Teaching with the 6+1 Traits

Angela StockmanWNY Education Associates

stockmanangela@gmail.com

How does learning happen?Photo by Silvia Tolisano

What does it mean to teach?

What I’m learning…..WE ACT AND WRITE WITH COURAGE

WE SEEK UNDERSTANDING BEFORE DOING

WE PERSEVERE

WE COLLABORATE

WE SHARE OUR EXPERTISE

WE GIVE OF OURSELVES AND ACT WITH KINDNESS

WE REFLECT ON WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE WE ARE GOING, AND HOW WE PLAN TO GET THERE

WE KNOW THAT WRITING IS OFTEN A SLOW PROCESS

WE TRY TO DEVELOP BETTER AND BETTER AND BETTER STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING OUR OWN WORK AND HELPING OTHERS

HERE, WE ARE ALL WRITERS AND TEACHERS

What is good writing? What does it mean to become a writer?

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“Real Writers”and “Real Writing”

Have Certain Dispositions in Common....

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COURAGE

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UNDERSTANDING

PERSEVERANCE

REFLECTION

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EXPERTISE

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They are….CONNECTED

COLLABORATIVEENGAGED

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TAKING A TEST

BECOMING A WRITER

Which would YOU choose?

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WHICH

DO YOU

CHOOSE?

THE MOST IMPORTANT

WRITINGINSTRUMENT

TOPUTIN

THEIRHANDS?

BALANCEBUILDSBETTER

WRITERS(…….and don’t better

writers earn high scores on state

assessments too?)

Community Fellows Strive to Embody Certain

Dispositions

Which Support the

Writer's Process

Allowing for the Development of

Writer's Craft

•Courage and Initiative •Understanding•Perseverance•Reflection•Expertise•Cooperation and Collaboration

•Prewriting•Drafting•Peer-Review•Editing•Revising•Publishing

• Compelling Ideas• Engaging Voice• Effective Word Choice• Clear Organization• Fluent Sentences• Proper Use of Conventions

Writer’s Work

Tell Us YOUR Story

WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE ABOUT GOOD WRITING

INSTRUCTION AND ASSESSMENT?

Build a collage that reflects your beliefs.

Which elements of craft do we feel most comfortable teaching and assessing?

IDEAS VOICE WORD CHOICE

ORGANIZATION SENTENCE FLUENCY

CONVENTIONS

The 6+1 Traits of Writing

• A checklist

• A “best practice”

• An evaluation tool

• A process

• A program

• A curriculum

• A philosophy

• A framework that lives INSIDE the writer’s process

• A common language

• An understanding of what good writing is, supported by specific criteria.

What it isn’t….. What it is….

THE WRITING PROCESS

PrewritingDrafting

Peer-ReviewEditing

Publication

Which parts of the process show up most

in your classroom? Least?

Writing is a Process

Writing is a RECURSIVE process

Considering MODES and PURPOSETEXT TYPES (MODES)

Narrative Text

Expository/Informational Text

Procedural Text

Poetic

Functional

Hybrid

PURPOSES FOR WRITING

To Persuade

To Describe

To Inform

To Think

To Connect/Collaborate

To Build Collective Intelligence

PREWRITING

What does this look like?

Strategies for Support:

PromptsArtifactsPicturesMusicVideo

MovementEquations

RAFTSConversation

Web Tools

Traits to Focus on During Pre-Writing:

IDEAS

VOICE

IDEAS• Invite or inspire pre-writing activities.

• Come from our experiences, our connections, and our previous understandings.

• May be generated from artifacts, photographs, movement, music, conversation, guided brainstorming and more…..

• Require good writers to select appropriate MODES and to define their PURPOSES.

• Move readers from general to more refined topics.

• Inspire careful observation.

• Require independent use of higher level thought.

VOICE• The “sound” of the writer or the speaker.

• Flavor or tone that is appropriate to the task.

• Commitment to the piece—involvement.

• Attention to the topic.

Voice• Requires that writers shift the way they speak in

response to MODE and PURPOSE.

• Invites diversity and complexity.

• Built when students take RISKS.

• Thrives in a comfortable atmosphere.

• Suffers when we teach in formulaic ways or require formulaic processes or models.

Drafting

The importance of

understanding MODES and the

power of MENTOR TEXT.

Approaching topics from

varied angles.

Writing beside them.

Traits to Focus On As We Draft

IDEAS

VOICE

ORGANIZATION

Organization“Organization is what you

do before you do something so that when you do it

it’s not all mixed up.”

Winnie the Pooh

http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/books/index.html

Organization• Requires that writers develop an INVITING lead for that provokes

questioning and curiosity.

• Inspires a body of work that attends to these questions and curiosities in a logical manner.

• Relies upon smooth transitions and the articulation of turning points and resolutions.

• Requires a conclusion that satisfies the questions and curiosities provoked by the lead and may inspire new ones. It does not, however, introduce new information.

ORGANIZATIONWHAT IT IS….

A lead that “hooks” reader and provokes questions.

A core that provides details in a logical manner and transitions between them smoothly.

An ending that satisfies the questions raised within the work.

HOW WE SUPPORT IT…

Models and mentor texts

Story boards

Graphic organizers

CRITERIA SPECIFIC FEEDBACK

Exploring mentor texts

leads

endings

in-betweens

Beyond Peer-Conferencing:

Peer Review

ProcessesModeling With

Fishbowl Coaching With

Push/PauseAssessmentEvaluation

Traits to Focus On During Peer-Review

IDEAS

VOICE

ORGANIZATION

WORD CHOICE

SENTENCE FLUENCY

WORD CHOICE

“The race in writing is not to the swift, but to the original.”

----William Zinsser

Word Choice• Original words

• Precise words

• Engaging words

• Varied words

• Attention to dialect and formality

Sentence fluency

• Fluent sentences appeal to the ear and the eye.

• They vary in length and structure.

• They convey character, emotion, and reveal voice.

• Rhythm, rhyme, and repetition of vowel and consonant sounds effect fluency.

EDITING

How are YOU strong as an

editor?

Differentiating the peer-

editing process.

Traits to Focus On As We Edit

IDEAS

VOICE

ORGANIZATION

WORD CHOICE

SENTENCE FLUENCY

CONVENTIONS

CONVENTIONS: THE LAST CONVERSATION• Attending to conventions happens at

the END of the writing process.

• Effective writers understand why editing is necessary. Strong writers know that editing isn’t merely about “fixing up” writing.

• Edits are intentional, effective, and do not strip the work of voice, ideas, or fluency. They BUILD it.

PUBLISHING

What does this mean to you?

How is the definition shifting?

What opportunities are

available?

Approaching Instruction

Teach the Traits Inside the Process: One at a Time

• Activate Background Knowledge Artifacts, Music, Video, Movement, Manipulatives

• Define the Trait• Model With Mentor Text• Anchor With Rubric• Provide Guided Practice• Formatively Assess/Reteach

Fold Into the Process

Link Back to the Dispositions

Find the Assessment

What Does Effective Assessment Around the

Traits Look Like?

Planning StationsUse the materials provided to explore and

design instructional approaches that will meet the needs of your students.

ReferencesGray, Theresa (2006). Slideshare. Writing Frameworks. Retrieved January 21, 2009 from:

http://www.slideshare.net/TGray/writing-frameworks

Martin-Kniep, Giselle O. Communities That Lead, Learn, and Last: Building and Sustaining Educational Expertise. California: Jossey-Bass, 2008.

National Board for Professional Teacher Standards. “What Teachers Should Know and Be Able to Do: The Five Core Propositions.” Retrieved Aug. 21, 2008 from http://www.nbpts.org/the_standards/the_five_core_propositions

Stockman, Angela (2008, August). WNY Young Writers’ Summer Studio. Presented at Daemen College, Amherst, NY.