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As someone who plans on traveling and teaching English, I always try to think of things in a foreign language/second language perspective. A lot of students I teach will already know how to speak and possibly write in their native language, but teaching them a whole new language is going to be different. I really like the idea of interactive writings and quick writes. I think these are great activities that can also be done and used with ESL students. Interactive writings can help them gain their confidence in English will getting guidance from the teacher, while quick writes can be something done more on the "for fun" side just to get them thinking and writing on their own. This padlet was full of a lot of valuable resources that I could use in the future!

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Interactive Writing seems to be a great way to model the steps involved with writing while including all students in the process!

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Penny interviews Donald Graves for Inside Writing

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Educational research states that all good writing includes six key ingredients:

These are the Six Traits of Writing.

But, as you've likely experienced, building stronger writers can seem overwhelming, regardless of the grade you teach. Every classroom includes a broad range of students at varying writing levels. As such, a canned writing curriculum will never meet the unique needs of every student.

That's why our team believes so strongly in the 6 Writing Traits. It's not a program. Instead, it is a framework that uses the six qualities of "good" writing to guide every lesson, assignment, and assessment.

If you want to learn what are the Six Traits of Writing, you've come to the right place! For nearly 20 years, we've been helping educators build stronger writers with the Six Traits. In this guide, you'll find a comprehensive overview of the Six Traits of Writing. This includes suggestions for implementation in your own classroom.

Let's get started!

Don't have time to read this now?

Enter your email address below and we'll send you a printable version that you can reference later.

"We are not editors, but teachers. The goal of a conference is to help students become better writers." - Carl Anderson

Process Conferences

Students need feedback during all stages of the writing process-not just during the final revision and editing stages. Unlike the longer product conference, a process conference lasts only a few minutes, and it can happen at any stage in the writing process. Teachers may sit down with students and talk about choosing a topic or discuss their pre-writing plan or give feedback as they draft a new piece or when they're fine-tuning it.

Students would rather have a few minutes of teacher feedback regularly versus 20 minutes once a month. They need to be in touch with the teacher more often, but they do not necessarily need to be one-on-one. Leading a process conference with small groups of students allows more students to receive feedback more often.

Group process conferences allow teachers to touch base with more students each day and provide a critical, formative assessment of where students are and what they need next.

Where did the traits come from?

In the 1960s, a researcher named Paul Diederich asked a group of professionals to identify what makes writing effective. He received hundreds of responses, ranging from strong metaphors to correct semicolons. But no one can remember hundreds of things simultaneously, so Diederich grouped the responses and found they fell within six categories.

In 1984, literacy expert Vicki Spandel led a team who replicated Diederich's study. In the end, Spandel, curriculum experts at the Northwest Regional Education Laboratory, and willing teachers from Missoula, Montana and Beaverton, Oregon all settled on the same six ingredients.

Since that time, the research has been formally conducted a third time. Using an even wider variety of writing genres, including digital and online writings, Education Northwest has proven that the same six ingredients are still the core of "good" writing.

The Six Traits of Writing model is now used in all 50 of the United States as well as multiple countries around the world.

Written by Lois Bridges, Ph.D.

EXCERPT: For more than two decades, the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (now known as Education Northwest) and other researchers have studied the effectiveness of the Trait Model and the professional development tools used to train the teachers who use it. In a nutshell, the traits represent the essential elements of writing inherent in all extended written communication: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. Educators who use the Trait Model center both their instruction and their assessment on helping students understand how these elements work together and interact to create a well-written, cohesive piece that accomplishes the writer's goal.

Conducted by: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance

EXCERPT: The study was designed to estimate the impact of 6+1 Trait Writing on student achievement in writing during the first year of a typical implementation. This question was addressed among grade 5 students in Oregon using a single "holistic" writing score on student essays. Exploratory analyses using six scores on specific traits of writing were also conducted. Professional development was provided by the model developers in the same year that student assessments were administered. The particulars of school and classroom implementation of the approach were allowed to vary in the schools, without any special oversight or intervention by the developers beyond the technical assistance normally offered to those who receive the materials and professional development.

For the confirmatory research question (What is the impact of 6+1 Trait Writing on grade 5 student achievement in writing), use of the 6+1 Trait Writing model caused a statistically significant difference in student writing scores.

Students grow when their teachers use targeted language to teach and assess their writing. Furthermore, when an entire grade level, department, or school use the Six-Traits framework with fidelity, the impact is enormous.

When a K-5 school, for example, commits to Six-Traits implementation, students at every level are exposed to age-appropriate mini-lessons, mentor text, anchor papers, and writing rubrics-all of which are intentionally tied to the Six Traits. That consistent exposure to the same elements over a period of years strengthens students' depth of knowledge but also their capacity to apply the traits in writing. This includes persuasive, argumentative, informative, and narrative pieces.

Such repeated exposure requires more than a poster and six words. It's about the daily and explicit teaching of dozens of granular writing skills across the grade levels and tied to the Six-Traits language.

Six-Traits Professional Development

Most English/language arts textbook publishers are intentional about labeling their resources with the Six-Traits language. But too often, boxed curriculums lack the depth and intentionality that is required in order to fully implement the Six Traits.

In order to know how to launch and execute a fluid Six-Traits model that is responsive to student needs, teachers need the support of ongoing professional development. After all, most teachers didn't learn how to teach writing in college, making vague guidance from the language arts textbook a recipe for shallow writing instruction. Using professional development as a catalyst to building-wide implementation of the Six Traits involves a continued cycle of professional learning, practice, and collaboration.

3. Provide time during the school day (or in the summer) for every teacher to participate in Six-Traits workshops. With cost-effective online options like those available from Smekens Education's webAcademy, learning becomes easier. The entire staff can use on-demand videos to learn innovative ways to launch and begin to implement the Six Traits.

4. After teachers have embedded the Six Traits into their writing lessons, assignments, and assessments, engage teams in instructional rounds. This activity allows educators to observe their colleagues deliver trait-based instruction and then collaborate afterward to offer feedback and encouragement.

5. Use PLC time to examine how the Six Traits are being implemented and how learning is ultimately being impacted. As learning gaps are identified throughout the school year, use professional learning tools such as Smekens Education's webPD. This will provide teachers with innovative strategies to address specific writing weaknesses.

6. Offer teachers ongoing implementation support with an instructional coach. Whether turning to a highly-trained in-house staff member or leaning on an outside expert like Smekens Education's Remote Coach, this type of sustained guidance will help teachers maximize success with the Six Traits.

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The Ultimate Guide to the 6 Traits of Writing | Smekens

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All good writing has six key ingredients: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions - these are the Six Traits of Writing.

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Interactive Writing in Kindergarten: Sharing the Pen to Promote Engagement (Virtual Tour)

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Students engage in interactive writing by sharing the pen with the teacher and writing about an authentic experience or outing. See the lesson plan at http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/balancedliteracydiet/Recipe/50240/ and do a virtual tour of this teacher's classroom at http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/balancedliteracydiet/JKLA.html. Also go to http://www.LitDiet.org for more free teaching activities and virtual classroom tours.

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K kids involved with Interactive Writing

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K kids involved with Interactive Writing

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Steve Graham: What works in teaching writing

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Uploaded by Reading Rockets on 2013-07-10.

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Interview with Katie Ray & Lisa Cleaveland

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Interview with Katie Ray & Lisa Cleaveland