PROFESSIONAL LEARNING TEAM REPORT
2011-2012
PLT Title
Writing in First and Second Grade Using 6 +1 Writing Traits
Blurb for PLT Conference Brochure
Come explore writing with first and second grade teachers. Do you ever feel like students dislike
writing? Would you like to find ways to motivate and empower your writers? If the answer to these
to these two questions is yes, then the 6 +1 writing traits approach will not only inspire your student
writers it will change how you view writing.
Contact Information (Write * next to facilitator’s name.)
Name
School
Selina Anderson
Burbank School
*Karen Curran
Burbank School
Jamie Huguet
Burbank School
Katie Williams
Burbank School
Jodi Wollner
Burbank School
Grade Level or Subject
1
2
2
2
1
Guiding Theme
Differentiated Instruction/RTI
Integrated, Real-Life Experiences
Acquisition of 21st Century Skills
Deepening Teacher Content Knowledge
Improving School Climate/Culture
Teaching the “Whole Student”
Other (explain) _______________________________________________________
Inquiry Question
How do we align and structure our writing instruction using the Massachusetts Common Core State
Standards in regards to opinion pieces, informational pieces and narratives in order to teach students
the writing process using the 6+1 Traits?
Process
The first grade teachers focused on “Ideas,” “Organization” and “Conventions.” For each trait,
teachers used mini-lessons to help students develop and practice their writing skills. The mini-lessons
focused on finding the right topic, using good descriptive details and making the content clear using
sensory words. The activities used for the ideas trait were writing an invitation, making an important
poem and using string to create a picture and then create a story. For the organization trait, teachers
concentrated on starting with a bold beginning, developing mighty middles and crafting an excellent
ending. The activities used for the organization trait were writing how-to sequencing books and writing
ending using feelings. The last trait first grade teachers instructed was the conventions trait. Student
practiced how to spell words that matter, capitalize and use punctuation to make meaning clear. The
activities used for the conventions trait were writing a comic strip to show proper use of punctuation
and capitalization.
The second grade teachers worked on “Voice,” “Word Choice,” “Ideas,” “Sentence Fluency,” and
“Organization.” The three genres of writing on which teachers concentrated were expository writing,
persuasive writing and narrative writing. Similar to first grade, there were several lessons and activities
that students practiced for each trait.
For the first voice trait lesson, students wrote stories from the perspective of a shoe. The second
writing activity required students to write a story from the perspective of a stuffed animal. Prior to
starting the stuffed animal writing, students listened to Ragged Bear by Brigitte Weniger. Another
writing activity students worked on was writing a story about a comic or picture.
For the first word choice lesson, students worked on creating poem using their senses to write about
a favorite place. The books Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher and
Kate Kiesler were used as mentor texts. For the second writing activity students wrote motion poems
using verbs.
For the ideas trait, we used the writing traits teacher’s lesson manual (Write Traits by Vicki Spandel).
The lesson that introduced ideas compared writing to a burrito. The tortilla part of the burrito is the
main idea and the fillings are the details. Students had to read two sample stories and determine if the
stories contained a main idea and relevant details. Then, students wrote short stories to practice the
skill. Another activity used for the ideas trait was “sticking to” the main topic. Students had to read two
sample stories and decide if the writer stuck to the topic or “wandered off.” After reading the stories,
students picked a topic and wrote a short story using sentences that supported their main topic. To
prepare for our narrative writing genre, students brainstormed ideas for their own stories. Teachers
shared personal examples as well as other student examples of possible topics. Students shared ideas
with each other.
For the sentence fluency and organization traits, we have just started to incorporate lessons from the
writing traits teacher’s manual. At this time we do not have examples of our lessons. We plan to show
students the importance of picking a small moment to extend when writing their narrative, keeping
their story in order, starting with a strong beginning, and writing a thoughtful ending.
Findings
First GradeIdeas- We tried to teach narrative writing along with teaching ideas. As we focused on finding the right
topic and using descriptive details, we used many different types of texts to help children understand.
The Squiggle by Carole Lexa Shaefer and Owl Moon by Jane Yolan were texts we found helpful in
teaching ideas. We found that some student work demonstrated descriptive details, but most details
were too general. The topics for writing (How you celebrated Thanksgiving, What you did over the
weekend) may have been too “big” for the majority of students.
Organization- We tried teaching opinion writing with this trait. We used Red- Eyed Tree Frog by Joy
Cowley, and found that nonfiction books about the rain forest were very intriguing to first graders. We
also used resources from the internet to help us teach opinion writing to first graders (ReadWorks.org
was one site). A graphic organizer was used to help teach the opening sentence, reasons, and concluding
sentence of an opinion piece. We felt the assessments were age-appropriate and demonstrated growth
(Tell why you like art class or music class)
Conventions: The Question and Answer Activity was successful in reinforcing capitalization and
punctuation. Conventions are typically introduced at the beginning of the year and reinforced across
the curriculum. We found that we were consistently revisiting conventions as we taught ideas and
organization. The mentor text for this trait was not helpful and it was challenging to find other available
texts to help with this trait.
We found that “Write a Super Sentence” by Evan-Moor fits perfectly if you are using trait-based writing.
The “Write Traits” Classroom Kit was also a helpful resource for teaching the 6 traits of writing. The
mentor texts that were in the “Trait Crate” by Scholastic were not as effective as other texts might have
been when teaching the lessons.
We are planning on teaching informative text, in conjunction with our Rainforest and Butterfly units, in
which students name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure.
Overall, we are seeing some improvement and carryed-over with ideas, organization, and conventions.
Second GradeWhen we first started using the traits for our writing, we noticed that students were extremely
enthusiastic and motivated to write. Often times, students would ask to write which was not a common
occurrence in previous years. When thinking about our assessments, we had a mix of assessments
which focused on the genres of writing as well as the traits. For the purpose of our PLT, we used
individual trait rubrics as well as creating our own rubrics which combined some of the traits.
Voice: For the persuasive writing assessment, we gave students a pre-assessment. Each second grade
class listened to Patricia Pollacco’s book, John Phillip Duck. After listening to the story, students had to
write why they thought the book was good or not good. When we looked at the students’ writing and
compared it to the voice rubric we were using we felt like the pre-assessment really didn’t target the key
points. We decided that we needed to change our post-assessment to target the goals of writing a
persuasive letter. For our post assessment, students had to write a letter to their parents asking them
for something that they wanted. They had to give reasons why they wanted the item and describe what
they would do if they got the item. Two books that were very helpful were I Wanna Iguana and I Wanna
New Room, by Karen Kaufman Orloff and David Catrow. We found that students were able to write a
well thought out letter using many of the strategies we had covered in the mini-lessons.
Word Choice: As a pre-assessment writing activity for word choice, students were given a picture of
two kids at beach and asked to write a story about the picture. We found that many of the stories
lacked detail and descriptive language. After the lessons that focused on word choice students were
given the same picture and asked to write a new story. Overall, the writing was much more descriptive.
Students used vivid verbs and sensory words to describe what was happening in their stories.
Narrative Writing: As a pre-assessment, students were asked to write a story about a time they spent
with a friend. Some stories were organized and focused on one topic. Other stories were less
descriptive and very short. We will continue our narrative writing for the remainder of the year.
Students will write one narrative story and work on including all of the traits that we have learned this
year. Because we are still working on narrative stories, we do not have post assessment results.
Sentence Fluency and Organization: Our work with sentence fluency and organization is a work in
progress and at this time we do not have findings to report.
The use of the Vicki Spandel traits materials was really helpful. We found that the language used in the
lessons was easy for kids to understand. Students had more opportunities to write and were successful.
There is still a lot of work to be done but we feel like we have a better structure for writing.
Recommendations / Next Steps
First and second grade teachers would like to continue to expand on writing next year. The hope is to
use the lessons and activities that worked well this year. The challenge has been to blend the 6 Traits
with the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy.
First grade teachers would like to spend more time developing narrative writing skills. We discovered
that what is needed are more mentor texts for each trait, and additional resources from proven experts
in the field of writing.
Second grade teachers would like to assess the students on the genres of writing rather than the specific
traits. Next year, we would like to start using the traits earlier and apply the new writing scope and
sequence that is being developed by the writing committee.