The Boldly Basic Teacher

Help your students confidently plan and organize their essays with this Essay Planning Worksheet! Designed to guide learners step-by-step through the writing process, this resource supports clear, structured, and thoughtful essay writing. Perfect for English Language Arts classrooms, especially grades 6-12, this worksheet breaks down essay planning into manageable sections — from crafting a strong thesis statement to developing well-supported body paragraphs and a cohesive conclusion.

These argumentative and informative graphic organizers are a great way to help students break down writing into smaller pieces. When students realize that all they have to do is put the boxes together to form basic paragraphs, it is a game changer. They also go hand-in-hand with my Outline Notes!

Use this bundle to teaching basic text structure for argumentative, informative, and narrative texts. Students will learn about text structure through fill-in-the-blank notes, summarize passages by identifying the key ideas and plot points, and then write their own essays and narratives using graphic organizers.

This worksheet explains to students what a thesis statement is and provides detailed instruction for your students on how to turn a prompt into a thesis statement. It also gives examples and provides eight prompts on which they can practice this skill. Also check out my Argumentative and Informative Graphic Organizers!

These argumentative text graphic organizers are specifically tailored for educators who are teaching claim, counter-claim, and rebuttal to their students. They go hand-in-hand with my Informative Text Graphic Organizers and Outline Notes!

Help students understand the similarities and differences in structure between argumentative and informative texts using this comparison notes page! Fill in one side as you study informative texts and revisit it later as you introduce argumentative texts (or vice versa). These notes can be used as a wonderful formative assessment to see what your students remember from previous lessons! Exposure to the vocabulary in these outlines is also beneficial for Texas state testing!

Understanding text structure can help students improve their reading comprehension and writing skills, but it also sets the foundation for being able to summarize, find text evidence, understand author's purpose, and more! This bundle contains two sets of fill-in-the-blank notes with keys: one set comparing argumentative and informative texts and a second set comparing informative texts with narratives. Help your students understand the various text structures, as well as the similarities and di

Use this as a whole-class worksheet or allow students to practice analyzing a text using this worksheet as a guide! This worksheet addresses genre, text structure, point of view, vocabulary, author's purpose and message, and more! If you are interested in more ways to analyze a text as a whole class, check out these printable posters!

Teach students to summarize argumentative texts by identifying and combining the claim, counter-claim, and rebuttal in one paragraph. This helps students with summarizing while reinforcing their understanding of key argumentative text elements.

Help students understand the differences in structure between informative texts and narratives using this comparison notes page! Fill in one side as you study narratives and revisit it with informative texts. This introduces linear plot development and a basic informative outline through a fill-in-the-blank format. This can also be used as a wonderful formative assessment to see what your kids remember from previous lessons. A large number of learning standards point back to understanding text o

Teach students to summarize informative texts by identifying the thesis and main ideas. The more familiar they are with text structure, they better they will be able to develop their own texts later!

Use linear plot development to help your students identify key pieces of the text and create a summary from them.

Make elements of literature and literary devices fun by pairing them with "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!" This movie contains a number of literary device examples scattered throughout it, and it provides a fantastic way for students to start looking for elements of literature as well. In the "Associated Words" column, provide students with key words that they can listen for while searching for their examples.