National Writing Project Rolls out New Website

If you haven't signed up for the free resources and online access to National Writing Project Resources .... DO IT! This is THE COMMUNITY for writing teachers. You won't be sorry you joined.

Here's an announcement I just got in their newsletter that I want to pass along:

NWP Launches New Website

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new website, www.nwp.org. The new site beautifully showcases the depth and breadth of the work of the writing project, including resources that writing project colleagues have written and developed over many years.

Among the changes you’ll notice are

• a new NWP Sites section devoted to site development
• a Results section featuring research on NWP's effectiveness
• an expanded Resources section showcasing hundreds of articles
• a new Calendar with an assortment of views according to types of events
• an improved Search function that delivers more extensive results.

Use the online form at “Contact Us” to comment on the new website.

Top 20 6-Trait Resources

These resources come from my del.icio.us social bookmarks. (Network name wiredinstructor)

1. Fifty (50!) Tools which can help you in Writing - lifehack.org

   tips from poynter.com on writing

   to writing writing-process 6-traits ... saved by 4729 other people ... 2 days ago

2. Techlearning > > Poetry Out Loud > September 7, 2007

   Hear British poets read 21 of their own poems, including, incredibly, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's 1890 reading of "The Charge of the Light Brigade," as recorded by agents of Thomas Alva Edison

   to writing 6-traits poetry ... on sept 11

3. ReadingLady.com :: ReadingLady.com Teaching Resources

   Posters for the six traits in word document form

   to 6-traits writing writing-process ... saved by 1 other person ... on sept 05

4. 6+1 Traits for Revison | Scholastic.com

   edit / delete

   Ruth Culham provides overview of traits. Links to other support materials.

   to 6-traits writing writing-process ... saved by 1 other person ... on sept 05

5. Essay Punch: An Interactive Writing Tutorial

   The web site provides questions that help to guide users step by step through pre-writing, writing, organizing, editing, rewriting, and publishing.

   to writing 6-traits writing-process writers ... saved by 38 other people ... on aug 26

6. Storybase.net - writing prompts for fiction writers

   web 2.0 oriented writing prompts

   to writing writing-process writers 6-traits ... saved by 2 other people ... on aug 26

7. Journalists Writing Style guide

   English (UK) Detailed style guide from the other side of the pond.

   to 6-traits ... saved by 289 other people ... on aug 08

8. Research on the 6+1 Trait Writing Model for Improving Student Writing

   65 page pdf of research on effectiveness of 6 traits in writing achievement. also ppt slides from ASCD presentation

   to 6-traits ... on aug 08

9. Hartman Reader Page

   Web 1.0 page dedicated to words, their meanings, and various bits of literate trivia.

   to wordchoice 6-traits ... saved by 4 other people ... on aug 07

10. The Write Weblog: Six Traits of Writing Brainstorming

    Classroom blogging project, good example of how to use a blog in a writing class.

    to 6-traits blog ... on july 29

11. Quotable Quotes on Writers and Writing

    to writing writers writing-process 6-traits ... saved by 99 other people ... on june 03

12. Advice to writers by Vonnegut

    How to Write With Style by Kurt Vonnegut

    to writing 6-traits ... saved by 363 other people ... on june 02

13. UWC @ TAMU - Writing Process

    webliography of writing process resources
    

    to writing 6-traits e-learning ... on may 11

14. In digital age, more t's are crossed poorly - The Boston Globe

    impact of technology and nclb on handwriting.

    to 6-traits writing ... saved by 6 other people ... on may 08

15. ESL 6-Traits

    Forms for scoring 6-traits elements with an ESL orientation

    to 6-traits esl ... on may 05

16. Six Trait Writing Ideas

    Fun page of links to various 6-traits links!

    to 6-traits writing ... on may 05

17. Lesson Plan:"All About Me" Paragraph - Grade 5 Writing

    This is an introductory lesson for students in the beginning of the school year, based on a collection of ideas from "The 6-Traits in Writing" (rubrics adapted to be kid-friendly), and also the "10-Point Writing Checklist." This collection of organizers i

    to 6-traits writing ... saved by 2 other people ... on may 05

18. 6+1 Trait Writing @Web English Teacher

    Web English Teacher presents the best of K-12 English / Language Arts teaching resources: lesson plans, WebQuests, videos, biography, e-texts, criticism, jokes, puzzles, and classroom activities. Permission to link is granted to any educational site.

    to writing 6-traits ... saved by 32 other people ... on may 03

19. The Neverending Tale

    The Neverending Tale is for kids and kids-at-heart. It is a choose-your-own-path adventure story- like you might read in a book. But you can add to the tale where ever you like. Whatever you add will become part of the tale, anything you can think of.

    to writing writing-process 6-traits ... on may 03

20. The Opportunity of Voice (Techlearning blog)

    David Jakes on Digital Story Telling. Meat for thought here. How does medium is the message reality of web 2.0 tech interact with traditional ways of teaching writing (6-traits)? Hint: It's all about audience, and to find an audience you have to underst

    to writing 6-traits digital_storytelling ... saved by 2 other people ... on april 24

6-Traits PowerPoint Resources

This is worth looking at! There are many power point projects on this site that you can download and use for class or parent presentations. Take a look!

http://languagearts.pppst.com/6traits.html

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

Text Messaging & Conventions

ttyl, y? bcuz pos
Lost on my subject line?
Allow me to translate...

Talk to you later.
Why?
Because, parent over shoulder

(which means: my mom is staring at the computer screen so don't type anything that will get either of us in trouble)

My daughter doesn't realize I speak "text" (or txt, rather) - I like it that way...I keep tabs and she doesn't realize it. But that's not for this post. This post is about the idea of discussing "conventions" (and presentation, really) with your secondary students. Txt is a language of the young. It is a written language. It is shorthand and electronic. They live, eat, and breathe this language by cell, IM, and email 24/7. It is their native language - we will not break them of it - we must accept that. Obviously not all conventions or presentation problems are texting-based, but it does creep in - the lack of capitalization and punctuation is an acceptable convention of instant messaging and texting as the message box only allows 160 characters total. And capitalization requires several convoluted cell phone key punches. In addition, spelling is phonetic to eliminate excess letter characters and the time it takes to formulate a response. When a teen has 14 friends in a chat room - time of response is highly vital.

I don't write this to excuse the poor conventions of the Gen Wi-Fi writers, but I do want teachers to understand where their students live. Remember when you were listening to "your" music as a teenager and your parents told you it was awful and to turn it down? You simply rolled your eyes and thought they just had no idea what current life was really about...welcome to current life.

Rather than simply stating that it is unacceptable to turn in work with poor conventions - and editing away the texting habits of a generation - open up a discussion (especially with high school students) - about appropriate time and place for different kinds of writing. In the same way that we use a comma after the greeting in a friendly letter and a colon after the greeting in a business letter, the conventions for punctuation, spelling, etc., change for the digital environment one is in as well. See if students can arrive at examples like: An email to your teacher or boss *should* be clean of "txt", but an email or IM to your friend can be filled with it. Also, you might steer the discussion toward judgments potential employers, college admissions officers, etc., might make (first impressions) of the student, if all they had to go on was a piece of writing with misspellings, no capitalization, and no punctuation. If students can understand the authentic reasons for proofreading, editing, and revising, they will be more inclined to voluntarily do it themselves.

Your thoughts?

Lisa@hersoapbox
(Lisa Chamberlin, was taught about the traits by Vicki Spandel. She recently co-facilitated Teaching and Assessing Writing with the 6-Traits)

Organization: Where do you find the best leads?

Michael LaCerra: If you think about it, whenever a student read a novel, s/he has probably read a half-way decent lead about it---where? The back cover.

So, in helping students lead the reader into the body of their writing, I actually focus on reading. For part of the school year, students write their own leads for the independent reading they have finished. They put presentation touches on them, too, and then they go in a big 3-ring binder in my room where others can reference when looking for a book to read.

By using this process at the beginning of the year (with reading), I am usually able to quickly transfer these concepts over to writing instruction during Q2. Ongoing, students reinforce these skills by turning their leads into podcasts. Our school's server is being updated at the moment, so I cannot share an example--sorry.

In the end, students are learning effective writing strategies almost without even realizing it until we focus on it--kind of funny.

In teaching 8th graders, the far more challenging aspect is helping students improve their endings. So many of the strategies are the same as leads, but I have never been happy with my instruction or the students products. Any ideas? Thanks.

And lastly, I primarily focus on having my students use sophisticated transitions as opposed to "first, second, last". I have used this in the past for: VOICE, transitions, dialogue, and word choice.

http://mrbraiman.home.att.net/page13.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwyj78FpYt4

Start at the 35 sec mark...or have students re-inact it...just a thought.--mL

Ideas & Voice

Let me share Audrey's response to the following question: --"Wouldn't a piece that has well developed ideas usually contain voice?"


She helps us see the interactions and differences clearly:

I started wondering about this very same question as I was scoring "The Note".

My first thinking was that a piece with voice = 4 or 5 would also have a high score for ideas. Topic focus and selection of relevant, compelling, personal (experiential) details are shared by both voice and ideas.

But #1: Would it be possible to have a piece of writing where the author is very engaging and personal (Voice 4 or 5) but the ideas are just a string of wonderings grouped together, a broad range of topics (Ideas 3 or 2)?

But #2: Would it be possible to have a piece of writing where the the topic is narrow; the writer speaks from experience, giving quality details; and the reader's questions are anticipated and answered, (Ideas 4 or 5) yet the writing is sincere but impersonal and lacking risk (Voice 3)?

Perhaps a high score for Voice or Ideas would mean at least a 3 or 4 for the other trait of this pair?

What do you think?

Are there any examples you can think of?