Start teaching writing on the first day of school. Get a writing baseline informal assessment that will guide instruction. The next step is to build on your students’ writing skills, starting where they are at.
Home » TeacherWriter.co Blog and News » Teaching Writing »
Teaching writing from the first day of school can be a treasure trove for a teacher who knows how to use it. Unfortunately, many teachers don’t understand the value in the first piece of writing the students turn in. They haven’t answered the question of why you need to start teaching writing on the first day of school. Read on to discover what a gem beginning right away will be for your class.
This post was updated on August 1, 2025.Some of the links in this post may be affiliate offers. This means if you make a purchase, TeacherWriter LLC may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. For more information, see the Privacy Policy and Legal Notice Page.
Teachers typically have some fun getting-to-know-you games, and an easy read-aloud book to help students relax, like Ms. Book’s Big Surprise.
We love these fun things that help everyone feel welcome in the classroom.
No matter what grade level you teach, you might have a back-to-school packet on each student’s desk. These are perfect for an activity to engage your students while you’re busy taking photos or attending to other first day duties. After that, you might review it (or not) and then you might forget about it.
But what about writing? Did you know first day back-to-school writing is a valuable tool to inform how you will be teaching writing. Every class is different, and as you know, we tailor our lessons to our learners.
First Day Teaching Writing With an Informal Assessment
This first day writing is a perfect baseline informal assessment. The students typically want to do their best and impress their teachers. Your writing activities should not be simply something to fill the time, but should be an actual assignment that you retain in a student file. The level you determine for each student will inform your teaching and guide you to the best lessons to begin your instruction.
What Type of Writing Assignment is Best for the First Day?
It’s important to find out what levels your students are at in academic areas as soon as possible. If you don’t know what they don’t know, you might make the classic mistake of beginning to teach writing from the first directed assignment in your English Language Arts curriculum.
Don’t be tempted to do that!
Some students may be writing at a higher level than what’s expected. In that case, you’ve just sent them a message that your assignments will be BORING and they may put minimum effort into the assignment just to complete it quickly.
For the students who are at a lower writing level, all the assignment will do is cause them frustration. They may feel intimidated or embarrassed to write, and having an assignment that’s too hard will only exacerbate the problem.
Instead, choose an engaging writing activity that can be repeated at mid-year and end of year. If you have a student join your class after the first day, make sure to give him or her the same writing assignment. You’re going to be using it later in the year.
A goal setting activity is perfect for this. Goals can be revised and rewritten later in the year.
Another idea writing from a picture prompt. Students will feel less stress and you’ll have an informal assessment to begin your year.
Save the Students’ Writing in a Folder or Portfolio
This is key. Many teachers look over the writing and then place it in a portfolio for back-to-school night. Or perhaps they put a stamp, sticker, or note on it and send it home. But not you! Here’s why:
One huge motivation for students is to see how much they’ve improved over time. By doing other similar writing assignments over the months of the school year, you’ll have evidence of student improvement. It also gives you the instant feedback if there isn’t improvement. Then you can add lessons to fill in any gaps.
Keep their writing all year.
Later in the year, perhaps in two months, or at the mid-year point and again at the end of the year, give the same type of writing prompt again. Do tell the students you want them to write well, using all the things they’ve learned during the year. Do tell them they are going to be comparing their writing to the similar piece they wrote on the first day of school.
Once they’ve completed the writing and you’ve assessed it, have a conference with each student individually. Be over-the-top excited to show them how much better their writing is now. Your enthusiasm will make them feel proud, and they’ll be eager to work even harder on the next assignment.
Plus there’s not much sweeter than seeing your students’ eyes light up when they see the difference in their writing. It’s also fabulous to include the side-by-side comparison for the parents. Their eyes light up, too.
What kinds of writing activities work well for informal assessment, mid-year informal assessment, and end of year comparisons?
You might not like my answer. It’s this: only you know. You are the one who knows your grade level and your students best. You’ll find plenty of ideas online when you do a search.
For Kindergarten and first grade, it could be as simple as writing their name and drawing a picture of something they want to do in school.
By second grade, they should be able to write at least a sentence or two about what they want to learn, do, or master in school.
By third, fourth, and fifth grade, they should be writing with elaborations, explanations, or examples. You’ll also be looking for proper sentence structure. Third grade students will need more scaffolding than the older students.
This system of color coded writing has differentiation and scaffolding built right into it.
By the time you do the third writing assessment, if you’ve been following a systematic method of teaching writing, and conferencing weekly with students, you may be amazed at the amount of progress they’ve made.
You’ll feel confident in teaching writing, too.
Sit down and give yourself a pat on the back. You earned it!
P.S. Did you know that you can have your entire year planned in only 5 days? Learn how to create a curriculum map that you love and actually use! It links to your teacher planner so that you’ll only need a few minutes each week to get ready for your school days. In it, you can plan your writing lessons from day one.
Books mentioned in this blog post:
