The Six Traits (also known as the Write Traits and sometimes the 6+1
Traits) explore the following: Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice,
Conventions and Sentence Fluency. There is lots of information about
this online. Much of it will seem too young for the purposes of the
person who originally inquired about grading essays, however there are
middle and high school versions. The book I would look at is called:
Creating Writers: Through 6-Trait Writing Assessment and Instruction
by Vicki Spandel.
I continue to suggest that teachers consider what it is about about
writing an essay (or any writing project for that matter) that you
want your students to learn about. Grading an essay for every spelling
mistake and grammatical error is cruel if you were looking for ideas
about comparing and contrasting two characters from different novels.
It's true that to write well, students must use all the traits in
combination, however, considering that we are teachers we can help our
students learn about the craft of writing by breaking it down in to
some essential components first before requiring a culmination of them
all. So for my students I might say, for this project I will be
looking closely at the organization (intro, body, conclusion) but as a
backburner trait I will also look at word choice. Sometimes I can use
a piece of writing that I am grading for one trait as a pre-assessment
for another trait that I haven't taught or talked about. That way I
can get some data on what I need to teach.
Students who get essays back with "good job!" written on it have no
idea what they did to warrant the comment. "Your essay was well
organized, with a very strong conclusion. I would consider looking at
Introductions more closely next time as you need to hook your reader."
- may be more effective.
Take care,
Alison
On 12-Mar-10, at 5:23 PM, ann clavin wrote:
Thank you Alison for sharing but can you describe the six traits in
writing!
/10, Alison <[email protected]> wrote:
From: Alison <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [LIT] Grading writing assignments faster
To: "A list for improving literacy with focus on middle grades." <[email protected]
>
Date: Friday, March 12, 2010, 7:47 AM
Since we have starting using the six Traits in writing I have found
grading to be MUCH easier since there is a focus for the writing in
the first place. I find teachers that slave over grading essays
have not narrowed the task and are therefore grading the paper for
everything. If you are focused on particular content, tell your
students that, then ONLY look at the content of the paper and IGNORE
other stuff. Other writing tasks can focus on things like spelling,
grammar and organization, word choice. but don't overdo it. A
narrower focus for learning is much better for students. You
feedback can then be very specific to the task.
Good luck.
Alison
On 11-Mar-10, at 6:02 PM, Nancy Carroll wrote:
Hi Everyone,
I would like to know if anyone has any proven, fun ways of making
grading essays faster and less painful! Any hints? Would love to
hear your tips and tricks, from veterans and new teachers alike.
Happy Thursday!
Nancy Carroll
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