Belmont Public Schools



Keywords (for database searching)

|Elementary Writing, Grade 2, 6 Traits, Ideas Trait |

Contact Information

|Name |School |Grade Level or Subject |

|Jennifer Mathews |Butler |Grade 2 |

|Alyssa Greene |Butler |Reading Specialist |

|Jennifer Filippi |Butler |Grade 2 |

|Marnie Wolfe |Butler |Grade 2 |

|Sylvie Haffer |Butler |ELL Specialist |

Guiding Theme

|Deepening Teacher Content Knowledge |

Inquiry Question

|How do we develop and implement cumulative and sequential model writing lessons in the area of idea development using the 6 +1 Trait Writing |

|Model as well as develop appropriate grade level assessments and rubrics to measure proficiency in this areas in order to improve the quality |

|of student writing as well as teacher writing instruction in Grade 2? |

Process

|We designed a baseline writing assessment (including writing prompt selection, format, scoring rubric, administration procedure) to be |

|administered early Fall in order to assess students’ Idea development and to inform teacher instruction for the year. |

|We evaluated several teacher rubrics for assessing student work and then selected a rubric to pilot. |

|We administered the writing assessment and collected samples from each student. |

|Gathering in our team, we practiced scoring several samples together before individually scoring student writing. |

|Each of 5 teachers scored approx. 15-16 writing assessments for the Ideas trait only. |

|The data was collected and the process was reflected upon according to the following guiding questions: |

|Were the results informative and worth the investment of time and effort? |

|Did the selected writing prompt work for this age group? |

|Process: Was the format and length of time students were given appropriate? |

|Rubric: Was the selected rubric easy to use? Was the language clear? Did it score honestly? |

|Based on feedback, changes were made to the design and guidelines for administering assessment and significant changes were made to the |

|rubric. The rubric was then retested by more than one teacher to establish its validity and reliability. |

|Teachers determined the Ideas trait target skills required for Gr. 2 students. Decisions were made according to research done in professional|

|resources and the descriptors on the Ideas rubric (finding a topic, focusing the topic, supporting the message with strong details). |

|Cumulative and sequential ideas trait lessons were created / mentor texts were chosen. |

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|Other |

|Attended BER conference, Writing Activities That Make A Difference: Teaching Six Traits With Guided and Modeled Writing. |

|Ordered and read Ruth Culham’s book, 6+1 Traits of Writing for the Primary Grades. |

|Ordered revised editions of The Write Traits Classroom Kit, Gr. 2 (Great Source) |

|Wrote FBE grant for Mentor Texts for Ideas trait. |

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Findings

|Determined that we need consistency across classrooms regarding format and presentation of the baseline assessment (i.e. titles, |

|illustrations, etc.) |

|Determined that more classroom work time is needed to complete the assessment |

|After reviewing many existing rubrics, we determined that we needed to create our own version that merged elements of each. |

|While analyzing the data we found that many students fell into the average range, however we administered the assessment in the middle of the |

|year when students had already had direct instruction with the Ideas trait. |

Recommendations / Next Steps

|Implement and evaluate the Ideas lessons that were created at the beginning of the school year. |

|Administer the baseline assessment within the first 6 weeks of school |

|Evaluate Student Data to inform instruction (Tailor instruction to student need) |

|Develop additional writing activities aimed at practicing the skills within this trait independently |

|Explore ways to integrate some of the stories from the Houghton-Mifflin reading program |

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