Getting Students to Talk about Writing in Terms of the 6 Traits

A couple of years ago our school adopted 6 Trait writing (okay, 6+1). As an assessment tool, I've always thought it was laid out very well. The best thing about using the program is that if all the teachers are using it school-wide, our expectations of student writing are unified and can be made clear to them. If students have these clear expectations, they can write to a task, and not for a specific teacher. And, as the students progress, they should be taking the same writing skills with them and developing them further along the same guidelines. Implementing 6 Traits as an assessment tool is easier said than done, but ultimately worth it.

I've always struggled with 6 Traits as a model of instruction, however. I teach the same students year after year because I'm the only secondary ELA teacher here. So my students should be pro at 6 Traits by now-- but they have yet to internalize each of the writing components. Last year I had a 6 Traits bulletin board up all year and would periodically refer to it. I taught mini-lessons throughout the year to review organization or the importance of word choice, for example, as we were working on writing projects. I had students try a variety of 6 Trait rubrics and check lists to help them peer-revise and peer-edit. At the beginning of this year when I asked each of my grades to review the 6 Traits for me, they all looked at me like I had a dick growing out of my forehead. It was discouraging, to say the least.

So what is the problem here? I think that sloth and apathy are definitely factors-- students are often willing to get through an assignment to get it done without really accepting and embracing the fact that they should be internalizing  a skill so that they can build on it and progress.  So partly some of my students are struggling writers because they are unwilling to put in the time and effort (this is part of the reason I wanted to do my Blog Assignment-- so students could write about things that interest them). But it can't just be laziness. We've gone over the 6 Traits again right before analyzing some student writing as a class this past quarter, and the very next day students weren't able to give me a working definition, or even an idea of what each of the traits means. So something is not clicking and they need more scaffolding and support before they can reach that meta-cognitive state.

Like I said, I've tried lots of different 6 Trait resources to help students internalize the qualities of writing. But none of them have been quit right, so I tried to make up my own student cheat sheet. I want students to get more guided practice thinking critically while using the 6 Traits as their guidelines, and I want to raise the level of discourse about writing in my classes. My kids are smart enough to think critically about their and others' writing, but I think maybe they're getting overwhelmed by the structure of the 6 Traits rubrics, etc., and need specific, succinct guidance in order to form and express their thoughts during discussion or in a written analysis/peer-review. So this document is How to Write about 6 Traits. I tried to put it in student friendly language, but without oversimplifying, because basically I want to be putting these words into the students' mouths. My idea is that students will have these reference sheets with them whenever we are analyzing writing, and whenever they are working on drafts of their own work. That way when I ask, "What about the organization of this paragraph is strong or weak?" the students won't feel like they have no idea, and just shut down. They can look at the writing and tell me, "It is strong because..." or "It is weak because..."

I realize that this handout is just another in the huge pile of 6 Traits resources. But I am excited to try it out. Structured practice like this has got to help them focus and internalize these ideas about strong and weak writing according to 6 Traits. I'll reflect on its implementation sometime soon (I think I'll debut it with our writing projects next week, or as soon as I can find a color printer!).

Let me know your thoughts and criticisms, especially about Voice <-- That is definitely the most difficult trait to address anytime, but particularly with middle and high school writing.