Students are expected to write for a variety of purposes beginning in third grade. Teachers must provide lessons that address the mechanics and different types of writing. Free-writing and other pre-writing exercises can help get students' creativity flowing, while lessons focused on writing for a specific purpose can help students consider their audience and to establish voice.

Free-writing

Students sometimes have difficulty beginning a writing assignment. Brainstorming is part of the pre-writing process and typically involves using a graphic organizer to write down words and ideas as they come to mind. Another way to teach students to pre-write is to create free-writing lesson plans. Free-writing, also known as "automatic writing" or "speedwriting," is the practice of writing down whatever comes to mind without trying to organize the words. Provide students with a loose writing topic or prompt and ask them to fill a page with whatever thoughts or feelings they have about the topic. When they have finished free-writing, they can read what they have written to find any ideas that can be turned into a writing assignment.

Tell a Photograph's Story

Photographs make great writing prompts. Project a photo onto a screen or wall in the classroom and ask students to think about what is happening in the photo. Have students brainstorm about the story behind the photograph. Provide questions for students to answer about the photograph that are vague enough to generate a variety of responses. Have students write a paragraph or short narrative telling the photograph's story.

Persuasive Writing Activity

Students encounter persuasive writing assignments as early as third grade. Persuasive writing lesson plans include elements that teach students to make a reasonable and effective argument that supports their opinion. For example, ask the class a question such as, "What is your favorite season?" Have students write down their answers on note cards or sticky notes. Then divide students into four groups based on their response. Have each group work together to come up with a list of reasons why their season is the best season, and then ask the groups to share their answers with the classroom. This teaches the basis of persuasive writing -- supporting your claim with evidence.

This activity can be taken a step further by selecting one season as the best season and having students debate for or against the argument. Select the season that had the largest group of students who said it was their favorite. Divide students into two teams and have one team argue for that season being the best season, and one argue against.

Personal Narrative

In personal narratives, students write about their lives and experiences. Personal narrative writing lesson plans can begin with journal writing assignments. Have students reflect on their summer, their weekend, or what they have learned in class that day. Then build on these assignments. For example, ask students to write about their favorite summer vacation, or have them tell the story of the best day of their lives. Teach students to write in more detail by answering "who, what, when, where, why and how" questions. Share with the class short stories and grade-appropriate novels that are personal narratives, and model the writing process by using an experience from your own life as an example.