March/April 2002 | NW REPORT

Posters, and charts, and checklists, oh my!

Big publisher creates new line of classroom tools for teachers and young writers.

“We want to become known as the 6+1 Trait™ Writing distributor of Lab-approved materials.”

That remark by a publisher’s representative was music to the ears of Director Dean Arrasmith and Ruth Culham of the Laboratory’s Assessment Program. After 20 years of quietly developing and fostering the use of the 6+1 Trait™ Writing assessment model around the world, they were being offered a deal that could sharply increase its use by classroom teachers.

The Laboratory disseminates the model and its supporting material primarily through training institutes. Participants learn to implement the 6+1 Trait™ model, then they return to their own states, districts, and schools and pass on the training to other teachers, showing them how to use the assessment model in their writing instruction. Laboratory staff also deliver training and support in the use of the model, traveling to schools and districts on request. In this way, the circle of expert users and trainers of the model grows ever wider.

Yet, the popularity of the model among teachers is growing faster than the circle of trainers. One eager teacher called Carson-Dellosa Publishing, Inc., a major producer of classroom decorative products in Greensboro, North Carolina, in search of 6+1 Trait™ materials.

“That was the first time we’d heard of the products,” recalls Connie Martin, a product developer for Carson-Dellosa. The publisher called the Laboratory and soon contracted to develop new 6+1 Trait™ Writing materials especially for use by classroom teachers. A colorful bulletin board set of posters, checklists, charts, and decorative wall displays featuring the traits of good writing—ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation—was featured in Carson-Dellosa’s fall 2001 back-to-school catalog, listing for $14.99.

“It’s been the second-best selling informational bulletin board set we’ve offered,” Martin reports.

Says Culham: “That is one heck of a lot of poster sales, so they gave the green light to put together a whole product line of teacher aid materials for 6+1 Trait™.”

The 2002 catalogs, distributed twice a year to 1.7 million people, will list many new products, including•

The publishing company is working with the Laboratory to develop even more classroom aids for teachers. A teacher’s manual to help teachers begin to integrate the 6+1 Trait™ Writing into their instruction is one possibility, says Martin, and another is a book of lessons based on the 6+1 Trait™.

“While the ideal is that teachers will create all of their own lessons, that’s not realistic,” says Martin, “especially for a new teacher who doesn’t have the time or the confidence to do that. Teachers often want something that will tell them, ’This is how you start.’”

Janice Wright, a trainer with the Assessment Program, agrees. “With Carson-Dellosa’s partnership with the Laboratory, teachers will be able to purchase high-quality, research-based instructional materials for immediate use in their classrooms,” she says.

An eight-video set with a facilitator’s guidebook for staff development providers, which the Laboratory produced in 2000, is also available from Carson-Dellosa. An introductory video reviews the entire 6+1 Trait™ Writing assessment process, and the remaining seven videos examine the traits and scoring criteria. The eight-video set with guidebook sells for $400.

Culham hopes to develop another video series especially for the classroom teacher. When a teacher purposefully weaves assessment strategies into her writing curriculum, she gains valuable insight into her students’ progress. Also, her students become familiar with the criteria for good writing and can use feedback from the scoring guide to help them revise their work, learning the habits of good writers.

To order any of these products, contact Carson-Dellosa by phone, (800) 321-0943; fax, (800) 535-2669; or Web site, www.carsondellosa.com. Except for the video set, they are also available from local school supply stores.

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