I really need some direction in how to teach the 6+1 Writing
Traits. Last year was my first year in Language Arts and we
adopted a new reading series that supports the traits.
There was no formal plan for teaching writing prior to this;
every teacher did his/her own thing. Although we went to a
workshop on the traits, it didn't help much.

We use the Harcourt reading series and I'm going through the
first two themes trying to plan my writing instruction. The
traits are broken down and taught individually, it seems.
Two chapters are devoted to each trait...in the order of
voice, word choice, ideas, organization, etc.

Are the traits supposed to be taught separately?

One of my colleagues said that they should be taught
altogether, as part of the writing process. She seems to
simply point out, "This is what we mean by ideas" during the
pre-writing stage, etc. I actually tried this during
writer's workshop and didn't like it. It was as though I
just glossed over the traits without really exploring it
with the children.

I'm really confused and I want to do well with this. How do
you teach the 6+1 writing traits? (I teach 4th grade)

Share This Post | Report This Post

Next Post >>

Posts on this thread, including this one