1. 6 +1 Writing Traits 1.Ideas (digging for sapphires) 2.Organization (herding cats) 3.Voice (finding the golden thread) 4.Word Choice (learning the lingo) 5.Sentence Fluency (listening to the page) 6.Conventions (minding your table manners) 7.Presentation (rolling out the welcome mat)

2. Ideas!! Digging for Sapphires 6 +1 Writing Traits

3. What are ideas?  Ideas make up the content of a piece of writing, art, drama or so on  Strong ideas have a clear message

4. Arriving at good ideas  Select an idea – topic  Narrow the idea – find a focus  Elaborate on the idea – develop  Discover the best information to convey the main idea – details

5. How do you start:  Topic – brainstorm  Think about about much as you can  Don’t worry about what order things come to you, just write down as much as you can  Focus – narrowing your ideas  Pick the ideas that will give you the strongest writing

6. How do you start (P2)  Develop your ides – elaborate  Expand on the idea(s) you have picked  Give as many point form notes for each idea as you can  Make sure your notes will help you in your writing  Details  Look at your brainstorming chart and narrow down what points fit best for your work

7. How do we brainstorm?  Mind map  Web

8. Practice  We are going to begin our summer vacation project  Begin by creating a brainstorm chart or mind map outlining all the events of your summer  Follow the 4 steps of 1.Topic 2.Focus 3.Development 4.Details