The 6 Traits of Writing for Parents & Guardians

1. The 6 Traits of Writing for Parents & Guardians Wilson Focus School

2. What are The 6 Traits of Writing? • Traits can be defined as qualities or characteristics critical to successful performance in any area. • Just as there are traits for skiing, such as stem turns, traversing, sideslipping, herrignbone, etc. there are traits for good writing.

3. Why the Six-Traits? • Writing is an important form of communicating what we comprehend. • It is a difficult skill to learn and teach due to the metacognitive transfer from thought to written word. • Students need to break down written language into step by step components in order to master writing skills. • Teachers needed a better way to assess and provide effective feedback to students to improve their teaching and student writing.

4. The 6 Traits of Good Writing + 1 1. Ideas 2. Organization 3. Voice 4. Word choice • Sentence fluency • Conventions • Presentation

5. Purpose • Meet Nebraska State Writing Standards. • Common Language used by teachers and students across grade levels. • Ability for students to transfer writing to all subject areas. • Preparation for Nebraska State Writing Test [NeSA-W] • Give students the ability to communicate in written form and transfer that ability to various situations. • Prepare for higher levels of learning and apply writing to real world experiences. • Important strategy needed to evaluate and respond to reading.

6. IDEAS • The ideas are the heart of the message, the content of the piece, the main theme, together with all the details that enrich and develop that theme. Ideas are about the details of the piece and how well the reader can see images in their mind.

7. What parents can do to encourage good ideas: • Who is the story about? Characters? • Where is the story taking place? Setting? • When did it occur? • Is my message clear? • Do I know enough about my topic? • Is it interesting? • Is my topic “small” and focused? • Did I show what was happening? Events? • Use a web or brainstorming sheet to help your child organize their thoughts before writing. Parents can suggest that their children ask the following:

8. Organization • Organization is the internal structure of the piece of writing. • Framework that holds the piece together. • Provides form and shape and helps the reader follow the events in the story. • Includes transitions that connect the ithe big ideas together. • Organization includes a beginning, middle, and end and a logical sequence of events.

9. Why Organization? • Organization gives direction to all writing by drawing the reader in. • It enhances and showcases the central theme, main idea or storyline. • Everything fits together like a puzzle and allows the reader to comprehend what the meaning of the writing is.

10. What parents can do to encourage organization: Parents can suggest that their children ask the following: • Does my paper have a good opening (topic sentence) that captures the reader’s attention? • Do have 2-3 big ideas with details about each idea? • Are my ideas in sequence and make sense? • Did I use transition words? • Does my paper have a strong ending (conclusion)?

11. Voice • The voice is the heart and soul, the magic, the wit, along with the feeling and conviction of the individual writer coming out through the words. • Voice is the writer’s personality shining through the words. • Voice is determined by the author’s purpose for the writing and the genre. • Voice will be different in an expository (informational piece) than a narrative story written about self or other characters.

12. How parents can help with Voice… Parents can suggest that their children ask the following: • Does this writing sound like me? • Did I say what I think and feel? • Does my writing have energy and passion? • Is it appropriate for my audience and purpose? • Does my writing have events, ideas, and words that could only be mine because they have happened to me?

13. Word Choice • Use of exact nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs that are rich and powerful. • Use of concise and precise words that communicate not only the message and purpose of the writing, but add to the voice of the writer. • Word Choice is language that will move and engage the reader and keep them interested to the very end!

14. Word Choice • Word Choice enriches our writing and makes it almost come alive. • Precise words add energy and clarity. • Words convey the intended message in a clear, interesting and natural way. Example: The dog barked. [ B-O-R-I-N-G!!! ] The tiny spotted chihuahua yapped annoyingly until I picked him up and snuggled him close to me and rocked him like a baby. [Now, that’s a good sentence!]

15. Suggestions for parents about Word Choice: Parents can suggest that their children ask the following: • Will my reader understand my words? • Were my words accurate, original, and just right? • Did I use exact nouns? • Did I use energetic verbs? • Did I use adjectives to describe my nouns? • Did I use adverbs to describe my verbs? • Did I use language that will paint a picture in the mind of the reader? • Do I use figurative language: similies, metaphors, idioms, alliteration, etc.

16. Sentence Fluency • Sentence fluency is the rhythm and flow of the language, the sound of word patterns, the way in which writing plays to the ear—not just to the eye.

17. Sentence Fluency • Sentence Fluency gives our writing rhythm with an easy flow when read aloud. Sentences are well built with strong and varied structures. Sentences are clear and powerful. As our writing skills grow, we learn new ways to “sculpt” our writing.

18. Parent suggestions for Sentence Fluency: Parents can suggest that their children ask the following: • How does my writing sound when read aloud? • Do my sentences begin in different ways? • Are some sentences long and some short?

19. Conventions • Conventions include all the punctuation, usage and grammar that a proofreader or editor would look at before publication. • Revising is usually the last of the Traits to be revised before publication, however proofreading can be done as you write.

20. Conventions • Once our writing is revised, we are ready to edit and proofread. • It’s like wrapping a package - we want to prepare our writing so others can read and enjoy it. • Conventions deal with fixing our work (e.g. grammar, capitalization, punctuation, usage, spelling, paragraphing) so that our work is as error-free as possible.

21. Presentation • Handwriting • Computer Typed • Cover Sheets • Title Page • Bibliography • Footnotes

22. Help your child by asking: • Where is your lead sentence? • Where are your paragraphs? • Is your spelling correct? • Did you correctly use periods, question marks, commas, quotation marks, and other punctuation marks? • Did you use capital letters correctly? • Where is your beginning, middle, and end? • Did you use figurative language: similes, metaphors, alliteration? • Did you use feeling words and colorful nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs? • Did you write about one topic? • Did you give vivid detail? Will the reader be able to picture your story in their head? • Did you use a conclusion sentence?

23. The 6 Traits of Writing Ideas Presentation Organization Voiceword choice Sentence FluencyConventions