Writing
Hot takes are easy. But evidence-backed arguments? That’s where it’s at.
Teach historical writing skills with these classroom-ready resources. Writing is where student thinking is tested. These prompts, tools, and activities help you guide students to craft clear claims, back them up with evidence, and make their thinking visible.
How to Teach Writing: Tools for Teachers
Strategies That Help Grow Students’ Claim Writing Skills
Making, developing, and defending claims are essential skills for students. Use these strategies to help students improve their writing.
Informal Writing Routines
Students should think of AI as a sparring partner rather than a ghostwriter. Explore classroom strategies and real-world teacher practices to improve students’ writing skills.
Writing Rubric
Help students improve their writing by providing detailed feedback to help them target specific areas for growth.
Formal Writing Opportunities
Find all the writing prompts and where they live in each WH course.
Teacher Chat: Writing
Is Writing in Social Studies Dead Discussion
Teaching writing in the age of AI can feel overwhelming. Find out what social studies teachers think about this topic and join the discussion.
Blog: What Do Historians Know About Writing That Students (Usually) Don’t?
Boost student essays with historian moves: start with evidence-driven claims, synthesize sources (not just quotes), and hedge informed inferences to write historically!
DBQ Pre-Writing Activities
Need a routine to help students find evidence and analyze it? Explore these teacher tips on how to get students working together and moving around before they sit down to write.
Analysis in Student Writing
Students often struggle with integrating analysis and reasoning into their writing. Find out how to get your students to ACE this writing skill.
Teach Tomorrow: Lessons on Writing
Writing Activities
Writing: Identifying Claim and Focus
Post-Writing: Claim and Focus
Writing: Identifying Analysis and Evidence
Post-Writing: Analysis and Evidence
Writing: Identifying Organization and Language/Style
Post-Writing: Organization and Language/Style
Writing Prompts
Writing: Earth’s Structure and Processes
Writing: Industrialization in the Long Nineteenth Century
Writing: Political Revolutions
Unit 1 LEQ
Unit 3 DBQ
Writing: Farming vs. Foraging
Resources to Connect Climate Change and Writing
Use climate change topics to sharpen students’ writing. These classroom-ready materials build skills in analyzing claims, evaluating evidence, and crafting clear, well-supported arguments.
Activity: Optimism Personal Statement
Balance the strongest reasons for pessimism and optimism surrounding climate change, and then craft your own position. Regardless of your response, make sure you have solid evidence to support it.
Activity: Writing: Does It Matter?
Craft an answer to the question posed by the infographic “Does Half a Degree Really Matter?”