When I first started teaching I found numerous writing resources. I had bookshelves full! However, each of those resources failed to give me a daily, step-by-step plan, as to how to teach writing. After my first few years of floundering, I laid out a straight forward plan to share with colleagues and now you!

I Had a Little Epiphany

I looked at the Common Core Writing Standards and saw a trend. In grades 3 through 6, writing informative pieces, narratives, and opinion pieces was a focus each year. So, I organized my writing units in a way to mirror what the students were being asked to master. I started with informative writing because I find it lends itself to also teaching writing organization. I added summary writing as my last unit because being able to summarize is crucial to comprehending what you’ve read.

If you are teaching upper elementary, feel free to borrow from me and organize your writing this way. If you’d like to save yourself some time my binder is available in my TPT store Peas in a Pod. Just click on the picture below!

“The Writing Plan Curriculum” Includes My 5 Favorite Go-To Writing Units!

Most of these units consist of 5 initial lessons. At the end of these lessons, students will have the organizational knowledge needed to write a solid paragraph that they can later expand into an essay. With continued practice, this curriculum can serve your students though out the school year! Student pages, proofreading worksheets, answer keys, graphic organizers, topic ideas and several writing rubric options are included!