6 +1 Traits of Writing

Discover fun and engaging afterschool activities to help kids develop the 6+1 Traits of Writing. Boost your child’s writing skills with these creative ideas and easy tips.

Writing with Grade School Children

What I love about our team of after-schooling parents (Those of us that believe strongly in providing educational opportunities to our grade school children at home) Little Wonder Days, Mouse Grows Mouse Learns, Just Playin’ Around, Mama Smiles, Superheroes and Princesses, The Educators’ Spin On It, and What Do We Do All Day is that each and everyone does amazing things with their children! 

I get great ideas from them each week and they inspire me to be a better parent and a better educator. What I love is that activities that feature reading AND writing are being blogged about!!!

Mama Smiles posts about her daughters first story.

Just Playing Around’s daughter charts what she has learned about different countries as her homework.

and Learning With Mouse’s daughter writes a Birthday Card

After school, we have been focusing on writing the last month, as reading and writing is connected. Strengthening a child’s writing skills will have an effect on their reading skills. At home, I use a combination of Interactive Writing and Writers Workshop approach to writing with my kindergartner.  Both are research based practices that have shown to be beneficial for improving students reading and writing.

6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for the Primary Grades

This last month, I have read this professional book called, “6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for the Primary Grades” by Ruth Culham. I know that as a parent of a kindergartner we spend lots of time generating ideas for what we write about, but this book gave some great idea on how to include more and important parts of the writing process; ideas, organization, voice (tone), word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions.  

The 6 + 1 Traits model breaks writing into key qualities that good writing should have. In the primary grades, Ruth Culham focuses on helping young children understand and practice these traits through modeling, mentor texts, and simple, playful activities.

1. Ideas

• Focus on helping students generate and narrow their ideas.
• Strategies: Use picture books to inspire writing topics, encourage idea webs, and teach students to “zoom in” on small, specific moments.

2. Organization

• Teach students to structure their writing logically, even at an early age.
• Strategies: Model beginnings, middles, and ends; use simple story maps; show how to use transition words like “first,” “next,” “then,” and “last.”

3. Voice

• Help students find their own personal tone and express themselves authentically.
• Strategies: Read aloud with expression, discuss how different characters “sound,” and encourage students to write like they are “talking to a friend.”

4. Word Choice

• Introduce the idea of selecting interesting, precise words.
• Strategies: Play with adjectives and verbs, make class charts of “sparkling words,” and use read-alouds to spotlight strong word choice.

5. Sentence Fluency

• Focus on the rhythm and flow of sentences.
• Strategies: Teach about different sentence beginnings, have students clap out words to hear the rhythm, and model combining short sentences for better flow.

6. Conventions

• Teach the basics of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar in writing.
• Strategies: Mini-lessons on one convention at a time, shared writing to model editing, and using editing checklists geared toward young learners.

7. Presentation (the “+1”)

• Emphasize the importance of neatness and formatting to communicate clearly.
• Strategies: Model proper handwriting and spacing, teach how to add simple illustrations, and encourage pride in the final product.

I found Ms. Culham’s website online and she offers free rubrics (a rubric is a way to assess writing) for both teachers and students on each area. There are some for different ages in both teacher and student friendly forms. These can be used to see where your children are in their writing and also as a way to generate ideas on how to help them strengthen their writing.

My daughter has been making lots of lists and has started writing several stories, including the story, “The Grl that codint red the noospapr.” (The girl that couldn’t read the newspaper) 

I am planning on printing these rubrics to expand on one of her chosen stories. We usually just use blank paper folded in half and stapled like a book for writing in. I will only focus on one or two aspects this week and will update you on how it goes in future Afterschool Express posts!

I’d love to see how you encourage and expand upon your child’s writing! 

You may also find these helpful for writing ideas with your child…

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