Work smarter not harder when you delegate your writing instruction this year with these standards-based writing activities.
Sometimes, as teachers, there are things that you just really don’t like to do. For many Middle School ELA teachers, that is teaching writing.
Writing instruction includes so many different details, such as citing sources, punctuation and language skills, capitalization, using good descriptions, and having the correct parts of an essay.
To be completely honest, those things can kind of be sucky to teach.
Luckily, you can delegate your writing instruction this year with the help of these standards-based products.
Make Teaching Writing Easier
Often, teachers try to meet the writing standards by simply having students create essays with very little background instruction to help support them in this process.
We assume that with the technology and resources that are accessible to them, including AI tools, citation apps, and even parents who want to be way too involved in their kids’ success, students are miraculously going to learn how to write effectively over time.
But this is not true.
Students have to be explicitly taught how to write.
Explicit Writing Instruction in Middle School ELA
The more formal the writing, the more explicitly it needs to be taught.
In fact, in a society where students have access to so many different tools and people to help them with their writing, explicit instruction within the classroom is even more important.
Why?
Because this may be one of the only times that students are asked to write on their own without tools or other people impeding their learning. Yes, I said impeding because when students depend on tools and other people to help them with their writing, they don’t get the opportunity to learn what good writing is supposed to be or what makes good writing different from bad writing.
For example, for the average ELA teacher reading this post, it is probably driving you nuts that I’m starting sentences with conjunctions, not writing full paragraphs, and breaking many grammar rules that ELA teachers know.
BUT, you also know that in this context (blogging), a relaxed, natural way of writing is more acceptable, and therefore, the rules don’t have to be followed as strictly.
If your students never learn the rules and have to apply them without the help of their tools or other resources, they won’t have any idea how to write in different contexts. They won’t know what good writing actually is, or even when the tool or person helping them isn’t a good tool/teacher.
Over the last several years, the ELA teachers behind The Sparkly Notebook have been creating a standards-based product line that explicitly teaches each standard within the Middle School Ela curriculum.
These standard’s-based products go into great detail. Each product breaks one standard down into its individual learning targets and then provides instruction, tutorials, handouts, posters, and assessments that teachers can use to make sure students are getting explicit instructions on the skills associated with that standard.
Because these standards-based writing activities are so robust and provide so many additional tutorials and handouts, teachers can use these resources to delegate their writing instruction. Using video tutorials and ready-to-go writing activities and lessons, writing instruction is much easier and more purposeful.
Delegating Writing Instruction to Substitute Teachers
One of the biggest benefits of using these standards-based writing activities to help teach writing is how easy they are to delegate to subs. Now, this is true for most of the standards in this product line, but especially with the writing standards.
Using these writing resources, you can delegate your writing instruction to substitute teachers with ease.
The resources include detailed activities that a sub can use as they work with students (including answer keys). They also include several tutorial videos that substitute teachers can show as they’re working on writing with students.
Our goal is always to make instruction easier and more organized for middle school ELA teachers. If we can help you delegate your writing instruction this year, we are happy to do that.
Click on the links below for more information on the resources and suggestions for each of the middle school writing standards!
How to Teach W.7 in Middle School ELA
How to teach RI.8 in Middle School 
3 Self-Development Books for New Teachers