As ESL teachers, we’ve all had those students who do great on their grammar exams, speak up confidently in class, and are always first to raise their hands for activities - and yet, when it comes time for a writing assignment, they can barely squeeze out a few short sentences. This can be frustrating for the student and teacher alike - but it’s the symptom of a problem that’s well-known in every teaching community: Speaking and writing are two very different skills.
As with any new skill, practice is key - but students who have trouble writing aren’t usually keen to take on even more writing practice. After all, they might think, if their grammar and vocabulary are correct, and they don’t need to write in English for their jobs, what’s the point of drilling this skill? The answer is, of course, that the ability to write in English is key in the world and the workplace - from writing cover letters and CVs to drafting emails and client presentations. The responsibility is at least partly on you, the teacher, to provide assignments that draw your students into the writing process.
BusyTeacher.org is your number-one stop for exactly those kinds of assignments. Our 730 writing worksheets will provide your students with intriguing writing prompts, and with a variety of writing exercises that’ll help them watch their own improvement as it happens. Our worksheets even break down the writing process into its core components, so you can figure out exactly where in the process each student is struggling, and intervene with exercises to help him or her through that trouble spot.
The writing worksheets here on BusyTeacher.org will help familiarize your students with all the sub-skills involved in writing - from choosing a topic and constructing that first paragraph, all the way to writing movie reviews and short poems. Some of our worksheets even cover basics like handwriting and sentence structure - so no matter how much your students need to brush up on their fundamentals, we’ve got worksheets to meet them where they are.
You’ll find worksheets on any topic you can imagine, from daily routines and holidays to pop culture, news, and even poetry and song lyrics. Some worksheets just help you lead simple fill-in-the-blank exercises, while others present thought-provoking topics for full essays, or include plans for your students to create their own newsletters. And for students who need help with English school assignments, you’ll also find worksheets on writing essays and test responses.
You can browse all of our 730 writing worksheets in thumbnail view, so you don’t have to wait for any of them to load to get an idea of what they’re like. As you scroll down the page, just click on any worksheet that catches your eye - they’re all completely free to download, print, and share in any way you like. And they’re all created and classroom-tested by real ESL teachers all over the world - which means you can be confident they’ll work in your classroom, too. If you’ve got a worksheet of your own that you’d like to share with your fellow ESL teachers in the BusyTeacher.org community, just click the “Submit a worksheet” button at the bottom of this page.
All of these writing worksheets are here to help you - so pick out a few that look interesting, and give them a try in your classroom today. We’re sure you’ll love them as much as the other ESL teachers in our community already do.
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The worksheet is a step by step guide for process writing aimed at the EFL learner. I designed the diagram as an aid to help my learners implement the writing process as a learning strategy and a ...
this PPP will help you to teach how to write paragraphs: the topic sentence, the body itself and the conclusion. Then, you have the different types of paragraph... You can look for different parag ...
I worked with this song when we talked about Heroes and icons of our time. The thematic unit was called Human Values. We talked about famous people who have helped our world to be a better place, ...
Students can make cartoon characters (people, superheros, animals...) out of the punctuation marks on the cards. Playing games with the cards will reinforce both the name and shape of the mark. I ...
This is a writing activity for intermediate students who are asked to, based on the topics given , write a speech defending animals’ rights and the idea that people should never abuse and ex ...
This worksheet was created in order to work with descriptions of animals. It requires prior knowledge related to animals and parts of their bodies. First, I designed three activities in order to p ...
Your ss are welcome to create their own stories. Printable worksheet for teachers and kids! To learn more about composition visit at Magic Pathshala. Composition is the process of putting wo ...
This is a writing activity for intermediate students who are asked to imagine the trees in the place where they live are being cut down.They don’t agree with that decision and write a formal ...
Before they start to write they should brainstorm on how to write and plan them accordingly.There should be at least 180 words in their writing.After they have written at least 180 words please re ...
An essay with tittle and pointers to guide them along when they are writing.Before they start to write they should brainstorm on how to write and plan them accordingly.There should be at least 180 ...
This is an easy-to-use guideline to help students prepare to write a movie review. It has pictures and examples of movies. It is appealing to young students and fun to older ones. I suggest this s ...
This is a pretty simple writing activity for intermediate students who are asked to imagine they are in a rainforest and write a poem according to the instructions given.
After I go through all types of paragraph, I use this worksheet to check their understanding about a topic sentence,supporting details,conclusion. There are also plenty of examples to check how to ...
It's a worksheet for practicing dictation, it contains five activities: put a tick based on the teacher's dictation, put a tick or check (√) to the right pictures based on the best mea ...
Free writing exercise. Reply to an email a friend has sent on the subject of holiday plans. Allows students to practise vocab relating to holidays and airports. The future tense and be going to gr ...
It was designed for intermediate students who have already learnt how to write several types of paragraph and are about to start to write essay types. It makes your ss understand how to write an e ...
Team writing. Use the pictures and write a story "Happy to be alive". Make a plan, think about linking words. Use past tenses. Don't forget to use : first, then,after that, next, just then, finall ...
This is a simple writing activity for elementary students who are asked to write a small composition about the way they spend their leisure time, they may answer the questions given to guide the ...
THis is a writing activity for intermediate students who are asked to to write the text for a leaflet in English in which they inform the public about illegal trade in wild animals and the way it ...
This is a model to help students write essays. It takes them step by step through the process and gives them a model introduction to get them started. I find it helps my junior high students org ...
Here is a detailed graphic organizer for Intermediate/Advanced ESL students that are just beginning to learn the structure of the Argumentative Essay. This blank outline is intended to serve as a ...
Self explanatory work sheet which explains what happens when you read. This work sheet motivates the children to read. After filling the work sheet children can be asked to read their summa ...
Crime story writing prompts based on Upstream Advanced Unit 4. Use this work sheet to drill the phrases connected with crime and modern concerns. There's a beginning of a story, and students are ...
This worksheet comprises four different types of stories referring to the topic Travelling. There are different phrases in each story and students have to use all the phrases in order to make a f ...
This worksheet shows how to write summaries by focusing on the key words of a given text. The steps are: (1) read and understand, (2) find the key words, (3) write short sentences with these key w ...
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