Four Keys to Writing Success Using 6 Traits

Deb Wraggeddwragge@esu8.org

Professional Services CoordinatorESU 8

Today’s Purpose & Agenda:

• To learn the writer’s language of 6 Traits• To sharpen your skills in working with student

writers• To learn where to access and how use literary

mentors as examples• To plan and use focused lessons and strategies

to build student skills

To be effective teachers of writing, we must first teach ourselves what good writing is, and then we are better equipped to teach our students.

Vicki

Spandel (5th edition, p. 13)

Four Keys to Writing Success

Surround students with writer’s languageTeach students to assess writingCall on literary mentors for examplesUse focused lessons and strategies to build skills

Key 1: Surround Students with Writer’s Language

• Know the Traits Well Yourself• Make Posters

What is 6 Traits Writing?

• A shared vocabulary for teachers and students

• A method of scoring and examining writing consistently

• A tool for writing and using the Writing Process

• A feedback system to students• A tool to guide instruction in the

classroom

6 Traits allow teachers to…• Use rubrics• Use samples of student writing • Help students discuss specific

features • Improve student writing through the

qualities of good writing• Incorporate a variety of

lessons/activities

If YOU know the traits well, writer’s language will be a natural part of your instruction and of every writing conference.

Vicki Spandel (5th edition, p. 158)

The 6 Trait Model• Ideas –

– the heart of the message, topics supported with relevant details

• Organization – – the internal structure of the piece, order makes sense: introduction,

body paragraphs, conclusion, and transition are smooth• Voice –

– the tone and flavor of the author’s message, text makes you feel some type of emotion: laughter, crying, anger; without voice, it is usually boring

• Word Choice – – the vocabulary a writer chooses to convey meaning

• Sentence Fluency – – the rhythm and flow of the language

• Conventions – – mechanical correctness, spelling, capitalization, and grammar/usage

Possible Posters to Display:

Key 2: Teach Students to Assess Writing

• Rubrics and Using Rubrics and Checklists• Share Examples of Writing – –Weak Writing and Strong Writing

Teacher “Leap the River” Rubric Stronger PerformanceWeaker Performance

Teacher “Leap the River” Rubric Stronger PerformanceWeaker Performance

Student Writing Checklist – Gr 3& Up Student Writing Checklist – Young Writers

Making Decisions Thinking helps you make good decisions. When making a decision take your time and not rush into a hasty conclusion. Clarify the decision you are making. Be sure you understand all aspects of your decision, without confusion. Reason out the consequences your decision will effect. Question whether the concluding effects will be positive or negative.

Before proceeding ahead with any decision making process, devise other alternatives, if any, noticing who and what may be affected. Be sure to ask others for their opinion on the subject. Keep in mind, however, that their opinion may not be correct or even helpful. Quality decision making depends on facts, not opinions. Eventually, your decision will have impact on other things. These impacts cannot always be foreseen. Take your time in determining which impacts are most effected, and be careful in the end.

Teaching IDEAS:

Fishing Lessons It was a cool, crisp morning, about the time when the dew begins to form on the grassy banks of the stream. I had been anticipating this moment for some time and now it was here. Grandpa and I were going fishing at an ideal spot swarming with fish. We left at about 4, but by the time we got there and unpacked, the sun was just creeping over the horizon.

Grandpa pulled the rod back and let it fly, right down stream, farther than I could see. Then, I lowered my toy fishing line down until it was just under the surface. Right away, Grandpa got a tug on his line, but it wasn’t a fish. It was a baby alligator. The alligator was a semi-small, but it still put up a fight. Grandpa would gently reel it in, give it some line, then reel it some more. Just then, I realized he had gotten the scissors and was trying to cut the jumping line. Before I could blink, he cut the line and the alligator swam into a drain pipe. That really surprised me because that was his favorite hook.

I pondered over this while I doodled around with my plastic hook in the water. About when the sun got all the way over the horizon, and it slowly was starting to get hot, we headed home with a puny guppy I caught in my plastic net. On the way to the house, I asked Grandpa why he hadn’t just caught the alligator or at least reeled it in. He replied with a question – “Why cause the little fella any more pain than what life dishes out?” I learned that day that all things have a right to life and that life has a reason to be had.

Tips:

1. Do not worry about the grade level of the writer.

2. Read the papers aloud3. Encourage students to work in pairs or teams.4. Do not limit your practice to student papers

use other genre as well.– Newspapers and Ads, Directions, Other Author’s

work, Informational Posters, and on and on

Key 3: Call on Literary Mentors for Examples

• Gather some of YOUR favorite literature.– Scan it for samples which would show the traits in

action• Don’t overlook the bad writing.

It’s a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful [Roald Dahl, Matilda, 1988, p.7]

Calves come early in the spring.It was how we knew the winter would die, would end.In the dark of the barn light when it was still cold enough outside to make

things break, in the warm dark night of the closed barn they came, and when we would open the door in the morning to start chores we could smell them, the new claves. [Gary Paulsen, Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass, 1992, p. 3]

In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing…At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and just the roof of their mouth. But in Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like sliver [Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street, 1989, p.11]

Warts are wonderful structures. They can appear overnight on any part of the skin, like mushrooms on a damp lawn, full grown and splendid in the complexity of their architecture [Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail, 1979, p. 76]

An Instruction Sheet – How to Set Your Watch’s Alarms:

– Press set-recall. Hour flashes. Press + or – to change hour; hold button to scan values.

– Press NEXT. Minutes flash. Press + or – to change.– Press NEXT. AM/PM flashes in a 12-hour format.– Press NEXT. Alarm day flashes. Press button to select DAILY,

WKDAYS, WKENDS.– Press DONE. – To turn on/off, press START/SPLIT.– Alarm clock icon appears when alarm is on. When alarm sounds,

night-light flashes. Press button to silence. If no button is pressed alarm sounds for 20 seconds every five minutes.

Each of the three alarms has a different alert melody.

College Textbook Introduction:

• In most college courses students spend more time with their textbooks than with their professors. Given this reality, it helps if you like your textbook. Making textbooks likable, however, is a tricky proposition… [We] have tried to make [this] book lively, informal, engaging, well organized, easy to read, practical, and occasionally humorous. [Weiten and Lloyd, Psychology Applied to Modern Life, 2003, p. xix]

Activity: Compare the watch instructions to the college textbook introduction.– Think About on Your Own:• Which piece is more appealing, compelling? Why?• Which piece is more comfortable to read? Why?• Which piece has more character, Voice? In what way?• Which piece is more clear and condensed? How?• Which pieces would you rather read?• Which piece would you rather your students wrote?• Can you guide [teach] them to write in this manner?

Key 4: Use Focused Lessons and Strategies to Build Skills

• Focused lessons allow students to tackle writing one small bite at a time.– Ideas– Organization– Voice– Word Choice– Sentence Fluency– Conventions

Ideas: Main Idea, Detail, Clarity, Focus, Interest

1. Encourage students to choose their own topics.– To find topics: Keep lists, barrow from one

another, read extensively – and talk– Model for students about how you create a list of

possible writing topics– Talk about where YOU get your ideas

2. Write a thesis statement.– A message, or thesis, is different from a topic.– A topic can be expressed in a single word, a thesis

requires a statement.– A one-word topic leads to sprawling writing; a thesis give

writing direction and focus.

3. Put your sense to work.• Select a sensory-rich passage from literature

[Suggestion: Select passages from Kate DiCamillo’s The Tale of Despereaux (2003),p 21-22]

• Share it/them aloud with your students. Give them a hardcopy to follow and take notes.

• Next, in pairs, have them create a sensory chart of the sights, sounds, smells, etc. they notice.

Sensory Details Chart by Grade 5 Students:Sensory Details Based on

The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

Sights Sounds Taste & Smells Feelings• Sunlight• Yellow patches

on the floor• Table• Books• Mice• Squiggles• Words• Wooden Floors

• Mice scurrying• Paper

crunching• Talking• The words

“Once upon a time”

• Glue• Paper• That “library”

smell• Old furniture• Carpeting• Mouse fur

• Warmth of the sun

• Smooth surface of the table

• Roughness of paper

• Glue on your tongue

• Paper in your mouth

• The chills – when Despereaux began to read

4. Revise a weak example.The Redwoods

Last year, we went on a vacation and we had a wonderful time. The weather was sunny and warm and there was lots to do, so we were never bored.

My parents visited friends and took pictures for their friends back home. My brother and I swam and also hiked in the woods. When we got tired of that , we just ate and had a wonderful time.

It was exciting and fun to be together as a family and to do things together. I love my family, and this is a time that I will remember for a long time. I hope we will go back again next year for more fun and an even better time than we had this year.

THE REDWOODS Last summer, my family and I went on a vacation to see the California, Redwoods. Most of the time was great, though not everything turned out the way we expected. We spent most of our time basking in the sun and hiking. We basked so much I got a sunburn from head to toe, and had to spend the next several days peeling my outer layer of skin.

One day we hiked the Sunrise Trail. The cool morning air was easy to hike in so we ended up doing the whole thing. The giant ferns were like something out of a prehistoric movie. The trees were so huge we could not see the tops. Three of us linking arms could not reach around the trunks. It was amazing to think how old they were and to try imagining what they had lived through. It made us feel tiny and transient.

Like sun bathing, hiking had its drawbacks. The main one being my brother. We saw a gorgeous sunrise and several deer. I had never been close to a deer before and I was very excited, but I knew better than to yell. Not Tom! He came crashing out of the brush yelling, “A deer! Look you guys!” We just glared at him. That was the last time we took the Sunrise Trail.

My parents aren’t big hikers, so they spent their time visiting friends, mostly people I wasn’t too fond of, but my parents loved. They took what seemed like thousands of pictures to show the folks back home. Practically every rock was photographed. Every tree was in a picture. It got quite nerve-wracking having a camera pointed in my direction constantly, so I took off for the woods, secretly hoping to get lost.

My family doesn’t take many vacations, so it was fun being together. I will never forget those deer or hiking the Sunrise Trail with the people I love. Maybe we’ll come back next year, or go someplace different. It doesn’t really matter as long as I am with my family. Next time, though, I think our camera may experience an unfortunate accident.

Organization: Lead, Pattern/Structure, Transitions, Pacing, Conclusion

1. Nail the lead.– Share a list of leads. • Ask your students to help you choose the most

effective one. • Lead a discussion as to “Why” these and other leads

you share are “Nails.”• Sample:

– She stood six feet tall and are whole apples, core and stem included.

– She used her voice like a weapon.– We could feel her coming before we heard her.

2. Play the scramble game.1. Begin with a text that is well organized: good

sequencing, clear transitions. – Make sure it is age/grade and length appropriate.– It’s best to have a piece with a clear beginning and

ending.2. Copy it. Cut the copy into strips. 3. Have students play with it like a puzzle.– Begin with groups of 2-4 students. Then as

students increase their skill, shrink the group size over time, until each student completes their own puzzle.

4. Provide students with a “Master Copy” to Check their work.

3. Listen for the ending.– Endings have a sound all their own – a sound readers (and

writer) learn to listen for.

• Human being have the capacity to wipe out cockroaches – along with every other animal and plant on the planet. The only question is, Will we do it?

• The cockroach is a hardy creature, capable of withstanding heat, cold, and even radiation. They are found on all parts of the earth, and cone in many sizes from tiny to over three inches in length. They have lived for over 400 million years – and might live for another 400 million years. Who knows?

• Who can say if our planet’s evolutionary history won’t repeat itself – and eventually set the scene from which higher life forms will emerge. It’s a good bet that the first land-dwelling animals to appear in this freshly reconstructed world with resemble the cockroach.

Voice: Individuality, Passion for the topic, Connection to the audience, Honesty, Confidence

1. Provide a safe environment for sharing.2. Respond to student’s work with unabashed enthusiasm.3. Reward risk.4. Remind students to tell the truth.5. Read aloud.6. Go for contrast.7. Ask students to read aloud.8. Write letters.9. Talk story.

Word Choice: Accuracy; Strong verbs; Fresh; Lively words and phrases; Word pictures; Freedom from redundancy,

wordiness, vague phrasing, jargon

1. Read, read, read!!2. Harness the power of verbs.– Verbs give writing energy.• Exercise: Have students take a passage and

“strengthen” the verbs.• Revision with Partners:

– The weather was bad, In fact, it was really bad. Rain fell everywhere. The wind was Blowing. If this kept up, we might not be able to hold our soccer game.

3. Put Adjectives to work.Think about this sentence:

Tom walked down the dusty road.

– Create a “MOVIE” with words. • Have students revise this sentence using adjectives and

adjective phrases.

Sentence Fluency: Smooth flow, variation in sentence beginnings and lengths, Transitional words and phrases to build bridges,

Fragments for effect, Authentic dialogue

1. Hear it. It’s an aural skill.– Read aloud, focusing on poetry, where the

rhythm is built in.2. Perform it. – Seek out samples with dialogue. Think about

implementing choral readings for students.

3. Try “Sentence Aerobics.”

In groups of 4-6, with each student in the group using a half sheet of paper or a 3x5 card:

1. Write one thing you know to be true (doesn’t have to be profound) – your sentence should be no more than 12 words long.

2. Pass your sentence to the left.3. Read the sentence in front of you and rewrite it – only this time, begin the sentence

in a different way.4. Pass to the left.5. Read and rewrite the second sentence, this time starting with a pronoun: One, He,

She, I, they, We, Everybody.6. Pass to the left.7. Read the third sentence and revise, starting with the word If.8. Pass left.9. Read the fourth sentence and revise once more, this time turning the sentence into

a question.Return the five sentences to the originator and read some aloud to hear the possibilities.

Sample:

1. Cleaning the garage is not fun.2. The very last item on my to-do list reads “Clean

the Garage.”3. No one like to clean the garage – including me.4. If you paid me a thousand dollars. I wouldn’t

clean the garage.5. Who would clean the garage if there were one

other thing on Planet Earth to do?

Conventions: Editing for correctness, Developing a proofreader’s eye, Learning to recognize, read, and use copy editor’s symbols, Checking

layout and presentation, as needed.

1. Help students to understand the reasons behind conventions.

2. Teach copy editor’s symbols.

3. As a teacher DON’T correct everything. – Don’t fix it for the student. • Research shows that it is highly unlikely students will even look at

your corrections, let alone learn from them.

4. Practice on the work of others first.5. Avoid over-correction.– Worksheets, drills, sentence diagramming, and lots of

correction is NOT helpful. Over-correction actually may restrict students’ growth as writers.

6. Employ the 72-hour rule.– Time is the editor’s friend. Students will edit much more

efficiently and effectively. They need the mental break.7. Remind students to read from the bottom up to look for

spelling errors.– You cannot skim (easily) when you read backwards.

Final Comments & A Wiki Walk:

To learn the writer’s language of 6 TraitsTo sharpen your skills in working with student

writersTo learn where to access and how use literary

mentors as examplesTo plan and use focused lessons and strategies to

build student skillsESU 8 Staff Development Wiki:

http://esu8-staff-development.wikispaces.com/