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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 |Grade Level or Subject |

|Selina Anderson |Burbank School |1 |

|*Karen Curran |Burbank School |2 |

|Jamie Huguet |Burbank School |2 |

|Katie Williams |Burbank School |2 |

|Jodi Wollner |Burbank School |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. |

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Findings

|First Grade- |

|Ideas- 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 ( 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. |

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|Second Grade- |

|When 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. |

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|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. |

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|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. |

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|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. |

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|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. |

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