Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-Traits: Still time to join!

Final Call for the Spring Semester at the University of Wisconsin Stout!

Courses are completely online.

EDUC 744 920 Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-Traits - (Elem. (PK-4)
3 graduate credits begins February 16, 2009
http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/traits.shtml

EDUC 744 909 Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-Traits - (Middle School/Adult)
3 graduate credits begins February 16, 2009
http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/traits.shtml

6-Traits Online

Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6 Traits: Classes are are Filling Fast!

WRITING COURSE:

EDUC 744 920F Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-TraitsElementary (Gr. K-4) - 3 gr. cr. begins September 22, 2008.

EDUC 744 909F Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-Traits - Middle/High School (Gr. 5-12) 3 gr. cr. begins September 22, 2008.

Learn to teach and assess writing with the 6-Traits of writing (voice, ideas, word choice, organization, sentence fluency and conventions). Learn to use the 6-Traits with the writing process to teach revision strategies. Help learners meet higher standards and improve test scores.

Please forward this announcement to teachers in your district.

Earn graduate credits via online courses that support your professional development goals for licensure renewal, salary advancement and advanced certification.

Sign up soon to reserve your spot! Registration closes this week!

to allow time for assigning user names, passwords and ordering/shipping the textbook.

Classes are TOTALLY ONLINE. You may participate from your home or school computer. Registration is limited to 20 participants per section.

Syllabus and other details:

http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/traits.shtml

REGISTER ONLINE
or
REGISTER BY FAX
Fax: (715) 232-3385

Pass the word? Help make it a 6-traits online summer!

Please forward this announcement to teachers in your district.

This summer teachers from around the nation and the world will join online to exchange ideas and share best practices. The conversations are rich. The community is real. If you've never taken an online class before... this is the one to start with!

Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6 Traits

EDUC 744 920 Elementary (Gr. K-4) - 3 gr. cr. begins June 16, 2008 EDUC 744 909 Middle/High School (Gr. 5-12) - 3 gr. cr. begins June 16, 2008

Learn to teach and assess writing with the 6-Traits of writing (voice, ideas, word choice, organization, sentence fluency and conventions). Learn to use the 6-Traits with the writing process to teach revision strategies. Help learners meet higher standards and improve test
scores.

Earn graduate credits via online courses that support your professional development goals for licensure renewal, salary advancement and advanced certification.

Sign up soon to reserve your spot! Registration closes this week! to allow time for assigning user names, passwords and ordering/shipping the textbook.Classes are TOTALLY ONLINE. You may participate from your home or school computer. Registration is limited to 20 participants per section.

Syllabus and other details: http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/traits.shtml REGISTER ONLINE or REGISTER BY FAX Fax: (715) 232-3385

For more details e-mail Dennis O'Connor: oconnord@uwstout.edu

6-Traits Writing Online: Enroll Now!

Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6 Traits: Classes are are Filling Fast!

WRITING COURSE:
EDUC 744 909F Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-Traits - Middle/High School (Gr. 5-12) 3 gr. cr. begins October 1, 2007

Learn to teach and assess writing with the 6-Traits of writing (voice, ideas, word choice, organization, sentence fluency and conventions). Learn to use the 6-Traits with the writing process to teach revision strategies. Help learners meet higher standards and improve test scores.

Please forward this announcement to teachers in your district.

Earn graduate credits via online courses that support your professional development goals for licensure renewal, salary advancement and advanced certification.

Sign up soon to reserve your spot! Registration closes ten days before the class begins

to allow time for assigning user names, passwords and ordering/shipping the textbook.

Classes are TOTALLY ONLINE. You may participate from your home or school computer. Registration is limited to 20 participants per section.

Syllabus and other details:

http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/traits.shtml

REGISTER ONLINE
or
REGISTER BY FAX
Fax: (715) 232-3385

6-Traits Online (University of Wisconsin-Stout)

Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6 Traits: Classes are are Filling Fast!

WRITING COURSE:
EDUC 744 909F Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-Traits - Middle/High School (Gr. 5-12) 3 gr. cr. begins June 18, 2007

Learn to teach and assess writing with the 6-Traits of writing (voice, ideas, word choice, organization, sentence fluency and conventions). Learn to use the 6-Traits with the writing process to teach revision strategies. Help learners meet higher standards and improve test scores.

Please forward this announcement to teachers in your district.

Earn graduate credits via online courses that support your professional development goals for licensure renewal, salary advancement and advanced certification.

University of Wisconsin-Stout School of Education online courses begin in a few weeks.

Sign up soon to reserve your spot! Registration closes ten days before the class begins

to allow time for assigning user names, passwords and ordering/shipping the textbook.

Classes are TOTALLY ONLINE. You may participate from your home or school computer. Registration is limited to 20 participants per section.

Syllabus and other details:

http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/traits.shtml

REGISTER ONLINE
or
REGISTER BY FAX

Fax: (715) 232-3385

Tuition is the same fee for in-state and international participants. You may pay via credit card, school purchase order or invoice.

REGISTER ONLINE at
http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/register.shtml

Dennis O'Connor
Instructor & Course Author
Department of Education
Online Professional Development
University of Wisconsin-Stout
Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University
oconnord@uwstout.edu
530-318-1145 or 760-471-5262

How to Introduce the 6-Traits to your students.

One recurring question about teaching with the 6 traits is: “How do I go about introducing traits to my class?” This is a first draft of a lecture I'm developing for my online class: Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-Traits.

Establishing the writing process as the basis for instruction. It’s always (IMHO) Writing Process first, then the traits. You will find this assertion in Spandel & Culham’s works as well.

It does make sense to teach the traits in conjunction with the writing process. The pre-writing phase of the traits is the perfect place to hammer home the importance of Ideas in writing. Pre-writing is when a writer finds the ideas that light them up. For this reason, voice is another important concept to teach as part of pre-writing. We know that voice flows when writers are passionate about their topics. A good topic springs from sound pre-writing activities mated with the understanding of the trait of voice.

Yeah, but what do I do on Monday Morning?

When starting at the beginning of the year I introduced traits to my middle-schoolers sequentially: ideas, voice, word choice, organization, sentence fluency I gave about 3 weeks to a trait.

We'd practice each new trait's core concepts in many small chunks. Writing examples, working with contrasting examples, all of the methods I discuss in the 6-traits online class, plus all of the methods shared by the world wide group of dedicated teachers in the class.

After introduction and practice of a trait, we move on to the next trait.

Seize Teachable Moments

If a chance to talk about another trait presents itself while you are ‘in deep’ with the current trait, go ahead: do it. Don't be afraid to quickly introduce another trait. If you’re introducing ideas, it’s a good idea to talk about voice etc. You don’t have to do a mini lesson or go into depth, but say enough to be appropriate for the moment. This creates a foundation for the concepts to come.

Use 6-Traits Posters

I had traits concepts up around the room in poster format to refer to as needed. Sometimes just walking over to the poster and touching it as you talk is enough to set the pattern for kids. You'll notice kids glancing at the posters and explanations. They know where to look to get the bullet points of the concept. Constant coaching on the concepts is the way to go.

Teach & Re-Teach
Like we do in our online class, each time I started teaching the concepts of a new trait, I would refer back to the previous traits, while foreshadowing those to come. It's recursive practice, teach and reteach throughout the year.

Traits and the Writing Process Work Together

This recursive loop of presenting the traits is similar to the way the writing process works. Pre-writing leads to drafting; drafting reveals the first rush of ideas and voice.

It's at this point that revision should enter the process, working a first draft up to a second draft is more than fixing the spelling and making things neat, yet it's often at this point that the writing process breaks down.

Revision!

• Kids don't know what to do.
• Teachers lack the vocabulary to provide specific and focused feedback.

Understanding how to spot and improve traits in writing provides a way to revise the writing and keep the process evolving. Understanding the traits powers up the writing process by providing entry points for revision.

Revision!

So often, kids (and teachers) think revision is just fix the spelling and punctuation and write it over neatly.

Save intense focus on conventions and presentation to the publishing stage of the writing process and dive into the meat of the process by learning to revise using word choice, organization, and sentence fluency. This will blow the embers of first draft ideas and voice into full flame.

Waiting for Eureka Moments

When you first start teaching with the traits you wonder if all this work is really worth it. You have to go at it (initially at first) on pure faith. Over the course of the first year it will come together. It will take faith and patience.

I'll admit it felt miraculous when I could see that my kids really were understanding things at a depth! This ability to apply traits concepts to their writing usually showed up around Christmas!

I recall a true eureka moment as I listened to previously inarticulate kids from my toughest class (you know the class that won’t jell and you have before or after lunch) speak eloquently about the ideas and voice they heard in the stories being read aloud. Their comments were on point, supportive, and insightful. They were writers helping each other.

At that moment I felt like crying.

At that moment I knew why I’d hung in all these years as a teacher.

It is moments like that I hope I can help you all find!

Dennis

So many methods, ideas, and stories are flowing in the discussion threads!

The minds of the e-learners in my current online class about the 6-traits are the source of so much practical classroom wisdom.

I've got a diverse and very articulate group of educators from around the world discussing voice this week. From Primary Teachers to University Instructors... everyone has insight, methods and Eureka moments to share.

I've asked my class for permission to blog some of their posts.

I must walk a careful line here. We're building a very generous community in class. People are sharing and talking and helping each other think. I don't want to make them self conscious or have they worry that the blogosphere is looking over their shoulders.

On the other hand, there are so many nuggets of wisdom I'd like to share with the teachers of writing that read this blog.

We'll see!

Den@SanMarcos

Write in the Middle: A workshop for middle school teachers

Free Resources or Take a course for credit

This video workshop from Annenberg Media, helps middle school teachers learn effective practices and strategies for writing instruction. All of the course materials and videos are online and available for free. You can use the contents of the class without formally registering for the class.

From the website:

"Write in the Middle: A Workshop for Middle School Teachers is an eight-part professional development workshop designed to help teachers learn effective practices and strategies to use with middle school students in writing instruction. Through classroom footage of excellent teachers modeling successful strategies and interviews with teachers, students, and nationally recognized experts about the writing process, workshop participants will learn ways to create a positive and productive writing environment for young adolescents."

Free online videos are available:

8 video workshop topics include:

• Workshop 1. Creating a Community of Writers
• Workshop 2. Making Writing Meaningful
• Workshop 3. Teaching Poetry
• Workshop 4. Teaching Persuasive Writing
• Workshop 5. Teaching Multigenre Writing
• Workshop 6. Responding to Writing: Teacher to Student
• Workshop 7. Responding to Writing: Peer to Peer
• Workshop 8. Teaching the Power of Revision

Annenberg Media: Writing Communities

From Annenberg Media:

"Inside Writing Communities: Grades 3-5" <http://learner.org/redirect/january/iwc1.html>

This is an incredibly rich resource for professional development. The online video and course materials are free and available online; all you do is register. You'll find a complete, in-depth course of study here for free.

By participating in a formal teleclass/e-learning course you can also complete the materials for graduate credit. Materials are available on dvd and videotape as well.

"Inside Writing Communities: Grades 3-5" is a video workshop that uses classroom footage to demonstrate the effectiveness of a writing workshop approach with upper elementary students. Ten teachers from across the country model and discuss teaching strategies, while nationally known experts in writing instruction comment on the research and theory behind the strategies being used. The workshop is produced by Kentucky Educational Television, which also produced "Write in the Middle: A Workshop for Middle School Teachers" and "Signature: Contemporary Writers."

On the Inside Writing Communities Web site
<"http://learner.org/redirect/january/iwc2.html>, find links to Video on
Demand, a downloadable Workshop Guide in PDF format, interactive
activities, and more.

Online Class: Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-Traits

Learn to teach and assess writing with the 6-Traits of writing (voice, ideas, word choice, organization, sentence fluency and conventions). Learn to use the 6-Traits with the writing process to teach revision strategies. Help learners meet higher standards and improve test scores.

• EDUC 744 920 - Elementary (Gr. K-4) - 3 cr. begins January 29, 2007
• EDUC 744 909 - Middle/High School (Gr. 5-12) - 3 cr. begins January 29, 2007
• EDUC 744 920 - Elementary (Gr. K-4) - 3 cr. begins June 18, 2007
• EDUC 744 909 - Middle/High School (Gr. 5-12) - 3 cr. begins June 18, 2007

For more information or to register: CLICK HERE!

Friends classes are forming now! Please pass along this information to your colleagues!