Six Writing Traits Lessons

Hi guys, we have a guest blogger today.  She’s here to talk about Six Traits Writing – one of my favorite programs.  Her name is  Tama and she’s in my neck of the woods (or at least on my side of the Atlantic ocean), over in Paris.  She also blogs at Across the Pond, so please stop by and check her out.

 

   

Hi everyone! Salut from Across the Pond Blog in Paris, France. I am guest blogging today here at Heidi Raki's Rad Resources blog. I am super excited to be here and blog with you about something we all know - The Six Writing Traits.  However, there is a fabulous site that I use that shows you how to incorporate literature into the writing process. I love this idea as it makes it more interesting for the students and they also have something to refer back to and, you, as a teacher, have something concrete to model for the students which is always helpful.

Jodie Black and the Northern Nevada Writing Project have an excellent site to engage writers at an early age. How they aim to teach the six writing traits into the early grades is through literature. This gives the children not only a visual to refer to but an idea of something to think about. How many times have you heard, "I don't know what to write about." By intertwining literature into the concepts the students have a better understanding of what is needed to start the writing process.  The Nevada Project has put out a guide of 36 lessons that you can purchase that incorporate the six traits into a literature program. There are also some samples of writing lessons that you can use to get you started.  Yes, you do have to have the books they are referencing in the lessons, but most of them can be found in your pubic library or you can purchase them used from any number of resources or think yard sales!! The Writing Project also has a guide for older primary students as well. Here is the link to some samples for older students.

Another great resource I have found is the Month by Month Trait Based Writing Instruction Book by Maria Walther and Katherine Philips. This guide has proved indispensable for me as not only does it offer wonderful resources for writing, it also ties in your morning message to the writing program so the children can link back to their writings by again having a visual.

 

 

As an example using a writing activity from the Nevada Project, we followed the lesson using the story, All the Places to Love.  After reading the story and modeling the lesson, the children then came up with their own writing about a special place using positional words. Here is a link to the lesson and  a link to what my children wrote for this activity.

 

 

Be sure to check out all these great resources to make your writing program even better. See you all around the blogosphere.

Cheers,

Tama