6 Trait Writing Professional Development

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6 Trait WritingProfessional Development
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The Need for Excellent Writing Instruction

• Why is writing important?
• To complete academic assignments
• To develop communication skills for academic and
  professional success
• To succeed in high-stakes assessments

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Preparing for Common Core State StandardsWriting
Performance Tasks
Example Prerequisite Example Prerequisite Example Prerequisite Grade-Level Standard Sample Performance Task
Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. Students quote accurately and explicitly from Leslie Halls Seeing Eye to Eye to explain statements they make and ideas they infer regarding sight and light. RI.5.1
Make inferences
Be able to quote a resource
Determine the main idea and details
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Which is your situation?

• System A
• Teachers assess student work using their own
  systems.
• Teachers seldom get together to evaluate student
  writing.
• There is no schoolwide or districtwide system for
  assessing the quality of student work.

• System B
• Teachers assess student writing using a common
  framework.
• Teachers frequently get together to evaluate
  student writing.
• A schoolwide or districtwide system for assessing
  student writing yields useful data on
  instructional needs.

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The 6-Traits

• Is a model of assessment and instruction designed
  by teachers and based upon best practices.
• Is best learned through intensive professional
  development since it is not a specific program
• Does not require purchasing additional materials,
  but is dependent on teacher implementation

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The 6-Traits

• Help students
• understand what is working well and what needs to
  be improved in their writing.
• use a common language for discussing the quality
  of writing.
• Help teachers
• diagnose specific strengths and weaknesses of
  student writing
• assess and use assessment for focus of
  instruction
• improve overall writing in the classroom

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Research Base for 6-Traits

• 1972- Bay Area Writing Project
• 1984- Beaverton School District, Oregon
• 1994- Arter, Spandel, Culham, and Pollard. Six
  classrooms of fifth grade students were studied
  and the treatment group showed substantial growth
  in the three traits that were explicitly taught.
• 1999 -Teams scored 930 pieces of student writing.
  The sum of the six trait scores as a predictor of
  success was accurate for 79 of students.
• 2000- Kent School District, WA (NWREL) The study
  tracked student growth in writing achievement in
  third grade over a period of three years. The
  study showed an increase in the number of
  students meeting benchmark standards in all
  traits, up to to 32.2.

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6-Traits Writing Training for Teachers

• Components
• Ideas
• Organization
• Voice
• Word Choice
• Fluency
• Conventions

Builds Teacher Collaboration
Guides Writing Instruction
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How do you evaluate quality writing?
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Student and Teacher Rubrics
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6-Traits Ideas

• IDEAS Content of the message
• State, clarify main ideas
• Be an observer
• Show, dont tell
• Get rid of dead wood
• Focus on the subject

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6-Traits Organization
ORGANIZATION Internal structure

• Logical and chronological order, transitions
• Spend time on a good lead
• Link ideas together in paragraphs
• Beginning, middle, end

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Organizational Maps

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6-Traits Voice

• VOICE connection between writer and reader
• Express interest and personality
• Make the reader feel and respond
• Match voice to purpose
• Understand the audience
• Be yourself

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6-Traits Word Choice
WORD CHOICE selection of words

• Select specific and precise words
• Collect quotations
• Match word choice to purpose and audience
• Think of a picture

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Example of Stretching with Word Choice
The lioness stalked. The famished, angry lioness
stalked. The famished, eager lioness stalked
through the tall grass. The famished, eager
lioness stalked through the tall grass, looking
for food. Looking for food, the famished,
striped tiger stalked through the grass.
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Word Choice
Noxious
Harmful
Poisonous

Unhealthy
Corrupting
Lethal
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6-Traits Sentence Fluency
SENTENCE FLUENCY how words are connected

• Construct and combine sentences
• Vary sentence structure and length
• Edit incomplete or choppy sentences
• Read other writing aloud

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6-Traits Conventions

• CONVENTIONS Punctuation, spelling, grammar,
  usage
• Correct misspellings, fragments, run-on sentences
• Correct usage issues or overuse of words
• Edit for punctuation and grammar

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Ninth Tenth Grade Text Types and Purposes

• Write informative/explanatory texts to examine
  and convey complex ideas, concepts, and
  information clearly and accurately through the
  effective selection, organization, and analysis
  of content.
• Introduce a topic organize complex ideas,
  concepts, and information to make important
  connections and distinctions include formatting
  (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., figures,
  tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding
  comprehension. IDEAS
• Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and
  sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete
  details, quotations, or other information and
  examples appropriate to the audiences knowledge
  of the topic. IDEAS, VOICE
• Use appropriate and varied transitions to link
  the major sections of the text, create cohesion,
  and clarify the relationships among complex ideas
  and concepts. ORGANIZATION
• Use precise language and domain-specific
  vocabulary to manage the complexity of the topic.
  WORD CHOICE
• Establish and maintain a formal style and
  objective tone while attending to the norms and
  conventions of the discipline in which they are
  writing. CONVENTIONS
• Provide a concluding statement or section that
  follows from and supports the information or
  explanation presented (e.g., articulating
  implications or the significance of the topic).
  ORGANIZATION

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Pearsons 6-Trait WritingDistrict Training

• This two-day onsite district institute will
  prepare teachers to
• Develop skills and strategies to incorporate 6
  Traits into their writing curriculum to enhance
  learning of ideas, organization, voice, sentence
  fluency, and conventions.
• Teach and assess writing using rubrics
• Plan for differentiated instruction to meet
  student needs.

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Pearsons 6-Trait Writing District Training
Activities

• Compare examples of writing and identify the
  strengths and weaknesses of each
• Explore components of good writing instruction
  and assessment
• Define the 6 traits integration to the core
  standards
• Model instruction and provide examples of what it
  looks like in literature.
• Assess own writing
• Review methods for teaching each trait
• Present and discuss lesson ideas for each trait.
• Use rubrics and score examples of student
  writing.
• Review methods for converting rubric scores to
  grades

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Pearsons 6-Trait Writing Resources
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Benefits of 6-Trait Writing Training

• Provides a common language and framework for
  writing instruction
• Not dependent on a specific curriculum
• Can be used within the writing process
• Gives teachers autonomy to choose literature and
  writing prompts
• Aligned tools for assessment and instruction
• The research shows instruction in 6 Traits can
  improve students writing.

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Why Professional Development from Pearson?

• Content aligned to Common Core State Standards to
  help students improve writing and meet standards
• Ongoing support provided (coaching and modeling
  options) to improve classroom instruction
• Author-approved, expert trainers, mentored by
  Vikki Spandel
• Access to Vikki Spandels textbooks and resources
• A wealth of resources and solutions in available
  to the district

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Questions?