As summer break quickly {but not quickly enough} approaches, it’s important to find engaging and creative ways to enrich and review our reading and writing standards. One of my favorite ways to change things up is with this mini unit which is centered round five summer themed books.

Fireflies

Brothers at Bat

The Raft

Bats at the Beach

 The Seashore Book

The post Summer Themed Reading and Writing appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Do you ever wonder what 4th graders should know or be able to do? Changing grade levels is difficult. I still remember crying my eyes out the first time I had to change grade levels. It was devastating! It’s hard to sort through years worth of blog posts, resources, and articles to find just what you need to get started. I know how much of a challenge it can be when you’re new to teaching 4th grade, so I’ve written this post to help get you started. Even if you’ve been a fourth grade teacher for awhile, you’ll probably find something useful!

If you’re looking for a similar post for third grade teacher look here!

Classroom Set Up

If you’re a new(er) teacher, you can feel pressured to go out and create a designer classroom. That’s not necessary. At all.

The priority should be organizing, not decorating, your classroom. Of course, I’m not saying that having a cute or decorated classroom is a bad thing. I spend more awake time in my classroom than anywhere else, so I want an environment that makes me comfortable and happy.

But, you don’t need to go out and spend lots of money creating a Pinterest classroom.  Make sure your room is clean, not too busy or distracting, and organized.

You can see my classroom here! You can read more about organizing your classroom here.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Pacing Guides

It’s important to begin the year with a plan. Of course it’s necessary to keep in mind that it’s just a guide, not rules that are set in stone. Below are my reading and math pacing guides for teachers new to teaching 4th grade. You can download example fourth grade pacing guides here. If you want to map out the year on your own, you may enjoy this blog post on Planning For The Year. Either way, it’s a great format to what 4th graders should know.

COVID and distance learning has changed so many things for teachers. It’s incredibly hard to know how to get started when you don’t know what you’re planning for. It’s next to impossible to determine what 4th graders should know if their time in the younger graders was limited. To provide even more support, I’ve shared a First 30 Days for reading and math. What makes this plan special is that it can be used for in-class instruction, distance learning, or a combination of both. You can find that post here.

Fourth Grade Morning Work

A good morning work routine is one of the most important parts of the day. It’s also a great way to continuously review what 4th graders should know. It sets your pace and allows students to feel organized and prepared. This post shares some of my favorite ideas for morning work. It also mentions how to incorporate a soft start to your day. This morning work activity reviews all major content that 4th graders should know by the end of the school year.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Reading

After years of blogging, there is simply no way to narrow down all of my reading and writing blog posts to just one! However, I was able to whittle it down to just a few. Keep in mind, all of these lessons are available as a print and digital resource.

Reading Workshop-In this post you can get a good overview of what should happen during reading workshop. The post also discuss the differences between reading workshop, guided reading, and literature circles.

Integrating Science and Social Studies-This post shares several ideas on ways to integrate your science and social studies standards with reading. Time is always a problem, so this is a big help.

Making Sense of Reading Assessments-Depending on where you’re coming from, reading assessments may look different. They may also be quite overwhelming! This post breaks down the how and why of various reading assessments.

Upper Elementary Guided Reading Groups – Reading groups in the upper elementary classroom are complex to say the least. This post is a great place to start.

Introducing Reading Workshop – This post shares procedural lessons to allow your students get started on the right foot.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Writing

Introducing Paragraphs – This is one of my all time favorite ways to begin teaching writing! If you’re new to teaching 4th grade, I highly recommend starting the year by teaching students how to write paragraphs through these back to school books!

If you want ideas on how to teach writing, this Guide To Teaching Writing is just for you! Remember, even if you recognize what 4th graders should know coming to you, it doesn’t mean they will know it.

Personal Narratives-Here is a blog post that shares how to teach students to write personal narratives. I do have blog posts for other writing genres, but this seems to be teachers’ favorite genre to start the year with.

What 4th Graders Should Know – Math

When thinking about what 4th graders should know, don’t forget about math! Math Workshop/Guided Math-This post describes how math workshop can be used in a fourth grade classroom.

Upper Elementary Math Centers-You don’t have to incorporate math centers in fourth grade. If you do utilize centers, you don’t have to use them everyday. There is so much flexibility! This is a great post to show how to use math centers in an upper elementary classroom.

First Days of Math Workshop-I highly recommend this post! It’s SO important in order to have success during the year. There are step-by-step lessons to teach math workshop with routines and procedures.

Math Manipulatives-Math manipulatives aren’t just for the little ones. Big kids need them too! However, you don’t need to spend a fortune, and there are important things to remember when using manipulatives.

Multiplication Facts-There are few topics in math that cause more anxiety (for students and teachers) than math facts. This post helps take that away. There are TONS of fun ideas and freebies to make learning multiplication facts fun AND meaningful!

What 4th Graders Should Know – Social Studies & Science

Far too often social studies and science are neglected in third, fourth, and fifth grades. When you teach content heavy grade levels, it’s incredibly hard to find the time to squeeze it all into the day. This is one of the primary reasons I love integrating as often as possible. In this post I share a few ideas on how to integrate social studies and science into language arts and math.

Testing

Yes, fourth graders have to participate in state testing. I can say with 100% certainty that the best test prep is high quality instruction all year. It’s important to be extremely careful to approach testing with the right attitude with students. I don’t use it as a fear mechanism for motivation or over emphasize the importance of test scores.

While I can’t take away all of the stress relating to testing, you can make the year easier by integrating review into your instruction all year. You can see some of my favorite ideas here.

It’s definitely not possible to share all of my resources with you, but I would love to give you some ideas. The items below are my top 10 favorite resources for teachers who are new to teaching 4th Grade.

What 4th Graders Should Know

Top Ten Resources for Teachers New to Teaching 4th Grade

This Reading Workshop Bundle is probably my favorite product! It’s one of those that really does have everything! There are 180 reading comprehension lesson plans and printables to go with each lesson plan. I’ve also included fluency practice, vocabulary, and reading homework.

My Fourth Grade Math Units is a compilation of YEARS of work! This bundle includes 10 math units with hands-on lessons, skills practice, and task cards!

I honestly don’t know what I’d do without my Weekly Word Problems. I now use the updated version with the constructed response practice for my morning work. It’s one of my favorites!

Once again, I’d be lost without my Fluency Passages! I use these for weekly fluency and comprehension homework. The best part is that the entire pack is integrated with science and social studies!

My Language Arts Morning Work is an excellent spiral review. This will help keep tricky grammar and reading skills fresh all year. (I know the cover of this one says third, but I’ve linked the 4th grade version. My fourth grade cover is in the middle of being updated 🙂

Writing can certainly be tricky, which is why I love having the Writing Bundle ready to go! This contains three writing units  aligned to the Common Core Standards: informational, opinion, and narrative!

I love these Multiplication Facts Booklets! Teaching multiplication facts is a year long process, so I incorporate these booklets all year long. The are a great way to teach conceptual understanding and memorization of multiplication facts.

I use the Prefix of the Week packet along with my Homophone of the Week for weekly vocabulary and word work. This makes a cute bulletin board and comes with different booklets!

I use this Math Constructed Response packet at least once a week. This is one of those concepts that requires practice all year long, rather than taught as an isolated test prep skill.

I’m cheating a little here! I actually have a few 4th grade assessment packs, and I love them all! I especially like the language arts assessments, because it’s often difficult to find reading assessments that include the passage and assess one standard at a time.

You are going to love fourth grade! One of the best things about fourth grade is that students are young enough to still love school and have a desire to please their teacher. Yet, they are independent enough to participate in really fun activities. Plus, the older students are awesome at catching my corny jokes! Like all students, they need love, consistency, and strong procedures for optimal success. Don’t sweat the test! Your preparation starts from Day 1 and with good instruction your students will be ready!

Don’t hesitate to ask any questions! I’m always happy to help.

The post What 4th Graders Should Know appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Teaching setting is one of those reading topics that is so much fun. It’s relatively easy for students to understand, and there is so much great literature that can be tied into upper elementary setting instruction. My greatest challenge in teaching setting is having students use text evidence to support their ideas about the setting of a text. As always, when I require students to support and prove their reasoning, things become much more challenging. This post shares some of my favorite strategies for teaching setting through mentor texts AND ways to encourage students to write thorough responses using text evidence.

Lessons for Teaching Setting

The five lessons below are from my 2nd Reading Unit. As always, these texts can be replaced with different texts of your choice, but I highly recommend each of these books. I introduce setting by reading Train to Somewhere by Eve Bunting. This is a historical fiction text based on real events. The setting of the text plays a significant role in the text, and it’s such a heart touching story. In fact, I may get a bit choked up when I read it to my class. This is one of those books that I never skip. Before we read the text, I have students use the cover of the book to make predictions about the setting, which is also great for inferences. Students predict where and when the book takes places, as well as the environment around the events.

If you’d like to incorporate some drawing and visualization in this lesson, you could have students complete the graphic organizer below. This helps students see the connection between setting and visualizing.

Changes in Setting

We then begin to discuss how the setting can change within a story, and how understanding that change is important for our comprehension of the text. To teach this, I like reading An Angel for Solomon Singer. To be perfectly honest, this is a book I did not absolutely want to read, because of the cover. Shame on me, because it’s a great text for teaching setting. Once I finally forced myself to read it, I was hooked. This is another great text that promotes thought provoking questions and comments. As I read the book, we discuss the changes in the setting and how those changes effect the story. We discuss how this is also true in chapter books, and we discuss chapter books that have substantial changes in setting, such as Holes.

It’s helpful for students to focus on the impact setting has on a text. One way to help students see the importance is share how the story would be different if it took place during a different time and/or in a different place. Make sure students realize they have to give more than the obvious answers. As upper elementary students they have to dig a little deeper.

Integrate Informational Texts

I like to incorporate nonfiction texts into my setting instruction. My students love going on a nonfiction setting scavenger hunt, where they find examples of nonfiction texts that take place in a large variety of different settings. I like having students complete this in our school library, because of the large variety of nonfiction books that are available. Plus, the novelty of a reading lesson in a different location is always fun for students. If you have a media specialist, you could even integrate this with library skills.

Teaching Setting – Compare and Contrast

Once students have ample experience with identifying the setting and understanding changes in setting, we begin to compare books with similar settings. To do this, I read parts of Orphan Train Rider: One Boy’s True Story by Andrea Warren. Students compare this text with the fiction text Train to Somewhere. Students work together to create a Venn-diagram that compares and contrasts the setting with the two texts. An added bonus, is that this gives students experience with first hand information, which will come up later in the informational text standards. Students are always captivated by this part of history, because they simply cannot image something like that even existing.

Responding to Literature

Once I feel that my students are ready to progress to applying what they’ve learned through written response, I have students write a reading response essay on the importance of the setting in Follow the Drinking Gourd.This is another book where the setting plays a significant role on the text, and there is a change of setting in the book. As students write, they are required to using quotes and evidence from the text to support their thinking.

The teaching setting with mentor text lessons above can be found in my Reading Unit 2. However, if I ever need an additional lesson to teach setting, I always use Stephanie’s (Teaching in Room 6) cutting up setting lesson. In this lesson, you read students a chapter from a book that has a very descriptive setting. I always use Tuck Everlasting’s first chapter. I type the chapter and print a copy for each student. After reading the chapter, students create a drawing of the setting, but they can only add things that appeared in the chapter. Students cut out the text evidence for each part of their drawing to prove their thinking/drawing. Seriously, this is an amazing lesson!

With the combination of these lessons for teaching setting, I’m typically ready to wrap up setting with a formal assessment and move to our other story elements. A blog post for those is coming soon! If you’d like to learn more about reading workshop, be sure to check out this post!

The post Teaching Setting With Mentor Texts appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Grammar worksheets and activities don’t have to be miserable and boring for students-or for you! Teaching grammar appears to be a something teachers either love or hate. There are a lot of polarizing opinions on how to teach grammar, punctuation, and parts of speech. Some say it should only be taught in the context of writing instruction, while others believe in a daily grammar block. The purpose of this post is not to debate an all or nothing approach. Instead, it will use the idea that grammar should not be an afterthought to instruction but an intentional part of our day.

Grammar Pacing Guide

Before sharing about teaching grammar, I’d like to share the pacing of my grammar units. The grammar pacing guide below is specific to third grade conventions and builds on second grade standards. My grammar worksheets and activities build upon this pacing guide.

Incorporating Grammar With Writing

Grammar Worksheets & Activities

Grammar Worksheets

Teaching Grammar With Games and Task Cards

Reviewing With Grammar Worksheets & Activities

Teaching Grammar Through Mentor Sentences

Implementation of Mentor Sentences

It’s beneficial for students to learn from well written sentences, so they know what a good sentence looks like. To use mentor sentences for your grammar instruction, you should first find well-written sentences to model effective sentence structure and grammar. Present the mentor sentences and look for patterns within those sentences. Have students practice writing their own examples of the mentor sentence and highlight examples of the particular skill you are teaching in their own writing.
There are mentor sentence examples in my writing units. I wrote the sentences to go along with the mini lessons for the writing strategy taught for that day AND the grammar skill taught within that unit. You can learn more about my writing units here.

The post Grammar Worksheets & Activities appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Teaching poetry can be a rewarding experience! Most upper elementary students love learning about poetry. It’s new, different, and a genre where all students can find a style of poetry they enjoy.

The easiest place to begin teaching poetry is to simply read poetry to students, whether it is of a silly or serious variety. Don’t worry about analyzing and annotating the poems. Instead, just read for enjoyment. Too often we jump right into structure, rather than the experience of listening to good poetry. The image below shares a few of my favorite anthologies. I try to read a large variety of poems to make sure all students find something they can connect with.

When I begin teaching poetry, I like to explicitly teach the different parts of a poem: lines, stanza, rhythm, rhyme, and repetition as the basics of poetry structure. Understanding the basic format, helps in poetry comprehension.

It’s important to teach students how to read a poem, because they should read poetry differently than a traditional prose. Students should first read the poem slowly. Reading a poem slowly is the best way to ensure that the poem will be read clearly and understood. It is also important for students to read in a normal, relaxed tone of voice. Students know that poems are written in lines, but pausing at the end of every line will create a choppy effect and interrupt the flow of the poem’s sense. Students should pause only where there is punctuation, just as you would when reading prose.

Teaching Poetry – Mini Lessons

Once students are comfortable reading poems and have an understanding of the elements of poetry, you can begin teaching poetry comprehension. I use my Reading Unit 5 for all of the poetry lessons. In those lessons, students practice reading and answering explicit and implicit comprehension questions about various poems. It also has students work with the different elements and forms of poetry.

Teaching Poetry With Paired Passages

Another great idea for teaching poetry is to incorporate paired passages. I use paired passages to give students rigorous analyzing poetry practice. Students receive two poems. Then, they annotate the two poems with questions and observations and identify more complex vocabulary.

In the next portion of the activity, students answer text dependent questions in a multiple choice format for both poems. These questions are all explicit questions whose answers can be found directly in the text. You can even have students highlight or underline where they found the answer to the question.

In the next portion of the teaching poetry assignment, students identify and explain examples of figurative language in both poems. Then, students answer questions that require them to infer and draw conclusions.

In another portion of the paired passage activity, students answer paired comprehension questions where they use both passages to answer high level thinking questions. Students should support their answers with text evidence.

When I use these poetry paired passages, I don’t try to have students complete all parts of the assignment in a single class. Instead, I break it apart into multiple days. You can find the paired passages here.

Teaching Poetry Through Novel Studies

One of my favorite strategies for teaching poetry is through novel studies. I have added each of the novel studies to my Free Resource Library! To access the resources, simply sign-up for my newsletter. You can sign-up here or on the sidebar of the blog.

Love That Dog

One group is reading Love That Dog, which is the easiest of the four books. The book is a collection of journal entries written as poems, and is a great text for teaching poetry. The journal belongs to Jack, a young boy in Miss Stretchberry’s class. Jack doesn’t like poetry-writing it or reading it. With the help of Miss Stretchberry, he begins to write poems of his own. Slowly, he realizes that his brain isn’t “empty” and that he can write poems.

May B.

Another one of our novels is May B. which is a historical fiction novel. The setting of the book is the late 1800s on the east Kansas prairie. May B’s parents need money, and their plan is to send their daughter to work at a homestead 15 miles away. She isn’t happy about going and she doesn’t like the family she’s working for.

She’s lonely when she begins her job with the Oblingers, but she becomes truly lonely when she’s abandoned at their home. She knows she has to fend for herself and learn how to live in alone. To top her problem off, winter is coming, and she’s running out of food. A side plot of the novel is that May has a learning disability and struggles greatly with reading.

Hidden

The all-time student favorite novel is Hidden. When Wren Abbott and Darra Monson are eight years old, Darra’s father steals a minivan. He doesn’t know that Wren is hiding in the back. The hours and days that follow change the lives of both girls. Wren finally manages to escape from the garage where she is hiding.

Years later, in a chance encounter at a summer camp, the girls face each other for the first time. They can finally learn the truth of the event and the activities following the kidnapping. The book is told from alternating viewpoints from Wren and Darra. This is definitely my favorite novel for teaching poetry.

Inside Out and Back Again

The most challenging, text is Inside Out and Back Again. I love this book, because it address so many social studies standards, while telling a great story. Inside Out & Back Again recounts the fleeing of Vietnam by Ha and her family and their immigration to the United States of America.

They are sponsored by a Southern farmer named Mr. Johnston, who helps the family to settle in Alabama. In Alabama, Ha and her family receive mixed reactions from their new neighbors. While many are friendly and welcoming, others are not. At school. Ha is bulled by a pink-colored boy who takes every chance he can to make fun of Ha. Slowly, all of the neighbors come around and warm up to Ha and her family, and the family begins to feel welcome at last.

Teaching Poetry Through Writing Poetry

I like to extend my poetry unit with something particularly fun through writing. Students love this Types of Poetry Mini Unit. I included a poster with an explanation and example of ten different types of poems: acrostic, biographical, color, cinquain, color, concrete, couplet, diamante, free verse, haiku, and limerick.  For extra support, there are also pictures of the poems my students wrote that can be used as an example and a template for creating a small poetry book.

The poetry booklet is a fun a culminating project to any poetry unit. Students have fun, and it’s nice to have examples of their written poetry in one place.

Hopefully, this has given you a few new ideas for teaching poetry to upper elementary students! If you want to read more about how I teach reading, be sure to check out this post!

The post Teaching Poetry Ideas appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Changing grade levels is difficult. I still remember crying my eyes out the first time I had to change grade levels. It was devastating! It’s hard to sort through years worth of blog posts, resources, and articles to find just what you need to get started. Since it’s such a challenge, I’ve written this post about moving to 4th grade to help get you started. Even if you’ve been a fourth grade teacher for awhile, you’ll probably find something useful!

A couple years ago I wrote a blog post for teachers who were new to third grade or transitioning back to third grade. If you’re moving to 3rd grade, be sure to check out that post.

In this post:

• Pacing Guides
• Fourth Grade Morning Work
• Reading
• Writing
• Guided Math & Workshops
• Social Studies & Science
• Classroom Management
• Top Ten Resources

Pacing Guides

It’s hard to start the year without a plan, so you can download example fourth grade pacing guides here.

Covid and distance learning has changed so many things for teachers. It’s incredibly hard to know how to get started when you don’t know what you’re planning for. To provide even more support, I’ve shared a First 30 Days for reading and math. What makes this plan special is that it can be used for in-class instruction, distance learning, or a combination of both. You can find that post here.

Fourth Grade Morning Work

A good morning work routine is one of the most important parts of the day. It sets your pace and allows students to feel organized and prepared. This post shares some of my favorite ideas for morning work. It also mentions how to incorporate a soft start to your day.

Reading

After years of blogging, there is simply no way to narrow down all of my reading and writing blog posts to just one! However, I was able to whittle it down to just a few. Keep in mind, all of these lessons are available as a print and digital resource.

Reading Workshop

In this post you can get a good overview of what should happen during reading workshop. The post also discuss the differences between reading workshop, guided reading, and literature circles.

Teaching Reading Through Social Studies and Science

This post shares several ideas on ways to integrate your science and social studies standards with reading. Time is always a problem, so this is a big help.

Making Sense of Reading Assessments

Depending on where you’re coming from, reading assessments may look different. They may also be quite overwhelming! This post breaks down the how and why of various reading assessments.

Upper Elementary Guided Reading Groups

Reading groups in the upper elementary classroom are complex to say the least. This post is a great way to get started.

Introducing Reading Workshop

This post shares procedural lessons to allow your students get started on the right foot.

Writing

Introducing Paragraphs

This is one of my all time favorite ways to begin teaching writing! I highly recommend starting the year by teaching students how to write paragraphs through these back to school books!

Narrative Writing

Here is a blog post that shares how to teach students to write personal narratives. I do have blog posts for other writing genres, but this seems to be teachers’ favorite genre to start the year with.

If you are looking for a general overview of HOW to teach writing, don’t skip this post!

Guided Math & Workshops

Math Workshop/Guided Math

This post describes how math workshop can be used in a fourth grade classroom.

Math Centers

You don’t have to incorporate math centers in fourth grade. If you do utilize centers, you don’t have to use them everyday. There is so much flexibility! This is a great post to show how to use math centers in an upper elementary classroom.

Teaching Math Workshop Procedures

I highly recommend this post! It’s SO important in order to have success during the year. There are step-by-step lessons to teach math workshop with routines and procedures.

Math Manipulatives

These aren’t just for the little ones. Big kids need them too! However, you don’t need to spend a fortune, and there are important things to remember when using manipulatives.

Memorizing Multiplication Facts

There are few topics in math that cause more anxiety (for students and teachers) than math facts. This post helps take that away. There are TONS of fun ideas and freebies to make learning multiplication facts fun AND meaningful!

Social Studies & Science

Transform Your Social Studies and Science Instruction

This is a series of blog posts that cover several different instructional ideas for teaching social studies and science. The series discusses vocabulary, presenting content, exploration activities, assessment, and more!

Classroom Management

A Starting Place for Distance Learning

This is your go-to, can’t-miss, starting place for distance learning.

Classroom Management Strategies

Includes free and editable behavior log.

Classroom Focus Wall

This is a great post for setting up a focus wall and math bulletin board.

Top Ten Resources

This Reading Workshop Bundle is probably my favorite product! It’s one of those that really does have everything! There are 180 reading comprehension lesson plans and printables to go with each lesson plan. I’ve also included fluency practice, vocabulary, and reading homework.

My Fourth Grade Math Units is a compilation of YEARS of work! This bundle includes 10 math units with hands-on lessons, skills practice, and task cards!

I honestly don’t know what I’d do without my Weekly Word Problems. I now use the updated version with the constructed response practice for my morning work. It’s one of my favorites!

Once again, I’d be lost without my Fluency Passages! I use these for weekly fluency and comprehension homework. The best part is that the entire pack is integrated with science and social studies!

My Language Arts Morning Work is an excellent spiral review. This will help keep tricky grammar and reading skills fresh all year. (I know the cover of this one says third, but I’ve linked the 4th grade version. My fourth grade cover is in the middle of being updated:)

Writing can certainly be tricky, which is why I love having the Writing Bundle ready to go! This contains three writing units that are aligned to the Common Core Standards: informational, opinion, and narrative!

I love these Multiplication Facts Booklets! Teaching multiplication facts is a year long process, so I incorporate these booklets all year long. The are a great way to teach conceptual understanding and memorization of multiplication facts.

I use the Prefix of the Week packet along with my Homophone of the Week for weekly vocabulary and word work. This makes a cute bulletin board and comes with different booklets!

I use this Math Constructed Response packet at least once a week. This is one of those concepts that needs to be practiced all year long, rather than taught as an isolated test prep skill.

I’m cheating a little here! I actually have a few 4th grade assessment packs, and I love them all! I especially like the language arts assessments, because it’s often difficult to find reading assessments that include the passage and assess one standard at a time.

You are going to love 4th grade! One of the best things about moving to 4th grade is that students are young enough to still love school and have a desire to please their teacher. Yet, they are independent enough to participate in really fun activities. Plus, the older students are awesome at catching my corny jokes! Like all students, they need love, consistency, and strong procedures for optimal success. Don’t sweat the test! Your preparation starts from Day 1 and with good instruction your students will be ready!

Don’t hesitate to ask any questions! I’m always happy to help.

• Classroom Set Up-Here’s a few classroom pictures.

To learn more about how I plan for the year, you can check out this post on planning for the year.

The post Moving to 4th Grade appeared first on Ashleigh's Education Journey.

Creative writing prompts often don’t have a place in today’s classroom. Rarely will we ever see creative writing in our standards or curriculum. However, it doesn’t have to be completely eliminated or replaced. I’ve found ways to incorporate creative writing prompts into the classroom, and students LOVE it!

Why Use Creative Writing

Creative writing can help students improve their vocabulary, develop their imaginative capacity for creative expression, and help develop their voice. It’s also a great tool in promoting divergent thinking. Plus, it’s a fantastic way to get reluctant writers to actually write. Another added bonus to creative writing, is that it allows you to have a deeper insight into your students’ way of thinking.

I do not teach a specific creative writing unit. There is a lot of debate on whether or not we should, and I frequently (probably unjustly) feel frustrated by that debate. I think many “experts” point their fingers at the teacher, without remembering that teachers are doing what they are required to do. Teachers don’t write the standards and don’t determine what to teach. Sometimes squeezing it in is the best we can do. See this post to learn more about my writing instruction.

When to Teach Creative Writing

Since I don’t teach a unit using creative writing prompts, I have to get creative. Some ways you can include creative writing are during morning work, literacy centers, or as an early finisher activity. I love using monthly creative writing prompt booklets for this. It lets students work at their own place, and the completed booklets are priceless to students’ parents.

I’ve created creative writing prompt booklets for for ten months out of the year! Did I mention they’re free?! There is a color and black and white cover page and 16 writing prompts in each book. Creative Writing Prompts Booklets here.

Creative Writing Prompts

In the booklets, I applied the questioning strategies I learned in my gifted endorsement classes to the free creative writing prompts. They incorporate a considerable amount of divergent thinking and questions that require students to think about ordinary things in extraordinary ways.

August Creative Writing Prompts

• Imagine that you are a fish who lives in a fish bowl at a carnival. Describe a normal night from your point of view.
• What would you do if a sheep actually jumped over your bed when you tried to sleep?
• How could you convince your principal to place a bounce house on the playground?
• How could you convince your principal to place a bounce house on the playground?
• How could you improve a flashlight?
• What questions can you ask a fire fighter?
• If you were an elephant, what would you think about zoos?
• The following is a REAL newspaper headline. Finish the newspaper article. Most Earthquake Damage is Caused by Shaking.
• What zoo animal is most like you? Why?
• Create a new use for a rain gauge.
• National Watermelon Day is in August. How could you celebrate this day?
• How would you design the best roller coaster ever?
• Describe the perfect photograph.
• What scents do you think of when you think about summer?

May Creative Writing Prompts

Here are the creative writing prompts from the May booklet.

• What would you do with a pet robot?
• How could you improve balloons?
• How might you use a carton of milk?
• What could you do at recess if you didn’t have any playground equipment?
• Design the perfect Ferris wheel.
• What questions could you ask about starfish?
• What type of car is most like you? Why?
• Imagine that you and your family are on vacation and you stop for the night at a hotel. Then all of a sudden you hear a strange noise coming from the closet. What do you do?
• Imagine that you fell asleep floating on a river and you woke up and had no idea where you were. What would you do?
• Pumping gas is not fun and many germs are spread at a gas pump. How could you improve gas stations?
• What would happen if you got to star in your own movie?
• If you were a pirate, what would you put in your pirate’s chest?
• Create a new flavor of ice cream. Why would it be delicious?

I hope you enjoy these little goodies!

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Opinion writing lessons can be fun for students and teachers. Opinion writing gives children something they can really get excited about, because they ALL have strong opinions! In this post I share some of my favorite opinion writing lessons and activities.

I typically begin teaching opinion writing lessons after my informational writing unit, which you can read more about here. These two writing genres tie together seamlessly, so it’s a natural transition for students. It’s beneficial to teach both genres as soon as you can to be able to integrate opinion writing in other subject areas.

Be sure to begin your opinion writing unit slowly. The end result suffers when we hurry through the initial opinion writing lessons.

Forms of Opinion Writing

Even though it takes me a bit off track with actual writing process, I start the unit with a couple opinion writing lessons that teach students what opinion writing is and is not. Once students understand the concept of opinion writing, they go on a scavenger hunt to find examples of opinion writing. This places students in front of a large variety of opinion text.

It’s hard to teach an opinion writing unit, without at least mentioning ads and reviews, because that’s a large portion of the opinion writing that students have encountered at this point in their lives. When we brainstormed different types of opinion writing, my students were amazed to see how many ads they encountered in their day-to-day life.

During these opinion writing lessons, we also spend a little time looking a book reviews. Students read book reviews about their favorite books on Amazon and discussed what makes a good review. They were especially passionate about the reviews they did not agree with. After analyzing book reviews, students were able to write a book review on a book of their choice.

Generating Topics for Opinion Writing

After writing book reviews, students were ready to dig deeper into opinion writing lessons. I started by having students brainstorm opinion writing topics to write about. I’ve found that giving students time to brainstorm and share their ideas with the class helps them select good topics to write about later in the unit. When they share their ideas with the class, some students help by saying, “that might be difficult to write about” or “will you be able to prove that”.

Opinion Writing Lessons-Point of View

I then teach students how to think about topics from different points of view. Luckily, I just so happened to be teaching point of view during reading, so that was perfect timing! I want students to think about point of view in opinion writing, because eventually, I want them to be able to write counter arguments. As students work, I make it a point to avoid inserting my own point of view. For the most part, elementary students are pleasers, and they have a tendency to adopt whatever point of view they believe will make their teacher happy. I encourage my students to think for themselves.

In the planning stages of our opinion unit, I also have students think about the audience they are writing to and why their audience should agree with them. Students also learn to make a pro and con list to support and disagree with their topic.

In my opinion writing lessons, I also spend a considerable amount of time teaching students how to write good leads and topic sentences, as well as how to write a conclusion paragraph. Students learn to use either a question, description, or interesting fact for the lead of their opinion essay. They follow the lead with a topic sentences that focuses on the topic and shares their opinion on the topic. When writing a conclusion paragraph, students learn to restate their introduction using different words.

Opinion Writing Lessons – Graphic Organizer

When students learn to organize their opinion writing, I love using a clear and easy to follow opinion writing graphic organizer that allows students to organize their thoughts. I have students first identify their three reasons. Then, I have students determine what examples, anecdotes, or statistics they will use to support each of their reasons.

Organization for opinion writing essays is always a challenge for students, so I often give students additional practice with organizing information. In the lesson below, students are given supporting details and must write a main idea sentences for the supporting details. In the following section, students are given a main idea sentence and must write three supporting details for that sentence.

During my opinion writing lessons, I scaffold away printed organizers for my students. I know that writing is so much easier for students when the graphic organizer is printed/copied for my students, and I use them when I teach paragraph writing and informational writing. However, I know that I will not be able to provide graphic organizers for my students’ writing test, so I try to teach students how to create their own graphic organizer.  {Not to mention that this time of year paper and copies start running low, and who knows if the copy machine or printer will be working.}

Transitioning Graphic Organizers

I’ve learned that the transition from premade graphic organizers to creating a graphic organizer on notebook paper is an extremely difficult transition for students. This year, I spent a lot of extra time teaching students how to use notebook paper for an effective graphic organizer. I’ve also learned that I need to keep the graphic organizers simple. Otherwise, students won’t even try to make their own. I spent a significant amount of time using my digital projector and modeling how to write a graphic organizer template on a sheet of notebook paper. Since my students were already familiar with the terms subtopic and supporting details, I remained consistent and used the same terms in informational writing.

I had my students write three subtopics and three bullet points underneath each subtopic. This format is simple, yet it’s a great way to help students avoid overlapping subtopics and subtopics that don’t lend themselves to supporting details. You can see how I turned it into an opinion writing anchor chart in the photo above.

Once students were able to create their own graphic organizer, I started one of my favorite opinion writing lessons. I asked the class if they thought children should have iphones. I was fairly surprised to see that my class was split in half on their opinions. I grouped students into groups of four, where all students in the group had the same opinion. Then, they worked together to create a graphic organizer with subtopics and supporting details showing whether or not it was good for children to have an iphone. I was blown away at how well they worked together and the depth of their thought process. I could see their previous knowledge from our informational writing unit emerge as they discussed overlapping subtopics and good supporting details. Both sides of the argument were able to think of excellent reasons for and against the phones. Students were very passionate about this topic, and it was fun watching their eyes light up as they worked with their group.

As we move into the process of transferring the graphic organizer to paper, I will allow students to use the graphic organizer they created in their group for their first complete piece of opinion writing. We will slowly walk through that piece together by a lot of support from me. Having everyone write about the same topic will make the first run much easier than it would be if everyone were writing about a different topic. Once we complete the first opinion essay, I’ll have students independently write and will encourage them to select a topic from their brainstorm list.

Author’s Craft

As students begin their second opinion writing piece, I’ll move from organization and structure to the craft of writing, as well as revision and editing. You can see a few examples of our writing craft lessons below. As students write, they should try to use a variety of sentence styles. For guided practice, I have students write the same content in a simple sentence, compound sentence, and complex sentence. Another fun activity for sentence variety is to have students read through a piece of opinion writing and count the number of examples for each type of sentence. I love lessons that incorporate writing craft and grammar!

As students advance through these opinion writing lessons, I address how to use counter arguments. This is a bit more complex, but it’s an extremely effective strategy in opinion writing.

You can find all of the lessons and printables above, as well as opinion writing mentor texts in my Opinion Writing Unit on TpT. Even if you don’t use the unit, hopefully these ideas will help you get started with your own opinion writing unit! This is also offered in my Writing Bundle that includes fictional narrative writing, personal narrative writing, informational writing, and opinion writing for a 20% discount! If you want to read more about teaching writing, be sure to check out this post!

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Narrative writing lessons are my favorite writing lessons! They are also a great way to get to know students on a deeper level. However, without highly structured narrative writing lessons personal narratives aren’t always easy for students to writ. Children have a tendency to write a list of events, rather than a fully developed narrative. Through the use of these narrative writing lessons, students can be taught how to write quality personal narratives. This post shares a few of my favorite narrative writing lessons.

In this post:

• Mentor Text
• Planning Narratives
• Writing Craft
• Revision
• Grammar

Mentor Texts

Mentor texts are perfect introductions to narrative writing lessons. I like to begin each lesson with a mentor text that models good examples of personal narratives, and I use that mentor text to teach different writing strategies as well as develop a narrative writing anchor chart. Third, fourth, and fifth graders are not too old to be read picture books. I know that our read alouds are my students favorite part of the day!

Planning Narrative Writing Lessons

When my students begin our narrative unit, they typically don’t have a lot of writing stamina, so the independent writing time is fairly short during the first week of my narrative lessons. I primarily focus on how to plan a personal narrative. We begin by creating a heart map where students draw a picture of something they love or that’s important to them in sections of a heart. Students keep the heart map in their writing folder and can refer to it when they can’t think of something to write about. This is a great alternative to narrative writing prompts.

I then use a reverse graphic organizer strategy that helps students understand the format of a narrative. I read a personal narrative to students, and then we complete the graphic organizer together using the narrative I read. This helps students understand the parts and the flow of a narrative. Students can then use this graphic organizer as they plan their own personal narrative writing format.

In the next narrative writing lesson, I then teach students how to focus on small moments. Anyone who has ever taught personal narratives knows how students have a tendency to write about every single moment of a day or event. Students have to be taught how to select a small moment, rather than a huge event that is too much for students to write about. Once students learn to narrow their focus, personal narratives are much easier to write.

Narrative Writing Lessons

After a week of teaching students about the general structure and format of personal narratives, I teach students how to begin a personal narrative. Students can learn to write emotional beginnings, beginnings with action, beginnings with dialogue, and beginnings with a description. I teach one type of beginning a day and my mentor text reflects that type of beginning. After reading the mentor text, I have students practice writing that type of beginning on their graphic organizer that students keep in their writing notebook. The practice element of these lessons is so important to narrative writing lessons. I’ve found that needs need the opportunity for practice before being expected to independently implement these strategies in their own writing. Too often students are expected to transition immediately from the modeling in the mini lesson to application.

I also teach students how not to begin a narrative. These are beginnings that I want my students to avoid, so I like to explicitly teach what not to do.

I also spend a week teaching students how to end a personal narrative. I teach reflective or circular endings, ending with a hope or wish, ending with a moral or lesson learned, and ending with a decision. Once again, my mentor text reflects that type of ending, and I have students practice writing each type of ending. Students will also keep this form in students’ writing notebook. Once again, we practice each type of ending before having students add endings to their own personal narrative.

I also teach craft lessons such as adding narrative writing transition words, adding sensory details, and show don’t tell. I teach students about different types of transition words, such as time, place, idea, and summarizing transitions.

Narrative Writing Lessons – Revision

Once my students are going writing their narratives, I begin teaching students how to revise their narratives. I teach lessons such as “Avoiding the IT Monster” when I notice students overusing words such as ‘it’ or “I”.

There are narrative writing lessons on using strong verbs and specific nouns, because students need to focus on their word choice as they write and revise. You can use narrative writing to teach students how to write with dialogue, which is an important addition to narrative writing. I also teach students how to stretch their sentences, because once students are in upper elementary, they need to expand their sentences and move beyond simple sentences. This is a great time to teach simple, compound, and complex sentences. We also spend a little time “performing surgery” on examples of narrative writing that includes extra information. I do include a couple of days for students to have the opportunity to publish their favorite narrative. When students publish, they illustrate and produce a final copy of the writing.

I assess my students with a rubric. I do not try to assess every piece of writing my students write, because that would be overwhelming for my students and me! The bulk of students writing is used as a formative assessment and I discuss the writing in student conferences. When I conference with students, I try not to overwhelm them and focus on one or two things at a time. I have to remember to take baby steps.

Narrative Writing Lessons – Grammar

Each week, I’ve also focused on one grammar skill from the Common Core Standards, and I’ve included those skills at the bottom of the lesson plan. These skills should be taught during writing workshop. I like to briefly go over the skill before the mini lesson and following our closing. I teach these skills through mentor sentences that are also included in the file.

All of the forms and narrative writing lessons are in my Personal Narrative Unit on my TpT shop. In the unit, you’ll also find a list of suggested mentor texts, revision checklists, editing checklists, and a rubric for assessing. If you check out the preview you’ll get a few FREE days of lessons!

Hopefully, you’ve enjoyed these narrative writing lessons. You can download a FREE copy of the two graphic organizers pictured above! If you’d like to learn more about teaching writing to upper elementary students, be sure to check out this Writing Workshop Guide post.

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