Re: HIT: Write Traits Writing Program

[Joni J Rathbun <jrathbun@OREDNET.ORG>]

> Are you talking about the Six Traits writing program?
> If so, our district started it last year.  I think the
> teachers were pretty happy with it and it seemed  to be
> a good program.  Their only complaint was that so much
> of it is subjective but that's what happens when you
> start judging someone's writing.

I wasn't aware of a particular program (canned program)??
But in Oregon, for example, student writing has been assessed
based on the writing traits for about ten years now. This is
at the state level for the state tests. In turn, most (if
not all by this time) districts teach writing based on the
"traits." The district I worked in was one of the first. The
teachers there were well versed and well trained... and I believe
they would tell you that assessing student writing becomes much
more objective (vs subjective) as users become experienced. IOW,
the fear I always heard expressed when teachers began the program was
had to do with subjectivity. But that concern always disappeared.

For example, in order to score student papers for the state test,
the state has had to train hundreds of teachers from across the
state to complete the task. Each paper is scored by two people.
Because folks have been trained to really know what to look for
in the papers, you'll find most "scorerers" will give the papers
similar scores. When a paper receives two widely different scores
(the exception, not the rule) it's filtered out and re-scored by
others. And this is, perhaps, this method's main drawback -- it
can be time consuming. In our district, portfolio pieces and
finished pieces had to be scored by two people. Considering the
fact that the state was implementing similar assessments for
math problem solving and for reading, the scoring of papers has
become a huge task. Everyone in the buildings where I worked
was being trained - from the janitors to the principals.

Meanwhile, I also believe the system provides a great deal of consistency.
Students begin to speak the language as early as first grade and will
talk conventions, word choice, voice, etc. And one of the benefits
is that when they move to the next grade, writing is still assessed
in the same way. How many of us remember having learned to write a
paper that pleased Teacher X only to move on to Teacher Z who zeroed
in on totally different things?


Here are a couple resouces for you:

1.  Practice Scoring:
    http://www.open.k12.or.us/scoring/

This site provides sample student papers you can score interactively
right online. Outstanding resource.

2.  Northwest Regional Educational Labs:
    http://www.nwrel.org/eval/writing/products.html

THey have a number of products available including a series of
videos. They also have traits posters and stamps. We had writing
traits posters in every room. We designed our own but you can buy
them here if necessary.

Librarians will especially be interested in these two books:

"Picture Books: An Annotated Bibliography for Teaching Writing"

It connects different children's books to the different traits.
See what you have, order what you don't, and then share with
your teachers! They will love you :)

"Seeing With New Eyes"
More ideas and connections including plans.


I've been thru a training here in my new state and it did not
come close to providing the depth, breadth and expertise I
saw in Oregon. So if one has the money and is serious about
this, I'd look for a trainer out of Oregon. If you are so
lucky as to be able to do that, let me know and I can help
you connect with the woman who is probably the state's leading
teacher/expert on the teaching of the writing traits.



==========================================================================

"Leave It To Beaver" was not a documentary.

=========================================================================
J. Rathbun, Librarian
Mojave High School
Clark County School District
Las Vegas, Nevada
Email: jrathbun@orednet.org




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