Customer Reviews

6 + 1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide, Grades 3 and Up

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I started teaching high school english this year and ordered this book because our district uses the 6 traits to asses the students' biannual writing tests. I decided I should teach them what they'd be tested on...

This book has really taught me a lot about using the traits. Each chapter is very in depth and has good examples. There are sample lesson plans and suggestions on ways to emphasize each of the traits.

I like the traits because it's a great way to break writing into manageable parts. I'm not just telling my students they got a "C" on a paper. Instead, I'm telling them they wrote a paper that has some strengths and some weaknesses. Further, I can tell them where the weaknesses are and what I think they should do to improve it.

But, maybe the best thing is that I am teaching them to score each other's papers and it guides their thinking and scoring. There's a companion book of worksheets and other reproducibles that is almost a must have because it includes rubrics and scoring sheets for students to use.

My only wish is that there was a separate book for secondary students. The standards for writing are different. But, even still, this book does cover secondary teaching and I find it very useful.

I highly recommend this book if you want to teach your students to be better writers.

Any teacher, school employee, or a mother would greatly benefit from having this book on their resource shelf. This book is a fantastic guide to improving your writing instruction across ALL content areas. The wisdom and experience that Ruth Culham distills in her new book is invaluable. I knew, when I was first introduced to the 6+1 Trait Model, the impact it would have on my student's ability to write with confidence and precision. For the past fours years my students were ranked at the top of Delaware State's Writing Assessment. I owe it all to Ruth Culham! This book can help your students understand the qualities of good writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. Once they understand this common language teachers are able to provide their students with precise, complete feedback on their writing performance. Writing is a lifelong skill we all need. This book will help you and your children master it!

Save the $1,000+ you'd spend on a workshop! This paperback has it all. And you get to keep it with you for future reference! I bought this wonderful resource, 6 + 1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide, on a whim. I implemented it in my classroom, and I just can't say enough about how well it has been received. My middle school students really enjoy the activities I've used nearly straight from the book. Other teachers who come through my room comment on what they see hanging from the walls, things the students created using the structures set forth in 6+1 Traits. The grading rubrics used in the system work extremely well with the Florida standardized writing test scoring system, making this an ideal choice for any Florida teacher. Still, anyone anywhere who wants an easy to remember system with affordable supplemental products should look into the 6+1 Traits system offered by Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. While NWREL offers training, I've found this book needs no additional support to be a strong, effective foundation for teaching both the art and the science of fine writing.

A few years ago I took a workshop on the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing that changed my life as a language arts teacher forever. The traits are a simple yet effective way to improve your students' writing. I was thrilled when I heard Ruth Culham was writing a new guide to the traits. Her book is the perfect combination of background information about the traits and practical lessons for the classroom. The examples of student writing are invaluable. My students and I have already enjoyed many of the creative ideas.
As an added bonus, Ruth practices what she preaches. The book is beautifully written, strong in all the traits. I truly enjoyed reading it from cover to cover. Writing teachers of all levels will treasure this valuable resource!

Ruth Culham's text is easy to use, clear and concise, and certainly a companion volume to Vicki Spandel's book. I have used it to teach graduate courses in writing and teachers like it very much.

Without question, this is the most complete, dependable book on teaching writing according to the traits. It's made a real difference in the way I assess, teach, and talk about writing to my students, as well as the way they talk about writing to one another. Most important, my students enjoy writing. They see value in it. And it shows in their finished products. Thank you Ruth Culham for creating such a useful, well-researched, well-written tool.

I looked at many writing books for my child. A school teacher recommended this one to me. After we used it as the primary writing guide, my child's writing took off. It's so effective that his writing has jumped from average to outstanding in his class. Now the book is one of our two MUST-DOs every week (the other is Beestar online ELA and vocabulary exercises, a wonderful web site www.beestar.org). Writing is a life-long skill. We will continue use this guide to improve writing for a long time.

This is an excellent guide in helping your students become better writers. Furthermore, as a classroom teacher in Texas, I feel that it will greatly help my students achieve "4"s in their TAKS writing test.

English teachers have it tough -- no matter how hard they try, they cannot avoid a degree of subjectivity when it comes to grading papers. This book, 6+1 TRAITS OF WRITING, will not make the process a totally objective one, but it will provide a definite structure that will be invaluable to both new and experienced teachers alike. In workmanlike fashion, Ruth Culham devotes chapters to the traits (ideas, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, organization, and conventions) PLUS one (presentation) with a series of indicators for teachers to assess each one.

It's a great primer in the technique, and the chapters all follow a similar pattern with definitions of the traits, a list of reasons on why students struggle with that trait, steps on how to assess the trait, and sample papers to practice assessing using the 6 + 1 method. Each sample paper is followed by the scores the author gave it, along with their reasoning. Finally, the chapters are nicely rounded out with a series of practical ideas on how you can TEACH each trait. Teachers trying to get a handle on grading papers will appreciate the practicality and the structure.

The caveats I have with the book are minor. First, the sample papers range from Grades 3 to 9, and it's often difficult to assess sample papers because elementary teachers may not know how far along a secondary student should be and secondary teachers may have no clue about what's expected from third-grade writers. The wide range in ages, in other words, creates a bit of extra confusion for teachers who are well-versed in their own age-group of students. Also, the extra batch of "practice papers" to assess at the back of the book are directly followed by the author's scores, meaning the papers and their scores often share the same page. It would have been more helpful to separate them so as to avoid accidentally seeing a score while trying to finish the paper.

Culham's book is a great start, but a lot more practice assessing will probably be necessary to successfully implement the program. Also, I found that I had many questions about judgment calls while assessing some of the indicators and, in a workshop type setting, could have used further explanation from an experienced hand. Alas, the book cannot provide anything like that, but still, it's a start -- and a good one. Recommended.

As a classroom teacher and workshop leader, I have found this book very useful. It includes sample student papers that can be used by teachers and students to hone their assessment skills. The ideas for teaching each of the traits are concrete ones that students enjoy. When I've read forty papers and have run out of new responses to give my students, there are even lists of responses for me to use. I recommend this book to both new and experienced teachers of writing.