Dozens of elaboration activities help students in Grades 5-8 become better, more self-directed writers. Each activity comes with a half-page of teacher notes offering a clear writing goal, teaching tips, and follow-up ideas, and breaks down an aspect of writing into a manageable chunk. Reproducible pages are open-ended - enabling students of all abilities and skills to experience success and progress. The activities work well as full lessons, warm-ups, homework assignments, performance assessments, and more.