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A Step-by-Step Plan for Teaching Argumentative Writing

February 7, 2016

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For seven years, I was a writing teacher.  Yes, I was certified to teach the full spectrum of English language arts—literature, grammar and usage, speech, drama, and so on—but my absolute favorite, the thing I loved doing the most, was teaching students how to write.

Most of the material on this site is directed at all teachers. I look for and put together resources that would appeal to any teacher who teaches any subject. That practice will continue for as long as I keep this up. But over the next year or so, I plan to also share more of what I know about teaching students to write. Although I know many of the people who visit here are not strictly English language arts teachers, my hope is that these posts will provide tons of value to those who are, and to those who teach all subjects, including writing.

So let’s begin with argumentative writing, or persuasive writing, as many of us used to call it. This overview will be most helpful to those who are new to teaching writing, or teachers who have not gotten good results with the approach you have taken up to now. I don’t claim to have the definitive answer on how to do this, but the method I share here worked pretty well for me, and it might do the same for you. If you are an experienced English language arts teacher, you probably already have a system for teaching this skill that you like. Then again, I’m always interested in how other people do the things I can already do; maybe you’re curious like that, too.

Before I start, I should note that what I describe in this post is a fairly formulaic style of essay writing. It’s not exactly the 5-paragraph essay, but it definitely builds on that model. I strongly believe students should be shown how to move past those kinds of structures into a style of writing that’s more natural and fitting to the task and audience, but I also think they should start with something that’s pretty clearly organized.

So here’s how I teach argumentative essay writing.

Step 1: Watch How It’s Done

One of the most effective ways to improve student writing is to show them mentor texts, examples of excellent writing within the genre students are about to attempt themselves. Ideally, this writing would come from real publications and not be fabricated by me in order to embody the form I’m looking for. Although most experts on writing instruction employ some kind of mentor text study, the person I learned it from best was Katie Wood Ray in her book Study Driven (links to the book: Bookshop.org | Amazon ).

Since I want the writing to be high quality and the subject matter to be high interest, I might choose pieces like Jessica Lahey’s Students Who Lose Recess Are the Ones Who Need it Most  and David Bulley’s School Suspensions Don’t Work .

I would have students read these texts, compare them, and find places where the authors used evidence to back up their assertions. I would ask students which author they feel did the best job of influencing the reader, and what suggestions they would make to improve the writing. I would also ask them to notice things like stories, facts and statistics, and other things the authors use to develop their ideas. Later, as students work on their own pieces, I would likely return to these pieces to show students how to execute certain writing moves.

Step 2: Informal Argument, Freestyle

Although many students might need more practice in writing an effective argument, many of them are excellent at arguing in person. To help them make this connection, I would have them do some informal debate on easy, high-interest topics. An activity like This or That (one of the classroom icebreakers I talked about last year) would be perfect here: I read a statement like “Women have the same opportunities in life as men.” Students who agree with the statement move to one side of the room, and those who disagree move to the other side. Then they take turns explaining why they are standing in that position. This ultimately looks a little bit like a debate, as students from either side tend to defend their position to those on the other side.

Every class of students I have ever had, from middle school to college, has loved loved LOVED this activity. It’s so simple, it gets them out of their seats, and for a unit on argument, it’s an easy way to get them thinking about how the art of argument is something they practice all the time.

Step 3: Informal Argument, Not so Freestyle

Once students have argued without the support of any kind of research or text, I would set up a second debate; this time with more structure and more time to research ahead of time. I would pose a different question, supply students with a few articles that would provide ammunition for either side, then give them time to read the articles and find the evidence they need.

Next, we’d have a Philosophical Chairs debate (learn about this in my  discussion strategies post), which is very similar to “This or That,” except students use textual evidence to back up their points, and there are a few more rules. Here they are still doing verbal argument, but the experience should make them more likely to appreciate the value of evidence when trying to persuade.

Before leaving this step, I would have students transfer their thoughts from the discussion they just had into something that looks like the opening paragraph of a written argument: A statement of their point of view, plus three reasons to support that point of view. This lays the groundwork for what’s to come.

Step 4: Introduction of the Performance Assessment

Next I would show students their major assignment, the performance assessment that they will work on for the next few weeks. What does this look like? It’s generally a written prompt that describes the task, plus the rubric I will use to score their final product.

Anytime I give students a major writing assignment, I let them see these documents very early on. In my experience, I’ve found that students appreciate having a clear picture of what’s expected of them when beginning a writing assignment. At this time, I also show them a model of a piece of writing that meets the requirements of the assignment. Unlike the mentor texts we read on day 1, this sample would be something teacher-created (or an excellent student model from a previous year) to fit the parameters of the assignment.

Step 5: Building the Base

Before letting students loose to start working on their essays, I make sure they have a solid plan for writing. I would devote at least one more class period to having students consider their topic for the essay, drafting a thesis statement, and planning the main points of their essay in a graphic organizer.

I would also begin writing my own essay on a different topic. This has been my number one strategy for teaching students how to become better writers. Using a document camera or overhead projector, I start from scratch, thinking out loud and scribbling down my thoughts as they come. When students see how messy the process can be, it becomes less intimidating for them. They begin to understand how to take the thoughts that are stirring around in your head and turn them into something that makes sense in writing.

For some students, this early stage might take a few more days, and that’s fine: I would rather spend more time getting it right at the pre-writing stage than have a student go off willy-nilly, draft a full essay, then realize they need to start over. Meanwhile, students who have their plans in order will be allowed to move on to the next step.

Step 6: Writer’s Workshop

The next seven to ten days would be spent in writer’s workshop, where I would start class with a mini-lesson about a particular aspect of craft. I would show them how to choose credible, relevant evidence, how to skillfully weave evidence into an argument, how to consider the needs of an audience, and how to correctly cite sources. Once each mini-lesson was done, I would then give students the rest of the period to work independently on their writing. During this time, I would move around the room, helping students solve problems and offering feedback on whatever part of the piece they are working on. I would encourage students to share their work with peers and give feedback at all stages of the writing process.

If I wanted to make the unit even more student-centered, I would provide the mini-lessons in written or video format and let students work through them at their own pace, without me teaching them. (To learn more about this approach, read this post on self-paced learning ).

As students begin to complete their essays, the mini-lessons would focus more on matters of style and usage. I almost never bother talking about spelling, punctuation, grammar, or usage until students have a draft that’s pretty close to done. Only then do we start fixing the smaller mistakes.

Step 7: Final Assessment

Finally, the finished essays are handed in for a grade. At this point, I’m pretty familiar with each student’s writing and have given them verbal (and sometimes written) feedback throughout the unit; that’s why I make the writer’s workshop phase last so long. I don’t really want students handing in work until they are pretty sure they’ve met the requirements to the best of their ability. I also don’t necessarily see “final copies” as final; if a student hands in an essay that’s still really lacking in some key areas, I will arrange to have that student revise it and resubmit for a higher grade.

So that’s it. If you haven’t had a lot of success teaching students to write persuasively, and if the approach outlined here is different from what you’ve been doing, give it a try. And let’s keep talking: Use the comments section below to share your techniques or ask questions about the most effective ways to teach argumentative writing.

Want this unit ready-made?

If you’re a writing teacher in grades 7-12 and you’d like a classroom-ready unit like the one described above, including mini-lessons, sample essays, and a library of high-interest online articles to use for gathering evidence, take a look at my Argumentative Writing unit. Just click on the image below and you’ll be taken to a page where you can read more and see a detailed preview of what’s included.

What to Read Next

Categories: Instruction , Podcast

Tags: English language arts , Grades 6-8 , Grades 9-12 , teaching strategies

58 Comments

This is useful information. In teaching persuasive speaking/writing I have found Monroe’s Motivated sequence very useful and productive. It is a classic model that immediately gives a solid structure for students.

Thanks for the recommendation, Bill. I will have to look into that! Here’s a link to more information on Monroe’s Motivated sequence, for anyone who wants to learn more: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/MonroeMotivatedSequence.htm

What other sites do you recommend for teacher use on providing effective organizational structure in argumentative writing? As a K-12 Curriculum Director, I find that when teachers connect with and understand the organizational structure, they are more effective in their teaching/delivery.

Hey Jessica, in addition to the steps outlined here, you might want to check out Jenn’s post on graphic organizers . Graphic organizers are a great tool that you can use in any phase of a lesson. Using them as a prewrite can help students visualize the argument and organize their thoughts. There’s a link in that post to the Graphic Organizer Multi-Pack that Jenn has for sale on her Teachers Pay Teachers site, which includes two versions of a graphic organizer you can use specifically for argument organization. Otherwise, if there’s something else you had in mind, let us know and we can help you out. Thanks!

Dear Jennifer Gonzalez,

You are generous with your gift of lighting the path… I hardly ever write (never before) , but I must today… THANK YOU… THANK YOU….THANK YOU… mostly for reading your great teachings… So your valuable teachings will even be easy to benefit all the smart people facing challenge of having to deal with adhd…

I am not a teacher… but forever a student…someone who studied English as 2nd language, with a science degree & adhd…

You truly are making a difference in our World…

Thanks so much, Rita! I know Jenn will appreciate this — I’ll be sure to share with her!

Love it! Its simple and very fruitful . I can feel how dedicated you are! Thanks alot Jen

Great examples of resources that students would find interesting. I enjoyed reading your article. I’ve bookmarked it for future reference. Thanks!

You’re welcome, Sheryl!

Students need to be writing all the time about a broad range of topics, but I love the focus here on argumentative writing because if you choose the model writing texts correctly, you can really get the kids engaged in the process and in how they can use this writing in real-world situations!

I agree, Laura. I think an occasional tight focus on one genre can help them grow leaps and bounds in the skills specific to that type of writing. Later, in less structured situations, they can then call on those skills when that kind of thinking is required.

This is really helpful! I used it today and put the recess article in a Google Doc and had the kids identify anecdotal, statistic, and ‘other’ types of evidence by highlighting them in three different colors. It worked well! Tomorrow we’ll discuss which of the different types of evidence are most convincing and why.

Love that, Shanna! Thanks for sharing that extra layer.

Greetings Ms. Gonzales. I was wondering if you had any ideas to help students develop the cons/against side of their argument within their writing? Please advise. Thanks.

Hi Michael,

Considering audience and counterarguments are an important part of the argumentative writing process. In the Argumentative Writing unit Jenn includes specific mini-lessons that teach kids how, when and where to include opposing views in their writing. In the meantime, here’s a video that might also be helpful.

Hi, Thank you very much for sharing your ideas. I want to share also the ideas in the article ‘Already Experts: Showing Students How Much They Know about Writing and Reading Arguments’ by Angela Petit and Edna Soto…they explain a really nice activity to introduce argumentative writing. I have applied it many times and my students not only love it but also display a very clear pattern as the results in the activity are quite similar every time. I hope you like it.

Lorena Perez

I’d like to thank you you for this excellence resource. It’s a wonderful addition to the informative content that Jennifer has shared.

What do you use for a prize?

I looked at the unit, and it looks and sounds great. The description says there are 4 topics. Can you tell me the topics before I purchase? We start argument in 5th grade, and I want to make sure the topics are different from those they’ve done the last 5 years before purchasing. Thanks!

Hi Carrie! If you go to the product page on TPT and open up the preview, you’ll see the four topics on the 4th page in more detail, but here they are: Social Networking in School (should social media sites be blocked in school?), Cell Phones in Class, Junk Food in School, and Single-Sex Education (i.e., genders separated). Does that help?

I teach 6th grade English in a single gendered (all-girls) class. We just finished an argument piece but I will definitely cycle back your ideas when we revisit argumentation. Thanks for the fabulous resources!

Glad to hear it, Madelyn!

I’m not a writing teacher and honestly haven’t been taught on how to teach writing. I’m a history teacher. I read this and found it helpful but have questions. First I noticed that amount of time dedicated to the task in terms of days. My questions are how long is a class period? I have my students for about 45 minutes. I also saw you mentioned in the part about self-paced learning that mini-lessons could be written or video format. I love these ideas. Any thoughts on how to do this with almost no technology in the room and low readers to non-readers? I’m trying to figure out how to balance teaching a content class while also teaching the common core skills. Thank you for any consideration to my questions.

Hey Jones, To me, a class period is anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour; definitely varies from school to school. As for the question about doing self-paced with very little tech? I think binders with written mini-lessons could work well, as well as a single computer station or tablet hooked up to a class set of videos. Obviously you’d need to be more diligent about rotating students in and out of these stations, but it’s an option at least. You might also give students access to the videos through computers in other locations at school (like the library) and give them passes to watch. The thing about self-paced learning, as you may have seen in the self-paced post , is that if students need extra teacher support (as you might find with low readers or non-readers), they would spend more one-on-one time with the teacher, while the higher-level students would be permitted to move more quickly on their own. Does that help?

My primary goal for next semester is to increase academic discussion and make connections from discussion to writing, so I love how you launch this unit with lessons like Philosophical Chairs. I am curious, however, what is the benefit of the informal argument before the not-so-informal argument? My students often struggle to listen to one another, so I’m wondering if I should start with the more formal, structured version. Or, am I overthinking the management? Thanks so much for input.

Yikes! So sorry your question slipped through, and we’re just now getting to this, Sarah. The main advantage of having kids first engage in informal debate is that it helps them get into an argumentative mindset and begin to appreciate the value of using research to support their claims. If you’ve purchased the unit, you can read more about this in the Overview.

My 6th graders are progressing through their argumentative essay. I’m providing mini lessons along the way that target where most students are in their essay. Your suggestions will be used. I’ve chosen to keep most writing in class and was happy to read that you scheduled a lot of class time for the writing. Students need to feel comfortable knowing that writing is a craft and needs to evolve over time. I think more will get done in class and it is especially important for the struggling writers to have peers and the teacher around while they write. Something that I had students do that they liked was to have them sit in like-topic groups to create a shared document where they curated information that MIGHT be helpful along the way. By the end of the essay, all will use a fantastic add-on called GradeProof which helps to eliminate most of the basic and silly errors that 6th graders make.

Debbi! I LOVE the idea of a shared, curated collection of resources! That is absolutely fantastic! Are you using a Google Doc for this? Other curation tools you might consider are Padlet and Elink .

thanks v much for all this information

Love this! What do you take as grades in the meantime? Throughout this 2 week stretch?

Ideally, you wouldn’t need to take grades at all, waiting until the final paper is done to give one grade. If your school requires more frequent grades, you could assign small point values for getting the incremental steps done: So in Step 3 (when students have to write a paragraph stating their point of view) you could take points for that. During the writer’s workshop phase, you might give points for completion of a rough draft and participation points for peer review (ideally, they’d get some kind of feedback on the quality of feedback they give to one another). Another option would be to just give a small, holistic grade for each week based on the overall integrity of their work–are they staying on task? Making small improvements to their writing each day? Taking advantage of the resources? If students are working diligently through the process, that should be enough. But again, the assessment (grades) should really come from that final written product, and if everyone is doing what they’re supposed to be doing during the workshop phase, most students should have pretty good scores on that final product. Does that help?

Awesome Step 2! Teaching mostly teenagers in Northern Australia I find students’ verbal arguments are much more finely honed than their written work.

To assist with “building the base” I’ve always found sentence starters an essential entry point for struggling students. We have started using the ‘PEARL’ method for analytical and persuasive writing.

If it helps here a free scaffold for the method:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREE-Paragraph-Scaffold-PEEL-to-PEARL-3370676

Thanks again,

Thank you for sharing this additional resource! It’s excellent!

I’ve been scouring the interwebs looking for some real advice on how I can help my struggling 9th grader write better. I can write. Since it comes naturally for me, I have a hard time breaking it down into such tiny steps that he can begin to feel less overwhelmed. I LOVE the pre-writing ideas here. My son is a fabulous arguer. I need to help him use those powers for the good of his writing skills. Do you have a suggestion on what I else I can be using for my homeschooled son? Or what you may have that could work well for home use?

Hi Melinda,

You might be interested in taking a look at Jenn’s Argumentative Writing unit which she mentions at the end of the post . Hope this helps!

Mam it would be good if you could post some steps of different writing and some samples as well so it can be useful for the students.

Hi Aalia! My name is Holly, and I work as a Customer Experience Manager for Cult of Pedagogy. It just so happens that in the near future, Jenn is going to release a narrative writing unit, so keep an eye out for that! As far as samples, the argumentative writing unit has example essays included, and I’m sure the narrative unit will as well. But, to find the examples, you have to purchase the unit from Teachers Pay Teachers.

I just want to say that this helped me tremendously in teaching argument to 8th Graders this past school year, which is a huge concept on their state testing in April. I felt like they were very prepared, and they really enjoyed the verbal part of it, too! I have already implemented these methods into my unit plan for argument for my 11th grade class this year. Thank you so much for posting all of these things! : )

-Josee` Vaughn

I’m so glad to hear it, Josee!!

Love your blog! It is one of the best ones.

I am petrified of writing. I am teaching grade 8 in September and would love some suggestions as I start planning for the year. Thanks!

This is genius! I can’t wait to get started tomorrow teaching argument. It’s always something that I have struggled with, and I’ve been teaching for 18 years. I have a class of 31 students, mostly boys, several with IEPs. The self-paced mini-lessons will help tremendously.

So glad you liked it, Britney!

My students will begin the journey into persuasion and argument next week and your post cemented much of my thinking around how to facilitate the journey towards effective, enthusiastic argumentative writing.

I use your rubrics often to outline task expectations for my students and the feedback from them is how useful breaking every task into steps can be as they are learning new concepts.

Additionally, we made the leap into blogging as a grade at https://mrsdsroadrunners.edublogs.org/2019/01/04/your-future/ It feels much like trying to learn to change a tire while the car is speeding down the highway. Reading your posts over the past years was a factor in embracing the authentic audience. Thank You! Trish

I love reading and listening to your always helpful tips, tricks, and advice! I was wondering if you had any thoughts on creative and engaging ways to have students share their persuasive writing? My 6th students are just finishing up our persuasive writing where we read the book “Oh, Rats” by Albert Marrin and used the information gathered to craft a persuasive piece to either eliminate or protect rats and other than just reading their pieces to one another, I have been trying to think of more creative ways to share. I thought about having a debate but (un)fortunately all my kids are so sweet and are on the same side of the argument – Protect the Rats! Any ideas?

Hi Kiley! Thanks for the positive feedback! So glad to hear that you are finding value in Cult of Pedagogy! Here are a few suggestions that you may be interested in trying with your students:

-A gallery walk: Students could do this virtually if their writing is stored online or hard copies of their writing. Here are some different ways that you could use gallery walks: Enliven Class Discussions With Gallery Walks

-Students could give each other feedback using a tech tool like Flipgrid . You could assign students to small groups or give them accountability partners. In Flipgrid, you could have students sharing back and forth about their writing and their opinions.

I hope this helps!

I love the idea of mentor texts for all of these reading and writing concepts. I saw a great one on Twitter with one text and it demonstrated 5-6 reasons to start a paragraph, all in two pages of a book! Is there a location that would have suggestions/lists of mentor texts for these areas? Paragraphs, sentences, voice, persuasive writing, expository writing, etc. It seems like we could share this info, save each other some work, and curate a great collection of mentor text for English Language Arts teachers. Maybe it already exists?

Hi Maureen,

Here are some great resources that you may find helpful:

Craft Lessons Second Edition: Teaching Writing K-8 Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts and Mentor Texts, 2nd edition: Teaching Writing Through Children’s Literature, K-6

Thanks so much! I’ll definitely look into these.

I love the steps for planning an argumentative essay writing. When we return from Christmas break, we will begin starting a unit on argumentative writing. I will definitely use the steps. I especially love Step #2. As a 6th grade teacher, my students love to argue. This would set the stage of what argumentative essay involves. Thanks for sharing.

So glad to hear this, Gwen. Thanks for letting us know!

Great orientation, dear Jennifer. The step-by-step carefully planned pedagogical perspectives have surely added in the information repository of many.

Hi Jennifer,

I hope you are well. I apologise for the incorrect spelling in the previous post.

Thank you very much for introducing this effective instruction for teaching argumentative writing. I am the first year PhD student at Newcastle University, UK. My PhD research project aims to investigate teaching argumentative writing to Chinese university students. I am interested in the Argumentative Writing unit you have designed and would like to buy it. I would like to see the preview of this book before deciding to purchase it. I clicked on the image BUT the font of the preview is so small and cannot see the content clearly. I am wondering whether it could be possible for you to email me a detailed preview of what’s included. I would highly appreciate if you could help me with this.

Thank you very much in advance. Looking forward to your reply.

Take care and all the very best, Chang

Hi Chang! Jenn’s Argumentative Writing Unit is actually a teaching unit geared toward grades 7-12 with lessons, activities, etc. If you click here click here to view the actual product, you can click on the green ‘View Preview’ button to see a pretty detailed preview of what’s offered. Once you open the preview, there is the option to zoom in so you can see what the actual pages of the unit are like. I hope this helps!

Great Content!

Another teacher showed me one of your posts, and now I’ve read a dozen of them. With teaching students to argue, have you ever used the “What’s going on in this picture?” https://www.nytimes.com/column/learning-whats-going-on-in-this-picture?module=inline I used it last year and thought it was a non-threatening way to introduce learners to using evidence to be persuasive since there was no text.

I used to do something like this to help kids learn how to make inferences. Hadn’t thought of it from a persuasive standpoint. Interesting.

this is a very interesting topic, thanks!

Hi! I’m a teacher too! I was looking for inspiration and I found your article and thought you might find this online free tool interesting that helps make all students participate meaningfully and engage in a topic. https://www.kialo-edu.com/

This tool is great for student collaboration and to teach argumentative writing in an innovative way. I hope this helps!

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Gallery Teachers

The top 8 essay writing tips for Teachers

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids to work together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important – Bill Gates

Teachers are the most important tool when it comes to education and educating young minds. Every genius has had humble beginnings wherein he was taught by a teacher.

Teaching is not an easy job. It often requires dealing with unruly children who just won’t listen. Since the pandemic, most schools started their lectures online, and teachers and students alike were forced to interact with each other with the use of technology.

Teachers have had to adapt and change their ways of teaching as the world shut down. They’ve had to learn new techniques and modify them to leverage your teaching. Just like when a person prepares to become a teacher with all the similar efforts, any  teacher has to adopt these new changes and techniques  as well.

Teaching things online can be more difficult than teaching your students physically in the classroom. You have to find new ways to grab your students’ attention and oftentimes this isn’t easy, especially when it comes to the subjects which students already find boring! 

Take essay writing, for example. How often have your students looked at you bored or in a disinterested manner only because you gave them a writing assignment? Writing can be fun and is a great form of expression. In this article, we’re going to talk about our top 8 essay writing skills, which you can share with your students and make essay writing a fun and easy task.

Top 8 essay writing tips

1). plan your essay.

Essays tell a story. Every piece that’s writing should have a natural flow to their piece, and this extends beyond the basics of introduction, body, and conclusion. When advising students on how to write essays, recommend listing all the points which you would like to make. Every point should have its own individual paragraph. Once you’ve listed the points, sort them out in a logical manner, a manner that makes the most sense. As the essay progresses, a story narrative gets developed, which is interesting to the readers. Also, logically, every paragraph should be a buildup towards the final paragraph.

2). Using clear topic sentences

There’s a clear goal to essay writing when it comes to schools which is to gain marks. Teach your students an effective way of getting maximum results when writing an essay. The first sentence to a paragraph sets a tone. The crux of your article should be explained when the marker reads the first sentence of a paragraph. Ideally, explain your paragraph first and then explain it by building on it by adding examples and explanations which back up your key points and show your knowledge.

3). Be source heavy

This will depend on the kind of essay which you are asking your students to write. If it’s on a topic which your  students need to do research  on, then focus on the importance of good research. It’s important to base your essay around facts so that your article is reliable. Reading up on your information is also important when it comes to learning or gaining more knowledge. The more you read up on facts, the more you’ll learn.

4). Write the body first, the introduction second, and the conclusion last

Writing an introduction is hard. You’ll have to compile the basic crux of your essay in the introduction part of your essay even before you have the entire essay, which is why we recommend that you focus on the body of the essay first and write an introduction when you have the basic flow of your essay written down. As long as the entire essay makes sense at the end, it doesn’t really matter the way you write it and how you begin. Writing the essay body first is just our suggestion as we believe it to be the most helpful way when it comes to writing essays.

5). Remember the tone and the voice of your essay

Are you expecting your students to write the essay in an active voice or a passive voice? Focusing on the language that you are using is equally important. An essay should be informative and should also connect with your audiences. No matter how great your article is technically, if it doesn’t resonate with your audiences and connects with them, then the marks your students will receive won’t probably be very high.

6). Make use of technology

When teachers are teaching online, it’s best to make  use of online tools  which make your life easier. When it comes to writing essays, websites such as essay punch can help guide your students when you can’t. They say that practice makes perfect, and on Essay punch, students can spend time practicing their skills and overcome their writers’ block, if any. Teachers are human too, and they can’t reach each and every student no matter how much they want to, and even if they do, this process can be tedious and taxing, which is why teachers must make the use of technology whenever they can to make their lives easier.

7). Create drafts

No writer writes an essay on the first go and doesn’t edit them. Editing is the process of making an essay better. Once a final copy is submitted, no matter how much they may want it back, it’s not possible, so insist on writing rough drafts for your essay first, making edits on that draft, and only when they’re fully confident should the essay be submitted. Oftentimes it may so happen that after writing an essay, the writer may want to delete the whole thing because it doesn’t make sense anymore. Tell your students that it’s okay. The more you write, the better your content will be and even great writers have once scrapped everything they’ve worked on and started fresh to gain better results.

8). Eliminate unnecessary words

Sometimes, writers make the mistake of over-explaining their point. Understanding where short explanations are enough is the key to not boring an examiner. Sometimes smaller words have bigger impacts and moreover, when it comes to essay writing in schools, remember that teachers have to go through several essays at a time of the same subject, making it a boring task and having to read lengthy paragraphs for a basic concept can be frustrating which is why it’s important to tell your students to make their essay as short, informative and creative as possible.

These are just some essay writing tips that we think teachers should know about.

In Conclusion

Ultimately any form of writing is an expression, and even though the topic you give your students might be the same, it can be surprising the way every student writes an essay differently and with a different point of view for you to read. Some of these rules may or may not work when it comes to writing a fictional story, as in fictional stories, the writer relies on his mind’s imagination and then pens down these thoughts in the form of an essay for you to read.

Essay Writing: A complete guide for students and teachers

P LANNING, PARAGRAPHING AND POLISHING: FINE-TUNING THE PERFECT ESSAY

Essay writing is an essential skill for every student. Whether writing a particular academic essay (such as persuasive, narrative, descriptive, or expository) or a timed exam essay, the key to getting good at writing is to write. Creating opportunities for our students to engage in extended writing activities will go a long way to helping them improve their skills as scribes.

But, putting the hours in alone will not be enough to attain the highest levels in essay writing. Practice must be meaningful. Once students have a broad overview of how to structure the various types of essays, they are ready to narrow in on the minor details that will enable them to fine-tune their work as a lean vehicle of their thoughts and ideas.

In this article, we will drill down to some aspects that will assist students in taking their essay writing skills up a notch. Many ideas and activities can be integrated into broader lesson plans based on essay writing. Often, though, they will work effectively in isolation – just as athletes isolate physical movements to drill that are relevant to their sport. When these movements become second nature, they can be repeated naturally in the context of the game or in our case, the writing of the essay.

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Planning an essay

The Boys Scouts’ motto is famously ‘Be Prepared’. It’s a solid motto that can be applied to most aspects of life; essay writing is no different. Given the purpose of an essay is generally to present a logical and reasoned argument, investing time in organising arguments, ideas, and structure would seem to be time well spent.

Given that essays can take a wide range of forms and that we all have our own individual approaches to writing, it stands to reason that there will be no single best approach to the planning stage of essay writing. That said, there are several helpful hints and techniques we can share with our students to help them wrestle their ideas into a writable form. Let’s take a look at a few of the best of these:

BREAK THE QUESTION DOWN: UNDERSTAND YOUR ESSAY TOPIC.

Whether students are tackling an assignment that you have set for them in class or responding to an essay prompt in an exam situation, they should get into the habit of analyzing the nature of the task. To do this, they should unravel the question’s meaning or prompt. Students can practice this in class by responding to various essay titles, questions, and prompts, thereby gaining valuable experience breaking these down.

Have students work in groups to underline and dissect the keywords and phrases and discuss what exactly is being asked of them in the task. Are they being asked to discuss, describe, persuade, or explain? Understanding the exact nature of the task is crucial before going any further in the planning process, never mind the writing process .

BRAINSTORM AND MIND MAP WHAT YOU KNOW:

Once students have understood what the essay task asks them, they should consider what they know about the topic and, often, how they feel about it. When teaching essay writing, we so often emphasize that it is about expressing our opinions on things, but for our younger students what they think about something isn’t always obvious, even to themselves.

Brainstorming and mind-mapping what they know about a topic offers them an opportunity to uncover not just what they already know about a topic, but also gives them a chance to reveal to themselves what they think about the topic. This will help guide them in structuring their research and, later, the essay they will write . When writing an essay in an exam context, this may be the only ‘research’ the student can undertake before the writing, so practicing this will be even more important.

RESEARCH YOUR ESSAY

The previous step above should reveal to students the general direction their research will take. With the ubiquitousness of the internet, gone are the days of students relying on a single well-thumbed encyclopaedia from the school library as their sole authoritative source in their essay. If anything, the real problem for our students today is narrowing down their sources to a manageable number. Students should use the information from the previous step to help here. At this stage, it is important that they:

●      Ensure the research material is directly relevant to the essay task

●      Record in detail the sources of the information that they will use in their essay

●      Engage with the material personally by asking questions and challenging their own biases

●      Identify the key points that will be made in their essay

●      Group ideas, counterarguments, and opinions together

●      Identify the overarching argument they will make in their own essay.

Once these stages have been completed the student is ready to organise their points into a logical order.

WRITING YOUR ESSAY

There are a number of ways for students to organize their points in preparation for writing. They can use graphic organizers , post-it notes, or any number of available writing apps. The important thing for them to consider here is that their points should follow a logical progression. This progression of their argument will be expressed in the form of body paragraphs that will inform the structure of their finished essay.

The number of paragraphs contained in an essay will depend on a number of factors such as word limits, time limits, the complexity of the question etc. Regardless of the essay’s length, students should ensure their essay follows the Rule of Three in that every essay they write contains an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Generally speaking, essay paragraphs will focus on one main idea that is usually expressed in a topic sentence that is followed by a series of supporting sentences that bolster that main idea. The first and final sentences are of the most significance here with the first sentence of a paragraph making the point to the reader and the final sentence of the paragraph making the overall relevance to the essay’s argument crystal clear. 

Though students will most likely be familiar with the broad generic structure of essays, it is worth investing time to ensure they have a clear conception of how each part of the essay works, that is, of the exact nature of the task it performs. Let’s review:

Common Essay Structure

Introduction: Provides the reader with context for the essay. It states the broad argument that the essay will make and informs the reader of the writer’s general perspective and approach to the question.

Body Paragraphs: These are the ‘meat’ of the essay and lay out the argument stated in the introduction point by point with supporting evidence.

Conclusion: Usually, the conclusion will restate the central argument while summarising the essay’s main supporting reasons before linking everything back to the original question.

ESSAY WRITING PARAGRAPH WRITING TIPS

●      Each paragraph should focus on a single main idea

●      Paragraphs should follow a logical sequence; students should group similar ideas together to avoid incoherence

●      Paragraphs should be denoted consistently; students should choose either to indent or skip a line

●      Transition words and phrases such as alternatively , consequently , in contrast should be used to give flow and provide a bridge between paragraphs.

HOW TO EDIT AN ESSAY

Students shouldn’t expect their essays to emerge from the writing process perfectly formed. Except in exam situations and the like, thorough editing is an essential aspect in the writing process. 

Often, students struggle with this aspect of the process the most. After spending hours of effort on planning, research, and writing the first draft, students can be reluctant to go back over the same terrain they have so recently travelled. It is important at this point to give them some helpful guidelines to help them to know what to look out for. The following tips will provide just such help: 

One Piece at a Time: There is a lot to look out for in the editing process and often students overlook aspects as they try to juggle too many balls during the process. One effective strategy to combat this is for students to perform a number of rounds of editing with each focusing on a different aspect. For example, the first round could focus on content, the second round on looking out for word repetition (use a thesaurus to help here), with the third attending to spelling and grammar.

Sum It Up: When reviewing the paragraphs they have written, a good starting point is for students to read each paragraph and attempt to sum up its main point in a single line. If this is not possible, their readers will most likely have difficulty following their train of thought too and the paragraph needs to be overhauled.

Let It Breathe: When possible, encourage students to allow some time for their essay to ‘breathe’ before returning to it for editing purposes. This may require some skilful time management on the part of the student, for example, a student rush-writing the night before the deadline does not lend itself to effective editing. Fresh eyes are one of the sharpest tools in the writer’s toolbox.

Read It Aloud: This time-tested editing method is a great way for students to identify mistakes and typos in their work. We tend to read things more slowly when reading aloud giving us the time to spot errors. Also, when we read silently our minds can often fill in the gaps or gloss over the mistakes that will become apparent when we read out loud.

Phone a Friend: Peer editing is another great way to identify errors that our brains may miss when reading our own work. Encourage students to partner up for a little ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’.

Use Tech Tools: We need to ensure our students have the mental tools to edit their own work and for this they will need a good grasp of English grammar and punctuation. However, there are also a wealth of tech tools such as spellcheck and grammar checks that can offer a great once-over option to catch anything students may have missed in earlier editing rounds.

Putting the Jewels on Display: While some struggle to edit, others struggle to let go. There comes a point when it is time for students to release their work to the reader. They must learn to relinquish control after the creation is complete. This will be much easier to achieve if the student feels that they have done everything in their control to ensure their essay is representative of the best of their abilities and if they have followed the advice here, they should be confident they have done so.

WRITING CHECKLISTS FOR ALL TEXT TYPES

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ESSAY WRITING video tutorials

How to make your teaching more interesting

Resources on how to rediscover the magic of teaching and learning – for you and your students

From gamification and quizzes to podcasts and social media videos – while not forgetting the traditional lecture – the sheer number of ways to deliver knowledge to students these days can feel overwhelming. But with research showing that people learn best when they are actively involved and student engagement rocketing up university agendas, there is little doubt that new methods of instruction are both crucial and here to stay. This collection offers suggestions on how to spark students' curiosity in your classroom while ensuring that you do not cross the line from teacher to entertainer.

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How to Make Students Care About Writing

Pirette McKamey, a veteran English teacher, spent 30 years investigating what helps young people to view themselves as writers.

“I want to say something important about writing,” Pirette McKamey told 25 seniors in her English class at San Francisco’s Mission High School one fall afternoon in 2012. It’s incredibly hard, and always incomplete, she explained. “I’ve reread some of my essays 20 times and I still go, ‘I can’t believe I made this mistake or that mistake.’”

“I’m going to read a powerful essay as a model today,” said McKamey, who frequently shares her students’ work at the beginning of class as a way to showcase examples of effective and creative approaches to writing. She appreciated the student’s paper for “the heft of its content,” she told the class. “It also feels real. It was written with real engagement and honesty.”

In his essay, one of McKamey’s students wrote about his life ambitions, including his desire to become a musician. He compared his goals with those of two other individuals, chosen from the many real and fictional people the students had studied earlier that year in a five-week-long unit titled “Quests.” The vision behind this unit was rooted in McKamey’s observation that as teenagers approach adulthood, they want to examine how people from different eras and cultures have defined values such as success, goodness, and courage.

After McKamey finished reading the essay, students discussed what made it work—and which approaches they could employ in their own writing. As the discussion winded down, McKamey passed out a grammar worksheet.

Today, there is a growing consensus that students need strong writing skills to succeed in the workplace and to fully participate in society, but educators passionately disagree on the best ways to teach those skills. Some call for greater focus on the fundamentals of grammar: building vocabulary, identifying parts of speech, and mastering punctuation. Others believe that students need more opportunities to develop their writerly voice through creative expression and work that allows them to make connections between great literature and their personal lives.

Meanwhile, it appears that many of the methods seem to be falling short: Results from the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress suggest that only one in four 12th- and eighth-graders is meeting grade-level expectations in writing. In both tested grades, Latino and African American students scored lower than their peers in other racial and ethnic subgroups.

[ The best writing teachers are writers themselves ]

McKamey spent 29 years teaching in majority black and Latino schools. Over the years, she observed that many of her students came into her classroom believing that they “don’t like writing” or are “bad writers.” Since McKamey first started teaching at San Francisco’s Luther Burbank Middle School in 1989, she has been refining her own methods to help dispel these self-perceptions.

In McKamey’s classes, this means that students must feel compelled to write every day. But rather than prioritizing the mechanics of sentence structure or writing rooted in personal experiences, McKamey’s students work on a variety of exercises, including punctuation worksheets, argumentative and narrative essays, poetry, fiction, and long research papers. And while McKamey’s methods have evolved significantly since she first started teaching, her goal has remained the same: help every student develop a portfolio of high-quality work, which will serve as irrefutable evidence that they are capable of writing.

McKamey’s approach to writing instruction was shaped in part by her own experiences as a high-school student. One of just a handful of African American students at a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania, she noticed that most of her teachers would return papers with feedback that focused on what she did wrong. Whenever McKamey’s teachers praised her in the classroom, their feedback usually centered on her personality—rather than her intellectual contributions. Fran Bradley, McKamey’s high-school economics teacher, was an exception. When McKamey asked a question or made a comment, Bradley would engage in an enthusiastic discussion about McKamey’s ideas. He often read passages from her work in front of the class.

Even though McKamey’s parents always told her that she was intelligent and a good writer—despite her uneven grades—Bradley made an effort to cite evidence showing the benefits of McKamey’s intellectual contributions in her writing. When McKamey felt valued for her intellect, she explained, she was more willing to engage with the classwork—and she produced some of her strongest academic writing.

McKamey’s years as a teacher were deeply influenced by the research of the social psychologist Claude Steele . Best known for his studies on what researchers call the “ stereotype threat ,” Steele uncovered a unique form of distress that suppresses academic achievement in certain situations—during tests for African American students or math classes for women, for example—when an individual has the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about his or her social group. Steele’s research found that certain actions by teachers or mentors can dispel these crippling anxieties—they can signal in their feedback that they hold a student to high standards while also citing spots in the work where the student meets the challenge, for example.

Pablo Rodriguez—a former student of McKamey’s, who moved to the United States from Guatemala in 2009—still remembers McKamey’s feedback on his first essay in her class. He recalls the stars dotting the paper next to specific passages, and comments such as, “This is so interesting. I never thought of it this way,” or “I’m so intrigued by the point you are making here. Could you tell me more what you mean by that?”

In the past, most of Rodriguez’s writing earned D’s and C’s, and his papers would come back with a lot of grammar corrections, Rodriguez, who is now 23 and works as a youth counselor, told me. This made him feel hopeless about his ability to write. “Ms. McKamey taught me skills to deal with my weaknesses,” Rodriguez explained. “But she saw my strengths and it made me feel motivated. I wanted to write essays that would make Ms. McKamey love it more than anything she’s ever read, and I started spending hours at the library rewriting my papers.”

McKamey argues that the most important skill for a teacher is his or her ability to build trust with a student, which develops when students can sense that the educator is willing to hear their ideas, thoughts, and musings despite their challenges with grammar, low grades, or test scores in previous classes. This doesn’t mean that teachers need to cushion their feedback with fake praise, but it does mean, she thinks, that schools should help teachers develop skills to recognize what all students, including those who might be considered “low achieving,” do in their classrooms—instead of focusing mostly on what they don’t do or know.

[ A educator witnessed school desegregation—and resegregation ]

“Just because I struggle with some grammar rules doesn’t mean I can’t think deeply,” says one of McKamey’s former students, Ajanee Greene, who’s now 23 and a student at Jackson State University. In 2012, McKamey says, Greene wrote one of the strongest research papers McKamey had read in her classes, even though she had received a D in English at another school. Her 12-page final paper explored how the long history of racial exclusion contributed to violence in black communities—and affected her own family in San Francisco.

“The newspapers talk about the violence, but they don’t talk about a much bigger epidemic—the private pain of families who are left to live with the aftermath” of that violence, Greene, who became the first in her family to graduate from high school, wrote in 2012. “Personal, private, solitary pain is more terrifying than what anyone can inflict. The violence stays with families and becomes a part of their lives. Nobody feels the same and family relationships get strained. This causes more pain, and the cycle intensifies … The psychological damage destroys communities more than unemployment and poverty.”

For her paper, Greene had read and analyzed 20 articles and studies, interviewed neighbors, and added her own point of view. Before McKamey’s class, Greene had never written a research paper. “Ms. McKamey believed in me and then pushed me to work really, really hard,” Greene explained. She ultimately got an A- in McKamey’s class.

Drawing on the methods she uses in her English classes, McKamey has been coaching other teachers across all subjects for about a decade now. As part of this process , teachers meet in small groups where they review the work of middle-achieving students who have made a recent shift—went from chronic C’s to an A- in a recent essay, or analyzed passages more deeply, or showed intellectual engagement instead of just trying to get a good grade. Teachers then share practices that contributed to the growth in that student’s skills: verbal or written feedback, more explicit instruction in the components of academic writing, or reading student work in front of the class, among others.

Analyzing the work of middle-achieving students—rather than just failing or thriving ones—can significantly improve teachers’ effectiveness with underachieving students, McKamey argues. When teachers focus on the work of the lowest-achieving students, McKamey has observed that such conversations often turn into a space to blame the students, their parents, or other teachers, or they veer off into emotionally invasive discussions of a student’s private life. Focusing on middle-achieving students who showed recent improvement helps teachers dispel unrecognized stereotypes—and learn how to notice and build on their strengths. (One study found that white teachers graded black and Latino students more harshly for the same performance, accounting for as much as 22 percent of the achievement gap.)

“The task is to educate all students in front of me,” McKamey reflected. “There are so many opportunities to miss certain students: not see them, not hear them, shut them down. Despite years and years of teaching, there are times when the student is communicating something to me and I can’t hear their thinking at the moment, but I can’t ruin it. I have to keep it alive.”

This article is part of our project "On Teaching," which is supported by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Panta Rhea Foundation.

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How to Teach Essay Writing

Last Updated: June 26, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 89,238 times.

Teaching students how to write an essay is a big undertaking, but this is a crucial process for any high school or college student to learn. Start by assigning essays to read and then encourage students to choose an essay topic of their own. Spend class time helping students understand what makes a good essay. Then, use your assignments to guide students through writing their essays.

Choosing Genres and Topics

• Narrative , which is a non-fiction account of a personal experience. This is a good option if you want your students to share a story about something they did, such as a challenge they overcame or a favorite vacation they took. [2] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• Expository , which is when you investigate an idea, discuss it at length, and make an argument about it. This might be a good option if you want students to explore a specific concept or a controversial subject. [3] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• Descriptive , which is when you describe a person, place, object, emotion, experience, or situation. This can be a good way to allow your students to express themselves creatively through writing. [4] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• Argumentative or persuasive essays require students to take a stance on a topic and make an argument to support that stance. This is different from an expository essay in that students won't be discussing a concept at length and then taking a position. The goal of an argumentative essay is to take a position right away and defend it with evidence. [5] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source

• Make sure to select essays that are well-structured and interesting so that your students can model their own essays after these examples. Include essays written by former students, if you can, as well as professionally written essays.

Tip : Readers come in many forms. You can find readers that focus on a specific topic, such as food or pop culture. You can also find reader/handbook combos that will provide general information on writing along with the model essays.

• For example, for each of the essays you assign your students, you could ask them to identify the author's main point or focus, the structure of the essay, the author's use of sources, and the effect of the introduction and conclusion.
• Ask the students to create a reverse outline of the essay to help them understand how to construct a well-written essay. They'll identify the thesis, the main points of the body paragraphs, the supporting evidence, and the concluding statement. Then, they'll present this information in an outline. [8] X Research source

• For example, if you have assigned your students a narrative essay, then encourage them to choose a story that they love to tell or a story they have always wanted to tell but never have.
• If your students are writing argumentative essays, encourage them to select a topic that they feel strongly about or that they'd like to learn more about so that they can voice their opinion.

Explaining the Parts of an Essay

• For example, if you read an essay that begins with an interesting anecdote, highlight that in your class discussion of the essay. Ask students how they could integrate something like that into their own essays and have them write an anecdotal intro in class.
• Or, if you read an essay that starts with a shocking fact or statistic that grabs readers' attention, point this out to your students. Ask them to identify the most shocking fact or statistic related to their essay topic.

• For example, you could provide a few model thesis statements that students can use as templates and then ask them to write a thesis for their topic as an in-class activity or have them post it on an online discussion board.

Tip : Even though the thesis statement is only 1 sentence, this can be the most challenging part of writing an essay for some students. Plan to spend a full class session on writing thesis statements and review the information multiple times as well.

• For example, you could spend a class session going over topic sentences, and then look at how the authors of model essays have used topic sentences to introduce their claims. Then, identify where the author provides support for a claim and how they expand on the source.

• For example, you might direct students to a conclusion in a narrative essay that reflects on the significance of an author's experience. Ask students to write a paragraph where they reflect on the experience they are writing about and turn it in as homework or share it on class discussion board.
• For an expository or argumentative essay, you might show students conclusions that restate the most important aspect of a topic or that offer solutions for the future. Have students write their own conclusions that restate the most important parts of their subject or that outline some possible solutions to the problem.

Guiding Students Through the Writing Process

• Try giving students a sample timeline for how to work on their essays. For example, they might start brainstorming a topic, gathering sources (if required), and taking notes 4 weeks before the paper is due.
• Then, students might begin drafting 2 weeks before the paper is due with a goal of having a full draft 1 week before the essay's due date.
• Students could then plan to start revising their drafts 5 days before the essay is due. This will provide students with ample time to read through their papers a few times and make changes as needed.

• Freewriting, which is when you write freely about anything that comes to mind for a set amount of time, such as 10, 15, or 20 minutes.
• Clustering, which is when you write your topic or topic idea on a piece of paper and then use lines to connect that idea to others.
• Listing, which is when you make a list of any and all ideas related to a topic and ten read through it to find helpful information for your paper.
• Questioning, such as by answering the who, what, when, where, why, and how of their topic.
• Defining terms, such as identifying all of the key terms related to their topic and writing out definitions for each one.

• For example, if your students are writing narrative essays, then it might make the most sense for them to describe the events of a story chronologically.
• If students are writing expository or argumentative essays, then they might need to start by answering the most important questions about their topic and providing background information.
• For a descriptive essay, students might use spatial reasoning to describe something from top to bottom, or organize the descriptive paragraphs into categories for each of the 5 senses, such as sight, sound, smell, taste, and feel.

• For example, if you have just gone over different types of brainstorming strategies, you might ask students to choose 1 that they like and spend 10 minutes developing ideas for their essay.

• Try having students post a weekly response to a writing prompt or question that you assign.
• You may also want to create a separate discussion board where students can post ideas about their essay and get feedback from you and their classmates.

• You could also assign specific parts of the writing process as homework, such as requiring students to hand in a first draft as a homework assignment.

• For example, you might suggest reading the paper backward 1 sentence at a time or reading the paper out loud as a way to identify issues with organization and to weed out minor errors. [21] X Trustworthy Source University of North Carolina Writing Center UNC's on-campus and online instructional service that provides assistance to students, faculty, and others during the writing process Go to source
• Try peer-review workshops that ask students to review each others' work. Students can work in pairs or groups during the workshop. Provide them with a worksheet, graphic organizer, or copy of the assignment rubric to guide their peer-review.

Tip : Emphasize the importance of giving yourself at least a few hours away from the essay before you revise it. If possible, it is even better to wait a few days. After this time passes, it is often easier to spot errors and work out better ways of describing things.

Community Q&A

• Students often need to write essays as part of college applications, for assignments in other courses, and when applying for scholarships. Remind your students of all the ways that improving their essay writing skills can benefit them. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/index.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/narrative_essays.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/expository_essays.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/descriptive_essays.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/essay_writing/argumentative_essays.html
• ↑ https://wac.colostate.edu/jbw/v1n2/petrie.pdf
• ↑ https://www.uww.edu/learn/restiptool/improve-student-writing
• ↑ https://twp.duke.edu/sites/twp.duke.edu/files/file-attachments/reverse-outline.original.pdf
• ↑ https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guide/brainstorming.shtml
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/faculty-resources/tips-on-teaching-writing/situating-student-writers/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/faculty-resources/tips-on-teaching-writing/in-class-writing-exercises/
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/revising-drafts/

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Strategies for Teaching Argument Writing

Three simple ways a ninth-grade teacher scaffolds argument writing for students.

My ninth-grade students love to argue. They enjoy pushing back against authority, sharing their opinions, and having those opinions validated by their classmates. That’s no surprise—it’s invigorating to feel right about a hot-button topic. But through the teaching of argument writing, we can show our students that argumentation isn’t just about convincing someone of your viewpoint—it’s also about researching the issues, gathering evidence, and forming a nuanced claim.

Argument writing is a crucial skill for the real world, no matter what future lies ahead of a student. The Common Core State Standards support the teaching of argument writing , and students in the elementary grades on up who know how to support their claims with evidence will reap long-term benefits.

Argument Writing as Bell Work

One of the ways I teach argument writing is by making it part of our bell work routine, done in addition to our core lessons. This is a useful way to implement argument writing in class because there’s no need to carve out two weeks for a new unit.

Instead, at the bell, I provide students with an article to read that is relevant to our coursework and that expresses a clear opinion on an issue. They fill out the first section of the graphic organizer I’ve included here, which helps them identify the claim, supporting evidence, and hypothetical counterclaims. After three days of reading nonfiction texts from different perspectives, their graphic organizer becomes a useful resource for forming their own claim with supporting evidence in a short piece of writing.

The graphic organizer I use was inspired by the resources on argument writing provided by the National Writing Project through the College, Career, and Community Writers Program . They have resources for elementary and secondary teachers interested in argument writing instruction. I also like to check Kelly Gallagher’s Article of the Week for current nonfiction texts.

Moves of Argument Writing

Another way to practice argument writing is by teaching students to be aware of, and to use effectively, common moves found in argument writing. Joseph Harris’s book Rewriting: How to Do Things With Texts outlines some common moves:

• Illustrating: Using examples, usually from other sources, to explain your point.
• Authorizing: Calling upon the credibility of a source to help support to your argument.
• Borrowing: Using the terminology of other writers to help add legitimacy to a point.
• Extending: Adding commentary to the conversation on the issue at hand.
• Countering: Addressing opposing arguments with valid solutions.

Teaching students to identify these moves in writing is an effective way to improve reading comprehension, especially of nonfiction articles. Furthermore, teaching students to use these moves in their own writing will make for more intentional choices and, subsequently, better writing.

Argument Writing With Templates

Students who purposefully read arguments with the mindset of a writer can be taught to recognize the moves identified above and more. Knowing how to identify when and why authors use certain sentence starters, transitions, and other syntactic strategies can help students learn how to make their own point effectively.

To supplement our students’ knowledge of these syntactic strategies, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein recommend writing with templates in their book They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing . Graff and Birkenstein provide copious templates for students to use in specific argument writing scenarios. For example, consider these phrases that appear commonly in argument writing:

• On the one hand...
• On the other hand...
• I agree that...
• This is not to say that...

If you’re wary of having your students write using a template, I once felt the same way. But when I had my students purposefully integrate these words into their writing, I saw a significant improvement in their argument writing. Providing students with phrases like these helps them organize their thoughts in a way that better suits the format of their argument writing.

When we teach students the language of arguing, we are helping them gain traction in the real world. Throughout their lives, they’ll need to convince others to support their goals. In this way, argument writing is one of the most important tools we can teach our students to use.

10 Ways to Keep Your Class Interesting

Teaching Strategies to Make Your Class More Fun

ThoughtCo / Nusha Ashjaee

• Classroom Organization
• Reading Strategies
• Becoming A Teacher
• Assessments & Tests
• Secondary Education
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1. Incorporate Mystery Into Your Lessons

• 2. Don't Repeat Classroom Material

3. Create Classroom Games

4. give your students choices, 5. use technology.

• 6. Don't Take Teaching so Seriously

7. Make Your Lessons Interactive

• 8. Relate Material to Your Students' Lives

9. Flip Your Lessons

10. think outside the box.

• M.S., Education, Buffalo State College
• B.S., Education, Buffalo State College

Have you ever been in the middle of teaching a class, glanced at your students, and caught them staring into space? Just when you think you've created the perfect lesson plan or engaging activity , you may find that your students are unfocused and out to lunch. Yet it's essential that you find ways to keep your classes interesting so your students can absorb and retain the information that you present.

For decades, educators have been trying new teaching strategies to keep their students on their toes and get them excited about learning. Although some strategies have failed, others have been found to be quite effective. Explore 10 teacher-tested ways to keep your class interesting so your students will stay engaged all the time.

Learning may be the most fun for your students when they don't know what to expect. Try to incorporate a sense of surprise and mystery into your lessons. When you're about to unveil a new lesson, give students a new clue each day up until the last day before the start of the lesson. This is a fun way to make your lesson mysterious, and you may find that your students are actually looking forward to finding out what they'll be learning about next.

2. Don't Repeat Classroom Material

It's appropriate and essential to review classroom material, but try not to repeat it verbatim because this can make it less interesting for students. The next time you need to review material, try playing a review game during which you present the information in a way that's different from the first time you taught the students. The 3-2-1 strategy is a fun way to review and not repeat material. For this activity, students draw a pyramid in their notebooks and write down three things they learned, two things they thought were interesting, and one question they still have.

Whether you're 5 or 25, playing a game can be fun. Games are also a great way to keep lessons interesting. If your students need to remember their spelling words, conduct a spelling bee—a contest in which participants are eliminated when they misspell a word. Or if the students need to practice math, have a math bee, which is similar to a spelling bee, but with math problems or facts instead of spelling words. Games make learning fun, and games in class are a prescription for happy kids.

One strategy that teachers have found to be effective is offering their students the ability to make their own choices when it comes to learning. Choice can be a powerful motivator because it helps to foster student interest and independence. The next time you're planning an activity, try making a choice board. Print out a tic-tac-toe board and write down nine different tasks for students to complete. The goal is for each student to choose three tasks in a row.

Technology is a great way to keep your lessons interesting. Children love electronics, so try incorporating it into your overall teaching strategy. Instead of standing in front of the room and lecturing, try using a Smartboard interactive display. Expand your cooperative learning activity lessons by connecting to a classroom in another city or country via videoconferencing. Use technology in a variety of ways, and you'll see the interest level in your classroom increase by leaps and bounds.

6. Don't Take Teaching so Seriously

Being an effective teacher is an important job, but that doesn't mean that you have to remain serious in class at all times. Try to loosen up a bit and acknowledge that your students may have different interests and learning styles than your own. It's OK to laugh at yourself at times and to have some fun. You may find that your students are more interested when you're a little more relaxed.

In a traditional classroom, the teacher stands in front of the room and lectures to the students as the students listen and take notes. Unfortunately, this is not the most effective way to hold students' interest. Make learning interactive by creating hands-on lessons that involve students every step of the way. Try using the Jigsaw cooperative learning activity in which each student is responsible for his or her own part of a group activity. Or try a hands-on science experiment. When you involve students and make your lessons interactive, your class becomes more interesting.

8. Relate Material to Your Students' Lives

Try to create a real-world connection to what your students are learning. This will give them a better understanding of why they need to learn what you're teaching. If they're constantly asking you why they need to learn something and you're always answering with “because,” you will soon lose credibility. Instead, try giving them a real answer such as, "You're learning about money because in the real world, you'll need to know how to buy food and pay your bills." By giving a straightforward answer, you're helping them make a connection between what they're learning in class and how they'll use this information in the future.

The flipped classroom has been gaining in popularity since the term "flipped" entered the broader education world in 2012. When it was first presented, the idea that students could learn new information at home and then come to school and use class time for critical thinking activities and reinforcement of concepts was unique. However, many teachers are using this strategy and achieving positive results. Students in a flipped classroom are able to work at their own pace (which is great for differentiated learning ) and engage with their peers in a more interactive, meaningful way when they're in the classroom. Try using the flipped teaching strategy for your next lesson and observe the depth of your students' engagement.

Lesson plans don't have to include worksheets or lectures during which students sit and take notes time and again. Try thinking outside the box and plan a lesson that's completely out of the ordinary. Invite a guest speaker, go on a field trip , or take learning outdoors. When you try something new and different, there's a good chance that your students will respond positively. When planning a lesson, try collaborating with another teacher or taking your students on a virtual field trip. Learning that engages students is the most effective. Your students will find it more interesting to learn when you present the material to them in a variety of creative ways.

• 10 Ways to Make Learning Fun for Students
• Getting Your Lesson Plans Done More Quickly
• Methods for Presenting Subject Matter
• Writing a Lesson Plan: Direct Instruction
• Strategies for Teachers to Develop Positive Relationships With Students
• 10 Learning Strategies to Use in Your Classroom
• How to Make Lesson Plans for Adult Students
• How to Set up Your Classroom for the First Day of School
• 8 Things Teachers Can Do to Help Students Succeed
• 5 Simple Ways to Improve a Boring Lesson
• Essential Core Teaching Strategies
• How Scaffolding Instruction Can Improve Comprehension
• Components of a Well-Written Lesson Plan
• 10 Ways to Make Education Relevant
• 6 Teaching Strategies to Differentiate Instruction
• Varying Assignments to Enhance Student Learning Styles

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• 13 Ways to Make Your Writing More Interesting to Read

There are numerous characteristics of a good essay: original thinking, a tight structure, balanced arguments, and many more .

You should also read…

• How to Improve Your Writing Skills in your Spare Time
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But one aspect often overlooked is that a good essay should be interesting . It should spark the curiosity of the reader, keep them absorbed, make them want to keep reading and learn more. A boring essay risks losing the reader’s attention; even if the points you make are excellent, a dull writing style or poor handling of a dry subject matter can undermine the positive aspects of the essay. The problem is that many students think that essays should be like this: they think that a dull, dry style is suited to the purposes of academic writing, and don’t consider that the teacher reading their essay wants to find the essay interesting. Academic writing doesn’t have to be – and shouldn’t be – boring. The good news is that there are plenty of things you can do to make your writing more interesting, even though you can only do so much while remaining within the formal confines of academic writing. Let’s look at what they are.

1. Be interested in what you’re writing about

If there’s one thing guaranteed to inject interest into your writing, it’s actually being interested in what you’re writing about. Passion for a subject comes across naturally in your writing, typically making it more lively and engaging, and infusing an infectious enthusiasm into your words – in the same way that it’s easy to chat knowledgeably to someone about something you find interesting. This makes it relatively easy to write interestingly about a subject you have a real passion for. However, problems arise when you’re forced to write an essay about subjects for which you lack enthusiasm. It’s difficult to conjure up passion for your least favourite subjects, and that will come across in your writing. There are steps you can take, though: here are some tips on writing about a subject you don’t enjoy.

• Adjust your mindset : convince yourself that there are no boring subjects. If the subject or essay comes across as boring, blame yourself; if you find yourself feeling negatively about it, try to find the interest in it. Think about how it relates to the real world and how important the subject is. Find interesting snippets of information about it and look at it from a new angle.
• Think about your reader : consider the fact that not everyone will find the subject as boring as you do. As you write, keep the reader in mind and imagine them to be the world’s biggest fan of this subject.
• Find the fans : if you find it impossible to get into the mindset of your audience, try Googling the subject to find forums, videos or blog posts in which the subject is discussed by people who do find it interesting. This will help you picture whom you’re writing for, and give you a different perspective on a subject you may not have found inspiring up to now.

2. Include fascinating details

Another factor that can make an essay boring is a dry subject matter. Some subjects or topic areas are naturally dry, and it falls to you to make the essay more interesting through your written style (more on this later) and by trying to find fascinating snippets of information to include that will liven it up a bit and make the information easier to relate to. One way of doing this with a dry subject is to try to make what you’re talking about seem relevant to the real world, as this is easier for the reader to relate to. In a discussion of a seemingly boring piece of legislation, for instance, you could make a comment along the lines of “if it were not for this legislation, none of us would enjoy the freedom to do such and such today”, or “Legislation A ultimately paved the way for Legislation B, which transformed criminal law as we know it.” Make it seem exciting!

3. Emulate the style of writers you find interesting

When you read a lot, you subconsciously start emulating the style of the writers you read. It’s therefore beneficial to read widely, as this exposes you to a range of styles and you can start to take on the characteristics of those you find interesting to read. If you feel engaged with a piece of writing, the writer must be doing something right! As you read, think consciously about what the writer is doing to hold your interest, perhaps underlining or copying out certain phrases, techniques, sentence structures and so on. Then apply their techniques to your own writing.

4. Write in the active voice

It’s the oldest trick in the book, but using the active rather than the passive voice will automatically make your writing more interesting to read. It results in more direct, energetic writing that makes the reader feel more ‘in the moment’. Unfortunately, many students employ the passive voice in the belief that it makes their writing sound more academic or intellectual; in fact, it makes their writing sound boring. Remember, the active voice is when the subject of the sentence “acts”, while the passive voice is when the subject is acted upon. Passive : It was concluded by the scientists that the methods used were… Active : The scientists concluded that the methods used were… The subject in this example is “the scientists” and the “act” they are carrying out is “concluding”. As you can see in this example, the active voice almost always results in neater and more elegant phrasing, which is more concise and enjoyable to read.

5. Borrow some creative writing techniques

There’s clearly a limit to the amount of actual ‘story-telling’ you can do when you’re writing an essay; after all, essays should be objective, factual and balanced, which doesn’t, at first glance, feel very much like story-telling. However, you can apply some of the principles of story-telling to make your writing more interesting. For example, just as the opening sentence or paragraph of a novel is incredibly important in capturing the attention of the reader early on, so the first paragraph of your essay is essential in making your reader want to continue reading it. Start with an attention-grabbing ‘hook’ to draw them in, such as a controversial statement, a tantalising snippet of information or a rhetorical question (more on these below). Here are some more techniques you can adopt from creative writing to improve your essays .

6. Think about your own opinion

Your essay is bound to be boring if all you do is paraphrase what everyone else says about something. A good essay – in humanities subjects, at least – incorporates the writer’s intelligent responses to what others say, and this critical consideration not only shows that you’re thinking at a high academic level, but it automatically adds more interest and originality to your writing. So, think independently and don’t be afraid to demonstrate that you’re doing as much.

7. Cut the waffle

Rambling on and on is boring, and almost guaranteed to lose the interest of your reader. You’re at risk of waffling if you’re not completely clear about what you want to say, or if you haven’t thought carefully about how you’re going to structure your argument. Doing your research properly and writing an essay plan before you start will help prevent this problem. Editing is an important part of the essay-writing process, so once you’ve done a first draft, edit out the waffle. Read through your essay objectively and take out the bits that aren’t relevant to the argument or that labour the point. As well as editing out chunks of text, it’s important to be economical with words – not using ten where five will suffice, and avoiding clunky phrases such as those outlined in this article . During the editing process, tighten up your phrasing by eliminating unnecessary words and reordering any sentences that read badly.

8. Using a thesaurus isn’t always a good thing

You may think that using a thesaurus to find more complicated words will make your writing more interesting, or sound more academic, but using overly high-brow language can have the wrong effect. It alienates the reader and makes you sound pompous, with the result that the essay is more laborious to read and the reader may quickly lose interest. Despite this, many undergraduates admit to deliberately over-complicating their language to make it sound more high-brow. If you want to keep your reader interested, keep your language clear and simple.

9. Avoid repetitive phrasing

Avoid using the same sentence structure again and again: it’s a recipe for dullness! Instead, use a range of syntax that demonstrates your writing capabilities as well as making your writing more interesting. Mix simple, compound and complex sentences to avoid your writing becoming predictable.

10. Use some figurative language

As we’ve already seen, it’s easy to end up rambling when you’re explaining difficult concepts, – particularly when you don’t clearly understand it yourself. A way of forcing yourself to think clearly about a concept, as well as explaining it more simply and engagingly, is to make use of figurative language. This means explaining something by comparing it with something else, as in an analogy. For example, you might use the analogy of water escaping from a hole in a bucket to explain the exponential decay of a radioactive substance, as the rate of depletion of both depends on how much remains, making it exponential. This gives the reader something familiar to visualise, making it easier for them to understand a new concept (obviously this will not be a new concept for the teacher who set your essay, but they will want to see that you can explain concepts clearly and that you have a thorough grasp of it yourself).

11. Avoid clichés

Clichés are overused words or phrases that make your writing predictable, and therefore less interesting. An example would be “at the end of the day”, but there are many such favourites of student essay-writers. Don’t forget that your teacher will have a stack of essays to read in one sitting; if you use the same tired expressions everyone else uses, your essay will blend in with all the others. Make it stand out by shunning the clichés you know your classmates will be using.

12. Employ rhetorical questions

One of the ways in which ancient orators held the attention of their audiences and increased the dramatic effect of their speeches was by making use of the rhetorical question. What is a rhetorical question? It’s essentially one you ask without expecting your audience to answer – one that you will answer yourself, like the one we asked in the previous sentence. This can be an effective way of introducing a new line of enquiry, or of raising questions that you’re going to address in more detail. A good place to use a rhetorical question is at the end of a paragraph, to lead into the next one, or at the beginning of a new paragraph to introduce a new area for exploration. The rhetorical question, “But is there any evidence to support X’s claim?” could, for instance, begin a paragraph that discusses evidence for an opinion introduced in the previous paragraph. What’s more, as we’ve already seen, you could use a rhetorical question as your ‘hook’ to lure readers in right at the beginning of your essay.

13. Proofread

Finally, you could write the most interesting essay a teacher has ever read, but you’ll undermine your good work if it’s littered with errors, which distract the reader from the actual content and will probably annoy them. Before you submit your essay, proofread it thoroughly to ensure that the grammar is elegant, the punctuation is perfect and the spelling is flawless. Don’t just use a spelling and grammar checker, as these don’t always pick up on all the errors.

Do you want to take your writing to the next level? Our Creative Writing summer school will teach you how to experiment with a number of different writing techniques, plan, edit and proofread your own work and introduce you to new concepts and ideas. 

Image credits: banner ; carousel ; rose ; scientists ; baby ; thesaurus ; hawk ; questions . 

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How to Write the Perfect Essay: A Step-By-Step Guide for Students

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• What is an essay? 

What makes a good essay?

Typical essay structure, 7 steps to writing a good essay, a step-by-step guide to writing a good essay.

Whether you are gearing up for your GCSE coursework submissions or looking to brush up on your A-level writing skills, we have the perfect essay-writing guide for you. 💯

Staring at a blank page before writing an essay can feel a little daunting . Where do you start? What should your introduction say? And how should you structure your arguments? They are all fair questions and we have the answers! Take the stress out of essay writing with this step-by-step guide – you’ll be typing away in no time. 👩‍💻

What is an essay?

Generally speaking, an essay designates a literary work in which the author defends a point of view or a personal conviction, using logical arguments and literary devices in order to inform and convince the reader.

So – although essays can be broadly split into four categories: argumentative, expository, narrative, and descriptive – an essay can simply be described as a focused piece of writing designed to inform or persuade. 🤔

The purpose of an essay is to present a coherent argument in response to a stimulus or question and to persuade the reader that your position is credible, believable and reasonable. 👌

So, a ‘good’ essay relies on a confident writing style – it’s clear, well-substantiated, focussed, explanatory and descriptive . The structure follows a logical progression and above all, the body of the essay clearly correlates to the tile – answering the question where one has been posed. 

But, how do you go about making sure that you tick all these boxes and keep within a specified word count? Read on for the answer as well as an example essay structure to follow and a handy step-by-step guide to writing the perfect essay – hooray. 🙌

Sometimes, it is helpful to think about your essay like it is a well-balanced argument or a speech – it needs to have a logical structure, with all your points coming together to answer the question in a coherent manner. ⚖️

Of course, essays can vary significantly in length but besides that, they all follow a fairly strict pattern or structure made up of three sections. Lean into this predictability because it will keep you on track and help you make your point clearly. Let’s take a look at the typical essay structure:  

#1 Introduction

Start your introduction with the central claim of your essay. Let the reader know exactly what you intend to say with this essay. Communicate what you’re going to argue, and in what order. The final part of your introduction should also say what conclusions you’re going to draw – it sounds counter-intuitive but it’s not – more on that below. 1️⃣

Make your point, evidence it and explain it. This part of the essay – generally made up of three or more paragraphs depending on the length of your essay – is where you present your argument. The first sentence of each paragraph – much like an introduction to an essay – should summarise what your paragraph intends to explain in more detail. 2️⃣

#3 Conclusion

This is where you affirm your argument – remind the reader what you just proved in your essay and how you did it. This section will sound quite similar to your introduction but – having written the essay – you’ll be summarising rather than setting out your stall. 3️⃣

No essay is the same but your approach to writing them can be. As well as some best practice tips, we have gathered our favourite advice from expert essay-writers and compiled the following 7-step guide to writing a good essay every time. 👍

#1 Make sure you understand the question

#2 complete background reading.

#3 Make a detailed plan 

#4 Write your opening sentences 

#5 flesh out your essay in a rough draft, #6 evidence your opinion, #7 final proofread and edit.

Now that you have familiarised yourself with the 7 steps standing between you and the perfect essay, let’s take a closer look at each of those stages so that you can get on with crafting your written arguments with confidence . 

This is the most crucial stage in essay writing – r ead the essay prompt carefully and understand the question. Highlight the keywords – like ‘compare,’ ‘contrast’ ‘discuss,’ ‘explain’ or ‘evaluate’ – and let it sink in before your mind starts racing . There is nothing worse than writing 500 words before realising you have entirely missed the brief . 🧐

Unless you are writing under exam conditions , you will most likely have been working towards this essay for some time, by doing thorough background reading. Re-read relevant chapters and sections, highlight pertinent material and maybe even stray outside the designated reading list, this shows genuine interest and extended knowledge. 📚

#3 Make a detailed plan

Following the handy structure we shared with you above, now is the time to create the ‘skeleton structure’ or essay plan. Working from your essay title, plot out what you want your paragraphs to cover and how that information is going to flow. You don’t need to start writing any full sentences yet but it might be useful to think about the various quotes you plan to use to substantiate each section. 📝

Having mapped out the overall trajectory of your essay, you can start to drill down into the detail. First, write the opening sentence for each of the paragraphs in the body section of your essay. Remember – each paragraph is like a mini-essay – the opening sentence should summarise what the paragraph will then go on to explain in more detail. 🖊️

Next, it's time to write the bulk of your words and flesh out your arguments. Follow the ‘point, evidence, explain’ method. The opening sentences – already written – should introduce your ‘points’, so now you need to ‘evidence’ them with corroborating research and ‘explain’ how the evidence you’ve presented proves the point you’re trying to make. ✍️

With a rough draft in front of you, you can take a moment to read what you have written so far. Are there any sections that require further substantiation? Have you managed to include the most relevant material you originally highlighted in your background reading? Now is the time to make sure you have evidenced all your opinions and claims with the strongest quotes, citations and material. 📗

This is your final chance to re-read your essay and go over it with a fine-toothed comb before pressing ‘submit’. We highly recommend leaving a day or two between finishing your essay and the final proofread if possible – you’ll be amazed at the difference this makes, allowing you to return with a fresh pair of eyes and a more discerning judgment. 🤓

If you are looking for advice and support with your own essay-writing adventures, why not t ry a free trial lesson with GoStudent? Our tutors are experts at boosting academic success and having fun along the way. Get in touch and see how it can work for you today. 🎒

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Trending Post : 12 Powerful Discussion Strategies to Engage Students

How to Engage Students: 20 of the Best Active Learning Strategies

As a new teacher, I didn’t fully grasp how to best engage students in learning. That’s not to say my class was a bore, but there were definitely days I knew flopped…majorly. Unfortunately, there’s no magic list for captivating students in a lesson, but experience is one of the best tools I have to answer the question of how to engage students in the classroom. Developing a bank of lesson plans and approaches you can count on to increase engagement takes time.

There are few things I enjoy less than bored students. That’s why I’ve dedicated a lot of time and effort to trying new instructional strategies in the middle and high school classroom. If you’ve been scouring the web for ways to get and keep students engaged, hopefully you’ll enjoy this these active learning strategies.

Before diving into the strategies, I want to emphasize several important points.

First…

It’s hard to tell when students are truly engaged. I find that when I ask them for feedback on a lesson, they usually evaluate their interest level higher than I would have guessed. So, if students aren’t on the edge of their seats enthralled in the learning, it may just be because they are teenagers dealing with a crazy array of emotions and insecurities. Plus, engagement is not always visible externally.

Also…

Engagement is not a quick fix. It starts with building relationships with students and getting to know them as learners. Students will be more engaged in a room where they know the teacher cares about them. We have to constantly check the thermostat in the room to see what is working.

Engagement shouldn’t come at the expense of learning. Some activities are engaging and fun, but the thinking required is very basic, or the tasks may not align to standards.

Engagement is not the same as  “fun” or even “entertaining.” Engagement means students see the value of the learning and are mentally engaging with the information, actively thinking, forming meaningful associations. Their thinking is challenged.

The list of instructional strategies we could try could really fill up a book (or more). Over time, I’ve collected a list of reliable and engaging strategies to use with middle and high school students. Let’s take a look.

1. MODEL ENGAGEMENT

It didn’t take me too long into my first year of teaching before I realized the importance of modeling engagement. Teaching the same lesson several times a day isn’t one of the perks of being a teacher, but the less enthusiastic I am about a lesson, the less engaged students tend to be. And, the reverse is true as well.

Wanting to engage students in independent reading? Show them how you are enjoying a book. Share your thoughts. Read some of it to them. Read when they can see you doing it.

Trying to engage reluctant writers? Model your struggles. Show them how to write a bad hook just to get something down on paper and then revise it. Smile the whole time! Ask thoughtful questions. For instance,  I’m not loving this rough draft of a hook, but I’m so glad I at least have something on paper. I’d love your help! Who would like to help me make this better? What do you all suggest?

2. USE MUSIC

When we play music in the classroom , the energy changes. Whether we are using songs for intentional brain breaks (which are an engagement strategy as well!), as a mentor text for figurative language or grammar, or as a bell ringer, music brings life to the classroom. Here’s a free analytical music activity you can use with poetry.

Use art in ELA to pique students’ interest. For example, I love encouraging students to think critically by drawing vocabulary associations or creating one pagers or sketch notes. They can analyze and evaluate graphic design elements by looking at author’s craft in picture books or by creating booksnaps to capture reflections. Use photographs as inspiration for writing or project images related to a text before reading. Then, have students make predictions or build background knowledge.

4. GIVE OWNERSHIP

If we really want to engage students in learning, we need to give them ownership: voice and choice. Involve them in making decisions about what happens in the classroom and about their learning. Ask for their feedback about lessons and units. Have them evaluate their work and progress. And, let students ch oose what they want to read as often as possible. Create and display anchor charts that showcase their ideas. With writing, give feedback that honors students’ internal dialogue .

5. MAKE IT RELEVANT

Students are more engaged in learning when lessons are relevant to real-world application . Tie literature to essential questions that help students understand life. Choose books in which they can see themselves or their culture present. Try passion projects or genius hours. Teach real-world writing skills like email etiquette and journaling . And, of course, bring in elements of pop culture whenever appropriate. I love using short films, music, commercials, and more to teach literary analysis .

6. INCORPORATE MOVEMENT

Any time we can incorporate movement in our classrooms, engagement tends to increase. Whether we are having students participate in a gallery walk, using manipulatives to unders tand language , or sorting information to categorize it, when students are standing and moving around, they are more likely to be engaged. Learning stations are one of my favorite ways to incorporate movement because students get to practice many skills related to the learning objectives…all from different learning perspectives.

7. PLAY GAMES

Games are crowd pleasers. This year, I asked my students… If you could take the skills I am asking you to learn and transform this lesson to make it exactly how you want to learn, what approach would you take?  The answer? Resoundingly, games. They want to play games. Games are not ideal for every circumstance, but if students can play a game to practice a skill or strategy, they tend to be smiling, laughing, and collaborating more than with other approaches.

8. READ ALOUD

Students are never too old to be read to. I just attended a conference in which the presenter used several picture books as interactive read alouds with an adult audience, and everyone was enthralled . Picture books truly have to age cap. Whether you’re reading the first chapter of a book, the entire thing, a short story, or a picture books, you’ll notice students are more engaged.

9. CREATE VISUALS

Visual elements captivate students. Graphic organizers provide them with naturally differentiated entry points for discussion. Plus, the design of many graphic organizers elevates thinking more than a traditional worksheet. Anchor charts are effective because students can help create them, and they anchor learning so that students can refer back to them long after the lesson is over. EL and  all students benefit from word walls , especially when they are interactive.

10. STOP AND JOT

Sometimes we are so busy disseminating information that we don’t stop often enough to let students think. And, thinking is critical for engagement! Try incorporating brain dumps, or stop and jots , as a way for students to write down what they remember as you move from one topic to another or between parts of the lesson. This type of activity is also helpful with removing “dead time” in the classroom, which diminishes engagement.

11. DISCUSSION WARM-UPS

Ever wonder how to engage students in class discussions? Try think, pair, square, which is a variation of think-pair-share. In think, pair, square, the teacher poses a question. (Students can pose questions also, determining on the purpose and goal).

Then, students do a brain dump on paper, writing down everything they think in response to that question. Following a short period of reflection, they turn to a partner and share those ideas. After, the partners pair up with another set of partners so that the discussion groups are somewhat larger.

You’ll notice that as students move from sharing with just one other person to four, the energy level in the room rises. Students also typically are more likely to participate in the whole-class discussion that follows.

12. CHUNK LESSONS

Lessons are more engaging when intentional chunking is built in. We can do this by breaking down course content and skills into smaller chunks that are more easy for students to digest as well as chunking the class period strategically to increase mastery of content.

When done effectively, students comprehend the content better, learn more of it, and remember it longer. Content chunking gives students time to really dig into a skill, idea, or concept long enough that they can appreciate it, reflect on it, and connect with it at a deeper level. Here are some specific chunking ideas for reading, writing, and other ELA topics.

13. REVAMP NOTE-TAKING

There are so many different ways students can take notes, but when we introduce new note-taking strategies that make students think and that they can use as a study strategy, engagement increases. One approach I have used this year is sketch noting. You can find a free lesson for introducing this strategy to students in my resource library (exclusive for subscribers).

Another is retrieve taking. With this strategy, students actually  don’t take notes. They listen. Then, when you are done talking or the video is done playing, you pause and ask students to brain dump. Have them write down everything they remember. Obviously, you can insert these intentionally retrieval opportunities regularly during direct instruction to chunk the note taking.

14. PROVOKE CURIOSITY

When talking about how to engage students in learning, curiosity has to be part of the conversation. If students aren’t interested in what they are learning, it’s hard to engage them. Before reading, try projecting images and/or words that relate to the text. Have them begin making some predictions about the text. The images can serve to build background knowledge and prepare students to read as well.

Writing? Hold a debate before writing an argumentative essay. Analyze aspects of pop culture before writing a literary analysis piece. For informative writing, pique students’ interest by having them select a topic based off of questions they have about a fiction text (ex. – Why did Henry VIII have six wives? or What technology has already been invented that is similar to what is described in the book? ).

This whole post is full of a variety of anticipatory sets, or lesson hooks, that can help to engage students in learning.

15. ACTIVATE THE BRAIN

In order to engage students in learning, they need to experience the excitement of retaining new information. When learning is tangible, or measurable, students tend to be more motivated. Part of my teaching philosophy involves incorporating brain-based learning approaches whenever possible. We know students learn better when they are making meaningful associations, collaborating with others, and doing the work.

While I incorporate elements of brain-based learning in all aspects of ELA, one of the areas I have the most fun with it is in vocabulary. Here are five brain-based vocabulary activities , and you’ll find even more in this resource , which you can use with any word list.

16. USE COLOR

Color brightens moods, lessons, and learning. There’s something about color that intrigues us and helps us to remember what we learn. Students can color-code elements of a paragaraph when writing. Color can also help students understand book diet and book fit. Try color coding mood and tone or grammatical elements so that students can visually see how the elements work together. This list provides details for these ideas and more.

17. ADD TECH

Take any lesson and “engage-ify”it by adding meaningful tech. For example, to have students show their thinking about characters, plot, and conflict, ask them to use the free app called  Texting Story to create a short video conversation. To reflect on the writing process and what students learn as they move through each phase, have them document their experience each day using  Apple Clips . Students can conduct research and visually display what they learn by creating an infographic on Canva . Try using  Notability to create a mindmap or other visual notes to synthesize learning. Or, ask students to insert a GIF into a shared Google Slide document to represent their current feeling about the topic of discussion.

18. MAKE IT COLLABORATIVE

When we picture the gradual release of learning, we sometimes skip over collaboration. It takes time! But, the social nature of learning is so important for students. To maximize engagement, whenever possible, ask students to work together to share ideas about what they are reading, to revise their writing, to respond to one another in verbal and silent discussions, and to partake in research projects.

19. TRY A PODCAST

Podcasts require a different type of listening. Students can build their listening comprehension while learning auditorily from an informational text. Podcasts are especially engaging when the topic is intriguing or relevant to students. Here is a list of podcasts for students from Common Sense media, and this is a high-interest podcast lesson I recommend for high school students.

20. CHALLENGE STUDENTS

No one likes to be bored. Students appreciate the type of challenge that makes them think but doesn’t frustrate them. Ask questions that challenge students’ thinking in developmentally appropriate ways. Encourage them to participate in some metacognition,  but always avoid busy work.

True student engagement is not the same as participation. With participation, students may be  doing what we ask them to. They may be raising their hands at the appropriate times, but that doesn’t mean they are mentally an emotionally engaging or connecting with the lesson.

So, in order to answer the question of how to engage students in the learning process, we need to look beyond all the strategies and start thinking about how we can intentionally build active learning into our classrooms. Engagement increases students’ attention, sharpens their focus, motivates them to think at a higher level, and promotes meaningful learning.

Meaningful learning boils down to knowing our students well enough to create lessons they find relevant. 

It’s really more about purposeful lesson design than it is randomly selecting a strategy from a list. Ultimately, I notice maximum engagement when I have just enough structure in my room for it to feel safe, but also just enough variety in active learning activities to keep students on their toes.

Meaningful End-of-the-Year Activities for Secondary ELA

Engaging ela activities for any time of year, 11 ideas for teaching figurative language meaningfully, related resource:.

Engage students in meaningful review and practice with these ELA games . Perfect for learning stations and review sessions.

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3 Hands-on Essay Writing Activities Your Students Will Love

Turning essay writing into an engaging learning experience is definitely a challenge. The content requires a certain amount of lecturing, modeling, reading, and writing. But your essay writing unit doesn’t have to be one long sit-and-get; you can use hands-on essay writing activities to help invigorate your unit! 

In this post, I will share three activities that require students to move or use their hands. 

You can find more tips for teaching essay writing here.

(Looking for a whole essay writing unit that incorporates these activities? Grab my Five-paragraph Essay Writing Bundle here! )

Hands-on Essay Writing Activities #1: Exemplar Gallery Walk

You’ve probably done a gallery walk in your classroom before, but if not, here’s a quick refresh. 

For a gallery walk, you hang up artifacts for students to examine around the room. They are sometimes done in silence (students might use post-its to leave comments on the “gallery”). 

As students walk around and look at each artifact, they’ll complete some kind of task. 

You can use the gallery walk to show students examples of what an essay should look like. For example, I use a gallery walk activity to teach students what a strong thesis statement looks like.

First, I post a variety of thesis statements around the room. As students read them, they decide if each statement is a “strong” or “weak” example of a thesis statement. 

By the end of the activity, students clearly understand what makes a great thesis statement and how to spot problems with weak ones. 

(If you’d like this activity for Writing Strong Thesis Statements, you can grab my no-prep resource here!)

You could do this activity with any part of the essay–or whole essays. Regardless of how you use the gallery walk, it’s nice to get your students up and moving while they reflect on writing. 

Hands-on Essay Writing Activities #2: Unscramble Activity

Who doesn’t love a good puzzle? Another engaging essay-writing activity is to take an essay and turn it into a puzzle!

I take an example literary essay or research paper and cut it up. Basically, each part of the essay is on its own strip of paper. 

Students form groups and each group is given one of the cut-up essays. Together, they must figure out how to unscramble the essay. 

( Grab this Unscramble the Five-paragraph Essay Activity here if you don’t want to create your own. )

This not only forces them to remember the organizational structure of an essay, but shows them the importance of clear writing, using transitions, and following a rigid format. Plus, students get to use their hands as they manually move around their strips of paper and collaborate with peers. 

You could have students unscramble any kind of essay (save excellent student examples for this!) or even just Works Cited pages if you want them to focus on citation formats. 

Hands-on Essay Writing Activities #3: Stations

Stations are just what they sound like–stations set up around your classroom. Each station includes the directions and materials needed to complete a different task. In order for students to complete all of the required tasks, they have to rotate to each station. 

While you’ve probably done stations in your classroom before, you may not have considered using them for essay writing. But there are a ton of ways you could set up essay-writing stations. 

Each station could guide students through writing a piece or a step of an essay. Stations could each focus on teaching part of the essay writing process. You could even have stations in which students focused on exploring different types of essays or essay topics.

Stations are an engaging activity because they force students to move around the room. They also break up the class period into smaller chunks (a ninety-minute class becomes three thirty-minute stations, for example).

They are especially helpful when you want students to really dive into a specific topic. That’s why they’re also great for essay peer editing.

My peer-editing stations include four tasks: checking essay structure, checking citations, proofreading, and improving diction and fluency. Alternatively, you could set up peer-editing stations that focus on any four common essay issues. 

Students trade papers and have to complete each station or task. The stations force students to focus on honing in on each problem area leading to better and more specific feedback for one another. 

( Skip creating these stations on your own by grabbing the Five-paragraph Essay Peer-editing Stations here. )

Once you know how many stations you want to use and what topics/tasks will be covered at each, be sure to gather materials students may need. Provide highlighters, markers, and any specialty items students will need. 

You’ll also want to create very specific, step-by-step directions for each station. You might also want to provide students with a checklist of the stations, so they can keep track of which ones they’ve completed and which ones they still need to do.

Essay writing might never be your students’ favorite unit, but it certainly doesn’t have to be boring. You include movement and hands-on activities just like you would for any other content topic. 

If you’re looking for no-prep essay-writing resources, check out my Five-paragraph Essay Writing Bundle.

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Mixing Things Up

10 tips to make your classes more engaging for students.

Read a summary or generate practice questions using the INOMICS AI tool

Teaching is an honorable, but difficult, job to do. Economics instructors working in higher education must rapidly and thoroughly communicate complex concepts and theories within tight semester time frames, effectively enough that most students will learn the concepts and pass the course.

As if this wasn’t hard enough, it can be very difficult to keep students’ attention during class time. We live in a world of constant distraction, and often it’s difficult for students to engage in classroom material – especially difficult material – for an entire classroom session.

The very best teachers know that engaged students learn well, and aim to make their classes not just informative, but also interesting and engaging. This is no easy feat; how can instructors make their economics classes more engaging?

INOMICS has collected some tips and tricks, some of which were inspired through our time in economics classrooms. Read on for our top 10 tips on how to better engage your students to help them stay focused and learn.

1. Ask questions and seek your student's opinions

One of the best ways to increase student engagement is to directly solicit their thoughts on the material at hand. Giving your students the expectation that you might call on them will inevitably cause them to handle the materials more critically, and pay more attention. It’s an excellent way of focusing students’ minds and instilling in them a healthy scepticism that’s essential to all good study. 

Be wary, though, some students can be shy when it comes to contributing to class discussions. To counter this, try and create an atmosphere in which questioning is encouraged and students feel comfortable offering an opinion, even if they're unsure. If a student answers a question incorrectly, but elements of their answer are correct, be sure to acknowledge the good parts of their answer before calling on the next student. This will help all of your students recognize that participation won’t punish them.

Another tip - your more confident students are likely to be constantly participating while your more quiet students won’t get the chance to talk. To balance this out, ask for hands raised and call first on those students who don’t participate as much; consider “cold calling” students on occasion (but make sure this expectation is set beforehand); and do your best to respond encouragingly when the quieter students do choose to participate.

Image credit: pressfoto on Freepik.de.

2. Assess the level of knowledge in the room and tailor your teaching accordingly

Most classes that you’ll teach probably come with certain requirements about course content, including necessary prerequisites that students must pass first. Even so, your students will quickly grow bored and disengaged if your lecture material is either too basic or too advanced for them.

Mitigate this by ascertaining the class’ general level of ability, and adjusting the complexity of your teaching accordingly. For instance, this could be done by getting your students to do a short introductory quiz before your first class. This type of differentiation (or differentiated instruction) can help students stay engaged in various ways.

For example, advanced students will likely appreciate additional content (like proofs) that may not be core exam material. These types of students will typically ask questions proactively during the normal lecture to ask “why”, as they enjoy knowing the inner workings of the course’s content. These students might also appreciate assignments that include one or two very difficult questions that might be too hard for an exam, but great learning material for a more relaxed setting.

Meanwhile, students who might not be comfortable with prerequisite material would greatly benefit from quick refreshers. This can help them remember older material before learning new concepts that build on that older material. They might also appreciate a slower pace of lecturing that allows them time to take sufficient notes.

To this end, consider providing printable notes (with a few blank spaces to fill in) that students can bring to lecture. When students are merely copying down everything they hear, they might not have mental space to truly engage critically with the material. Pre-written notes or copies of your slides can make students feel more free to question, comment, and think about the material you're teaching, without missing important notes.

3. Get students to present work themselves

It's said that one of the best ways to understand something is to teach it, and you can use this to help your students learn. Including student presentations will work better for classes that have material that can be dissected and spark discussion, as opposed to classes that teach irrefutable truths. For example, a course about economic history or behavioral economics – where economic theories are still being tested and debated – will probably have more opportunities for good presentations than an advanced econometrics course, where quantitative truths are more or less irrefutable.

If time allows, consider asking each student to prepare a short presentation on each topic you plan to teach. You can use this as an introduction to your classes throughout the semester. For example, a course that discusses macroeconomic models or schools of thought (i.e., neoclassical vs. Keynesian theories) can feature a short student presentation about each model. This can give a high-level overview for the whole class, before you dive into the details.

4. Use multimedia like video or audio clips

Dropping a short video, image or audio clip into your presentations can help freshen the heavily text-based format of most lectures, and will help those students who are more visual or auditory-based learners. Video clips of interviews with prominent economists, about relevant historical events, or the like can be particularly effective. Humorous but relevant videos or images can also be highly effective.

For example, consider the below xkcd comic , shared during an intermediate economic statistics course:

Image credit: xkcd .

This comic is effective and engaging for a few reasons. First, for advanced students who already understand the basic differences between Bayesian and frequentist statistics (i.e., the fact that Bayesian statisticians use a prior distribution), this comic is pretty funny. It points out the absurdity of blindly trusting a frequentist approach all the time.

Second, for students who don’t get the comic, explaining the joke helps them understand the main difference between Bayesian and frequentist statisticians, at which point the comic becomes funny to them as well. Wanting to understand the joke also gives students motivation to think critically and engage with the learning process, so they can join in the fun.

Finally, the joke is actually very relevant to the class material. In this case, in order to understand the joke, the student must understand an important fact about Bayesian statistics and how it’s different than the frequentist methods.

Breaking up the monotony of a lecture with something humorous or interesting, but also informative and relevant, is a great way to keep students engaged.

5. Encourage group discussion

Consider breaking up your lectures by having a segment in which the class splits into small groups of 3-6 and discusses a topic or specific question amongst themselves. Good examples can include coming up with critiques of a specific economic model, attempting to derive a specific result from a model or a proof, listing examples of relevant economic policies, etc.

After 10 or so minutes of discussion each group should then report back the most interesting points their conversation brought up, hopefully then facilitating further class discussion. This also helps engage students who might be too shy to engage proactively with the entire class, as point number 1 discusses.

Image credit: cookie_studio on Freepik.de.

6. Change up the format of your classes

As countless studies have proven, it's difficult for any of us to concentrate for longer than an hour (many actually suggest the limit is closer to 45 minutes), so try breaking your classes into manageable chunks.

For example, if you have an hour to teach, you could give an introduction to the topic for 15 minutes, then give students 10 minutes to re-read the class material, follow this with a 20 minute discussion in small groups, and finally finish off with a 15 minute class discussion at the end.

Changing format frequently will help to keep students engaged. It might even benefit you to completely change the class format from one week to another. Consider which types of exercises or discussions lend themselves to the different topics in your course – group discussions might make a lot of sense for some topics, but perhaps short presentations or a pop quiz work better for others.

7. Set up a debate

In any field, there will be theories, models, or concepts which are contentious. Try splitting your class into small groups and asking them to present each side of an issue in a debate. In economics, this can include topics like the value of the different economic schools of thought, pros and cons of the minimum wage (or other economic policy proposals), whether technological progress is good or bad for the labor market, etc.

Even if students don't agree with the side that they've been asked to represent, this is a great way for them to practice argumentation and critical thinking skills, as well as learning the material at hand. And it can help to engage the class, breaking up the rhythm of typical lectures and notes.

8. Allow breaks or changes of setting in longer classes

It's a rare student who is capable of concentrating for the full length of a three hour lecture. Be realistic about the needs of your students (and of yourself as a teacher!) and allow short 5-10 minute breaks every hour or so, so people can stretch their legs, use the bathroom, and get a (possibly much needed) cup of coffee.

9. Work on your presentation skills

Many of the tips for giving a great presentation – having an engaging voice and attitude, knowing your material inside and out, engaging your audience with a bit of humor, asking questions, etc. – apply to teaching in the classroom too. Great instructors have mastered the art of giving a great presentation, and students absolutely notice which instructors are good at this type of public speaking versus those who are not.

10. Make use of technology

Don’t forget all that you learned during the pandemic! Continue to make use of the terrific technological tools that help make your teaching more engaging.

For instance, your institution may have an electronic content management system like Moodle or Blackboard where you can share materials and set up discussions for your class. Instant polls have become quite common in recent years, using apps like Socrative, Poll Everywhere, or Kahoot!. Using games to teach economics is also becoming quite popular, and can go a long way to helping your students stay focused.

It pays to try and stay abreast of new ways technology can be brought into the classroom to liven things up.

Header image credit: Pixabay.

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