Trait organizer

Ideas and Content

Ideas and Content are in a sense the heart of the writing.  Everything that is said comes back to ideas and content.  The two keys are clarity and details.  Making a topic clear and manageable is so important.  Details can make or break any piece of writing.  Ideas and content focus on clear writing that presents details in an interesting, fresh manner.   

· Use graphic organizers to brainstorm writing topics

· Use unusual pictures from magazines, calendars, cards, or from your own album that will help jumpstart detailed writing.  Have students describe the picture in great detail.  Post the pictures and read the writing and challenge students to match the description with the cards.

· Rewrite a familiar tale or story using only the main events and characters leave out the details.  Read the rewritten story to students.  Challenge students to decide what is missing.  Brainstorm ways to improve on the story.  To end this mini lesson read the original full length version of the story.

· Find a busy scene with lots of action and people. (beach, shopping mall, farm, fair, or a park)  Show the picture to students and have them write the things they see on sticky notes.  Post the picture and the sticky notes on a bulletin board and let this go on for a few days.  Discuss what the students thought this activity showed about writing.  Details are important but sometimes too many details can overwhelm and bog down writing.  Have students choose one aspect of the picture to write a story about.  (mom and child in the mall, the lone boy on the beach, or the black sheep in the pasture)

· Have students write about some exciting event that happened to them recently.  Concentrate on s narrow topic and fresh exciting details.

Organization

Organization is just the way it sounds, organizing a paper so it is easy for the reader to follow.  The trait of organization is the hardest for students to master.  They have trouble seeing the big picture in their writing.  Often times making students aware of methods or shortcuts to good organization is key.

· Once a topic is chosen use a variety of graphic organizers to help students clarify and organize their thoughts.

· Read one of the organization picture books aloud to the class.  Stop periodically and ask students: "Why do you think the author began the book this way?"  "Where do you think the author will take us next?"  "How will the book end?"  After the book is finished break the students up into groups and have them create a story board mapping out the organization of the book.  Once each group is finished have them present their story board.

· Use five or six sequence cards with pictures.  Place them out of order and ask for a volunteer to try to tell the story of the cards without changing the order.  Discuss the difficulty of the task and how it pertains to writing.  Put the cards in the correct order and have the students write their own version of the story.

· Read the story Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day  by Judith Viorst.  Discuss the book in terms of organization.  (why did she organize the book the way she did?, why is organization important to this book?, would you change the organization of the book?) Map out the book organization on the board or using a technological graphic organizer.  Use the organization of the book to create a book all their own.  Have student brainstorm a time when they had an Awesome, Fabulous, Just Fine, Very Good Day and write and illustrate a book accordingly.

· Use some of the organizational trade books or other books from your library with good beginnings.  Read the beginnings to the class.  Have them discuss the attributes of a good beginning versus a poor beginning. Define a good story beginning.  (the same can be done for endings/conclusions)  Have the students choose one of the beginnings and finish writing the story from there.

Sentence Fluency

Sentence fluency is a trait based solely on the ear.  Students need to tune their ears to the rhythm and cadence that can be accomplished with sentence fluency.  Using the natural flow of poetry can add clarity to this trait.  Focusing on variety in sentences can help attain fluency.

· Choose two different reading basal stories.  One at the pre primer level and at the comprehension level of your students.  Read a portion of both to aloud and ask students what differences they heard, what they enjoyed listening to more.  Hopefully they came up with the fact that one had a variety of sentenc lengths and beginnings.  Use this example as a guideline to use for their writing. 

· Reading poetry aloud is something that students find they truly enjoy.  It will also help them tune their ear to good sentence fluency.

· After reading many books with sentence fluency students start to see a variation in sentence beginnings.  Have students brainstorm some catchy sentence beginnings.  Write these beginnings on the board and have students chose four to six beginnings to finish in the form of a paragraph.  At the same time the teacher uses only one of beginnings and writes a paragraph. Once everyone is finished writing share the teachers versus some of the other students.  Question the students on what they noticed and can learn from the activity.

· Use poetry to give students practice reading aloud and break it up into parts for a choral reading.  Have the small group present their choral reading  to the class.

Word Choice

Word choice is a trait that shows the power of language.  Sometimes students seem so caught up in their ideas, organization, and grammar that word choice may take a backseat.   Showing students the use of good word choice will open their eyes to a whole new world of writing.

· Create a class book that will aid students in boosting their word choice skills.  On one page write a word like, good in boring grey print.  On the following page have students write substitutes for the words good.  Use other boring words to find substitutes for like cool, bad, sad, mad, happy, fun, etc.  Students will surprise you with their list of tired boring words.

· Have a tired word funeral.  Put one tired word per slip of paper.  Invite each student to place one tired word in a small cardboard box.  Have a small tired word funeral by burring these words to never be used again.

· Use simple tired word in short sentences.  Have students replace words or rewrite the sentence using specific nouns, colorful verbs and snappy adjectives and adverbs.

· Use a big book full of excellent word choices.  Cover up some of the colorful words with sticky notes and as you read the book to the class have them guess what the covered word may be.  Often times they will guess words that would go well in that place write them down and talk about how many words can be substituted in its place.  If they are unfamiliar with the covered word direct them to the list of optional words to find their own meaning.  This is an excellent skill that can help students during test taking time.

· Create a class alphabet book using fresh, exciting, colorful words.  Put this book in the library for students to reference when having trouble finding just the right word.

· Challenge students to write a description of something simple like the smell of spaghetti, feel of their bed, or the sunset.  Have them review their writing once they have finished and concentrate on using word choice to show not tell.

Conventions

Conventions are the editing and revising component of writing.  Often this trait is taught throughout the six traits writing process.  Many people would say that this trait is the most time consuming of the six because of its depth and importance. 

· Have a daily editing time.  Choose a sentence a paragraph or a section of a student written work. (ask the student's permission before using)  Use this as a time when the group's job is to make this piece as perfect as they can.  Have students reflect on how editing as a group is different than editing individually.

· Introduce proofreading marks to students.  Have them use these marks on a sample paragraph in pen or marker.  Post these editing marks in the classroom for all to see and use. 

· Individual conferencing is an excellent way to teach one on one editing.  When conferencing have a focus of one or two concepts for students to focus on and once those are mastered other concepts can be added. 

· Partner editing can be very powerful if handled in a constructive manner.  Much can be learned between students.  Have them take what they learned about editing and apply that to peer editing.  Giving a checklist can give students added direction.