Essay/Writing Graphic Outline | Free Download

Since being in resource, I have been tasked with helping my students on their class writing assignments instead of writing skills specifically.

                                        My students would come over with these one page graphic organizers with small boxes and I always thought  “OMG! I don’t even think that is enough space for me as an adult, how is this going to work for them?!” And of course I would see students write in them and when it came to using their G.O. to write their paper they couldn’t even read what they wrote in their G.O. It was a hot mess!

I met with my 5^th grade team to discuss writing and boy were they awesome about letting me change the G.O. my students used so we weren’t spending a whole day trying to decode what their ideas were on the tiny G.O. They even said they wished they could use the same organizer but didn’t have enough copies in the year to do so. ☹  I wish        they could too!!! Maybe you can!

I made this G.O. that has one page per paragraph. Also to conserve time as we only have a week to write a 5-paragraph essay (AHHHHH!) I have my students write their full sentences in each box instead of just bullets and ideas.

 I have had students tell me that the G.O has made writing less stressful for them since it was so structured and they knew when their paragraph was done after filling in the boxes. My aides and I then can edit right on the Graphic Organizer, and the only time they need another piece of paper is to rewrite their paper (copy with edits) to their final draft! I remember the first time I introduced this to my students in 6^th grade, they said “That’s it? This is so easy!” I giggled because writing is easy, it has the same structure no matter what type of writing you are doing. I was glad that writing had stopped being this big bad monster to my students. ☺

I have seen a huge improvement in students writing and their understanding of what goes into each part of a paper.

I hope this is a helpful resource for you as well, click here for the FREE download. Don't forget to pin, share and repost for all teachers to see and check back soon for more free templates and resources.