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3 Tips for Teaching Your Students to Write Strong Essays

I don’t know about you, but when I was in middle school, I always found essay writing to be a bummer, even though I loved writing. And based on the confusing messages my teachers sent, I imagine that they hated teaching essay writing as much as we hated doing the work.

Ms. Print demanded five-paragraph essays, while Mr. Stickler insisted six was the magic paragraph number. Every teacher had different requirements, and they all assigned very specific topics. Asking to choose my own writing topic would have been like voluntarily signing up for detention.

I’m sure that some of you had similar experiences. Now that I’m a teacher myself, I realize my teachers meant well and probably had little to no training on how to teach writing. Most colleges pretty much throw us to the wolves. There. You’re a teacher. Turn out the next Malcolm Gladwell.

Now have the opportunity to help my own students write strong essays, I realize it’s not so bad. If fact, I love teaching essay writing! And I’ve come up with three simple ways to help my students get started writing strong essays.

So read on for three helpful hints that will make essay writing– and teaching– a breeze!

Teach Essay Writing Format and Structure

The first step in teaching essay writing is to ensure that your students understand the format and organization of each essay genre. Once your students understand how each essay should be structured, they will be able to practice using that structure.

I give my students a mini writing book that they can use for reference all year long. It includes the structure for argumentative essays, informative essays, and narratives.

The kids love putting it together, and after they’ve created it, we review the structure of the three main writing genres. The kids learn how each part of the essay is required because it serves a specific purpose. They keep the mini book in their ELA folder, and by having it as a quick reference tool, they aren’t constantly asking for reminders about how to organize an essay. In fact, it’s so useful that teachers from other subject areas tell me the kids use the booklets in those classes too.

Click here if you’d like one too.

If some of your students are still struggling, make it easier for them by providing them with graphic organizers, simple sentence frames, or sentence stems to use while drafting their essays. There’s nothing wrong with starting out with a formula.

Providing students with the tools they need to organize their ideads isn’t “cheating.” On the contrary, we owe it to kids to give them what they need, when they need it, so they can outgrow that need when they’re ready.

How many of you started riding a two-wheeler by getting a little help? When my son was having a hard time learning to ride his shiny new “big boy bike,” we gave him training wheels. As soon as he didn’t need them anymore, we removed them. It’s as simple as that.

Students who don’t need the structure, don’t have to use it. Students who outgrow the structure, don’t have to use it either.

Help Students Find a Topic They’re Interested In

Once your students understand the format and organization of an essay, the next step is to help kids find a topic that they are interested in writing about.

In our writer’s workshops, I ask my students to brainstorm their own ideas. It’s important because they need to be enthusiastically invested in their topic in order to write effectively about it. If kids aren’t interested, their writing will tank.

I have a few ways to help my students tackle writer’s block.

  • Whenever my students come up with a creative idea or find a topic they’re curious to explore, I encourage them to jot the idea down in their mini-book. That way they always have a go-to source of inspiration at the ready.
  • Another way to help students find a writing topic is to give them a choice between two topics, such as “Should schools have uniforms?” and “Should every school have therapy dogs on the campus?”
  • I also like to prepare for a specific writing unit a few weeks in advance by giving students open-ended writing prompts that will allow them to explore their interests and opinions. Before our feature article unit, I give them prompts like these that actually have prompts within the prompts.

And don’t forget to give your students some unstructured time to talk about topics you’re reading about in class.  Capitalize on the natural curiosity of youth. Your kids may surprise you with all the interesting things that they have to say! Then encourage them to add their interests and ideas to their writing book.

Provide Plenty of Essay Writing Practice

Provide students with plenty of practice opportunities outside of your writing workshop or formal essay assignments.

Writing practice doesn’t mean kids have to write an entire essay.  And it doesn’t mean that you have to grade it.

What it does mean is that you’re looking for writing opportunities. Maybe it’s a little pocket of time after a test. Or maybe it’s a day when a substitute is in while you’re at a meeting or taking a mental health break.

When you find those brief opportunities, assign a fun writing task:

  • Have students create a fun character who would be a great protagonist in a science fiction story.
  • Or ask them to write an argumentative paragraph supporting or opposing the latest TikTok trend.
  • Assign them to write a fictional conversation between two historical figures.

Don’t feel like you have to grade everything they write. Students should be writing a lot more than you are grading. The important thing to remember is that value comes from the practice of writing, not the grades on the portal.

If Mr. Stickler is still around, please don’t tell him I said that. 🙂

Have a delicious day!

Teaching essay writing to my middle school students used to be such a challenge! Now I start with some basic structure and formatting, and I give opportunities for students to chose their own topics and practice writing.