ࡱ> `c_ 2bjbjqq 4^ee*((kkkkk<t(l///// NXt(((((((W*,F(k  (kk//(k/k/((%|&/AE%z((0(%?-^?-$&&?-k&(((?-( 1: PROFESSIONAL LEARNING TEAM REPORT 2011-2012 PLT Title Writing in First and Second Grade Using 6 +1 Writing Traits Blurb for PLT Conference Brochure Come explore writing with first and second grade teachers. Do you ever feel like students dislike writing? Would you like to find ways to motivate and empower your writers? If the answer to these to these two questions is yes, then the 6 +1 writing traits approach will not only inspire your student writers it will change how you view writing.  Contact Information (Write * next to facilitators name.) NameSchoolGrade Level or SubjectSelina AndersonBurbank School1*Karen CurranBurbank School2Jamie HuguetBurbank School2Katie WilliamsBurbank School2Jodi WollnerBurbank School1 Guiding Theme Differentiated Instruction/RTI Integrated, Real-Life Experiences Acquisition of 21st Century Skills (Deepening Teacher Content Knowledge Improving School Climate/Culture Teaching the Whole Student Other (explain) _______________________________________________________ Inquiry Question How do we align and structure our writing instruction using the Massachusetts Common Core State Standards in regards to opinion pieces, informational pieces and narratives in order to teach students the writing process using the 6+1 Traits?  Process The first grade teachers focused on Ideas, Organization and Conventions. For each trait, teachers used mini-lessons to help students develop and practice their writing skills. The mini-lessons focused on finding the right topic, using good descriptive details and making the content clear using sensory words. The activities used for the ideas trait were writing an invitation, making an important poem and using string to create a picture and then create a story. For the organization trait, teachers concentrated on starting with a bold beginning, developing mighty middles and crafting an excellent ending. The activities used for the organization trait were writing how-to sequencing books and writing ending using feelings. The last trait first grade teachers instructed was the conventions trait. Student practiced how to spell words that matter, capitalize and use punctuation to make meaning clear. The activities used for the conventions trait were writing a comic strip to show proper use of punctuation and capitalization. The second grade teachers worked on Voice, Word Choice, Ideas, Sentence Fluency, and Organization. The three genres of writing on which teachers concentrated were expository writing, persuasive writing and narrative writing. Similar to first grade, there were several lessons and activities that students practiced for each trait. For the first voice trait lesson, students wrote stories from the perspective of a shoe. The second writing activity required students to write a story from the perspective of a stuffed animal. Prior to starting the stuffed animal writing, students listened to Ragged Bear by Brigitte Weniger. Another writing activity students worked on was writing a story about a comic or picture. For the first word choice lesson, students worked on creating poem using their senses to write about a favorite place. The books Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and Twilight Comes Twice by Ralph Fletcher and Kate Kiesler were used as mentor texts. For the second writing activity students wrote motion poems using verbs. For the ideas trait, we used the writing traits teachers lesson manual (Write Traits by Vicki Spandel). The lesson that introduced ideas compared writing to a burrito. The tortilla part of the burrito is the main idea and the fillings are the details. Students had to read two sample stories and determine if the stories contained a main idea and relevant details. Then, students wrote short stories to practice the skill. Another activity used for the ideas trait was sticking to the main topic. Students had to read two sample stories and decide if the writer stuck to the topic or wandered off. After reading the stories, students picked a topic and wrote a short story using sentences that supported their main topic. To prepare for our narrative writing genre, students brainstormed ideas for their own stories. Teachers shared personal examples as well as other student examples of possible topics. Students shared ideas with each other. For the sentence fluency and organization traits, we have just started to incorporate lessons from the writing traits teachers manual. At this time we do not have examples of our lessons. We plan to show students the importance of picking a small moment to extend when writing their narrative, keeping their story in order, starting with a strong beginning, and writing a thoughtful ending.  Findings First Grade- Ideas- We tried to teach narrative writing along with teaching ideas. As we focused on finding the right topic and using descriptive details, we used many different types of texts to help children understand. The Squiggle by Carole Lexa Shaefer and Owl Moon by Jane Yolan were texts we found helpful in teaching ideas. We found that some student work demonstrated descriptive details, but most details were too general. The topics for writing (How you celebrated Thanksgiving, What you did over the weekend) may have been too big for the majority of students. Organization- We tried teaching opinion writing with this trait. We used Red- Eyed Tree Frog by Joy Cowley, and found that nonfiction books about the rain forest were very intriguing to first graders. We also used resources from the internet to help us teach opinion writing to first graders (ReadWorks.org was one site). A graphic organizer was used to help teach the opening sentence, reasons, and concluding sentence of an opinion piece. We felt the assessments were age-appropriate and demonstrated growth (Tell why you like art class or music class) Conventions: The Question and Answer Activity was successful in reinforcing capitalization and punctuation. Conventions are typically introduced at the beginning of the year and reinforced across the curriculum. We found that we were consistently revisiting conventions as we taught ideas and organization. The mentor text for this trait was not helpful and it was challenging to find other available texts to help with this trait. We found that Write a Super Sentence by Evan-Moor fits perfectly if you are using trait-based writing. The Write Traits Classroom Kit was also a helpful resource for teaching the 6 traits of writing. The mentor texts that were in the Trait Crate by Scholastic were not as effective as other texts might have been when teaching the lessons. We are planning on teaching informative text, in conjunction with our Rainforest and Butterfly units, in which students name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and provide some sense of closure. Overall, we are seeing some improvement and carryed-over with ideas, organization, and conventions. Second Grade- When we first started using the traits for our writing, we noticed that students were extremely enthusiastic and motivated to write. Often times, students would ask to write which was not a common occurrence in previous years. When thinking about our assessments, we had a mix of assessments which focused on the genres of writing as well as the traits. For the purpose of our PLT, we used individual trait rubrics as well as creating our own rubrics which combined some of the traits. Voice: For the persuasive writing assessment, we gave students a pre-assessment. Each second grade class listened to Patricia Pollaccos book, John Phillip Duck. After listening to the story, students had to write why they thought the book was good or not good. When we looked at the students writing and compared it to the voice rubric we were using we felt like the pre-assessment really didnt target the key points. We decided that we needed to change our post-assessment to target the goals of writing a persuasive letter. For our post assessment, students had to write a letter to their parents asking them for something that they wanted. They had to give reasons why they wanted the item and describe what they would do if they got the item. Two books that were very helpful were I Wanna Iguana and I Wanna New Room, by Karen Kaufman Orloff and David Catrow. We found that students were able to write a well thought out letter using many of the strategies we had covered in the mini-lessons. Word Choice: As a pre-assessment writing activity for word choice, students were given a picture of two kids at beach and asked to write a story about the picture. We found that many of the stories lacked detail and descriptive language. After the lessons that focused on word choice students were given the same picture and asked to write a new story. Overall, the writing was much more descriptive. Students used vivid verbs and sensory words to describe what was happening in their stories. Narrative Writing: As a pre-assessment, students were asked to write a story about a time they spent with a friend. Some stories were organized and focused on one topic. Other stories were less descriptive and very short. We will continue our narrative writing for the remainder of the year. Students will write one narrative story and work on including all of the traits that we have learned this year. Because we are still working on narrative stories, we do not have post assessment results. Sentence Fluency and Organization: Our work with sentence fluency and organization is a work in progress and at this time we do not have findings to report. The use of the Vicki Spandel traits materials was really helpful. We found that the language used in the lessons was easy for kids to understand. Students had more opportunities to write and were successful. There is still a lot of work to be done but we feel like we have a better structure for writing.  Recommendations / Next Steps First and second grade teachers would like to continue to expand on writing next year. The hope is to use the lessons and activities that worked well this year. The challenge has been to blend the 6 Traits with the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for English Language Arts and Literacy. First grade teachers would like to spend more time developing narrative writing skills. We discovered that what is needed are more mentor texts for each trait, and additional resources from proven experts in the field of writing. Second grade teachers would like to assess the students on the genres of writing rather than the specific traits. 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