Do you struggle with finding quality time for students to write? These writing lesson plans will help guide your planning so that students have ample time to write and demonstrate what they are learning.
Sample Long Range Writing Lesson Plans:
Weeks 1-3 – Poetry Writing Plans
Poetry gets creativity flowing without having to worry about all of the rules. Writers focus more on word choice and ideas in poetry. You can easily build in lessons on parts of speech, using a dictionary and thesaurus, and syllabication. Poetry is also a quick and easy way to get a bulletin board up for Back to School and Open House nights. Since poetry assignments (both reading and writing) are shorter, you can get grades quickly. And, to top it off, poetry is less intimidating to ESOL students and struggling readers and writers.
Want to learn more about teaching poetry? Check out these pages full of resources and FREEBIES for teaching poetry.
Take me to the Poetry Resources.
Using a poetry center throughout the school year is a great way to get writers to practice and master important reading skills. Since poetry is shorter, it is a great way to engage all readers. Here are some great articles with poetry FREEBIES you can add to your poetry center.
Poetry Close Read for Any Poem
5 Poetry Styles to Engage Writers with FREE Templates
Weeks 4-8 – Personal Narrative Writing Plans
Writing personal narratives is an excellent way for your students to learn about you, and tell about themselves. Personal narratives are a great way to focus on specific events in life. You can use transformations to help start students learn how to write personal narratives. One of my favorite transformations is from When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant. You can learn more about writing transformations in this article.
Take me to the Writing Transformations Article
This is a great unit to start teaching kids how to conference with you and others about their writing. Below are links to two articles with FREE guides for writing conferences and sharing writing with a whole group. The last article will help you fix a few of the issues that begin to arise in this unit when there is more thinking and words involved. (Just click the link)
Getting the Most Out of Author’s Share
5 Tips on Managing Writer’s Workshop
Common Writing Problems and How to Fix Them
Want everything planned for you? Graphic organizers, lesson plans, grammar mini-lessons, wall displays, writing process posters, exemplars, and conferencing guides? Check out these units.
2nd Grade Personal Narrative Unit
3rd Grade Personal Narrative Unit
4th/5th Grade Personal Narrative Unit
Weeks 9-15 – Fiction Narrative Writing Lesson Plans
Now that you have the ideas, word choice, and narrative organization down, it is time to combine these into a fiction narrative. This is always a fun unit to teach and the students really enjoy being creative.
Take time to develop characters with this Character Questionnaire.
Get students talking about their writing with the FREE Writing Conference Guides in this article.
If you need a unit for writing Fiction Narratives check out these units.
2nd Grade Fiction Writing Unit
3rd Grade Fiction Writing Unit
4th/5th Grade Fiction Writing Unit
(Or Bundle and Save with these Creative Writing Bundles)
Weeks 16-20 – Informational Writing
By now you have taught several science and social studies units. Create a list of these topics for students to research. Informational writing can be organized into a variety of ways to share the information. One of my favorite ways to share informational writing is by having students create a Google Site.
I like to guide students through the process of expository writing using a research process. Following a research plan will give them the chance to think through everything before they start planning and organizing their ideas on paper.
Weeks 21-25 – Persuasive Writing Plans
Persuasive writing combines all of the skills taught in previous units. It gives the students a chance to show their thoughts and feelings and support it with what they have learned. Start your persuasive unit with having debates. Give students time to talk about their favorites. Have a debate on the best school lunch or the best pet. As students debate these topics orally write down their reasonings. Use this as a guide to begin modeling how to write persuasively. This also shows students that writing is talking on paper.
Weeks 26-29 – Writing Drama Writing Plans
Too often dramas (plays) get overshadowed each year. The new standards stress an importance on understanding dramas. A great way to start teaching dramas is to use readers theater. This will give students a breakdown of how a drama is written. Allow students to convert a past reading piece or a book (or part of a book) that you have read into a drama. Many students love to perform, but there are several (like me) who love to stay behind the scenes. To help reach all students offer a variety of ways to perform: live, videotaped, or use apps for performances (Puppet Pals and Puppet Pals 2 are great apps for those students whose fear of public speaking keeps them from showing their best.)
Weeks 30-36 – Writer’s Workshop – Student Choice
Allow students to choose any of the writing genres taught this year and write what they want. By now your students know the writing routine, so the class can handle everyone being on a different page. This gives students the chance to really demonstrate all of that they have learned during the school year. Give space for them to be the experts and help each other through editing, revising, and conferencing.
The Importance of Journaling Throughout the Year:
When creating your writing lesson plans be sure to add time for journaling. Daily and weekly journal writing is a great way to get writers to practice writing skills without the fear of it having to be published. This constant journaling helps students get over the fear of the page and just write. Students often feel that the words must be perfect before they get on the page. This is the chance to see that we start writing by just putting words on the paper.
Writing Prompts to Engage Thinkers
Having a long range plan set will help guide your writing for the school year and allow you to find ways to integrate writing lesson plans when needed. You will also give students the space to writing great things!
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