WRITING STUDIO

Welcome to Effective Teaching Solutions Writing Studio^©. We have put together everything you need to start and continue a successful writing program in your classroom. This section is for beginners and master teachers. It's a resource center to help teachers get the most out of their writing class. *Please note: We have a lot of plans for additional content to this section. Please check back for updates.

  Now Available at Teachers Pay Teachers

	The Literature Patch This file contains 50 quotes from children's books to be used for deconstructing and analyzing mentor texts.
	Creative Writing Pickle Prompts  This file contains 21 prompts that will put your writers into a creative pickle. You can cut out the pickles and put them in a clean, dry pickle jar and place it in your writing center.
	Minute Zingers Creative Writing Prompts Get your students stream of consciousness flowing with 43 creative writing prompts. Students write without stopping or judging for 7 minutes with these creative zingers.
	Up Your Writing Shorts Pull up your writing shorts! This 39 page pdf file comes with 36 lined worksheets with writing prompts for writing a paragraph and two rubrics for grading. Assign weekly (or periodic) paragraphs to assess student writing. Use for class work or homework.

Young Writer's Workshop: Six Writing Lessons to Accompany Word After Word After Word by Patricia MacLachlan This writing unit contains six scripted lessons to accompany the book Word After Word After by Patricia MacLachlan. The picture book All the Places to Love by Patricia MacLachlan is used in lesson two. The lessons are beginning of the year (or the beginning of your fiction writing unit) lessons appropriate for grades 3-5. The lessons can stand alone if adjusted somewhat, but the book is a wonderful read aloud.

  Writing Workshop Pack                                      This 39 page writing workshop resource is packed with rubrics, resources, posters, information, and more to support you in writer's workshop.

  How to Write a Paragraph - Instructions, Example, & Rubric

This 3 page file demonstrates how to write a simple paragraph. It includes instructions, an example, and a rubric for grading. 2nd-5th (reteach, special education, ELL / ESL).

  Mini Conventions Test - Spelling, Capitalization, & Punctuation

This six page file includes:
(1) Instructions for giving a simple authentic mini test to assess spelling and conventions.
(2) One example test that is easy to duplicate in order to meet your student's needs based on your grade level and curriculum.
(3) A testing page for students to write and edit.
(4) An editor's mark card you can copy, cut, and paste into student's writer's notebooks.
(5) A list of 100 commonly misspelled words.
This is a zip file. It includes Microsoft Word documents for both 2003 and 2007.
This file can be adapted to suit the needs of your grade level and curriculum.

  Teach the Traits of Ideas Mini Lesson Unit           Are you looking for fresh ways to teach the trait of ideas? Do you need to fit lessons into a writing workshop structure? This is a 23 day unit plan with writing mini lessons focusing on finding writing ideas. This unit includes 6 writing project ideas. The unit is adjustable for grades 3 to 6. Teach all of the lessons, or pick and choose which lessons will work best for you. All of the lessons are short and simple. Most of the lessons require little or no preparation.

  Writing Workshop Peer Critique Discussion Cards  Help your students focus their writing discussions during critique groups with 24 peer critique discussion cards. Print them out and laminate them for durability. Great for 4th - 12th grades!

  Writing Storyboard for Students  Available in PowerPoint 2003 & 2007. Students read and follow the directions on the PowerPoint slides, and fill in the slides with information about their story in order to create a story board. This activity helps students to organize their thinking and get them ready for writing. Add this PowerPoint to your student computers and use it as a center / station activity or use it as a shared writing model.

  Writing Smartmarks: Bookmarks with a Teaching Point                                                                            Smartmarks are bookmarks students use to mark their place and make notes when they find specific information. Each Smartmark gives the student a task to complete during their reading. This set of Smartmarks is designed to help students notice techniques used by writers. Included in this set are similes, dialogue tags, dialogue action tags, complex sentences, metaphors, personification, commas, and sentence fragments.

  Punctuation in Dialogue PowerPoint (03/07)       Teach your students the parts of dialogue, punctuation within dialogue, how to notice and pay attention to written dialogue in stories, and how to write their own dialogue. This zip file comes with a PowerPoint (2003 & 2007 versions + a pdf that can be used as transparencies) presentation that will help you introduce dialogue. The presentation includes quotes from literature and student tasks for writing and revision.

  Personal Narrative Writing Pack                          This 8 page Personal Narrative Pack is a lesson plan unit gives you a basic structure to model, teach, and assign personal narrative papers. It includes a instructions, handouts, list of publishing options, list of prompts, and a rubric for grading.

  Multi-Genre Writing Project                                This 10 page Multi Genre Writing Project is a flexible, generic project that can be adjusted to fit upper elementary, middle school, high school, or college classes. This project is can be used in English / Language Arts classes as well as content specific course. In essences, students read and research a topic or theme, and write three pieces based on their topic in three different genres. This unit includes: introduction, genre and topic charts, instructions, and student handouts.

  6 Traits of Writing Posters                                 Hang these colorful 6 Traits of Writing posters in your classroom and refer to them as needed.

  Young Writer's Studio Podcasts

Young Writer's Studio Podcast episodes explicitly talk about ways to teach your students the art of writing.

Six Traits of Writing Resources

We have gathered the resources you need to implement the Six Traits of Writing in your classroom. You will find everything from picture books by trait to grading rubrics.

Books for Children On Writing

This is a list of wonderful picture books, chapter books, and biographies that talk about writing. You can read aloud these books and keep them in a tub together as "books on writing".

Writing Teacher's Toolbox

We are working to bring you tools to assist you in your writing classroom. This page is a "toolbox" in progress.

Writing Frames

Beginning writers need a framework to help them learn organizational structure. We developed writing frames based on children's picture books. The frames give students an opportunity to create a piece of writing within the structure of a mentor text. Our classroom friendly writing frames will help kick your student's writing up a notch!

Books to Read Aloud

This is a list of chapter books and novels to read aloud during the school. These exemplary books are examples of strong, quality writing. Read and listen for story and voice, for word choice and music. Breathe in the artistry of the written words and share the finest writing with your students.

Teaching Points Slideshows for Writing^©

The Teaching Points Slideshows^© in this section act as a support for introducing writing strategies and techniques in your classroom. We've also included our professional development slideshows for your own learning experience.

Writing Websites for Teachers

There are many wonderful websites to support teachers in their quest to teach writing. We have gathered the best resources and created a set of links for your convenience.

Recommended Professional Reading List 

Download a copy of our Professional Reading List. We've included the best of the best books for teaching writing.