The buzz in education right now is loud and clear—teachers are deeply concerned about their incoming students, especially those struggling with writing. Many kids are finding it harder than ever to put their ideas on paper and organize their thoughts effectively. But there’s good news! With the right strategies, you can help your students grow into confident writers this year.

Read on for some practical ideas to help your struggling writers. In no time, you'll take kids from struggling to write a complete sentence to writing fully developed essays for each of the three types of writing.

Strategy #1 – Scaffold, Scaffold, Scaffold!

Start your scaffolding efforts with the planning stage of writing. Use planning organizers that break apart the different parts of the piece of writing to help kids isolate each element: (for example, beg/middle/end). This is less overwhelming for kids than being asked to plan with nothing but lined paper.

Scaffold by Using Differentiated Prompts and Handwriting Lines

Use simplified prompts, vocabulary boxes and wider handwriting lines for emerging writers.

Offer writing prompts include vocab boxes and skinnier handwriting lines for writers who still benefit from handwriting lines, but do not need them to be quite so wide. Don't forget to offer extra paper without the picture boxes too!

Strategy #2 – Break Skills Down

Writing is a BIG task. Especially when you think about how many mini tasks are wrapped up in getting from an idea to a final piece.. One way to help kids manage and remember so many different things is with writing checklists.

Help Struggling Writers with Checklists

Some teachers give kids writing checklists like the examples above to use as an editing tool after the draft has been completed. We recommend setting kids up for success by copying the checklist directly on the writing paper. This way kids can see what their completed piece should include before they even start writing!

Strategy #3 – Make the Goal Clear

Help Struggling Writers with Visual Rubrics

Help Struggling Writers with Goal Cards

Student goal cards are so helpful for reinforcing good writing habits. For example, if a student always forgets to capitalize the first letter of sentences, staple the “I can use capital letters” goal card to their writing page – a constant reminder the whole time they are writing! In no time, the habit will be changed!

Strategy #4 – Use Resources That Support a Progression of Levels

As tough as this might feel to go backwards instructionally, we need to meet our students where they are at. When it comes to teaching kids how to write, our instruction needs to be strategic, intentional, purposeful, research-based, and consistent.

The good news is that we have some writing resources that will help you fill those gaps this year and get your students caught up!

From differentiated planning pages to the 1st and 2nd grade versions of each prompt – we've got one resource that will give teachers all the levels they need this year! All three types of writing are covered in this huge bundle!

And that's not all! If you'd love to make writing goals crystal clear for your students this year, you'll want to grab our ready-to-go Writing Bulletin Board set.

Bonus Tip

When it comes to scaffolding your lessons, it can be time consuming to find all of the resources needed. What if I told you we had your entire year of lessons and writing resources planned already? Check out the Lucky to Learn Writing curriculum, which even includes daily writing self-regulation tasks!

Lucky to Learn Writing is equipped with daily lesson plans with skills practice, digital lesson slides, lesson videos, grammar skills, intervention ideas and more! Click below to be notified as soon as Lucky to Learn Writing rolls out.

Just remember, you've got this! With the right tools and a little extra practice, your lucky little learners will become confident writers in no time!