table runs by itself.

When it comes to having students work on editing at the table, small sticky notes are a great tool. I never have students write directly on their friend’s paper – that would not be showing respect to the writer. I also never have students make changes  while they are sitting at the table, because that just takes up too much time.

Instead, what I have students do is write down notes about missing capital letters, missing periods, misspelled words, etc. on those small sticky notes. They can place the note directly on their paper and then go back and fix up their work at their seats.

Using a revising and editing table in my classroom made a HUGE difference for my students – they were much more likely to find and correct mistakes in their work! I really encourage you to try one out in your own classroom ( my K-2 Revising and Editing Toolkit has detailed instructions and lessons that you can use to introduce the table).

5. Use visuals as editing reminders.

My last strategy for teaching editing is one that applies to teaching almost any skill…using  visuals! Kids forget things easily, but if we support them with visual tools, they will be more likely to use the skills we teach them.

The photo below shows a small binder ring with editing strategy cards. If there are 2-3 strategies you want students to really focus on, you can create these strategy card rings (differentiate as necessary), and give them to students to use during writing time.

A fun, visual way to recognize students for using good editing skills is to use Conventions Cards. These are simple cards that recognize students for using capital letters correctly, good handwriting, proper spelling, etc.

First, copy the cards onto colored paper. Explain what they are, and get students excited about them.

Then, while students are writing, walk around the room silently. Notice which students are using conventions correctly, and slide one of the cards onto their desks.

Not only does this acknowledge students who are doing good editing work, but it also encourages students around them to “clean up” their own work. Kids love getting these cards!!

To download the cards for free, click on the image below. My Toolkit also has additional options for Conventions Cards.

Conclusions

Phew, this was a long post! Thanks for sticking with me! To summarize, you can teach students to edit by:

• Using published mentor texts as exemplars and having students try out writing conventions in their own writing (instead of using only grammar drills)
• Providing students with clear criteria for editing
• Doing lots of modeling and think-alouds
• Having students engage in peer editing, and
• Providing visuals to support students with their editing

Is there anything that you would add to this list? Please comment below! Or if you’re already using my toolkit , let me know how it’s going!

Happy teaching!

Graham, S., MacArthur, C. A., & Fitzgerald, J. (Eds.). (2007). Best Practices in Writing Instruction. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

Morrow, L. M., & Gambrell, L. B. (Eds.). (2011). Best Practices in Literacy Instruction (4th ed.). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers. (2010). Common Core State Standards. Washington, DC: Authors.

Ruday, S. (2013).  Five Recommendations for Teaching Common Core Grammar to Elementary Students.  Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.

Related Posts:

Do you offer your products in Spanish as well?

Hi Cecilia! I do have some of my products in Spanish (not all). You can see the bilingual products here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Ms-Lilypad/Category/Bilingual-Materials

Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with! 🙂

I’m a bilingual teacher and would love to see your Revision & Editing TPT resource in Spanish as well!

Thanks for the suggestion, Whitney!!

Great advice. I will add these strategies to my instruction. Thanks for sharing!

Can these materials be used for older elementary age kids? I feel like my 3rd and 5th graders have a shaky writing foundation. Thanks.

Hey Jessica! Yes, I think that many of these strategies (and the materials in the revising and editing toolkit) can be used with older kiddos. You might want to adapt a few materials here or there so that they have a less “babyish” feel, but many of the same strategies will still work for them!

I’m Alison, a literacy specialist. I love getting kids excited about reading and writing – and sharing teaching ideas with other teachers!

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Action plans for writing (primary), download and adapt our key stage (ks) 2 writing action plan template to help you create your own. find suggestions on how to improve writing in your school, and see examples from other schools., download our template ks2 writing action plan, consider these interventions to help your lowest 20%.

• See examples from schools

Use our sample action plan to:

• Get an idea of what to include in your school's plan 
• Find suggestions for how to achieve improvements in 3 areas through 3 lenses:
• Top-level: Reinforcing the writing process across all year groups
• In practice: Developing pupils’ ability to produce well-structured writing that’s fit for purpose and in line with the formal structures of English (spelling, punctuation and grammar (SPAG))
• For pupils: Making explicit links between reading, vocabulary development and writing skills

Adapt this plan to suit your school's priorities, as outlined in your school improvement plan (SIP). 

Read more about raising attainment in

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An Introduction to Talk for Writing in KS2

For Primary Headteachers, English Subject Leaders, and KS2 Teachers.

What the training will cover

This training will provide a coherent system for teaching writing in KS2 using the Talk for Writing approach. Packed with practical strategies to develop children as confident writers, the three sessions will:

* explore how to help children build up a store of writing techniques and patterns

* provide teachers with a bank of imaginative ideas for developing and improving writing

* consider the link between learning model texts, quality literature and great writing

* look at how spelling and grammar can be taught in relation to writing.

Date and Time

Tue 24 Aug 2021 – 8am-1.30pm Gulf Standard Time

How the online training works

Training will take place via Zoom. Each training day will be 4 hours 30 mins split into either 3 or 4 sessions with breaks. Each delegate will need their own desktop or laptop computer with a working camera. There are further details on this PDF .

This training is for schools rather than individual teachers Maximum of 25 delegates per school.

2 DAYS £3500 (£1750 per day) £70 per day per teacher for 25 teachers

3 DAYS £4500 (£1500 per day) £60 per day per teacher for 25 teachers

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6 Ways You Should Be Scaffolding Student Writing

You’ve probably heard a million times that you should be using differentiated instruction in your classroom. If you’re in a stricter building, it may even be required that you document your differentiation strategies. But how, exactly, are we supposed to differentiate writing instruction for our advanced, gifted, special education, trauma-sensitive, and ELL learners in a single class period!? It seems impossible! At least it does until you consider scaffolding writing instruction. 

Why Use A Scaffolding Technique in Teaching Writing?

I’ve written about scaffolding in the creative writing classroom specifically before. That post is great for an introduction to the idea of scaffolding if that’s a new term for you. But scaffolding is great for all writing instruction–not just creative writing. 

Scaffolding refers to the tools we give students to help them take baby steps towards conquering a bigger task. Before they write that ten-page paper, they’re going to have to know how to write an introduction. 

How can we set our students up for writing success? In this post, I hope to share some tricks and techniques that have helped students in my own classroom. 

Scaffolding Writing for Struggling Students

Scaffolding, which basically involves breaking down large tasks into smaller steps, is helpful for all learners. Yes, even your gifted students will benefit from the same scaffolding techniques that your ELLs are leaning on.

While your struggling learners may be seemingly incapable of tackling that big essay without some scaffolding support, forcing your advanced students to try various scaffolds can help them too. 

When they’re made to slow down and really examine every step, advanced students will be unable to rush through assignments and turn in work that meets the requirements but is below the student’s full ability.

Scaffolding Writing Assignments

Pretty much any writing assignment can be scaffolded for students. Creating scaffolding just means that you’re breaking down a task into smaller components or steps. Scaffolding can be anything that helps the students conceptualize what their final product should look like, put their ideas together, or even help them reflect on their work. 

When I first started teaching, I looked at the curriculum and thought, “We just don’t have time for all of that!” I know better now.

Scaffolding in your writing instruction is necessary. Sometimes in life, we have to slow down, so we can speed up later. Writing instruction is no different.

When we take it slow in the beginning, we’re setting ourselves (and our students) up for faster, better work in the future!

Slow down to speed up. Scaffold for more structural integrity in writing. 

Ok, sounds well and good, right? But how exactly do we do that without sacrificing our entire curriculum? How do we scaffold without spoon-feeding our students the answers?

Scaffolding Strategies with Writing Scaffolds Examples

Scaffolding Tip #1: Tap into Prior Knowledge

One way to make struggling students feel more comfortable doing the work is to show them how much they already know. 

You’re probably already familiar with the variety of ways we teachers help students activate their prior knowledge: K-W-L charts, brainstorming, concept maps, etc. When students can see all that they already know, venturing into new territory seems less scary.

An Example of Activating Prior Knowledge

One of my favorite ways to activate prior knowledge is through anticipation guides. In my free Internment Anticipation Guide , students read through various statements deciding whether they agree or disagree with each.

Then, they discuss these statements with partners and groups, attempting to persuade others to see their side. 

By the time we discuss each statement as a whole class, students are passionately debating. They’re not worrying about what they don’t know–they’re ready to dive deeper into the topics.

Scaffolding Tip #2: Give Students a Framework

Frameworks help all kinds of writers with all kinds of writing. Whether you’re writing a formal essay, a blog post, or even an Instagram post, if you’re doing it successfully, there’s probably a method to how you structure the content. 

If even confident writers use frameworks, then our struggling students definitely need one!

The typical five-paragraph essay is a great example of a writing framework. In general, all five-paragraph essays follow the same framework: one introductory paragraph, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion paragraph. 

There’s even a framework for each of those paragraphs. If we zoom in on the introduction paragraph, for example, we’ll see that it typically starts with a hook, leads with background information, and ends with a thesis. 

Once students understand the framework and how it all works together, all they have to worry about is the content and their writing craft. The overwhelm is gone. The task no longer seems daunting or impossible. 

An Example of a Scaffolding Framework

In my school, we use a C-E-R framework for all of our school’s academic writing–from English to gym class. 

I break down the C-E-R framework in detail in this post , but basically all of our academic writing starts with a claim, which is supported by evidence, which in turn is explained through the students’ reasoning.

Once students learn the framework in freshman year, they understand the expectations. Throughout their four years, they’ll apply that framework to writing for all content areas, for writing of different length requirements, and to writing for different audiences. 

Students no longer have to wonder about the expectations or how to get started. Instead, they can spend those four years working on skills: improving their transitions, citing evidence correctly, correcting their punctuation, etc. 

Teaching a framework is a great example of slowing down to speed up. In freshman year, teachers hammer claim, evidence, and reasoning into the curriculum. That leaves students ready to tackle bigger, more complex writing in years to come. 

It doesn’t have to be a four-year process, though. I review C-E-R over the course of a couple of weeks in my senior class. For students new to our school, it’s the first time they are exposed to it, but with the help of their peers they catch on quickly.

Scaffolding Technique #3: Teaching the Writing Process

This one is probably the best-known version of scaffolding for any English teacher. The writing process is basically a framework for how to write . It consists of six steps: brainstorming, outlining, creating a rough draft, evaluating that work, then sculpting a final draft, before the optional step of publishing. 

You’ve probably implemented the writing process before in regards to an essay, but the writing process is just that–a process. It can be applied to pretty much any writing task. 

Except, I hear you say, we don’t really have time to apply the writing process to every single thing we do in class. 

And we don’t! I wouldn’t have students complete the whole writing process for informal assignments or journal writing, for example. 

An Example of Scaffolding the Writing Process

But we also don’t have to save it just for essay writing. In fact, exposing students to a variety of writing tasks and showing them that this process WORKS for any kind of writing is probably a better use of everyone’s time than hammering away at another five-paragraph essay.

For example, in my Social Justice Mini-Research Project , students create a pamphlet around a social justice issue of their choosing. This assignment is shorter and more creative than a traditional essay. Plus, it involves choice (point for differentiation!) which I always like to include where I can.

In this resource , I’ve broken down the writing process for the teacher and the student.

Students look at work from the historical activist group The White Rose for inspiration, before brainstorming and doing some research around their own social justice cause. 

Then, they use the included graphic organizers (scaffolding in and of itself) to outline the pamphlet they create. 

From there, students can create, edit, and publish in whatever ways work best for the student, class, or teacher (I do include some publishing suggestions in the teacher’s guide). 

The resource breaks down the writing process–choosing a topic, doing research, analyzing a mentor text, outlining, etc.–to help students. Walking students through this process–and teaching the process–is a scaffolding technique that benefits any writing instruction.

Scaffolding Technique #4: Show Examples

Another common scaffolding strategy is to show examples. This sounds overly simple, but students just cannot see enough examples. 

And they shouldn’t just see good examples! Showing students examples of bad or mediocre writing can be just as powerful–so long as you discuss why the examples are subpar.

Perhaps my favorite use of examples is through mentor texts. Mentor texts are expert examples of the type of writing you’d like to teach.

An Example of Using Mentor Texts to Scaffold

My Author Study Project is a deep-dive into this concept. 

Students select an author to study. Then, over the duration of the project, students read and take notes on their chosen author’s style. They analyze the subject matter, the tone, and the imagery style of their mentor author. 

Once they’ve reached an understanding of the author’s style, they try to mimic that style in their own original work!

Of course, using examples doesn’t have to turn into a full-blown author study or project. 

Showing students examples of “ok” essays versus excellent essays can really encourage them to put forth the extra effort. Showing students several examples of how to apply a skill (say, citing evidence) can also be beneficial. 

Using examples throughout your class is not only a great scaffolding technique but a great differentiation one as well. Showing an exemplar paper will encourage struggling students to get help, clarification, or use extra resources. Meanwhile, striving students will be pushed even further. 

When do you show examples?

You should show examples as often as you can. When you assign the assignment, it’s good to have a few examples of what the final product should look like. 

Then, as students have begun to grapple with the writing, it’s nice to have a few examples of techniques. Or even examples of how past students have managed the same struggles. 

Then, at the end of the assignment, right before it’s due, it’s great to bust out some of those stellar examples again. (This might also be a good time to show some examples that did not make the cut.)

Scaffolding Technique #5: Graphic Organizers 

I love me a good graphic organizer! I use them all the time for creative writing projects, but they can be created, used, and applied to pretty much any topic or project.

A graphic organizer is pretty much just what it sounds like: a way to organize ideas and thoughts visually. 

When my students will be working on a writing assignment, I like to create graphic organizers that break down the writing into step-by-step processes . If possible, I’ll include tips or prompting questions on the worksheet as well.

If you’re using any kind of framework, I highly recommend turning it into a graphic organizer for students. Even if it’s just a checklist that students can use to make sure they’re covering the requirements. 

I don’t know why, but even a few empty boxes seem much more accessible to struggling students than a blank notebook page. 

An Example of Using Graphic Organizers Prior to Writing

With my Figurative Language Photo Writing Activity , students practice using figurative language techniques to describe various landscapes.

The resource includes graphic organizers for students to use to brainstorm sensory figurative language that they will be able to use in their final description. 

Scaffolding Technique #6: Encourage Peer Discussion and Feedback

One more scaffolding strategy is maybe one of the most important: encourage students to discuss ideas. 

We can teach our hearts out; we can teach until we have used every level of Bloom’s taxonomy twice. It won’t matter. Students will always learn best from their peers.

Kids learn from kids. Maybe it’s because their peers “speak their language”. Maybe it’s because their peers are less intimidating than educators? But when I’m stuck explaining a concept, having another student show or explain it can often do the trick.

During work time, I love hearing students help one another. While some other teachers would intervene to make sure students learn correctly, I love hearing student explanations of ideas.

This goes, of course, for open, opinion-based discussions as well. I love hearing students’ takes on literature that we read. Often, they’ll question or bounce ideas off of one another, and I even end up learning from them!

An Example of Incorporating Class Discussions

One of my favorite activities of the year is my The Hate U Give Discussion Activity . During the round table discussion, students talk to one another about some really BIG life questions. They are required to use examples and quotes from the book to back up their thoughts, but students really shine during this activity.

Expecting students to show their perspective and respectfully challenge others’ is one of the greatest life lessons you could possibly teach. Students open up each other’s eyes more so than I will ever be able to do.

Slowly Remove Scaffolding

Scaffolding is a great tool for writing, but ultimately it is just that: a tool.

As students begin to master certain skills, it’s ok to take scaffolding away. In fact, you should to build student independence. 

As a freshman, students might need a very structured framework for a five-paragraph essay. They’ll need to almost be told what to include in each and every sentence.

But by senior year, students should be able to choose different outline styles. They might be able to choose how they approach the writing process or structure the final draft. Capable students could even be given the choice about whether or not an essay is the best way for them to show what they know!

Like real-life scaffolding, it should be temporary . A building should not rely on its scaffolding to stand up forever–neither should students.

I hope that you’ve found these scaffolding techniques helpful. Scaffolding is an important tool for differentiation and is a must in any writing curriculum.

There are so many ways to help students craft their writing: showing them a framework or writing process, giving them graphic organizers, or even just showing some great examples.

You can also help their confidence by activating prior knowledge and encourage them to help one another.

Once you start thinking about incorporating different scaffolding techniques into writing instruction, it gets easier. You’ll see opportunities everywhere to help your students craft their next masterpiece!

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