Digital Writing Spotlight Bundle: Units to Help Students Become Strong Writers

Help your students improve their writing by focusing on one specific aspect of writing at a time. These Digital Writing Spotlight Mini-Units help students improve their writing, and they are designed for teachers to use alongside their writing units.

Each Digital Writing Spotlight Mini-Unit includes an editable and animated Google Slides presentation for direct instruction and a Google Doc filled with student resources and activities.

The Google Slides presentations are interactive and include student examples to use as mentor texts. The Google Docs include resources for students to practice the skill as well as resources for students to use as they focus on improving their writing.

Writing Spotlight 1: Writing About Quotes

Help your students become better, stronger writers with this digital writing spotlight teaching unit that focuses on writing about quotes.

Help your students write about and analyze quotes with this Digital Writing Spotlight mini-unit. This Google-based writing unit for middle school ELA and high school English students includes teachable content and student resources to help them improve their ability to write about quotes in essays.

This quote shows…” “This shows…” “In this quote…” If you are tired of reading these phrases in student essays, this resource if for you! This unit helps students identify and improve commentary writing.

This unit includes:

• a 35 slide, editable Google Slides™ presentation for direct instruction and whole-class exercises
• a Google Doc™ with six student exercises
• Answer keys
• Writing examples

Writing Spotlight 2: Writing in Third Person

Help your students become better, stronger writers with this digital writing spotlight teaching unit that focuses on teaching students how to write in the third person.

Teach your students how to shift from a less formal first and second-person point-of-view in their writing to a commanding and strong third-person point-of-view with this Digital Writing Spotlight mini-unit. TThis Google-based writing unit for middle school ELA and high school English students includes teachable content and student resources to help your students improve strengthen their writing and shift their thinking from the first to the third-person POV.

In my opinion…” “I believe that…” “The author shows us…” “When you…” If you are tired of reading these phrases in student essays, this resource if for you! This unit explains WHY we write in the third person and show students HOW to make the shift.

This unit includes:

• a 24 slide, editable Google Slides™ presentation for direct instruction and whole-class exercises
• a Google Doc™ with 7 student exercises
• Answer keys
• Writing examples

Writing Spotlight 3: Writing in the Present Tense

Help your students become better, stronger writers with this digital writing spotlight teaching unit that focuses on teaching students how to write in the present tense.

Help your students consistently write about literature in the literary present tense with this Digital Writing Spotlight mini-unit. This Google-based writing unit for middle school ELA and high school English students includes teachable content and student resources to help your students improve their ability to maintain a consistent tense, the literary present tense when writing about literature.

This unit includes:

• a 33 slide, editable and animated Google Slides™presentation for direct instruction and whole-class exercises
• a Google Doc™ with student practice
• Answer keys
• Writing examples (embedded in the Google Slides presentation)

Aiming to improve student writing, each Writing Spotlight unit focuses on one aspect of writing. I recommend that you incorporate these mini-unit spotlights into your instruction one at a time. Each time you assign a new, substantial writing assignment, incorporate a new Spotlight to create strong, confident writers.

Writing Spotlight 4: Embedding Quotes in Writing

Help your students become better, stronger writers with this digital writing spotlight teaching unit that focuses on teaching students how to embed quotes in their writing.

Help your students incorporate the most essential text from quotes in their writing with this Digital Writing Spotlight mini-unit. This Google-based writing unit for middle school ELA and high school English students includes teachable content and student resources to help them improve their ability to write about quotes in essays.

This mini-unit shows students how to correctly alter quotes and evidence in their writing using ellipses and brackets.

This unit includes:

• a 40 slide, editable Google Slides™ presentation for direct instruction and whole-class exercises
• a Google Doc™ with 7 student exercises
• Answer keys
• Writing examples

Aiming to improve student writing, each Writing Spotlight unit focuses on one aspect of writing. I recommend that you incorporate these mini-unit spotlights into your instruction one at a time. Each time you assign a new, substantial writing assignment, incorporate a new Spotlight to create strong, confident writers.

Aiming to improve student writing, each Writing Spotlight unit focuses on one aspect of writing. I recommend that you incorporate these mini-unit spotlights into your instruction one at a time. Each time you assign a new, substantial writing assignment, incorporate a new Spotlight to create strong, confident writers.

You may also be interested in these digital writing units for secondary ELA:

Digital Essay Writing Unit

Digital Personal Statement Writing Unit

Digital Peer Editing Stations

SMARTePlans™ is a registered trademark of The Daring English Teacher, Inc. All SMARTePlans units are Google-based teaching units that run on either the Google Slides, Google Docs, or Google Forms platforms. Each SMARTePlans teaching unit is good for a single teacher license. Resources may only be posted online in a secure platform such as Google Classroom™, Canvas, Schoolology, or a similar learning management system.