6 Trait Writing

1. 6 Trait Writing IDEAS

2. Memorable Places • Brainstorm memorable or important places in your life. • Choose one place and list sensory images. • Write about that place.

3. Introduce the Concept of the Traits: IDEAS • “Ideas are the heart of the message” • Think QUALITY, not QUANTITY • Information that paints a clear picture in the reader’s mind Creating Writers, pp. 49, 60

4. WRITING PROCESS: where do IDEAS fit? Prewriting Publishing Drafting IDEAS Editing Sharing Revising

5. Clarity Focus Quality Detail Strong Support Authenticity No “filler” Good balance: satisfying, not overwhelming Surround Students with Writers’ Language

6. Creative, Personal Face: Does the writer go beyond the obvious to bring the writing to life for readers? Informational Face: Does the reader learn new information quickly and easily? Surround Students with Writers’ Language Two Faces

7. Teaching Students to be Assessors. • Rubric • Teacher • Student

8. Teaching Students to be Assessors. • Suggestions for sharing and scoring of papers: • Start with papers that are clearly strong or clearly weak. • Do not worry about the grade level of the writer. • Read the papers aloud. • Ask students to provide the reasons behind their answers. • Do not limit your practice to student papers.

9. Teaching Students to be Assessors. “Zeena and the Marshmellows” • Read • Score • Share with a partner. Be able to justify your score.

10. Teaching Students to be Assessors. Memorable Places: • Score your own writing. • Share with a partner and justify your score. Talk about ways to improve your writing.

11. Use Written Worksto Illustrate Strengths • Focused Lesson: Bill Nye the Science Guy’s Big Blue Ocean

12. Use Focused Lessons Build a lesson: • Choose a piece of writing. • Design a brief writing activity. • Craft a mini-lesson. • Model through your own writing.

13. Use Focused Lessons • Dig for the potatoes. • Highlight the details that strike you. • Brainstorm questions. • Teaching Ideas • Use your “binoculars”.

14. Focusing Your Binoculars Example • Fuzzy: The woman looked kind of funny. • Detailed: Her black felt hat, which was many sizes too large, covered all of her face except her chin. When she spoke, we could only see a small patch of white bobbing up and down under a large black lid.

15. Use Focused Lessons Now you try… • His classroom was a mess. • The cafeteria food did not look good to me. • That principal was mean.

16. Problem 1: The information is too skimpy! This paper simply doesn’t say anything. Student choice Nonfiction read-alouds Prewriting Observation skills “Sketch” Teach Students to do Focused Revisions

17. Problem 2: Too much trivia weighs the text down. I don’t care how much the dog weighed or when the cat was born. Determine audience Pick a topic and “list” Teach Students to do Focused Revisions

18. Problem 3: There’s too much information. Help! It’s Huge. Cut the copy in half. Practice narrowing. Possessions can be telling Model it. Write 10-minute stories. Teach Students to do Focused Revisions

19. IDEAS “When I was in school I thought details were just extra words to add in a story to make it better. I thought detail was decoration or wallpaper…Details are not wallpaper; they are walls.” Barry Lane