Teach Essay Writing in 3 Steps: A Smart Strategy for Secondary Literacy

Image of students writing essays. For the past few weeks, we’ve been scaffolding our way through smart strategies for secondary literacy. We’ve been using the gradual release of responsibility model to ensure that we’re building a solid foundation in literacy. This week, we’re going to discuss how to teach essay writing in three steps.

For the past few weeks, we’ve been scaffolding our way through smart strategies for secondary literacy. We’ve been using the gradual release of responsibility model to ensure that we’re building a solid foundation in literacy. This week, we’re going to discuss how to teach essay writing in three steps.

We’ve already discussed preparing students to write essays with sentence-level practice and paragraph-level practice. Now it’s time to put it together into an essay. To do this, I’ve modified the structure of a Long Essay Question (LEQ) from the College Board. It’s a solid structure for argumentative writing, but it can be adapted to fit any type of essay writing.

Why Writing Essays is a Smart Strategy for Secondary Literacy

Too often we rely on multiple choice, black and white, “just give me the right answer” assessment. I’m not knocking it. Believe me, I get. We all deserve evenings and weekends free of grading.

But if these are the only assessments we’re giving, we’re not teaching our students the art of nuanced thinking–an increasingly valuable skill in the emerging economy and an indispensable one in the age of AI and social media.

That’s why writing essays is a smart strategy for secondary literacy. Essays help our students flex their nuanced-thinking muscles and teach them the art of argumentation and explanation by getting them out of the “there’s only one right answer” mindset.

After your students have practiced quality writing at the sentence level and perfected the CER paragraph, it’s time to introduce essay writing in three steps.

Teach Essay Writing in 3 Steps: Step 1–Model the Process with a Template

The first step is to model the process for your students. You know I’m a big fan of starting out with templates. This is no different. I’ve got this template for you in my free resource library. Be sure to scroll down to sign up in the sidebar on the right to get the password.

An image of essay writing templates that you can grab from my free resource library
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I used to use Jamboard for this, but it’s going away (thanks, Google), so now I’m a fan of the free Annotate extension. You can project a document and write or type on it. You can also use it to annotate webpages.

  1. Start with the rubric. Discuss each component with the students and have them discuss what an exemplar would look like.
  2. Then project the prompt you’re using and brainstorm.
  3. Next, project just the first part of the template–the portion that’s for generating paragraph one. Talk aloud and ask for suggestions as you model the first paragraph for students.
  4. Repeat the process with both of the body paragraphs. These should be very familiar to students at this point–the body paragraphs are the CER paragraphs your students have already been working with.
  5. Create a simple conclusion by summarizing the thesis statement.
An image detailing step 1 of how to teach essay writing in three steps.

Teach Essay Writing in 3 Steps: Step 2–Have Partners Compose an Essay Using the Template

The next step is to allow your students to practice writing an essay with a partner.

  1. Place students into groups of two and give each pair a copy of the full essay template.
  2. Give the class a prompt and discuss to ensure that everyone understands.
  3. Then instruct the pairs to brainstorm, compose their first paragraph, body paragraphs, and conclusion. You can set a timer for each component and have pairs share out with the class at the end of each step, depending on your class.
  4. Last, form new small groups by placing each pair with another pair. Have them use the rubric to peer edit each other’s essays.
An image detailing step 2 of how to teach essay writing in three steps.

Teach Essay Writing in 3 Steps: Step 3–Have Students Compose an Essay Individually

When you release students to write their own essays, be sure to continue to use the template at first. After students have practiced with it a few times, take it away. The ultimate goal is for them to be able to do it completely on their own.

Peer editing is a valuable tool to use in each step. Another tool you might want to check out is Class Companion. It’s an AI powered feedback tool that I’ll be writing more about very soon.

An image detailing step 3 of how to teach essay writing in three steps.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the Smart Strategy for Secondary Literacy series. Each step of the process is designed to build on the others, and the ultimate goal is to create independent learners.

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