Six Traits of Writing for assessment and instruction

1. Six Traits of Writingfor assessment and instruction Jen Madison Educational Service Unit No. 6 jmadison@esu6.org

2. Objectives • score papers, analytically and holistically, according to 6-trait language • apply grade-appropriate strategies to teach and reinforce the 6 traits of writing

3. Agenda • Welcome! • Reviewing the Traits • Name that Trait! • Responding to Student Writing • Holistic & analytic scoring with rubrics • Recognizing craft techniques • Teaching and Reinforcing the Traits • Language of the trait • Teaching and learning activities • Closure

4. What makes writing work? • List one specific characteristics of good writing on each paper. • Work with 3-5 others to classify your characteristics

5. Ideas / Content Organization Voice Word Choice Sentence Fluency Conventions Bell Ringer: Name That Trait!

6. 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 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

7. Purpose of Traits • “an answer to the question: What makes writing work?” • consistent “writer’s language that opens the door to revision” (a how to for revision) • a way to • organize and clarify good writing instruction • encourage consistent assessment • empower and motivate young writers • encourage thinking skills and self-monitoring • NOT meant to replace instruction of writing process! (Spandel, Creating Writers, 2005, p. 1-2)

9. “…the keys to writing well:” • Have a strong, clear idea. • Use details and pictures to paint a picture in year reader’s mind. • Write with authority and voice. • Organize your information so that a reader can follow it. • Use words that make sense—and that are lively as well. • Write with fluency and variety—the way good dancers dance. • Make your conventions as strong as you can so that readers can figure out your message. (Spandel, 2008, Creating Young Writers, p. 7)

10. Agenda • Welcome! • Reviewing the Traits • Name that Trait! • Responding to Student Writing • Holistic & analytic scoring with rubrics • Recognizing craft techniques • Teaching and Reinforcing the Traits • Language of the trait • Teaching and learning activities • Closure

11. Holistic One overall score Intended to generalize overall effect Cannot provide specific, needs-based feedback Used for Statewide Writing Assessment (NeSA-W 4, 8, 11) Analytic Each trait scored separately Provides more detailed feedback to guide instruction and monitor progress Used for most classroom writing assignments Holistic vs. Analytic Scoring

12. Idea Development • 5 • The writing is clear, well-supported or developed, and enhanced by the kind of detail that keeps readers reading. • The writer selectively chooses just the right information to make the paper understandable, enlightening and interesting - without bogging down in trivia. • Details work together to expand the main topic or develop a story, giving the whole piece a strong sense of focus. • The writer’s knowledge, experience, insight or unique perspective lends the writing a satisfying ring of authenticity. • The amount of detail is just right - not skimpy, not overwhelming. • 3 • The writer has made a solid beginning in defining a topic or mapping out a story line. It is easy to see where the paper is headed, though more expansion is needed to complete the picture. • General, global information provides the big picture - and makes the reader long for specifics. • Well-focused information blends with repetitive points, trivia or meanderings. • The writer draws on some personal experience - but too often settles for generalities or clichéd thinking. • Unneeded information may eat up space that should have gone to important details. Where’s the balance? • 1 • Sketchy, loosely focused information forces the reader to make inferences. Readers will likely notice more than one of these problems: • The main topic is still unclear, out of focus - or not yet known, even to the writer. • Missing, limited or unrelated details require the reader to fill in many blanks. • Lists of “factlets” may be substituted for true development. • Everything seems as important as everything else. Analytical Scoring: how well the writing works for each trait

13. Using Rubrics:One Way to Respond & Assess • Many formats and varieties • Thoughtfully select traits/indicators for assessment • informational/technical writing • creative/personal writing • Have students help create indicators • Provide student friendly versions • Engage students in activities using rubrics • Engage students in discussions using real student writing • Be consistent

14. Using RubricsOne Way to Respond & Assess • Always read the entire paper first • Refer to the scoring guide often • Stronger or weaker? • Score each trait separately • Remember: • 1 indicates beginning performance, not failure • top score represents strengths and proficiency, not perfection • Watch out for rater bias

15. Objectivity Issues and Sources of Bias • Physical characteristics • Personal reaction to particular tones, content, or students • Length • Positive-negative leniency • Tendency to be too hard or too easy on everyone • Fatigue • Skimming • Sympathy • “Self-scoring” • Score the writer’s work, not your skill of putting the puzzle pieces together.

16. Objectivity Issues and Sources of Bias • Sources of rater bias • Pet peeves, such as…. • Big LOOpy writing (with stars and hearts) • Teeny, tiny writing • Writing in ALL CAPITALS • Tons! Of exclamation (!!!) points!!!! • Mixing it’s and its • The End (like I couldn’t tell) • Total absence of paragraphs What’s one of your pet peeves?

17. Exploring the Traits Through Student Writing • Read the proficient level descriptions for the trait • Underline/highlight the words that best define the characteristics of proficient • Mark (?) descriptors requiring clarification • Read the writing thoroughly: • Look for strengths • Score each trait • Prepare to discuss reasons for your score • Practice responding to the student: • Recognize or model (provide an example) of the positive technique • Name it, describe it, and say why it’s good.

18. Exploring the Traits Through Student Writing • Read the proficient level descriptions for the trait • Underline/highlight the words that best define the characteristics of proficient • Mark (?) descriptors requiring clarification • Read the writing thoroughly: • Look for strengths • Score each trait • Prepare to discuss reasons for your score • Practice responding to the student: • Recognize or model (provide an example) of the positive technique • Name it, describe it, and say why it’s good.

19. Recognizing Craft Techniques: One Way to Respond • Be a collector of the recognizable, replicable, small things that effective writers do. Hale, Crafting Writers K-6, 2008

20. Craft in depth… Hale, Crafting Writers K-6, p. 45

21. Holistic Scoring: how well the writing works overall (all traits)

22. Agenda • Welcome! • Reviewing the Traits • Name that Trait! • Responding to Student Writing • Holistic & analytic scoring with rubrics • Recognizing craft techniques • Teaching and Reinforcing the Traits • Language of the trait • Teaching and learning activities • Closure

23. IDEAS: Look for the following… • Details • Close-up details (e.g., veins in leaves, facial expressions) • Signs of movement • Sensory details • Support of ideas • Clarity • Regardless of delivery method • Accuracy • Retelling • Original Thinking • Quality vs. Quantity

24. Lesson Ideas Ideas • Write a Short Piece • Invite students to list questions they would like answered. Tell them you will will answer only 5, so “choose carefully!” • Discuss results: “How would it be different if…” • Be Observers • Make lists • Question/Classify: “Which are most interesting? Most important?” • Take Out the Details • Take the details out of a known story. • “What’s missing? What makes the original better?

25. Lesson Ideas Ideas • Zoom-In • “What happens if you zoom it on just this part? What does it look like? What is important/interesting?” • Essential Idea: Using specific details helps the reader create an image. (Showing vs. Telling) • Graphic Organizers • Make expected content explicit • Model transfer from organizer to writing • Snapshot • “I want to see it, like a photo in an album.” “Don’t say the old lady screamed. Bring her on and let her scream.”--Mark Twain

26. 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. • Use questions to expand and clarify a main idea.

27. ORGANIZATION: What to look for… • Sense of (Logical) Sequencing • Ability to Group Like Details • Sense of Beginning and Ending • Use of Transitions • Controlled Pacing

28. Lesson Ideas Organization • Give Me Some Tips! • Ask for students’ help to brainstorm/research and classify details. • The End? • Omit the ending to a piece. Ask students to make up their own. • Classify & Sequencing • Provide opportunities to classify and put items in an order. Discuss! • Provide models / frames. • When they can independently follow the frame, challenge them to spice it up!

29. Give Me Some Tips! St. Therese • Her childhood • Her adulthood • Her spiritual legacy • Her canonization

30. VOICE: Look for the following… • Emotion / Passion • Enthusiasm for Writing • Individuality

31. Voice in Informational writing Confident Knowledge-driven Inspiring “The Cosmos is a very big place.” “If we were randomly inserted into the Cosmos, the chance that we would find ourselves on or near a planet would be less than one in a billion trillion trillion (1033, a one followed by 33 zeroes). In everyday life such odds are called compelling. Worlds are precious [1980, p. 5].”

32. Lesson Ideas Voice • Write voice IN or OUT • Take the voice out of a passage and have students put their own in. • Bored vs. Excited? • What do these look like? (Students demonstrate kinesthetically.) • “I want to see an ‘excited’ face in my mind when I read your writing.” • Show them two sample paragraphs using the same facts. Which was written by an “excited” writer? How can you tell? • Read aloud from works that have strong voice. • Help students identify an audience.

33. Word Choice: What to look for • awareness of language • awareness of different ways to say things • love of favorite words • memorable words/phrases • accurate / appropriate use of words

34. Lesson Ideas Word Choice • Study connotation (subtleties of word variation) • Put related words on a continuum • said, whispered, barked, exclaimed, shouted, screamed, commented murmured, declared, mentioned, hollered • Apply movement to variations of verbs & discuss differences • Trash overused words & display interesting, lively, or content appropriate words • Use wall displays, bulletin boards, etc. • Brainstorm alternatives • “I’m tired of the word good. Help me out. What else could I say?”

35. Sentence Fluency: What to look for • rhythm • sentence sense • varied sentence beginnings and lengths

36. Lesson Ideas Sentence Fluency • Read fluent passages out loud • “Do you like the way this sounds? • “How many different ways does this writer begin sentences?” • “Describe the lengths of the sentences. What effect does this create?” • Mentor Sentences • Collect powerful sentences to use as models of specific techniques • (prepositional phrases…a strong way to add detail) “Over bushes, under trees, between fence posts, through the tangled hedge she swoops untouched” (Davies, 2004, p. 12). • Sentence Building Game • For a given topic, provide a sentence beginning for students to complete. • (Cats) “In the morning…; Once, my cat…; My cat is…; Because my cat is silly, he/she…”

37. Sentence Fluency Chart Analyze the mode, genre, author’s style: • How long are sentences? • How do sentences begin? • What is the verb? • What kind of sentences are used?

38. Your students should ask…(beginning writers) • Did I leave spaces between words? • Does my writing go from left to right? • Did I use a title? • Did I leave margins on the sides? At the bottom? • Did I use capital letters? Why? • Did I use periods? How about question marks? • Did I do my best on spelling? • Could another person read this?

39. Conventions: What to look for • awareness of writing conventions • willingness to experiment • patience to take a second look

40. Your students should ask…(beginning writers) • Did I leave spaces between words? • Does my writing go from left to right? • Did I use a title? • Did I leave margins on the sides? At the bottom? • Did I use capital letters? Why? • Did I use periods? How about question marks? • Did I do my best on spelling? • Could another person read this?

41. Lesson Ideas Conventions • Start small (and use the word “editing”). • Name, spacing, etc. • Teach & model (I do it. We do it. You do it.) • Editing marks • Editing with text that’s not their own • Editing their own before publishing with scaffolding • Process for spelling a word (i.e., spell it the way it sounds, look it up, ask someone else) • Scavenger Hunts • “Who can find a…” • “Why did the author use this?” • Explain importance of conventions/editing.

42. Strategies for Better Instruction • TEACH the language to speak and think like writers. • MODEL specific craft techniques. • Name it. Describe it. Explain why it’s good. • READ, SCORE, and JUSTIFY scores on anonymous sample papers. • Provide focused PRACTICE for REVISION. • WRITE. (Yes, you.) • READ and DISCUSS strengths and weaknesses in all kinds of writing. • DEMYSTIFY writing in your class. • Provide thoughtful, effective PROMPTS

43. Modeling and Examples “Telling is not teaching!" • Write with your students! • Live writing • Think-aloud • Allow students to contribute to revision decisions • Exaggerated writing • Use appropriate literature • Passages from known literature • Make the text visual • Use student writing • Stress strengths, specific skills/craft techniques

44. R.A.F.T.S: a way to prompt • Role of the writer • helps writer decide on point of view and voice. • Audience • reminds writer he/she must communicate ideas to someone else: helps determine content and style • Format of the material • helps writer organize ideas and employ format conventions for letters, interviews, story problems, and other kinds of writing • Topic or subject • helps writer zero in on main idea and narrow the focus • Strong verb • directs writer to the writing purpose, e.g. create, defend, analyze, persuade, evaluate, etc.

45. Building R.A.F.T.S. • Decide on each component. For example: • Role: Plant • Audience: Sky • Format: Letter • Topic: Why you need rain and sunshine • Strong verb: Explaining • Write out the assignment in paragraph form, underlining the key components. Most rafts begin with “You are…” • You are a vegetable plant in a garden. Write a letter to the sky to explain why you need rain and sunshine.

46. Building R.A.F.T.S. • Use writing to help students explore a concept from different perspectives and through different formats. • Role • Audience • Format • Topic • Differentiate: • Let students choose one or more components. • Raise Complexity – choose items farther from natural fit • Moderate/Lower Complexity – choose items closer to natural fit (Wormelli, R.) Example: Role: semicolon Audience: teens Format: diary entry Topic: I wish you understood where I really belong.

47. Agenda • Welcome! • Reviewing the Traits • Name that Trait! • Responding to Student Writing • Holistic & analytic scoring with rubrics • Recognizing craft techniques • Teaching and Reinforcing the Traits • Language of the trait • Teaching and learning activities • Closure

48. A Few Resources • Northwest Regional Laboratory (NWREL). (2007). 6+1 Trait Writing. Retrieved October 2008 from http://www.nwrel.org/assessment/department.php?d=1. • Spandel, V. (2008). Creating young writers: Using the six traits to enrich writing process in primary classrooms. Boston: Pearson, Allyn and Bacon. • Spandel, V. (2005). Creating writers: Through 6-Trait Writing Assessment and Instruction. Fourth Edition.Boston: Pearson, Allyn and Bacon.

49. Basic Instructional Plan • Compare strong & weak writing examples for each trait. • Provide ample practice rewriting weak samples into strong samples. • Have students score sample papers.

50. A Few Resources • Northwest Regional Laboratory (NWREL). (2007). 6+1 Trait Writing. Retrieved October 2008 from http://www.nwrel.org/assessment/department.php?d=1. • Spandel, V. (2005). Creating writers: Through 6-Trait Writing Assessment and Instruction. Fourth Edition.Boston: Pearson, Allyn and Bacon. • ESU 6 Writing Wikispace: http://esu6writing.wikispaces.com/ • Under construction!