I recently was able to attend a teacher in-service at an elementary school on the topic of the 6 writing traits. It's a way of helping students identify the characteristics of good writing and work towards improvement. Is there anything out there using this teaching structure with adults? If you're not familiar with this approach, check out this website - https://www.smekenseducation.com/Writing/6-Traits-of-Writing/#page-1
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Laura, that is a great question, and I hope we have lots of our colleagues here responding. I'm also asking around to find good ideas in that regard. In the meantime, the two videos offer a few ideas that can be applied among adults although one addresses secondary students. More to come, I'm sure!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAp5w-ZKeXk -A brief introduction to the 6 traits of writing for secondary students
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6jQHFbMF_U – Six-trait essay-writing rubric
Thanks for asking! Leecy
Laura and all, I don't know that there is any research out there on the use of 6 traits writing with adult learners. I did a quick look but came up empty. I'll try again and if I find anything, I'll let you know. However, I'm happy to offer my opinion. Even though we might not be able to find documentation of 6 traits being used in adult ed classrooms, I have a feeling that it is. The writing process is the same whether students are children or adults, and having a common way to discuss a piece of writing, which is one of the benefits of 6 traits, can help make that process more understandable. I am a firm believer in giving students rubrics to help guide their writing and there are lots of rubrics available for 6 traits. Looking at one aspect of writing at a time is way less intimidating than trying to look at everything at once, which 6 traits allows. I say go ahead, use 6 traits with your students. You might even think about turning it into an action research project to see if students' writing improves more that it did before you introduced 6 traits. If you decide to use 6 traits with your students, I hope you will let us know how it goes. In poking around for information, I found these 2 websites that look pretty good: The Interactive 6 Trait Writing Process http://www.literatelearner.com/6traits/page_template6t.php?f=main and National Education Association 6 + 1 Trait Writing http://www.nea.org/tools/lessons/59760.htm
Those are helpful suggestions, Di. Thanks! As you mentioned, the same traits apply to writing practices among adults. What changes is the content.
To address the recent focus on integrated instruction among adults. I would suggest that the writing assignments use topics that relate to the interests of students, especially their workplace interests. There is a great little course in our LINCS Courses, which provides a good introduction to contextualizing instruction: ACP: Designing Contextualized Instruction at https://courses.lincs.ed.gov/1/course/view.php?id=21. LINCS courses are free, and, like this one, many are self-paced.
Think of each of the following six+1 traits, and consider how they might apply to writing assignments among adults. Since all of the traits listed go together like ingredients in a recipe, the trick is knowing when to apply them, and the degree to which they should be applied in any given assignment. In my experience, writing teachers often stress #6 over everything else, whereas I emphasize the others much more. In fact, there is a wonderful discussion in our community, Readability Assessments and Practices, where Jackie Saindon discusses using the "fluency -first" approach (#5), which is worth considering. What do you think, Laura?
Leecy WIse
Moderator
R&W CoP