When we talk about literacy development, reading often takes center stage. However, research consistently demonstrates that writing plays an equally vital role in strengthening students’ literacy skills. The reciprocal relationship between reading and writing is well established: Writing enhances reading comprehension, fluency, and word recognition, while strong reading skills improve writing abilities (Graham & Hebert, 2011; Graham & Perin, 2007).

Unlike spoken language, writing is not an innate process—it must be explicitly taught. Skilled writing requires students to engage in self-regulation, organization, critical thinking, and sustained attention. Furthermore, students need to understand the qualities of effective writing, sentence and text structure, and the writing process (Harris et al., 2013).

Making the Most of the Planning Stage

A clear writing process has multiple steps, including planning, drafting, sharing, evaluating, revising, and editing (Graham et al., 2012).

The first step, planning, lays the foundation for all the stages to follow. The type of writing—whether informational, narrative, or argumentative— is the map for navigating this stage.

• Informational Writing: Students clarify their topic, identify main ideas, group details logically, and determine text structure.
• Narrative Writing: Planning should focus on story elements such as character development, event sequencing, and descriptive details.
• Opinion/Argumentative Writing: Students establish a clear claim, identify key supporting reasons and evidence, and anticipate counterarguments.

Brainstorming: Generating and Organizing Ideas

Brainstorming encourages students to generate ideas and think critically about their topic before structuring their writing. An active and visible process, this step can take different forms:

• Whole-Class: Teachers facilitate brainstorming sessions and record students’ ideas on a whiteboard or chart paper, modeling how to categorize information.
• Small Group/Partner: Peer discussions allow students to build on each other's ideas while also holding collaborative groups accountable for successful task completion and reporting.
• Individual: Giving students time to brainstorm with a quick jot helps them access prior knowledge and develop their thoughts.

Graphic Organizers: Connecting and Synthesizing Information

Graphic organizers provide a visual structure that helps students process concepts, organize ideas, synthesize information from multiple sources, and draw meaningful connections. They are particularly useful in linking reading and writing tasks.

Outlining: Creating a Roadmap for Writing

A well-structured outline serves as a blueprint for the writing process. While outlines may include a topic sentence or thesis statement, they should primarily rely on keywords and phrases to organize main ideas and supporting details and evidence. Consistency is key—using a structured outline format across different writing tasks helps students internalize this skill and become increasingly independent.

Setting Students up for Success

Many students struggle with writing, not because they lack ideas, but because they lack a structured approach to expressing them. Without planning, they may experience frustration and writer’s block, as well as repetition and poor organization of ideas.

Although planning may feel like an extra step, with consistent practice, students will learn that a thoughtful plan reduces the time spent reorganizing and restructuring during the drafting and revising stages. Instead of struggling with structure, students can focus on refining ideas, strengthening arguments, and improving coherence and flow.

As educators, we have the opportunity to equip students with strategies that set them up for success. Research confirms that explicit, structured writing instruction leads to stronger writers (Graham et al., 2012), and the planning stage is an essential part of this process. Writing is more than a literacy skill—it’s a tool for thinking, organizing, and communicating effectively. When we teach students to plan first, we give them the foundation they need to become skilled, independent writers. 

 

References

Graham, S., & Hebert, M. (2011). Writing to read: A meta-analysis of the impact of
     writing and writing instruction on reading, Harvard Educational Review, 81(4), 710- 744.

Graham, S. & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve writing of
     adolescents in middle and high schools-A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington,
     DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.

Graham, S., Bollinger, A., Booth Olson, C., D’Aoust, C., MacArthur, C., McCutchen, D., & Olinghouse, N.
     (2012). Teaching elementary school students to be effective writers: A practice guide (NCEE 2012-           4058). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute
     of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from
     http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications_reviews.aspx#pubsearch.

Harris, K., Graham, S., Friedlander, B., & Laud, L. (2013). Bring powerful writing strategies
     into your classroom: Why and how, The Reading Teacher, 66(7), 538-542, DOI:10.1002/TRTR.1156