Talladega Writes Navigating the “Race” of the Writing Process by Embedding the 6 Traits of Writing into Writer’s Workshop Jill Maenner Karen Wills Maryland Writing Project June 2010

Line-Up “Road Test” Pre-assessment “Fueling Up”Rationale “The Finish Line”Objectives “The Lube Center”FCPS connection “Assembly Line”Building Your Muse “Nuts”What is Writer’s Workshop “Start Your Engines”Writing Prompt “Bolts”What are the Six Traits of Writing? “Fuel Injection”“Why Keep Listening?” “Pit Stops”Workshop Stations Experience “Winner’s Circle”Author’s Chair “Victory Lap”Post-assessment/Reflection

Road Test Please complete the “Talladega Writes” pre-assessment. 5= DEAD LAST - don’t know much/use it minimally or not at all 1 = FIRST PLACE - know a lot and use both often

Fueling Up… Our rationale… Every teacher understands the challenge of fitting it all in within the confines of the school year. As elementary Magnet teachers, we are impacted even more by an abbreviated school day. It is essential for us to embed as many different indicators as possible into each lesson to get the most “bang for our buck”. We teach in adjacent classrooms in an open-space school. Therefore, we opted to work on our Writing Project presentation together because collaboration comes so naturally. We have a demand for an ultra-efficient writing program to implement this Fall that fuses Ruth Culham’s “6 Traits of Writing” model with Lucy Calkins’ “Writer’s Workshop”.

The Finish Line Presentation Objectives: Participants will explore, demonstrate, or independently apply the Six Traits of Writing. Participants will explore, demonstrate, or independently apply the Writer’s Workshop format. Participants will experience the students’ role in a workshop that is trait-based.

The Lube Center FCPS Indicator 100 to All writing lessons employ some part of the writing process and repeatedly develop knowledge of the six traits.

Use the Play-Doh provided to build a model of a car. You will have 3 minutes to construct your model. These are your ONLY criteria…get ‘er done! The Assembly Line

Often I tell young children that making a piece of writing is not very different from making a clay rabbit. You pull in to sculpt the ears, then pull back to ask, “How do these look?” You pull in to reshape one ear, to bend over the other. You pull back to ask, “Is it better?” -Lucy McCormick Calkins

An environment where children have an opportunity to plan, organize, and carry out writing projects. An opportunity for students to select their own topics and develop these topics through multiple drafts. NUTS… (aka “Writer’s Workshop”) “Writer’s Workshop is a literacy block where children learn the processes of how to write (Calkins 1986; Graves 1994).”

Writer’s Workshop Mini-Lesson – 5 min Quiet Writing/Thinking Time – 15 min Moving Through Stations – 15 min Drafting Peer Conference Editing Revising Teacher Conference Publishing Author’s Chair – 10 min

The Mini-Lesson initial lessons based on structure of workshop explicit and focused lessons to demonstrate a particular skill or strategy based on the needs of the students Quiet Writing/Thinking Time students can be anywhere in room writing notebooks, clipboards drawing, brainstorming, writing content, not mechanics Stations drafting peer conference editing revising teacher conference publishing Author’s Chair “Round-Robin”- a sentence or two each published pieces contents of parking lot

Write a story, poem, magazine advertisement, or any other writing piece about your car. Some things to think about while you are drafting… Where is your car going? Who is driving your car? Where has your car been? Who has ridden in your car? What are the features of the interior? START YOUR ENGINES...

BOLTS... BOLTS... (aka “The 6 Traits of Writing”) IDEAS make up the content of the writing piece (Clear, overall message/content with supporting details = Strong Ideas) ORGANIZATION is the internal “skeleton” of the piece, the common thread between ideas, the pattern of logic VOICE measures how effectively the author speaks to the reader on an emotional level & matches her purpose with her audience.

BOLTS continued... BOLTS continued... (More of “The 6 Traits of Writing”) WORD CHOICE is relates to the author’s use of rich, colorful, precise language that intrigues or inspires the reader. SENTENCE FLUENCY emphasizes logical, creative phrasing to a natural flow for the reader CONVENTIONS are the mechanics that guide the reader through the text (spelling, punctuation, grammar, capitalization, paragraphing, etc.). But wait…there’s MORE!

BOLTS continued... BOLTS continued... Act now and get another Trait absolutely FREE! PRESENTATION encompasses the neatness and form of the finished product. Presentation is also referred to as the “+1” Trait.

Many people think that making students aware of the traits is the answer to teaching writing. But it's not the magic bullet any more than writing workshop is. The writing traits are a fine assessment tool and a kind of language to communicate about writing. Writing workshop is a structure to encourage writers to write often and for a variety of purposes. And writing process is just that: a series of reflective stages that writers go through as they figure out what to say and how best to convey it in writing. --Ruth Culham

PIT STOPS PIT STOPS Writer’s Workshop Stations

The Winner’s Circle Who would like to share their writing piece?

Victory Lap Now, based on your experiences during our presentation, please complete the “Talladega Writes” post-assessment. What have you noticed about your comfort-level with and your ability to utilize the Traits and/or Writer’s Workshop?