1. Six Traits of Writing

2. Ideas Supporting Ideas That Support Topic and Genre
Supporting Ideas Must Have Several Specific Examples (Ideas Must Relate to What Paragraph or Topic is About)
Writer Must Consistently Address the Topic or Genre Throughout the Writing (We have seen this as an area of concern) Persuasive and informational genres are weaker then narrative
Counts twice on the Writing Assessment

3. Organization
Must Have Transitional Words and Sentences that Link Paragraphs (Before, after, next, since, because, first, second)
Must Have a Creative and Attention Grabbing Topic Sentence
Strong Conclusions That Wrap Up and Complete the Writing (Not Just Restating What the Topic Is)
Specific Beginning, Body and Conclusion Paragraphs are Crucial (Five paragraphs is the Ultimate Goal)
The Pacing, Sequencing, and Order of the Writing are Logical and Support the Writers Purpose and Genre of Writing

4. Conventions
Capitalization (Even a Major Issue in the Upper Grades) Proper Nouns, the Pronoun (I) are Some Common Mistakes, Beginning Words in Sentences and Capitalizing Random Words Throughout Sentences
Complete Sentences (Varied Types of Sentences: Simple, Compound, Complex, Compound-Complex) Challenging Students to Write Compound and Complex Sentences (Grades 3-5)
Most Students are Still Writing Very Simple Sentences in the 5th Grade
Spelling That Does Not Interfere With Meaning
Punctuation (Periods, Commas, Apostrophes, Semi-Colons, Quotation Marks are Frequently Misused or Absent in Most Students Writing)
Combined with Sentence Fluency in State Rubric
Students are Still Writing Fragments and Don’t Fully Understand Components of a Complete Sentence (Subject and Predicate)
There is a Lack of Understanding in the Basic Five Parts of Speech and This Directly Correlates to Poor Grammar and Sentence Structure

5. Word Choice Use of Varied Words Throughout the Writing
Challenging Students to Use Synonyms for Words That Are Commonly Used
Dictionary Usage Activities Will Help With Word Choice
Student Should NOT Use Words They Are Not Familiar With
Use a Thesaurus or Dictionary but Be Cautious (Especially in the Younger Grades)

6. Sentence Fluency Sentences Flow Together Varied Sentence Length
Sentences Do NOT begin the same way every time
Structure of the Sentences Vary

7. Voice Writer does not try to sound or write like someone else
For Fluent Speakers, Write’s Like They Speak
Voice MUST Be Sustained Throughout Essay/Paper

8. Things to Think About Write Focused On ONE or TWO Traits at a Time
Give Writing Sample For Them to Correct
Print Copy of Rubric For Them to Edit Paper Looking at One Trait at a Time
Ideas Counts Twice
“Stretch It” Like Activities Where Students Can Share Out Loud and Teacher Can Give Feedback
Use Color Coded Pens/Markers That Correlate to Trait

9. Now, We are going to give you a piece of chart paper and we want you to fill in each section on how this would look in your grade or special…in 5-10 minutes, we will ask you to share with the group!!!