Less than $5 Writing-Essays Activities (by date, oldest first)

• 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.

Looking to help your students master the passive voice for standardized tests like the STAAR? This 16-page resource is your go-to guide for teaching passive voice with a gradual increase in complexity.

Start with the basics of identifying subjects and verbs in sentences, then progress to understanding direct objects and other key components essential for a full grasp of passive voice. This packet is designed to make learning passive voice engaging and effective.

Included are:

• 5 Pages of handouts to make sure to make sure students understand each part of passive voice.
• Practice pages that progressively challenge students, ensuring they can identify and use passive voice with confidence.
• Exercises in evaluating and revising sentences, crucial for mastering the revising sections of tests.
• 2 editing passages for applied practice, perfect for honing skills in a test-like environment.

Ideal for both classroom use and independent practice, this resource is an excellent tool for students in middle and high school.

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

This word sleuth will provide your students/children with a fun journey in writing ELA Essays with key vocabulary words. It can be done in class, centers, or as a fun homework assignment.

Word sleuth is in PPTX format along with the answer key.

If you and your students/children, enjoy this activity, please go to your purchases and let me a review.

Please follow me on social media: linktr.ee/tidewindacademy

Tina

Big Easy Homeschooling Mom

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

Digital Task Cards are a great way to help your students with claim, counterclaim, and rebuttal! These cards can work on a computer or mobile device! No printing of cutting just assign the deck to your students and you are ready to go! Boom Learning is free to sign up for. Students get immediate feedback and teachers can take advantage of reporting tools. Easy and effective! Great for distance learning or in a digital classroom. A total of 20 task cards.

*****READ MORE ABOUT BOOM CARDS: Boom Cards are self-grading, DIGITAL resources. They live in the cloud. They can't be printed. They play on most modern browsers, Android, iPads, iPhones, and Kindle Fires. You open a Boom Learning℠ account to play them (to protect the children). Create Fast Play pins to assign your Boom Cards to students.

Boom Learning also has premium accounts. Premium accounts offer advanced assignment tools, individual and whole class performance tracking, and more. If you are a new Boom Learning customer, when you redeem your Boom Cards purchase you get 90-day free trial of a premium account. When your trial ends, you can renew or move to a free account. You may upgrade, downgrade or cancel at any time. Free accounts use purchased Boom Cards with Fast Play pins.

***Did you know??? You can use Boom Cards in Google Classroom™! Just CLICK HERE to find out how!

This includes two Articles "The History of Narcissistic

Personality Disorder" and "Selfies, Facebook, and Narcissism: What's the Link? Exploring the link between Facebook and Narcissism" plus a graph titled "College Students' Narcissistic Personality Inventory Scores 1982-2006" . After reading these two articles students are given a prompt for an expository essay on narcissism. 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*****

Counterclaim and Rebuttal

Interactive Essay Writing Flipbook

Argumentative Essay

Writing Thesis Statements

Essay prompt and articles: Hurricanes

Essay prompt and articles: Colonization in Africa

Should students be allowed to use cell phones in school? This is an argumentative essay prompt, two articles, a graph, and outline sheet. Your kids will all have their own opinions about cell phone usage and whether or not schools should ban cell phones. This comes complete with rubric

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

Are you an AVID or English teacher? Need to explain the difference between argument and persuasion to middle or high school students? In this product you will find 6 explanations that show the difference between argumentative and persuasive writing. After teaching students the differences, they will have the chance to practice what they learned with the This or That game where students will read different text examples and have to decide which ones are persuasive or argumentative.

What do you get?

• 5 teach slides
• 6 this or that game slides (3 for each persuasion and argumentative types of writing)
• 6 circled answer slides

Use For:

• essay writing, Framework Friday, AVID, ELA, and more!

This or That Directions:

• Each slide you will be looking for either argumentative or persuasive sentences that match the titles of the slide.
• Decide which of the sentences is correct and either hold up a thumb or 2 fingers to show your answer.

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

Tik Tok

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

Follow KJ Inspired Resources:

TeachShare Store- Receive updates on new products and sales

Instagram

Tik Tok

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

These 8 protocol/guideline slides are perfect for any essay in any subject! Students will follow the guidelines in order to present their essays to their peers and recieve direct and specific feedback through 3 column note taking.

Before the Lesson:

• Students should have completed a rough draft of their writing.
• Pre decide small revision groups.
• Make copies of each students essay for each of their group members.

Directions:

• Go through each of these 8 protocol slides with students as they recieve feedback from their peers in order to make revisions on their essay:

1. Distribute
2. Explain
3. Read
4. Read again
5. Share
6. Receive
7. Clarify
8. Repeat

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

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

This Google Doc will help your students comprehend and analyze King's famous 1981 essay, "Why We Crave Horror Movies". It includes a link to the essay, as well as 8 questions that require students to comprehend and analyze King's main idea, diction, author's craft, use of metaphor, and use of allusion.

I use this at the beginning of my Mystery/Suspense/Horror half year high school elective course, but you could use it to introduce a wide variety of novels, short stories, movies, or tv episodes! It could even be used in a film studies course.

Thank you for looking and please ask if you have any questions!

This product has 3 parts. First, there is a hi-lighting activity that requires students to go back into an Argument Essay they've already written and color-code the different essential parts of their writing. You could post this assignment on Google classroom or project the directions onto the Smart Board. The second part is a checklist for Argument Writing. You will make a copy for each student. The students could use it themselves for self- assessment, OR they could switch and use it for peer feedback. Finally, there is a very helpful chart that includes transition words for Argument Writing, including power words, transition words, turnback words, and counter argument words. You can copy this for all students, hang it on the wall, project it on the Smart Board, or post it on Google classroom. My students keep this in their binders to refer to all year long.

Please help my little business grow!

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!

Self-reflection is so important for students of all ages and what better time to reflect on learning than at the end of the school year? With that in mind, I created this end of year reflection assignment that prompts students to consider all of the meaningful experiences they had all year in my class. My students really get into this assignment and I'm sure yours will too! I've included in this product a model of my assignment and a fully editable template for you - it will only take a few minutes to tweak it and make it your own. Your students will thank you for offering this differentiated assessment! I also included three exemplary student examples. ___________________________________________________________________________ Check out these related resources by Language Arts Excellence to finish your school year strong: ⭐ End of Year ELA Escape Room
⭐ End of Year ELA Escape Room - Pop Culture Edition ⭐ End of Year Mad Libs ⭐ We Didn't Start the Fire Activity ⭐ End of Year "Book Talk" Activity
⭐ Guess Your Grade - Effective Effort Form ___________________________________________________________________________ ⭐ Click to Follow Language Arts Excellence⭐

This How to Paper resource is perfect for teaching procedural writing and instructional writing. This resource provides both print and digital options to accommodate diverse classroom needs.

What's Inside:

Print Version:

• How to Brainstorming Sheet: A structured guide for students to generate and organize ideas for their instructional writing project.

• Three Graphic Organizers tailored to different levels of detail:

  • 1 Paragraph Organizer
  • 3 Paragraph Organizer
  • 5 Paragraph Organizer

• Example Papers: High-quality examples for each graphic organizer, illustrating the format and expectations for procedural writing.

Digital Version:

• Interactive Google Slides: A step-by-step guide that walks students through brainstorming, organizing, and writing their how to paper directly on the slides.
• Embedded Examples: Clear examples for 1 paragraph, 3 paragraph, and 5 paragraph papers, integrated within the slides to support student learning.
• Remote and In-Class Use: Flexible access ensures all students can participate, regardless of their learning environment.

Why You’ll Love It:

• Engaging and Structured: Keeps students engaged with visually appealing templates and clear, step-by-step instructions.
• Versatile: Suitable for various subjects and grade levels, making it a valuable addition to any curriculum.
• Skill-Building: Enhances critical thinking, organizational skills, and writing abilities through structured procedural writing tasks.

Transform your students into confident and capable instructional writers with this easy-to-use How to Paper resource. Whether in print or digital format, this resource is designed to help every student succeed in creating clear, informative, and engaging instructional texts.

Keywords: How to paper, procedural writing, instructional writing

Add this versatile and effective resource to your teaching toolkit today and watch your students thrive in their writing endeavors!

When I was starting out, teaching my students how to properly write a book review was a struggle, so I created my own! This packet is easy to follow, fun to use, and incorporates the OREO strategy we learned for writing an opinion paragraph. This resource can be used independently by students or can be incorporated into a whole group lesson.

Includes a FREE writing rubric!

Do your students struggle with capitalizing titles of books, songs, and movies? This activity is the perfect way to practice these skills! This activity can be completed at once or broken up into 3 segments. Students have the opportunity to tell the difference between a title that is correctly capitalized and one that is not, and then use these skills to write titles correctly. A great resource for morning work, homework, or as a "must do." The donut theme adds a touch of fun!

PDF printable

This donut writing activity is a great way to brighten up a final draft of a writing assignment! This template comes in two variations. Perfect addition to a classroom transformation or donut day!

PDF printable

This all-in-one resource includes both the full text and a differentiated version with guided annotations, making it accessible to a range of learners. This resource includes a variety of activities that are focused on growing specific skills as well as activities that assess multiple skills in a variety of formats.

Included in This Resource:

• “The Tell-Tale Heart” Text

  • Standard Text
  • Differentiated Text With Guided Annotation

• Skill-Focused Practice:

  • Inference & Text Evidence with Dialectical Journal Chart
  • Context Clues
  • Analyzing Main Idea & Details
  • Point of View Through Creative Writing

• Mixed-Skill Practice:

  • Literary Analysis Scavenger Hunt
  • Literary Analysis One-Pager with Rubric

• Assessment:

  • Comprehension Quiz

• Constructed Responses:

  • Four Informational Prompts
  • One Argumentative Prompts
  • BONUS Paired Argumentative Prompt (Paired w/ William Sleator’s “The Elevator”--text not included)
  • Planning Guides (Informational/Argumentative)
  • Scoring Rubrics (Informational/Argumentative)

• **Answer Keys (for Applicable Activities)
  **

This resource is perfect for differentiating instruction and meeting the needs of all learners. Save time and focus on building strong literary analysis skills with this ready-to-use unit.

Be sure to get credit towards future TeachShare purchases by leaving a review of your purchase! Follow the steps below to earn credit towards future purchases.

1. Go to your My Purchases page.

2. Look for a Provide Feedback button next to each purchase.

3. Click "Provide Feedback," and you will be taken to a page to leave a review.

4. Every time you leave a review, TeachShare gives you credits that you can use to lower the cost of future purchases.

Thank you so much for your feedback!

Follow along with Mandy in the Middle for more resources!