6th Grade Writing-Expository Resources (by date, oldest first)

Get ready for argumentative units with this engaging activity centered around persuasive techniques in rhetorical devices, and logical fallacies.

Teacher students what makes a good and bad argument with a short lesson and 5 practice paragraphs to evaluate for effectiveness. Afterwards, students can practice rhetorical devices in advertisements and analyze why the device was chosen (author's purpose).

ALSO INCLUDED IS AN EXTENSION ACTIVITY where students can get creative and make their own ads.

- Teacher directions

- Grading Rubric

- Student instructions

- Research and Brainstorm document

(no templates for creation are included)

PROVIDED IN WORD/POWERPOINT & PDF

Show your students exactly how it should be done with this handy guide. Clear instructions, examples, and a page for their own notes!

This free resource goes perfect with the All Things English for Middle and High School Students book!

And check out these other resources!

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• Everything Writing

• Do you need help getting your students to understand how text is structured and how authors craft their writing?
• Do you want them to practice aligning ideas and writing their own?

Help your students master paragraph structure with this comprehensive resource designed for middle and high school learners. "Building Strong Paragraphs" focuses on key writing skills such as identifying topic sentences, supporting details, and crafting thesis statements. This ready-to-use packet includes practice worksheets, engaging exercises, and thesis sentence-building activities that will enhance your students' writing abilities.

Ideal for both informational and argumentative writing, this resource walks students through the entire process of constructing well-organized, coherent paragraphs. Whether you're teaching how to develop supporting sentences, transition between ideas, or conclude effectively, this resource covers it all!

What's Included:

• Graphic Organizer for understanding structure
• Identification exercise
• Two Unique Passages per skill: topic sentences, thesis statements, supporting sentences & concluding sentences
• 9 Passages
• 20 Pages
• Available as a PDF and a Word Document

Perfect for:

• Grades 6-10
• English Language Arts (ELA) Teachers
• Writing Workshops
• STAAR Writing Prep
• Argumentative and Informational Essay Practice

Benefits of this Resource:

• Aligned with Common Core Standards and TEKS for writing.
• Great for differentiated learning in classrooms with ELLs and students needing extra practice.
• Supports critical thinking and writing clarity.

Who is this for?

• Middle and High School Teachers: Perfect for educators looking to strengthen their students’ paragraph-writing skills with structured, step-by-step activities.
• ELA Teachers: Aligned with TEKS and Common Core standards, this resource is ideal for anyone teaching informational and argumentative writing.
• Students Preparing for Standardized Tests: Great for test prep, including STAAR writing, helping students improve clarity, coherence, and overall writing structure.
• Special Education & ELL Support: Easily adaptable for differentiated instruction, making it an excellent tool for classrooms with diverse learners, including English Language Learners and students with varying writing levels.
• Homeschool Educators: A valuable resource for guiding students through the fundamentals of paragraph writing at home.

The ultimate STAAR test writing prep for high school, designed to supercharge your writing skills and propel you towards success!

This file includes everything you need to excel in your STAAR test, from fiction passages to non-fiction passages, paired passages, and multiple writing prompts.

This exercise will enhance your student's ability to synthesize information and develop well-rounded arguments. To help you tackle the writing prompts with confidence, differentiated student rubrics are included that outline clear expectations and criteria for success. These rubrics will guide your students in crafting well-structured, coherent, and persuasive essays.

What's Included:

• Fiction Passages
• Non-fiction passages
• Paired passage
• Multiple writing prompts
• Differentiated Student Rubrics
• Writing Checklist
• Student Resources
• PDF & Word Files

This includes two Articles "How do hurricanes form? A step-by-step guide" and "How Do Hurricanes Form?" plus a graph titled "Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale" . After reading these two articles students are given a prompt for an expository essay on how hurricanes are formed. There is also an outline sheet included for students to use in order to help them organize their essay. Plus a rubric for easy grading of final essay.

***** Check out my other Writing Resources*****

Writing Thesis Statements

Counterclaim and Rebuttal

Writing Graphic Organizers

Interactive Essay Writing Flipbook

Argumentative Essay

Essay prompt and articles :Narcissism

Essay prompt and articles: Colonization in Africa

This includes two Articles "How do hurricanes form? A step-by-step guide" and "How Do Hurricanes Form?" plus a graph titled "Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale" . After reading these sources students are given a prompt for an expository essay on how hurricanes are formed. Includes a outline sheet that can be easily filled out in Google Docs as well as a rubric. This product works great in any digital classroom. This is editable in Google Docs. You must have Google Drive to use this product! You may sign up for Google drive for free Visit here for help with Google Drive

A brief Powerpoint on how to quote and cite in order to guide student's writing.

This is an informational handout to help students who have problems writing effective introduction paragraphs. ***** Check out my other Writing Resources***** Writing Thesis Statements Counterclaim and Rebuttal Writing Graphic Organizers Interactive Essay Writing Flipbook Argumentative Essay Essay prompt and articles :Narcissism Essay prompt and articles: Hurricanes Essay prompt and articles: Colonization in Africa

Includes prompts for writing informative and argumentative essays. Also includes writing powerpoints, outlines, and rubrics

This unit was designed (and taught) for a grade 5-7 mixed ability group.

If you want to get your students to think about the world around them and understand that everyone in the world has the same rights, but not everyone actually gets those rights, this is the unit to do this. Using explanatory writing as the genre of writing, students learn about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, while learning how to write different explanatory writing formats.

This unit includes links to required media, a teach guide (with 21-day timeline) and a student book to get you started. The final assessment questions are also provided. Rubric/success criteria are to be developed with the class (I do not provide rubrics because of the differences in curriculum).

From the feedback section: "Used with common core module 1"

Please don't forget to take a look at the other items I have available in my store!

Description:

• This product contains templates to help students write an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion for an Expository Research Writing project on animals. The introduction has students begin with an interesting lead and include sentences with general and specific sentences on appearance, habitat, diet, life cycle, and predators. There are two introduction templates on one page. This page will simply need to be cut in half so that an introduction can be given to two students per page. The body paragraph template has space for four paragraphs with main idea titles and spaces for key words that will be turned into sentences. The key words will be found and highlighted in their research prior to filling out this template. This page will need to be printed front and back. Remind students to add transition words when they write their final draft. The conclusion has a blank for a transition word, which has helped my students remember to put one. It also contains three spaces for summary sentences and one space for a final feeling sentence to close the report. There are other instructions included in this packet.

Includes:

• Two introduction paragraph templates per page containing:

  • Space for four sentences
  • An interesting lead sentence
  • A general or specific sentence on appearance, habitat/diet, and life cycle/predators

• One body paragraph template containing:

  • Space for main ideas, key words, five sentences per paragraph, and four paragraphs total

• Two conclusion templates per page containing:

  • A transition word
  • Space for four sentences
  • Three of which are summary sentences, one final feeling sentence

• Further instruction, tips, and advice inside

Your feedback is appreciated!

Engaging Writing templates for boys and girls!

Fifteen fun front and back templates!

A fun border design for each template:

1. Spooky Spiders
2. Horses
3. Pandas
4. Safari Animals
5. Woodland Creatures
6. Sweet Desserts
7. Junk Food
8. Frogs
9. Gorillas and Bananas
10. Puppies
11. Naruto
12. Princesses
13. Harry Potter
14. Aliens
15. Butterflies and Flowers

Are you an AVID teacher or English Language arts teacher? Need to explain how to write a thesis statement in an argumentative essay to middle or high school students? In this product you will find everything you need to help your students craft their thesis statements!

What You Get:

✏️5 teach slides

✏️"make it better" activity direction slide

✏️7 bad thesis statements

✏️7 better thesis statement examples

✏️argumentative writing prompt

✏️21 argumentative writing topic ideas

✏️4 steps guiding students in crafting their thesis statements

Make it Better Directions:

• Each slide students will be given a bad thesis statement.
• In small groups, their goal is to fix it and make it better.
• Classmates, selected judges, or teacher will vote on the best one and that group earns a point.

Click HERE to see our other AVID resources. We also have several great AVID bundle options available down below!

AVID Mega Growing Bundle

AVID Teambuilding Bundle

AVID Writing Bundle

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*Note this product may be used in brick and mortar classes as well as virtual systems like Outschool

Use this AVID resource when students begin their argumentative writing! Students will quickly develop arguments on a variety of topics through a speed style variation of Philosophical Chairs. In turn, students will not only craft their thesis statements and come up with arguments for their essays, but they will also increase their public speaking and collaboration skills!

Overview:

Philosophical Chairs: Speed Formation utilizes many of the same components of the classic version, but is a fun, fast-paced variation that can be utilized during shortened class periods. This variation of Philosophical Chairs should only be utilized after students have developed their skills through the classic style.

What's Included:

• 1 student objective slides
• 1 overview slide
• 1 argumentative prompt slide
• 2 thesis statement teaching slides
• 6 rules of engagement slides/steps
• 2 basic norm slides
• 1 google doc where students reflect on the philosophical chairs

Click HERE to see our other AVID resources. We also have several great AVID bundle options available down below!

AVID Mega Growing Bundle

AVID Teambuilding Bundle

AVID Writing Bundle

Follow KJ Inspired Resources:

TeachShare Store- Receive updates on new products and sales

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Are you an AVID or English teacher? Need to explain argumentative writing to middle or high school students? In this product you will find 16 teaching slides that explain argumentative writing.

What do you get?

• 16 teaching slides that cover argumentative writing and format

Use For:

• focused note taking practice, ELA, AVID

Click HERE to see our other AVID resources. We also have several great AVID bundle options available down below!

AVID Mega Growing Bundle

AVID Teambuilding Bundle

AVID Writing Bundle

Follow KJ Inspired Resources:

TeachShare Store- Receive updates on new products and sales

Instagram

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This product includes a chart for students to track platitudes as they read the novel. Afterwards, they will choose one of the platitudes to be the subject of a writing assignment. The essay prompt requires them to support the platitude with two examples from the novel and one from their life.

Are you looking for an engaging activity to review the novel with your students? Check out my Question trail for Nothing But the Truth!

https://www.TeachShare.com/Product/Avis-Nothing-But-The-Truth-Question-Trail-Text-Analysis-Activity-4307951

If you need a way to assess your students' understanding of the novel, please check out my Socratic Circle packet! https://www.TeachShare.com/Product/Nothing-But-The-Truth-by-Avi-Socratic-Seminar-packets-and-rubric-4070811

This bundle packages 3 products together for a reduced rate! You'll get a question trail to review the book, a platitudes writing assignment, as well as 2 Socratic Seminar packets that can be used as a final assessment. Please check out each individual product for details! Thank you! Please let me know if you have questions.

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Did you know that you can receive $ credit towards future TeachShare purchases by reviewing this product? Please leave a review at the product page or through "My Purchases" under "My Account" at TpT. Thank you!

If you are looking to save time editing and grading student essays, this resource will literally be a life-changer! Over my years of teaching, I believe that I have perfected the peer editing system so as to produce the best student essays possible with minimal errors while cutting down significantly on the time the teacher must spend editing and grading them. This product includes three meticulously-designed peer editing forms with directed questions and editing prompts. Forms are fully editable so that you may change wording to remain consistent with your instruction, grade level, and adapt to any essay. The questions cover everything from basic essay components and quote integration to technical details, grammar, and formatting. Most importantly, this resource also includes a step-by-step guide on how to conduct a 45-50 minute class on peer editing day. I promise that these peer editing forms and accompanying lesson plan will become some of the most valuable resources in your teacher's tool box and that your students' writing will improve without you pulling your hair out reading rough drafts. ___________________________________________________________________________ Check out these related resources for your ELA classroom by Language Arts Excellence: ⭐ Introduction to Dystopia Powerpoint
⭐ Socratic Seminar Lesson Plan and Materials
⭐ Literary Devices Crossword Puzzle
⭐ Literature Circle Task Cards
⭐ Literature Activities {{BUNDLE!}}
⭐ Novel Playlist Assignment
⭐ Guess Your Grade - Effective Effort Form
⭐ Figurative Language in 2017 Hit Music PowerPoint & Task Card BUNDLE
⭐ Figurative Language Challenge Game
⭐ Characters in the Hot Seat! ___________________________________________________________________________ ⭐Click to Follow Language Arts Excellence⭐

This 3-page form asks students to specifically rate their performance on the 6 components of effective effort on a given essay: TIME, FOCUS, RESOURCEFULNESS, USE OF STRATEGIES, USE OF FEEDBACK, and COMMITMENT. This product is modeled after teachings from The Skillful Teacher by Jon Saphier, Mary Ann Haley-Speca, and Robert Gower and encourages a growth mindset in students. I provide this form to my students every single time I assign a paper and am always pleasantly surprised at how honest they are in their responses, especially as the incentive for guessing their grade is 2 bonus points! ____________________________________________________________________________ Also, check out this great lesson plan for teaching Effective Effort by Language Arts Excellence: ⭐Effective Effort Lesson Plan ____________________________________________________________________________ ⭐Click to Follow Language Arts Excellence⭐

This 3-page form asks students to specifically rate their performance on the 6 components of effective effort on a given essay: TIME, FOCUS, RESOURCEFULNESS, USE OF STRATEGIES, USE OF FEEDBACK, and COMMITMENT. This product is modeled after teachings from The Skillful Teacher by Jon Saphier, Mary Ann Haley-Speca, and Robert Gower and encourages a growth mindset in students. I provide this form to my students every single time I assign a paper and am always pleasantly surprised at how honest they are in their responses, especially as the incentive for guessing their grade is 2 bonus points! ____________________________________________________________________________ Also, check out this great lesson plan for teaching Effective Effort by Language Arts Excellence: ⭐Effective Effort Lesson Plan ____________________________________________________________________________ ⭐Click to Follow Language Arts Excellence⭐