SD
6 + 1 = Writing Success! Dr. Judith Bulazo, USC Director of Professional Development and Elementary Education (K-4)
Second level students Kevin Stief and Rachel Liptak are learning 6+1 Writing skills.
Consider the following sentences:
“Teachers used to beg students to write well.” “Currently, innovative teaching professionals beseech their students to carefully include and assess quality traits in their compositions. The traits allow their writing to exude sensory details, portray interesting content, and create an exact picture in the mind of the reader.” The second sentence provides a more detailed example of what the writer is trying to express to the reader. What is making the difference? The 6 + 1 Traits of Writing! Elementary students in levels one through four will be experiencing a new approach to learning how to compose text. The new writing program, referred to as The 6 + 1 Traits of Writing, is the result of a curriculum recommendation initiated by USC’s elementary reading and language arts committee and Mary Quinn, USC Elementary Reading and Language Arts Curriculum Leader. This program will complement the current practice of conducting Writer’s Workshop as well as enhance content area expository writing. The approach behind this instructional program is a vocabulary and a vision that all teachers have of what good writing should be. This vision encompasses all genres and purposes for writing. The qualities of writing, or traits, that are emphasized include: ideas (content, the heart of the message), organization (internal structure, logical pattern of ideas), voice (writer’s style, writer’s convictions or feelings show), word choice (rich, colorful, precise language that moves the reader), sentence fluency (flow of the language, sound of word patterns), conventions (using grammar and mechanics with precision)—that’s six, and presentation (form and layout)—that’s the +1. This program was developed from the research on writing and assessment of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
in Portland, Oregon. The advantages of using such a program have been documented by research and were reinforced by the experiences of Mrs. Quinn and her committee of teachers who piloted the program in the 2006-07 school year. The program provides a method of looking at the main characteristics of writing and assessing them independently from one another. The advantages to this approach allow for: • Shared understanding of what “good” writing looks like. • Common vocabulary to describe qualities of writing. • Assessing with consistency and accuracy. • Use of assessment results to provide meaningful feedback to students. • Alignment of assessment with instruction to enhance the teaching of writing.
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“Teachers have responded so positively to this approach and have been so thrilled with the results they are seeing in their students’ writing,” says Quinn. “Our pilot team of teachers worked diligently with the program and made many wonderful recommendations for ways to effectively train teachers to implement this program in all classrooms. Their work has been critical to this process,” she says. The reactions of the students have been equally positive. Teachers have reported that students appear excited when the writing lessons begin. Thanks to the elementary teachers who participated in the pilot of this program: Amy Cornali and Barbara O’Leary (Streams first level), Kathy Kuzma (Baker first level), Diane Ray (Eisenhower second level), Dorothy Moreau (Baker second level), Stacey Templeton (Baker third level), Jayme Solomon (Eisenhower third level), Maggie Hudson (Streams third level), Morgan Olsen and Carol Logan (Streams fourth level), and David Fee (Baker fourth level). n
= 1 + 6
Winter 2007
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