As we have entered the month of August, every teacher, whether she likes it or not, starts thinking about school. Some of us have dreams (or nightmares). Some of us go on a Pinterest spree. We walk through Target and ask ourselves "What do I 'need' from the dollar section?" You don't do this? Okay, maybe it's just me. Anyway, we are also thinking about what were some of our students' challenges last year, and how we will address them this year. My third and fourth graders had difficulty with vocabulary and making inferences, which was evident in how they would describe their characters: Nice Mean Sad Oh my. So late last school year, I developed this chart of character traits with the intention of helping students organize their thinking when selecting a character trait. Traits are arranged in alphabetical order in the following categories: nice/mean/sad, confident/nervous, and does a lot/does very little. The rest of the categories are partially alphabetical and having a corresponding opposite. This year I will be teaching second graders, so I'm thinking how I will adjust this chart to better suit their developmental abilities: Less words? Words that are more relevant to a second grade schema? Some pictures or graphics to support the vocabulary? Some food for my thought... Many teachers or parents who have downloaded this chart seemed very happy, and I'm happy that they're happy!! Update: Hello there, long time friend! If you found this resource useful for your students, please check out my Character Feelings blog post and TPT product!
Once you have built your culture of writers, it is important to decide how you will group your students for small group writing instruction. In the small group setting, students will gain important skills they may be lacking or increase the skills they already have with new learning and ideas from collaboration.
Easy to read, simple 6 traits writing posters for your classroom! click here to get the PDFs: 6 traits writing posters (I don’t remember where I got these, and they don’t have a copyrig…
Today I'm talking about using the 6+1 Traits of Writing. Why do I teach with the Traits? It works perfectly with the B.C. Curriculum. Students get it. It breaks the writing process down into steps we can layer up all year. That means writing doesn't seem like such a large task. And that means, kids will usually write more because they feel a whole lot less overwhelmed. Sounds pretty good to me! Here is the writing board in my classroom. A large portion of it is taken up by my 6 Traits checklist. As the year goes on, and we introduce new pieces, it fills up and serves as a giant criteria list. The blank space to the left is where I add pieces specific to a current focus (figurative language, punctuation, etc.) You don't need to have a board dedicated to the Traits if you teach with the Traits. I do for two reasons: 1) I have the space. 2) It serves a giant checklist students can self assess their writing on that builds through the year as we learn new elements. You'll often hear me say "just because we are working on -----, don't forget all the other pieces we already know". A quick scan of the board and students know exactly what I'm looking for in their writing. (Download that awesome "What do Writers Write?" pencil here!) VOICES? Why does it say "Use your writing VOICES?". Well, VOICES is an acronym for the Traits. V- Voice O- Organization I - Ideas C- Conventions E- Excellent Word Choice S- Sentence Fluency They are now promoting 6+1 Traits and the +1 is Presentation. That didn't make it to my board.... but we do discuss it often. When I was starting out with the Traits, I wasn't sure where to go for resources. Here are some of my favourites to help you out: "Using Picture Books to Teach Writing With the Traits" is an excellent resource. Even though I teach grade 4, I still use it. They give you a scripted lesson plan for every trait as well as several other picture books that fit the trait and how you could use them to inspire writing. I use their examples and then extend on it for my bigger kids. Here are my favourite picture book for for each trait: Voice The story of the 3 Little Pigs told through the Wolf's perspective. Gives students a chance to think about the other side of things, and, it's funny. Organization Or any of the "If you Give a..." books. I love how they are cyclic. You really have to think ahead to write one of these stories. Good cause and effect too. Okay, I picked two for organization. Scaredy books are organized in a different way. I love all the charts and diagrams. Ideas This book is a favourite for many reasons. It is so touching. The boy in this story is searching for the answer to what a memory is. So many beautiful answers are given to him. Conventions This book uses two words. Yo! and Yes? You can talk about how the punctuation helps imply more language than is given. I also like to teach inferring with this book. Excellent Word Choice Max collects words. Although some of his words are basic, he collects some powerful ones as well. The author uses descriptive language throughout this book. Sentence Fluency I like to teach sentence fluency with poetry, because Jack's poems have such a good flow. They just roll off your tongue when you read them. And, they are hilarious. Pin this post. Helping to inspire,
❤️ BUYER COMMENTS: • Student-friendly; Extremely helpful; Wonderfully organized; Straight to the point! • Impressed with embedded lessons on each trait. • Great purchase...this will add great dimension to our student-made 6+1 Traits of Writing Resource books. Thank you! • Thank you! This has helped Me understand the 6 traits :) • Such a complete set of scoring rubrics. I like that you have created separate sheets for each trait. The transition sheet is very helpful too. • This is going to be so very helpful for all the writers in my classes! Thank you for creating a resource that is so user friendly for the kids and just a goldmine of information!" DESCRIPTION For each trait, students are given an explanation of the trait, steps in implementing the trait, and a rubric. A great handbook for students to keep in their writing folders! Highlighted Elements of the Traits Ideas: focus statement, 5 questions, main ideas, supporting sentences, clarifying sentences Organization: patterns of organization, what to include in the beginning, middle, and ending paragraphs Voice: purpose and audience, four voice attributes and words describing voice Word Choice: replacing overused words with powerful words, connotations, figurative language Sentence Fluency: type, length, beginnings, transitions, cadence, rhythm, style, and how sentence structure affects mood Conventions and Publication: Readability, appearance, format, checklist, and scoring guide. •••••••••••••••••••••••• ADDITIONAL PRODUCTS FOR LEARNING FUN 101 PROMPTS for making LISTS in 60 seconds 101 PROVERBS and PITHY SAYINGS WOULD YOU RATHER 212 Thought-Provoking Icebreakers and Discussion Cards EMOJI WRITING STRIPS 42 Weeks of Writing Prompts for Rebus Stories Humorous Creative Narrative Writing Card Decks for Writing Stories 6 + 1 Traits of Writing Student Handbooklet Quick Study With AncillariesTHE WRITING PROCESS - Animated PowerPoint, 8-Page Booklet and Notes Pages NOUNS PowerPoint and Flip-book Comprehensive and Motivating Unit! Back to School - Student Academic and Personal Interest Surveys CONFERENCES - forms for students to evaluate their performance and set goals Seasonal Voice Level Displays to Help Controls Noise •••••••••••••••••••••••• Thank you for stopping by! Click here to go to my store. tags: Joy Tweedt, writing, 6 traits, English, language arts, composition, rubric, assessment, reference, graphic organizer, handbook, paragraphs, sentences
Are your students stuck for ideas to write about? Are you teaching using the 6 traits and need a great mentor text? Using mentor texts can help to spark some idea generation for students who have difficulty coming up with ideas to write about. Read on to check out some of the best read alouds […]
High school and middle school writers thrive when studying mentor texts! Get lesson ideas for using picture books to teach voice in writing.
Do your students struggle using strong word choice in their writing? This post is geared towards the upper elementary or middle school and uses the term MILLION DOLLAR WORDS when referring to word choice. It is part of the revising stage of the writing process. This post is part
Looking for a list of personality traits? Here's a list of 145 personality traits and qualities with examples.
Writers Write is your one-stop writing resource. These lists will help you select the character traits you need for the characters in your books.
This is a Six Traits Writing rubric you can use to quickly and accurately grade essays. I included directions of how I use it because it has been adapted. Kid friendly language is used so students can understand what to improve on. ...
Picture books are a great mentor text option—short and engaging for students—even those in middle school and high school!
Last week I shared a lesson plan for the 6 Writing Traits. It was for the trait, IDEAS and it was geared to Kindergarten and 1st Grade students. It obviously can be adapted to other grades, and I know some of you have already done that. I wanted to share another Six Writing Traits: IDEAS Lesson Plan, but this free lesson and printable is geared towards 2nd- 4th grade. You can obviously adapt the lesson to your grade, class, and student whether you are in a school or home schooled environment however you see fit. This lesson, as in any lesson I share with you, can be taught by the librarian in the library, teacher in the classroom, or a parent at home. I used several books for this lesson, but I only read one of them, Miss Nelson is Back by Harry Allard. The books can easily be checked out from a library or purchased from Amazon. For any easy click and print version of the lesson plan click here for the document. I also reference a SmartBoard Notebook file. It doesn't need to be used, but I love the visual and I always use a SmartBoard if I have access to it. If you would like the file just email me {meganruth(at)gmaildotcom} and I will send it to you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Written by/Copyright: Alohamora Open a Book http://www.alohamoraopenabook.blogspot.com/ Lesson Plan written for library instruction or classroom instruction. Six Traits of Writing: Ideas Lesson Plan for 2nd – 4th grade What Taught/Objective: Where we can get ideas for our writing. Materials Needed: - Smartboard file- Ideas (Email me for it: meganruthatgmaildotcom) - Books o Polacco- Graves Family o Polacco- Mommies say Shhh o Polacco- Pink and Say o Wick- A Drop of Water o Allard- Miss Nelson is Back o Harris-Jack and the Giant- A story full of beans Access to Site- http://www.patriciapolacco.com/author/bio/bio.html How Taught: 1- Show the 3 Polacco books. What do all 3 of these books have in common? a. By the same author. Patricia Polacco 2- Every author gets their ideas a different way. I was curious to how Polacco gets her ideas for her books. She has written so many books. a. Where do you think she got ideas for her books? They are so different. b. I just thought why not ask her or more like I am sure someone else has asked her and I can find her answer. Where do you think I could look to find the answer to where she gets ideas for her writing? c. On her website she says that i. Go to website. Mention you can find information on a lot of authors on the internet. ii. It talks about her, how she grew up, and her family. I’ll keep looking b/c this information is interesting; it doesn’t answer my question of where she gets her ideas. iii. More than halfway down (prob ¾ down) she says she gets ideas the same place I do… her imagination. iv. So authors get some really fantastic ideas from their imagination. v. You can use your imagination and take a unique, original, approach to the topic/idea. 3- Well what about these other books from different authors. Do you think they all get their ideas from their imagination or do you think they might get their ideas from somewhere else? Let’s look closer at them. 4- A Drop of Water: A book of science and wonder by Walter Wick. a. Well I see water every day. Whether it’s raining or snowing outside to drinking water. Do you see water every day? b. Where do you think Walter Wick got his idea for this water book? c. So we can get ideas for our writing from the things we see around us? d. But he took a unique/original approach. A way no one else has. 5- What about this other book? Jack and the Giant: A story full of beans by Jim Harris. a. We are just guessing but where do you think he could’ve gotten his idea for this jack and the giant book. b. Now I have heard of Jack and the Beanstalk and it involves a big giant and beans. Do you think this book could be similar to Jack and the Beanstalk? Could we get our ideas from other stories? i. Yes, but we would have to change them. They can’t be the exact same story. We should change them a lot. ii. Notice that this Jack and the giant/beanstalk story has a cowboy hat on and he is riding a buffalo and with a musical instrument- ukulele. Well in the real story it is a harp and a chicken that lays golden eggs. iii. When you read the book you can tell that there are some similarities but they are very different as well. iv. But he took a unique/original approach. A way no one else has. 6- What about this book- Miss Nelson is Back by Harry Allard a. Where do you think this author could’ve possibly gotten his idea? b. Well everyone goes to school. They look like they are at school. Maybe this could’ve happened to him. 7- Let’s Read Miss Nelson is Back and maybe we can get a better idea. 8- That was a fun story. We could possibly say that the author’s idea came from his imagination. Authors also write from things that happen to them. We could say that this possibly happened to him. Though we don’t know for sure, we could find it online. 9- So if I want to write something… where could I get some ideas for my writing? B/c I can’t write something amazing if I don’t have any ideas. a. Imagination like Polacco b. Things around us like our Water book. c. Other stories but changed a lot like our Jack and the Giant d. Things that happen to us or maybe people we know e. We always want to take a unique/original approach. A way no one else has. How Assessed: By the review at the end of where to get ideas for our writing. At this point if you are in the classroom you can begin to have the students brainstorm using a web or just list out individually some ideas they have and/or where they can get ideas for writing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Happy fun picture book reading and teaching students and kids on the IDEAS writing trait!
Over 40 free handwriting & copywork pages including nursery rhymes copywork, character traits copywork, & Laura Ingalls Wilder copywork.
TweetPin2EmailShare When you’ve put a lot of time and care into crafting the perfect character for your story, it can be difficult to give them any trait that could be... Read more »
I created this character map that I use during stations. I copy the Character Traits on the back and have them highlight the traits that de...
Writing is a crucial part of an individual’s life! From writing tests to doing homework to signing papers in adulthood, penmanship is crucial in various instances. But is learning this trait, which might seem like a cakewalk, the same for every student? Researches point out how children with dyslexia
Welcome to our lesson on common adjectives used to describe personality traits and emotions! In this lesson, we will explore a wide range of words that can be
10 hands-on ideas for teaching earth changes and landforms in 2nd grade science with engaging STEM earth changes activities kids love!
Click to see how one teacher uses 1 book to launch writing workshop with a detailed breakdown of each day and a free download.
These books are the perfect mentor texts and books to teach main character and character traits in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.
