6 + 1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for the Primary Grades

by Ruth Culham

Why has the 6+1 TRAIT model had such a tremendous impact on writing instruction? Because it works. It allows teachers to pinpoint students’ strengths and weaknesses in ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation, and focus instruction. Now Culham turns her expert eye to our youngest students. Like her groundbreaking guide for grades 3 and up, her new book contains scoring guides, sample papers, and focus lessons for each trait, but framed to address K–2 teachers’ needs. For use with Grades K-2.

Book Details: Format: Paperback Publication Date: 6/1/2005 Pages: 304 Reading Level: Age 5 and Up

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Teaching, Writing

304 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2005

About the author

Ruth Culham, aka The Trait Lady, is the president of The Culham Writing Company and former Unit Manager of the Assessment Program at Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (recently renamed Education Northwest) in Portland, Oregon.

She is the recognized expert in the traits of writing assessment field and author of numerous professional resources published by Scholastic, including 6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide, Grades 3 and Up; 6+1 Traits of Writing for the Primary Grades; Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for Middle School, and Using Picture Books to Teach Writing with the Traits.

As a pioneering researcher in this field, she creates and conducts teacher workshops and videos, designs national and international institutes for writing assessment and instruction, and provides professional development to teachers at local and district levels.

Ruth was named Teacher of the Year in Montana, the highlight of her 19-year teaching career. Ruth holds specialty degrees in Library Science and Elementary, Middle, and Secondary English Education. She has a Masters degree in Teaching English and an Ed.D. in Educational Administration.

from http://ruthculham.wordpress.com/about/

Reviews

[Kayla Pleasants · Rating 5 out of 5]

6+1 Traits of Writing is a very practical and informative text that is helpful in multiple aspects of setting up one’s writer’s workshop, teaching specific lessons within this workshop, and assessing and conferencing with students. The idea behind 6+1 is taking a closer look into the specific areas primary grade teachers should be focusing on within their writer’s workshop framework. These areas include ideas students brainstorm and work with, sentence fluency within their writing, organization of ideas, word choice within sentences and teaching students the power of finding and utilizing new words within their writing, writer’s voice and teaching students to match voice with purpose, and conventions such as capitalization, punctuation, and spacing. Finally, the text focuses on student choice in presentation and publication of writing. While going over each of these areas of writing, the text includes sample rubrics, mentor texts for teaching, reproducible sheets, student work to reference and assess with the author, and sample lesson plans to jump start your teaching.
This text would benefit any teacher of primary grades. It has samples that include the most basic writing patterns and letter sounds to those that are including full paragraphs. Culham discusses various lessons that are appropriate for differing student stages, not focusing on age as much as she focuses on writing need. Throughout each of her traits of writing she gives tangable lessons and mentor texts that are ready to adapt and utilize with large or small groups immediately.
After finishing the text, I went back and revisited her chapter on word choice to take a look at some specific ideas she shared. Culham discusses word choice throughout lessons that allow writers to view words through a new lense. Students are able to look for words that they have “fallen in love with.” These words can be anything from words that make them laugh to words that spark their interest. This modeling and acquisition of words that stick out to students allows them to then choose “precise words” within their writing. This practice also carries over into the voice of the writer. With word choice and voice being areas I struggle with as a teacher, these traits stood out to me and these tangible teaching areas were important to dig into for the next year. Each chapter surrounding a trait is like this: meaningful, easy to read, and easy to implement.
Upon finishing Culham’s text I was left with a clear idea of the areas I should be hitting with my students at all times. The traits were easy to follow and fit in with areas I feel as though I teach regularly, they were just vocalized and outlined in a way that will make me a much better writing teacher. Culham does a great job of outlining WHAT needs to be taught while also including resources, texts, and rubrics to support the implementation of her ideas. I think this is a great text for any teacher wanting to enhance his or her writer’s block in specific areas.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of lesson plans, grading rubrics, tie-in books and tons of other goodies for teachers. I know this has helped my students become better writers.

[Mara · Rating 5 out of 5]

The end note reminds teachers not to be afraid to experiment on what works in teaching the joy of writing to early learners. As adults as well, we are reminded to be fearless and ready to discover our unique writing style. This book really helped me enjoy teaching writing to my students.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Practical strategies for grade 3+. Definitely a book I will go back to many times over the years.