Teaching With the Traits of Writing

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The trait model is more than an approach to assessing and teaching writing. As Ruth Culham explains in her book/DVD guide Inside the Writing Traits Classroom, the traits are also a vocabulary teachers use to describe their vision of what good writing - any kind of writing - looks like.

To incorporate this common vision into your lesson plans, it helps to see how other teachers effectively teach with the traits - Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, Conventions, and Presentation. Use the following resources to peek inside classrooms where teachers are using the traits model to pinpoint students' strengths and weaknesses to help them master specific writing skills.

Video Demonstration: A Lesson on Organization

Inside the Writing Traits Classroom: Grades K-2
Ruth Culham

In these exciting lessons, primary students embrace the traits to improve their writing. Watch as master teachers break down writing so students know what to do and how to do it. The guide provides the plans and reproducibles for the lessons, plus a bonus plan for conventions and scoring guides for all seven traits. 48 pages, plus a 34-minute DVD.

>Buy DVD Now

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Articles

6+1 Traits for Revision
by Ruth Culham
Instructor Magazine | Covers the 6+1 traits of writing including ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation.

Inside the Writing Traits Classroom K-2
See an excerpt of a writing lesson plan and a video demonstration of how master teachers have successfully implemented the writing traits model in their primary classrooms

Activities for Demonstrating the Traits of Writing
by Kechia Williams
Learn how to adapt the Six-Traits writing model for use in your classroom. Kechia Williams, a middle school teacher in South Carolina uses the book, The Hickory Chair, in her mini-lesson to teach about ideas, organization, voice and conventions traits

Resources

Ruth Culham: Writing Traits Are a Foundation Video Series
In this Scholastic Professional Author interview, Ruth Culham discusses how to teach the Traits of Writing to young learners.

Lesson Plans

Writing Traits Instruction
by Rita McLary
Presents a unit that focus on writing assessment with the goal of teaching students to become more independent writer who are committed to the revision process.