1. 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

2. 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”.

3. 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.

4. The Lube Center FCPS Indicator 100 to 500.70.01 All writing lessons employ some part of the writing process and repeatedly develop knowledge of the six traits.

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

6. 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 5 4 3 2 1

7. Building Your Muse: Use the Play-Doh provided to build a model of a car. You will have 5 minutes to construct your model. These are your ONLY criteria…get ‘er done! The Assembly Line

8. 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

9. 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).”

10. Writer’s Workshop Mini-Lesson 5 min. Quiet Writing/Thinking Time15 min. Moving Through Stations15 min. Author’s Chair 10 min. 45 min. total

11. 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

12. 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... Car

13. BOLTS... BOLTS... (aka “The 6 Traits of Writing”) IDEAS deliver 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.

14. 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 produce 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!

15. BOLTS continued... BOLTS continued... Act now and get another Trait absolutely FREE! PRESENTATION encompasses the neatness and form of the finished product, as well as how it is shared with the audience. Presentation is also referred to as the “+1” Trait in Ruth Culham’s “6 + 1 Traits of Writing” model.

16. You will need to bring the following to our Stations room: A Writing Utensil Your draft of the writing piece about your model car PIT STOPS PIT STOPS Writer’s Workshop Stations

17. Victory Lap Author’s Chair Who would like to share their revised writing piece?

18. 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

19. Winner’s Circle 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? 5 4 3 2 1

20. Sponsors Bibliography Calkins, Lucy McCormick., and Pat Bleichman. The Craft of Revision. Portsmouth, NH: FirstHand, 2003. Print. Calkins, Lucy McCormick. The Art of Teaching Writing. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1994. Print. Calkins, Lucy McCormick. The Nuts and Bolts of Teaching Writing. Portsmouth, NH: FirstHand, 2003. Print. Culham, Ruth, and Amanda Wheeler. 40 Reproducible Forms for the Writing Traits Classroom: Checklists, Graphic Organizers, Rubrics and Scoring Sheets, and More to Boost Students' Writing Skills in All Seven Traits. New York, NY: Scholastic Teaching Resources, 2003. Print. Culham, Ruth. 6+1 Traits of Writing: the Complete Guide. New York, NY: Scholastic Professional, 2003. Print. Culham, Ruth. "The Trait Lady Speaks Up." Educational Leadership 64.2 (2006): 53-57. Print.

21. More Sponsors Bibliography Continued Dorn, Linda J., and Carla Soffos. Scaffolding Young Writers: a Writer's Workshop Approach. Portland, ME: Stenhouse, 2001. Print. Hollas, Betty. 6 Ways to Teach the 6 Traits of Writing. Peterborough, NH: Crystal Springs, 2006. Print. Overmeyer, Mark. When Writing Workshop Isn't Working: Answers to Ten Tough Questions Grades 2-5. Portland, ME: Stenhouse, 2005. Print. Skaife, Robert D. Practicing Writing Skills for Intermediate Grade Level Writers: A Guide to Linking Six Traits to the Writing Process. Phoenix, AZ: All Star, 2003. Print. Writing Fix: Prompts, Lessons, and Resources for Writing Classrooms. Web. 20 June 2010..