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Six Traits Writing Workshop Grades 3-6

Six Traits Writing Workshop Grades 3-6. November 6, 2006. September 29, 2009 Debbie Schraeder ESU #3. Agenda. Welcome and Warm Up Activities Ideas for Writing in the Content Areas Introducing the Traits What Makes Writing Work? Qualities of Writing Using Rubrics and Student Papers

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Six Traits Writing Workshop Grades 3-6

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  1. Six Traits Writing WorkshopGrades 3-6 November 6, 2006 September 29, 2009 Debbie Schraeder ESU #3

  2. Agenda • Welcome and Warm Up Activities • Ideas for Writing in the Content Areas • Introducing the Traits • What Makes Writing Work? Qualities of Writing • Using Rubrics and Student Papers • Trait by Trait • Language to look for • Scoring student work • Teaching and learning activity • Literature

  3. Quotes Reflection Meet and Greet the folks at your table then… • Read through the quotes. • Choose one that strikes a chord. • Turn to your neighbor and read the quote aloud. • Listen to your neighbor read. • Talk about the quotes. Handout pages 1-2

  4. Discuss How could you use quote collecting as a writing activity for your grade level or content area? Book recommendation: Wit and Wisdom from the Peanut Butter Gang By H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

  5. Writing Topic Bingo! Move about as needed to fill in the boxes, finding others with interests both different and similar to yours. When you hear the signal (bells) come back to your table and talk about this question... When and why would you use an activity like this at your grade level? How would it need to be modified? Handout page 3

  6. Agenda • Welcome and Warm Up Activities • Ideas for writing in the Content Areas • Introducing the Traits • What Makes Writing Work? Qualities of Writing • Using Rubrics and Student Papers • Trait by Trait • Language to look for • Scoring student work • Teaching and learning activity • Literature

  7. Writing is a powerful tool that can influence others and clarify one’s own thoughts.

  8. Why should students write in all content areas? • Writing is a natural expression of learning. Writing provides a way to think about learning. • Students need daily practice in writing about subject content. • Part of teaching a subject is teaching students how to write and react to information learned about that subject. • Writing and sharing the writing with others reinforces learning. www.makingstandardswork.com

  9. When was the last time you wrote a narrative? When was the last time you wrote non-fiction? As adults, 90% of our reading and writing is for information. Handout page 5-6

  10. The trait of IDEAS- RAFT R-Role of the writer A-Audience that will be reading the writing F-Format- letter, article, poem… T-Topic or subject of the writing In Industrial arts… In Journalism… In PE… In…. Handout pages 7-8

  11. The trait of IDEAS- RAFT How to Use It: Analyze the important ideas or information you want students to learn from reading a story, a textbook passage, or other material. Brainstorm possible roles students could assume in their writing. Next decide the audience and determine the format. After students have finished reading, explain RAFT. Handout page 9

  12. Reflection Strategy- RAFT Stop and Talk • How might you use this strategy in your classroom or • professional setting? • Brainstorm some topics and work through possible Role/Audience/Format/Topic examples

  13. Agenda • Welcome and Warm Up Activities • Introducing the Traits • What Makes Writing Work? Qualities of Writing • Using Rubrics and Student Papers • Trait by Trait • Language to look for • Scoring student work • Teaching and learning activity • Literature

  14. Prevoke Vocabogram • Work in Pairs • Sort the words • Make a prediction Handout pages 10-11 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard

  15. The Prevoke and Writing Voice: Read aloud to find the author’s voice. Talk about the qualities of each character. Organization: Unpack the structure of text. Ideas: Prediction is a high level comprehension activity. Word Choice: Use vocabulary to predict the meaning and structure of the text. Sentence Fluency: Read aloud to find flow and rhythm Conventions: Look for signals that tell you how to interpret the text.

  16. Thought for the day-- Ask the kids! “Without reading we wouldn’t have writing, and without writing we wouldn’t have any reading!” -a first grader’s answer to the question “Why do we read and why do we write?”

  17. 6 Trait Card Sort In pairs, categorize the statement cards under the correct blue 6 Trait card. Voice Sentence Fluency Ideas Organization Word Choice Conventions September, 2008 ESU#3 17

  18. Ideas Organization Voice Word Choice Sentence Fluency Conventions Presentation The heart of the message The internal structure of the piece The feeling and conviction of the individual writer The precise language chosen to convey meaning The rhythm and flow of the language The mechanical correctness How the writing looks on the page THE 6+1 TRAITS

  19. Why bother? • Because six trait writing provides… • Common language • Consistency in assessment • The “how to” for revision • 6-trait writing is all about revision!

  20. To teach the traits--- • Teach the concept first. • Surround students with writer’s language. • Share strong and weak examples from written works. • Write--and link writing activities to the traits. • Read and link reading activities to the traits. • Practice revision and editing on anonymous texts. See Framework for Teaching the Traits on page 15

  21. Agenda • Welcome and Warm Up Activities • Ideas for writing in the Content Areas • Introducing the Traits • What Makes Writing Work? Qualities of Writing • Using Rubrics and Student Papers • Trait by Trait • Language to look for • Scoring student work • Teaching and learning activity • Literature

  22. What Makes Writing Work? Essays that Worked by Boykin Curry

  23. Boring-- it put me right to sleep. Flat, empty. Safe. She was writing just to get it done. Mechanics are pretty good. It doesn’t say anything. The organization isn’t too bad. What Redwoods? The title doesn’t go with the paper. She (he?) seems like a nice kid- I want to like it. It’s not that bad for fourth or fifth grade-- I assume that’s what it is right? What do you notice? Handout page 16

  24. What do you notice? • I can just see it. I feel like I’m in that car. • I love the line “her eyes were as big as her fists.” • He’s having a good time [most readers assume the writer is male]. • I know these people. • Lively! • I sympathize with Mom-- I hate mice too! • I like the pickle jar-- I can even smell the pickles. • Great images-- love Dad backing into the tree and mom in her nightgown. • You get every point of view- even the mouse’s! Handout pages 17-18

  25. How to Use Student Work • Make overheads of them and talk about the traits with students. Use the rubrics to pick out criteria/characteristics such as… • eye catching details • questions to the creator • parts to add to or re-do • expressive images or language • interesting or favorite words used on own or in dictation • use of conventions • the intended audience Other characteristics you would add?

  26. Qualities teachers look for… Review the handout from the Great Source Education Group. Highlight and discuss the qualities that are important to you. HINT: Develop mini-lessons around these qualities. Handout pages 19-20

  27. The Idea of ‘Place’ When we write we place ourselves in our world. We say “This is where I am, right now, and this is how I feel about that”. Conversely, when we focus on places where we have been, we often connect to a deep and specific sense of how we felt when we were there. By mapping our literal, physical placements, we are often able to more accurately map our psychological placement. Julia Cameron, The Right to Write

  28. Agenda • Welcome and Warm Up Activities • Introducing the Traits • What Makes Writing Work? Qualities of Writing • Using Rubrics and Student Papers • Trait by Trait • Language to look for • Scoring student work • Teaching and learning activity • Literature

  29. The Power of Rubrics • The Six Trait Model is an analytical model. There are… • Rubrics for creative/personal writing. • Rubrics for informational technical writing. • Rubrics for each trait. • Rubrics for Statewide Writing/ used holistically. REMEMBER: Students and parents should have rubrics. Comments on student work should tie directly back to the rubric. See set of ‘one-pagers’

  30. Rubric Confusion… • Six Trait rubrics come from two main publishers: • The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory • Great Source Education Group • Rubrics will vary in scale points between 1 and 6. • The descriptors will further clarify performance levels. • The rubrics are analytical, each trait is scored.

  31. Rubric Confusion… Today you will be using these rubrics. Locate each and place them on the table where you can use them easily… Write Traits 6-Trait One-Pager Write Traits Technical One-Pager Statewide Writing Rubric

  32. Point Values of Rubrics 5 strong but not necessarily perfect 4 strong draft 3 balance of strong and weak 2 writer is beginning to go in the right direction 1 credit for putting pen to paper Some rubrics have a scale of 5, but sets of descriptors for 1, 3 and 5. Scores of 4 or 2 means that indicators are present in both of the two adjoining point values.

  33. Strategy for Scoring ASK YOURSELF: IS this piece stronger than weak? Or is it weaker than strong? Stronger than weak: Go to the top half of the rubric Weaker than strong; Go to the lower half of the rubric. This initial decision will help you focus and will increase the reliability of scoring.

  34. Recognizing the Traits Select ONE trait and highlight characteristics that you see in your students. Look across all rubrics. Compare with a neighbor.

  35. Technology Integration Linda Peters ESU#3

  36. Agenda • Welcome and Warm Up Activities • Ideas for writing in the Content Areas • Introducing the Traits • What Makes Writing Work? Qualities of Writing • Using Rubrics and Student Papers • Trait by Trait • Language to look for • Scoring student work • Teaching and learning activity • Literature

  37. For each trait we will… Review the language to look for. Review a rubric and score a paper. Do a teaching/learning activity. Learn about books for that trait. Write down things to remember.

  38. “Where do you get your ideas?” That’s the question most often asked of writers by non-writers. My ideas come from from memories, images, dreams, stray happenings, but they all have one thing in common: I got the ideas because I was looking for ideas. A person who has it uppermost in his mind, that someone is trying to poison him, will often find that his food tastes a bit peculiar. The anticipation is all. Richard Kennedy

  39. What’s important about the trait of IDEAS? Look for the following… Clarity and Focus of the Content Rich and Vivid Details Clear Sense of Purpose Substance and Accuracy Fresh and Original Thinking mathterpieces

  40. Tips on Assessing the Trait of Ideas Think quality, not quantity. It isn’t more ideas that make a paper strong but the writer’s effective use of just the right information. “Too many scoring systems reward students for including merely more arguments or examples; quantity is not quality, and we teach a bad lesson by such scoring practices.” -Grant Wiggins

  41. The Attic Look for descriptors that fit this paper for the trait of ideas. Handout page 21

  42. Literature that demonstrates the trait of ideas… Marc Brown Arthur Byrd Baylor I’m in Charge of Celebrations Sneed Collard Animal Dads Mem Fox Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge Arnold Lobel The Frog and Toad Treasury Patricia MacLachlan All the Places to Love Bill Nye Bill Nye the Science Guy’s Big Blue Ocean Maurice Sendak Where the Wild Things Are James Solheim It’s Disgusting and We Ate It

  43. Teaching the trait of Ideas • Talk about where ideas come from. • Model differences between generalities and good details. • Read aloud from books with striking detail or strong imagery. • Model how to eliminate filler or unnecessary information. • Model the use of questions to expand and clarify a main idea.

  44. Teaching the trait of “Ideas” For older young writers… Focusing the Binoculars For younger young writers… I saw a dog… Handout page 22

  45. Important Details Using the handout, pick out the 6, most interesting, most intriguing, bits of information in the list. Ignore irrelevant details and common knowledge. Handout pages 23-24

  46. Where Ideas Come From What’s the difference between thinking something up and getting something down? In what way is writing an act of listening instead of an act of speech?

  47. I don’t see how a writer can operate without going out as a reporter. I don’t care if you’re writing plays, movies, or even if you’re a poet…Think of the feast that’s out there: Get out there! Take a look! Tom Wolfe

  48. Whose Voice is it? Eleanor Roosevelt Shakespeare Walt Disney Larry the Cable Guy Oprah Winfrey Helen Keller Albert Einstein George W. Bush Britney Spears Napoleon Bonaparte Handout pg. 26

  49. VOICE: What to look for… Expression of individuality Reader wants to keep reading Commitment to the topic Suits the audience Fits the purpose

  50. Tips for Assessing Voice When a writer has a chance to choose a topic he or she cares about, voice explodes from the page. You will find that the more you read, the easier it is to score the trait of voice. It’s much harder to tolerate voiceless writing. Pieces that are strong in voice are rewarding to share aloud. Think of the books you like to read to students in the classroom. Those are the best examples of voice. From Creating Writers p. 61 (Second Edition)

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