Third Grade Writing Lessons
I love teaching third grade writing lessons. There is something so special about watching the light turn on for young writers. To be sure, kids can be good writers before third grade, but grade 3 is such a great time to hone in on specific writing skills. Take a look at some of my favorite lessons and activities that help to build foundational writing skills in third grade.
Text: The Best Writing Lessons for Third Grade
Image: School supplies are displayed on a blank white surface.
Writing With Transition Words
Teaching students how to use transition words in their writing is a great way to preserve your sanity! An essay or paragraph that has transition words, makes it much more smooth to read. I like to teach transition words near the beginning of the year so students can use them in all their writing assignments. There are several different ways to teach transition words in an interactive way. Check out this blog post to find five ideas on how to teach transition words.
teaching students to write creative stories
Stories are such a fun thing for students to write and also a fun thing for teachers to read! During my story writing lessons, students learn about character, setting, problems and solutions. They plan and build their own stories with a beginning, middle, and an end.
Like almost every lesson in my classroom, I use mentor texts while teaching about stories. What better way to learn how to write a story? Read a story! In this narrative writing blog post you’ll read about how I teach story writing in third grade.
finding ideas for narrative writing
How often have we all heard the sentence, “I don’t know what to write about?” I’m not the biggest fan of prewritten writing prompts, but I also don’t love to leave my students completely without any ideas at all.
This is one of my favorite lessons to help students learn to find their own writing ideas. While teaching about narrative writing, I have students pick a favorite story and then write a creative story based on that book. Narrative writing can take many forms, but students love to put a fun twist on stories they already know.
informative writing with a twist
Informative writing is vastly different from story or narrative writing. In story and narrative writings, students can take creative license to make up information or details. In informative writing, students have to learn how to gather information and then write it in a way that makes sense.
When I teach informative writing, I like to have students interview their peers to gather information. This also gives them practice with asking questions. After gathering the information, they write it into a report or a news broadcast. Check out this post for more specifics on teaching informative writing.
purposeful persuasive writing
And last, but not least, I like to teach persuasive writing in third grade. Kids are already quite good at giving persuasive arguments to their parents or other authority figures. What kid hasn’t tried to negotiate extra dessert, a playdate with a friend or staying up late on a school night? What kids need to learn is how to turn those arguments into great pieces of writing.
In this lesson, students learn how to identify their audience, identify convincing arguments/non-convincing arguments, and write a persuasive essay. And, as you’ve probably guessed, I like to use mentor texts to help my students as they generate ideas for their writing.
The growth that students show during their time in 3rd grade is so immense, and these lessons are some of my tried-and-true favorites for this age.
