How to Teach the Six Traits of Writing

The Six Traits of Writing is an assessment designed by teachers and administered through Northwest Regional Education Laboratories. Many years ago, a group of teachers studied hundreds of pieces of student writing to determine the traits of quality writing. Six traits emerged: ideas, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, and conventions. An analytical assessment was designed and the Six Traits was born.

Fast Forward to Today

Formal Six Traits training teaches teachers how to assess and score papers, as well as a how to teach the traits. Teachers are taught to spend chunks of time on each trait. There is a benefit to spending time with each trait, but I propose spending time with the Six Traits within genres.

Students need to apply what they learn in the Six Traits to a variety of genres, so they understand that all writing pieces exhibit the traits. Our students need to strengthen their word choice in nonfiction, as well as fiction. Words choice in nonfiction looks different than it does in fiction. Students can learn how to improve the quality of their writing by strengthening the traits within specific genres.

The Basics Steps

Your curriculum guidelines determines the genres you teach, or you may be one of the lucky few who gets to choose the genre best suited for your students. Decide on a genre to study, and then collect professional and strong student examples to use as models. Analyze pieces of writing for all of the traits (this is assuming you've spent some time introducing each trait beforehand), and the organizational text structure. What are the critical attributes of the the genre?

Model brainstorming an idea for writing within the genre. Prewriting can include "thinking", so "think out loud", and show students how you write notes as you are thinking your way through the piece. Writers do this differently, and the genre often determines how writers approach the prewriting stage.

Model drafting a piece, focusing on organization. You must consider the lead, transitions, conclusions, and the text structure. The organizational text structure is critical to the genre. Take your draft and model revising word choice and sentence fluency. Voice naturally follows. Correct conventions along the way, and model a final edit of conventions before creating your final copy. Type up your final copy and distribute it to your students. Allow your students to assess it using the Six Traits. Follow the same procedure again working together on a shared writing piece before releasing students to write their own paper.

As students work on their own piece, teach mini lessons in the traits. Choose specific objectives based on your curriculum and student need. Ask students to apply their learning within their paper. Teach grammar within word choice, and spelling within conventions.

An Example in Fiction

Fiction requires the study of plot, characters, and setting. Study pieces of fiction as readers before attempting to write fiction. Students need to understand how to put together a simple plot, how to create vivid characters, and how the setting is integrated throughout the story. Collect a text set of fiction picture books with strong plots, characters, and setting. Spend time analyzing the books and identifying the attributes of fiction.

Once students understand at a deeper level how fiction is put together, begin introducing the traits within the fiction genre. Each time you read a book together, think about where they author may have gotten the idea. Start a list of places to find ideas on chart paper, and continue to add to the chart throughout the unit.

Fiction writing is organized by plot structure, but there are different patterns students can discover in fiction. Common patterns include transformation stories (the character changes in the story), circle stories (the story ends and begins in the same place), back and forth stories (there is a back and forth struggle throughout the story), and copy cat stories (one character attempts to "copy" another character).

Fiction provides a wonderful opportunity to explore word choice. Punch up your noun and verb lessons, and teach literary devices. Find examples within fiction stories to use as models. Kicked up word choice creates a stronger voice. Take it up a notch by focusing on sentence fluency. Read aloud examples of how authors slow down or speed up text through the use of short and long sentences. Notice sentence beginnings, the structure of longer sentences, and how authors mix up sentence lengths.

Authors edit throughout the drafting and revision process. If they see a mistake, they fix it. Teach your kids to pay attention to conventions in each read through. A final edit requires students to pay close attention to capitalization, usages, punctuation, and spelling.

The Difference in Nonfiction

The procedure for teaching writing in nonfiction is the same as it is in fiction, except this time you are focused on a different organizational text structure. There are different types of nonfiction: letters, editorials, news articles, information articles, instructional articles, essays, advertisements, and more. The list is rather long, so take a look at your curriculum and decide where to focus. Gather examples of your nonfiction genre to use as models. Study the structure of the model together and list out the attributes you notice.

In a study of magazine articles you will notice different ways authors organize their writing. Popular structures include: main idea and supporting details, compare - contrast, cause & effect, top ten, and interviews. If you study a variety of structures, then you can allow students to select the structure that works the best for the piece they are writing.

After spending time studying the structure of nonfiction, bring in the traits. Brainstorm a list of things kids know or want to learn. Students generally write better when they write about something they know and love. Now your students can select the best organizational text structure to suit their piece and follow the models as examples. Nonfiction doesn't need to be dry and boring. The days of encyclopedia articles are out, and creative nonfiction is in. This is where word choice and sentence fluency play a role. Apply the same techniques from fiction in nonfiction to create interesting pieces with unique voices. Don't save conventions for last. Edit throughout the writing process and once again at the end.

Assess Writing Using the Six Traits

Teach students how to assess their own writing using the Six Traits. They should learn how to assess and improve their writing by analyzing their pieces. In writing, ultimately the writer makes the decisions. Kids need to learn that all writers assess, revise, assess again, and revise again until they get their pieces "just right". Editors provide another level of assessment, giving the writer an opportunity to see their writing through someone else's eyes. Peer and teacher collaboration provides the "other" eyes for student writing. Reading your own writing objectively is a hard job. Writers depend on their critique groups, beta readers, and editors. Publication in the end is a community effort with the writer acting as the heartbeat.

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A Teachable Reading Strategy for Reading Passages

Recently I had a set of teaching objectives that I broke up in groups and created a strategic method for approaching reading passages. The method is simple, weaving the objectives together to help students tackle tough reading. This strategy is great for preparing students for standardized reading tests, and reading passages (both nonfiction and fiction) where they must demonstrate comprehension at the end by answering questions.

Strategy: Stop, Think, Track, Reread



Stop

Readers break text into manageable parts. If you are trying to learn something new, it helps to stop after reading a short portion of text in order to think about meaning, vocabulary, and new concepts.

Think
Readers think about what they've read, summarize and synthesize, and interact with and respond to the text. Once a student stops after reading a portion of the text, they need to learn to think about the text, its' meaning, and connect their own schema (or background knowledge) to the text. Many students will blow right past the words and never to stop to think about what the words mean. Stopping and thinking forces students to slow down the reading process and cognitively attend to meaning.

Track
This applies more to nonfiction than fiction. Most people do not take notes about their fiction, but a lot of people highlight, sticky note, and write notes in the margins of nonfiction books. Students can learn to track their own reading by writing short "trigger" notes after reading a major chunk of text. Teach them to focus on the main ideas in the text. For test taking purposes (or to demonstrate comprehension), students can write down the main character, problem, and solution. They may also want to make a note about the sequence of events, especially in stories that have a tricky sequence. They can go back to their side notes in order to find evidence to support their thinking when answering comprehension questions. One word of caution: slow readers in particular can get bogged down in note taking. Limit "tracking" to one to three "trigger" words to help them find the information they need.

Reread
Readers recognize when meaning breaks down. They stop and actively reread text and think about meaning. Some students benefit from reading confusing parts aloud. Sometimes a reader reads the words, but somehow manages to drift off in a daydream. They have no idea what they just read. Has this ever happened to you? Readers realize when they've read parts without thinking, stop, go back, reread, focusing on meaning.

Put this strategy together and model it by thinking out loud, and writing your thinking down in front of your students while reading the text. You may need to model several times before releasing students to practice this strategy on their own. Model this strategy using nonfiction, fiction, and practice reading test texts.

Click Here for my Lesson Plan, Bookmarks, and Poster Using the Stop, Think, Track, Reread Reading Strategy

How to Make History Come Alive in the Classroom

Teachers can probably all guess the reaction of students when they hear the words, “Take out your history books and turn to page….” Before the location in the text book is even announced, many children in the class have tuned out. We have lost them before we have begun! Instead of listening to the bored sighs and watching as kids doodle on their notebooks or daydream out the window, we should make it our responsibility as teachers to take a more proactive role. It is high time teachers everywhere make history come alive for students in our classrooms.
Perhaps the best way to achieve a more exciting atmosphere about history studies is to get excited and creative yourself. If you are bored your students will likely be as well. Don’t be afraid to venture out from your established routine. Let the textbook be a reference book and a starting point, rather than the center of the curriculum. Focus on the essential names and dates instead of forced memorization of multiple isolated facts. History is such a large body of knowledge that we can’t possibly teach them everything, and many of the things we do, if not given meaning, will soon be forgotten.

Teach recurring themes, such as progress, conflict, and resolution, and relate new information to those larger concepts. Encourage discussion about how a new history lesson relates to one just learned and to broader concepts. In math we teach how fractions and decimals are similar, or how addition and subtraction are related, but teachers often fail to make these associations with history. The more mental connections students can make, the more learning will make sense and retention will improve.

Another great way to liven up your history curriculum, or at least its delivery, is to incite emotion. We all remember events much easier if they are tied to strong emotions, either positive or negative. The stories of the past can be told in ways that emphasize the joy, fear, pain, and excitement of the characters involved. Have students imagine what it must have felt like to travel on the Santa Maria with Christopher Columbus. Was the crew frightened or exhilarated at the thought of traveling across the unknown sea? What did the Native Americans feel like when they first encountered the English settlers? Were they nervous or intrigued or angry?

Using all of the five senses is another way to breathe new life into the past. Show illustrations, photographs, and video. If a historical event is in the relatively recent past, listen to a primary source who was actually there and witnessed the action. Listen to the music of the era being studied. Sample some dishes of the time period. Bring in historical artifacts or reproductions for the students to feel in their own hands. Give kids some concrete objects and sensations to relate to the facts of history. A feather and some ink, for example, might be a good visual for the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

History will also come to life more for students if they have a chance to get actively involved. Anything that goes beyond reading the chapter and answering the questions at the back of the book is a step in the right direction. Perhaps limiting the reading of the text and answering the questions to simply one of many activities either at the beginning or conclusion of more active exercises. Of course the facts do need to be taught, but why not make it fun? Consider a game show scenario with those tired old questions or an interview with a historical figure instead.
Countless other ways exist to get students to actively participate in learning history. Children need to be exposed to a variety of literature that supports the history curriculum. Nonfiction accounts and biographies are beneficial, but historical fiction has its place as well. Respond to relevant literature with drawings, timelines, and charts. Use reading these materials as a springboard for keeping journals, writing letters, stories, and plays. Hold a debate between two opposing student groups, such as Revolutionary War patriots vs. loyalists. Allow students to express their writing, or those of fellow students, by dressing up as historical characters and acting out scenes of historical significance.

When teachers become excited about the wonderful adventures of the past, with all the emotion and physical sensations those adventures entail, students naturally follow suit. Add to the mix quality literature, active participation, and a bit of creativity, and history truly comes to life in the classroom!

Lori Jordan-Rice is a former elementary school teacher, mother of three boys, and the author of an imaginative new series featuring a fictional classroom full of memorable modern day characters alongside historical figures such as the pilgrims, the founding fathers of the United States, and Christopher Columbus. The "Miss Trimble's Trapdoor" books follow Tyler, a boy who hates school-that is until he discovers a trapdoor beneath this desk and falls into the school basement. Here he meets a wise talking dog named Barnabas Bailey who takes him back through time to teach him life lessons as he witnesses history first hand. To learn more visit http://www.misstrimblestrapdoor.com/. To obtain autographed copies of her books go to http://www.misstrimblestrapdoor.com/buy.html.


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