6+1 Traits

When I started to read the 6+1 Traits, the first thing I thought about was Fu and how this could help ELL students and even students on an IEP. The traits break down the seven most important things that make up a strong work of writing. I can see teachers using this in the classroom to help teach how to edit work and how to improve writing skills.

When I read this, I imagined a class where students are given time to peer edit, but go through each of these steps. Students look at the work and then ask “What is the main idea” before looking at the structure and organization of the work as stated by 6+1 Traits. The students start small and go step by step through the process rather than just look at spelling and grammar. The traits seem to pinpoint the small details that can be overlooked when peer editing. Voice, for example, is something I was not taught to directly look for when editing a paper. I would not think analyze this, and in turn, I wouldn’t be helping my peer as much as I could have. The same goes for sentence fluency and presentation.

The only traits I remember working on in school and paying close attention to was word choice and conventions. I remember we would always try to help each other with spelling and grammar when correcting a paper, but we als would look at if the sentences were worded well. Did the writer use “very” too often within the text? Is there another word they could have used for “good”?

In a classroom I could see this done as a “checklist” activity where students go through each trait and edit the paper according to what the 6+1 Traits say make a strong paper. Students will first focus on the main idea and then the organization. The activity may take a day or two, but they are focusing on making the paper as strong as possible. This also would make the students slow down their editing process.

I can’t wait to try our lesson in class for co-teaching. Frankie and I have great ideas and I’d love to see how this could work in a class setting