Types of Writing PowerPoint, Task Cards, & Posters

With this writing resource, students will not only learn the main types of writing (informative, opinion, persuasive, narrative, and descriptive), but they will also learn how to read a writing prompt and know what type of writing they would do.

One time, while proctoring an end-of-year state writing test, I watched one of my students write an informative essay even though the writing prompt was asking for an opinion essay. He wrote a well-written informative essay, but it was not the kind of essay he was supposed to write. In that moment I realized that I had not taught my students how to understand writing prompts as well as I could have. Since then, I have made it a point to explicitly teach my students how to read a writing prompt and figure out what type of writing they should do. This resource was created with that experience in mind and was made so you can do the same thing.

This resource comes with a 146-slide PowerPoint, a PowerPoint companion handout that students can fill out while you progress through the PowerPoint, task cards, and posters. With them, you will be able to thoroughly teach students that there are words within writing prompts that help you know what type of essay you would write. The PowerPoint gives many examples of writing prompts and thoroughly explains what type of writing each prompt would be and why. The task cards can then be used to assess your students' ability to identify what type of writing they would do after reading a writing prompt.

***While creating this resource, I referred to several sample writing prompts from various state test portals. I specifically looked at the opinion and informative sample prompts that are provided on the RISE (formerly SAGE) portal for Utah, the AzMERIT portal for Arizona, and the FSA portal for Florida. After reading several sample writing prompts from these sites, I came up with similar informative and opinion writing prompts so that students could become familiar with what they'll see on the state test.

Below is a detailed description of the PowerPoint, task cards, and posters:

PowerPoint

Slides 1-7: Introduces the types of writing they will be learning about: informative, opinion, persuasive, narrative, and descriptive (there is a difference between opinion and persuasive writing.)

Slides 8-16: Your goal as a writer when you do narrative writing

Slides 17-21: Your goal as a writer when you do informative writing

Slides 22-29: Your goal as a writer when you do opinion writing

Slides 30-36: Your goal as a writer when you do persuasive writing (and how it's different from when you do opinion writing)

Slides 37-41: Your goal as a writer when you do descriptive writing

Slides 42-44: Student objective: I can read a writing prompt and then do the following:

-Identify what type of essay I would write

-Explain what my goal would be if I were to write that essay

Slides 45-55: Your coach, when writing, is the writing prompt. If you're ever unsure of what type of writing you're supposed to do, reread the writing prompt

Slides 56-66: Sometimes it's easy to read the writing prompt and know what type of writing you should do. Other times, you have to look for key words.

Slides 67-84: Words in a writing prompt that help you know you should do informative writing

Slides 85-101: Words in a writing prompt that help you know you should do opinion writing

Slides 102-119: Words in a writing prompt that help you know you should do persuasive writing. These slides also show the difference between persuasive writing prompts and opinion writing prompts. (The PowerPoint doesn't explain this, but if you check the Common Core standards, students are not asked to write persuasive essays until after 5th grade. In grades 3-5, they are only asked to write opinion essays. But I included persuasive writing prompts jus to give them a taste of what they will see later)

Slides 120-132: Words in a writing prompt that help you know you should do descriptive writing

Slides 133-137 Words in a writing prompt that help you know you should do narrative writing

Slides 138-146 Practice writing prompts (You can go over these slides together as a class so that students get practice before doing it on their own)

Please note: The PowerPoints cannot be edited due to the copyright requirements made by the contributing artists (clip art, font, background)

Task Cards:

There are 20 task cards. Each task card includes a different writing prompt. Students read each writing prompt and then decide what type of writing they would do. Students record their answers on one of two recording sheets. (You choose which one you want them to fill out. One has them write the type of writing and what their goal would be. The other recording sheet has them just write down the type of writing. And then students use their answers to solve a story problem.)

Posters:

This resource comes with posters for the following terms: types of writing (description is not listed on this poster), informative writing, opinion writing, persuasive writing, descriptive writing, narrative writing, and personal narrative. You can use these posters throughout the lesson. You can also hang them on the wall so your students can refer to them throughout the year.

**Please note that this product is part of my MEGA Writing Bundle, a bundle that includes all of my current writing products and future writing products. Any time I make a new writing product, it will be added to the Mega Writing Bundle. Each time I add a new writing product, the price will increase, so buying it now will get you the best value.

If you are interested in test prep writing prompts that come WITH mentor texts, I've got you covered!

Opinion writing prompts:

1.Which is a Better Pet, a Cat or a Dog?

2.Are Teens too old to go Trick-or-Treating?

3.Should Fidget Spinners be banned from Schools?

4.Why should the leprechaun give you his gold?

5.Should bugs be added to the school cafeteria menu?

Informative writing prompts:

1.Explain how Caribou Survive the Cold Weather

2.Explain the three Types of Rocks

3.Explain three major things that Abraham Lincoln did during his lifetime.

5.Explain how Water Changes the Earth's Surface

Need to do a research project with your students? The following resource includes EVERYTHING you need to successfully implement a career research project with your students:

Career Research Project (Write an essay describing a career of your choice.)

Want ALL of these writing prompts at a discount price? No problem! I have bundled all of my writing prompts into one big bundle for almost half the price! Click HERE to check it out!

Don't forget that you can get TPT credit just by leaving feedback!

Please go to your My Purchases page (you may need to login). Beside each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button. Simply click it and you will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. Each time you give feedback, TPT gives you credits that you use to lower the cost of your future purchases. TPT will round up for you too! If you provide feedback on a $4.75, you will earn 5 credits. Every 100 credits is worth $5 that you can apply towards future TPT purchases, but there is no need to wait until you have 100 to redeem them. ☺

Be the first to know about my new products, discounts, and freebies by following me on TPT! Look for the green star next to my store logo and click it to become a follower. There you have it! You will receive email updates about my store. ☺

© Lotts of Learning 2019