Trait-Based Mini-Lessons for Teaching Writing

My feelings about teaching someone to write are, I suspect, very similar to how a lot of people feel about teaching someone math or science.  They know that it is important, they remember learning something about it once upon a time, but can't really put it together, and have no idea where to start, or what should be taught, or about what different ability levels are capable of.

I'm still building the concepts of the traits, as with most things I'm sure it will be a life long process.  I'm working on grading the sample papers in 6 + 1 Traits of Writing, but I really need to see some lessons in order for the ideas to really sink in and for me to be able to put them to good use in a classroom.  Trait-Based Mini-Lessons is a collection of 31 lessons designed to introduce the traits to 2-4 graders. 

The first time I flipped through this book, I didn't get it.  I was frustrated trying to teach Bailey how to write.  He hates writing.  He acts like a typical kid being forced to do something he hates.  It frustrates me.  I know how important it is to be able to write well, I just wanted him to see it.  The frustration leaked into my first run through this book.  Now, that I've distanced myself from Bailey's frustrations, it's like a person that you never thought would be your friend and one day you wake up and after getting to know them, you realize that person will be one of your best friends for the rest of your life.

The lessons in this book are engaging.  They ask the student to think.  They leave the student with work to do on their own, and facilitate guiding the child back to a particular concept or trait in an easy and straightforward way.  I'm putting together some writing binders with dividers based on the ideas in this lesson book.  My plan is to do one trait lesson every week, then let the kids loose writing for the week.  I will have a writing conference once a week where I review some of the writing that they have done the week before.  We'll talk about the good things in the writing, the bad things in the writing and decide where to go with the particular piece they are working on.  I'm going to let them choose what they want to conference about, but it has to be something.

We are going to be writing a lot next year, writing about what ever we want, writing about math, writing about science, writing about history.  It's important to me to see that my children can communicate well about a number of different subjects with a variety of people.  I'm so excited to have been directed to something that I think is going to help us reach that goal.