In this final episode of our summer writing series, I’m unpacking one of the biggest challenges upper elementary teachers face: helping students write multi-paragraph essays. If your state test expects students to write an essay by the end of the year, the pressure to start early is real—but I’m here to tell you why that might actually hold your students back. Instead of jumping straight into essays, we’ll talk about how building a strong foundation in sentence and paragraph writing can lead to much greater success down the road.

I’ll share why starting the year with essays can be overwhelming for students, how to know when they’re truly ready for multi-paragraph writing, and what scaffolds to put in place in the meantime. From sentence-level work to outlining and targeted revision, this episode walks through the writing sequence that actually supports long-term growth—not just short-term test prep.

Whether you're a third-grade teacher wondering if essays are developmentally appropriate, or a fifth-grade teacher looking for a better way to build student confidence, I hope this episode gives you clarity and encouragement as you plan your writing instruction. Essay writing doesn’t need to happen right away—in fact, holding off might be exactly what your students need to grow into confident, capable writers.

Join us in the Stellar Literacy Collective Membership: stellarteacher.com/join!

Follow me on Instagram @thestellarteachercompany.

To check out all of the resources from this episode, head to the show notes: https://www.stellarteacher.com/episode259.

156. An Actor’s Guide to Authentic Videos w/ Julie Hansen