How to Teach Elaboration in Writing | -Does any of this sound familiar? If you're reading this post, I bet so. When we say "add more details" - what exactly does that mean? Do you know? Do your students know? Maybe, possibly, but we all know that doesn't help a child understand their next steps. Part of teaching writing in the elementary grades is being super clear in our teaching. Writing is very abstract in itself, so our job as writing teachers is to bring the abstract to a more concrete level.