LitDocs

This handout is ready to print or display for student to use while writing constructed responses. Organized by text type (non-fiction, fiction, and poetry) it provides a list of sentence starters to support students in introducing and explaining evidence in their responses. This is best fit for middle and high school students as they begin to move away from the cookie-cutter sentence frames learned in earlier grades and begin to use a more sophisticate style in their written responses.

This printable can be used as students read a new poem for the first time. Answering the basic questions of Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How, the worksheet guides students through a basic analysis of any poem.

This goal tracker allows students to track their writing goals throughout the school year, categorized into the three types of writing in the CCSS (Narrative, Argumentative, Informative/Explanatory). Each time students write, they will look at their previous writing task and document glows and grows in their writing. Based on those glows and grows, students will write a specific, achievable writing goal for their next writing task.

The first sentence of a narrative is key to hooking the reader and to helping a writer gain momentum in the drafting process. This worksheet is designed for middle and high school students to use before beginning a first draft. I’ve found that when students complete this organizer first, they face less writer’s block, and I rarely hear the dreaded, “I don’t know where to start.”