The traits can be a part of the mini lessons you want to
teach. You might also do some great read alouds and point
out how the author uses "voice" etc. I think taking some
time to teach them separately (for an overview) makes sense.
Maybe the forst 6-8 weeks and then you have a foundation in
which to refer to them. Definitely have a poster for this
purpose. Look through you reading series and try to see
which themes match the traits best - this way you can refer
to them as reading time as well : ) Literacynook.com has a
six trait link that might give you some ideas for lessons.
Hope this helps!

On 7/29/09, ElemTeacher wrote:
> 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)

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