Susan Nixon received a Master of Arts in Education in 1986 from Northern Arizona University. Her Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Education was received in 1976 from Kean College of New Jersey. For the past 21 years, Mrs. Nixon has taught grades K-6 in Arizona and New Mexico.

Cartwright School District in Phoenix, Arizona, employs Mrs. Nixon and often utilizes her skills as an inservice presenter. In the past, she has presented inservice sessions on geography, writing, lesson planning, and science. This year, the district provided 6 Traits training to allow Mrs. Nixon to be a teacher trainer in the district.

Teacher Planning Network is the business under whose auspices Mrs. Nixon does inservice presentations for districts other than her home district of Cartwright.

About the Course:

Overview: The 6Traits of Writing were developed by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in the mid-1980s. Since that time, many states, including Oregon, Kansas and Arizona, have adopted the traits and associated rubrics as mandatory writing evaluation for K-12 students.

The 6 Traits are Voice, Ideas, Organization, Sentence Fluency, Word Choice, and Conventions. Each trait has 6-step rubrics for both K-2 students and 3-12 students.

Course Outline:

Week of July 5 - Trait of Voice:

• Explanation of Voice; Examples of Voice
• Assignment #1 – Find an example of a reading selection with voice.
• Presentation of the Voice Rubric, 3-12
• Assignment #2 – Underline words at each of the 6 levels which are definitive of that level.
• Sharing of student writing samples to practice use of the rubric. Discussion.
• Presentation of links to education, Voice posters, student rubrics for Voice, and the use of Voice in non-fiction.
• Assignment #3 – Contribute strategies to help teach the trait of Voice.

   

• Explanation of Ideas; Examples of Ideas
• Assignment #1 – Find an example of a reading selection with good use of ideas.
• Presentation of the Ideas Rubric, 3-12
• Assignment #2 – Underline words at each of the 6 levels which are definitive of that level.
• Sharing of student writing samples to practice use of the rubric. Discussion.
• Presentation of links to education, Ideas posters, student rubrics for Ideas.
• Assignment #3 – Contribute strategies to help teach the trait of Ideas.

   

• Explanation of Word Choice; Examples of Word Choice
• Assignment #1 – Find an example of a reading selection with good word choices.
• Presentation of the Word Choice Rubric, 3-12
• Assignment #2 – Underline words at each of the 6 levels which are definitive of that level.
• Sharing of student writing samples to practice use of the rubric. Discussion.
• Presentation of links to education, Word Choice posters, student rubrics for Word Choice.
• Assignment #3 – Contribute strategies to help teach the trait of Word Choice.

• Explanation of Sentence Fluency; Examples of Sentence Fluency
• Assignment #1 – Find an example of a reading selection with sentence fluency.
• Presentation of the Sentence Fluency Rubric, 3-12
• Assignment #2 – Underline words at each of the 6 levels which are definitive of that level.
• Sharing of student writing samples to practice use of the rubric. Discussion.
• Presentation of links to education, Sentence Fluency posters, student rubrics for Sentence FluencyAssignment #3 – Contribute strategies to help teach the trait of Sentence Fluency.

• Explanation of Organization; Examples of Organization
• Assignment #1 – Find an example of a reading selection with good organization.
• Presentation of the Organization Rubric, 3-12
• Assignment #2 – Underline words at each of the 6 levels which are definitive of that level.
• Sharing of student writing samples to practice use of the rubric. Discussion.
• Presentation of links to education, Organization posters, student rubrics for OrganizationAssignment #3 – Contribute strategies to help teach the trait of Organization.

• Explanation of Conventions; Examples of Conventions
• Assignment #1 – Find an example of a reading selection with well done conventions, or which flouts convention with a purpose.
• Presentation of the Conventions Rubric, 3-12
• Assignment #2 – Underline words at each of the 6 levels which are definitive of that level.
• Sharing of student writing samples to practice use of the rubric. Discussion.
• Presentation of links to education, Conventions posters, student rubrics for ConventionsAssignment #3 – Contribute strategies to help teach the trait of Conventions.

Discussion of Writer’s Workshop and how to incorporate the 6Traits as mini-lessons within the workshops.

All rubrics, both K-2 and 3-12, will be posted on our class web site. Strategies which teachers contribute will also be posted on the site.

Additionally, several ideas came up during the course and we expanded on them as resources for 6 Traits teachers. Therefore, there are synonyms for commonly outlawed words which are overused, such as said.