September 1997 Booklet Guides Parents of Budding Writers
Your third-grade daughter has taken a sudden interest in writing. She is putting down tales about mermaids and flights of fancy and friends and life through the eyes of an eight-year-old. You're rightfully proud of her initiative and enjoy the innocence and imagination in her stories.
But you also notice the many misspelled words, the jumbled organization, the shifts in voice, and the abrupt changes in the story's flow. You recall that her teacher is using something called the six-traits writing model in her classroom, and you're wondering if this approach has something to do with your daughter's writing initiative. And while you want to be supportive of your daughter's writing, you also want her to know that there are certain conventions and qualities that will improve her writing and storytelling. How do you go about helping her without discouraging her with criticism?
A new publication from the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory can help guide you in your efforts to work with your budding writers. Dear Parent: A Handbook for Parents of 6-Trait Writing Students can help you understand the writing strategies, terminology, scoring, and other elements involved in the widely used six-trait model. Author Vicki Spandel has criss-crossed the country conducting six-trait writing workshops for teachers, school administrators, and parents. The traits of good writing that teachers using this model look for include:
- Ideas. A clear point, message, theme or story line, backed by important, carefully chosen details and supportive information
- Organization. How a piece of writing is structured and ordered
- Voice: The fingerprints of the writer on the page—the writer's own special, personal style coming through in the words, combined with concern for the informational needs and interests of the audience
- Word Choice. Language, phrasing, and the knack for choosing just the right word to get the message across
- Sentence Fluency. The rhythm and sound of the writing as it is read aloud
- Conventions. Editorial correctness and attention to any detail a copy editor would review, including spelling, grammar and usage, capitalization, paragraph indentation, and punctuation.
"In Dear Parent," Spandel writes in the introduction, "we offer information to help you understand how writing is taught in classrooms that use the Six-Trait Model for writing assessment and writing instruction. Maybe you've wondered where this model came from, whether it really works, and whether you could provide the kind of support at home that would make classroom instruction in the six traits even more effective. The model was developed by writing teachers. Yes, it does work, and yes, you can help. We'll show you how." Six-trait writing, Spandel notes, can help student writers:
- Acquire a real sense of what makes some writing so good you can't stop reading—while other writing puts readers right to sleep
- Write better first drafts
- Revise with confidence and power—so the second draft is more than a neater version of the first draft
- Read with new insight and understanding
- Understand (perhaps for the first time) exactly what teachers are looking for in writing
Chapters in the 42-page booklet include an overview of definitions, a student friendly scoring guide, close-up looks at student writing before and after revisions, tips for parents on how to help their young writers, ways in which to respond to your child's writing, tips for student writers, and answers to questions that parents often ask. Dear Parent also includes a glossary of common assessment terms and a list of resources for readers to explore the six-trait writing model in more detail.
Copies of Dear Parent: A Handbook for Parents of 6-Trait Writing Students can be ordered from NWREL's Document Reproduction Service by filling out the Document Order Form in this newsletter. Single copies are $8.60, and orders of 15 or more copies receive a 15 percent discount. Or order online at www.nwrel.org/comm/catalog/detail.asp?RID=10706
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