Kindergarten and the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing
Have you ever, when you were a student yourself, been assigned a writing assignment that seemed monumental and overwhelming? I’m assuming that you have – I believe we all have faced that goliath task of having to produce a spotless, creative, original essay, narrative, or article as a part of our studies. Like myself, I also believe that your attitude towards these writing projects may not have necessarily always been positive. A variety of reasons come to mind as to why we may not have enjoyed writing our essays for school when we were students. Perhaps the topic was dull, we had no interest, the paper
assigned required many, many pages, or we stared at the blank paper before us and didn’t even know where to begin. This is a universal problem for kids as well as adults who may not have been taught how to write in a way that is relatable and attainable. While there exists many writing structures and processes to assist us in our growth as writers and authors, there is one writing philosophy that truly rises to the challenge of equipping students with the tools they need to succeed in writing: the “6 + 1 Traits of Writing,” developed by Ruth Culham. The traits include “Ideas,” “Organization,” “Word Choice,” “Sentence Fluency,” “Voice,” “Conventions,” and “Presentation.” This systematic approach breaks writing down into these seven different chunks, or “traits,” to help students learn how to proceed as authors. Some benefits of learning the “6 + 1 Traits” are:
it gives teachers and students a common language to talk about writing;
it breaks down the complex process of writing into manageable “chunks;”
it establishes consistency from year to year and teacher to teacher;
it provides a solid foundation for revision and editing;
it encourages writers to become more independent;
and it empowers writers to evaluate and assess their own writing.
At Kuei Shan, we are beginning to implement this teaching method in order to better equip our student to excel in writing. What does this have to do with kindergarten? They are still quite young and perhaps still grasping how to read high frequency words and sounding out consonant blends and memorizing dipthongs and digraphs. How can they be authors and writers? The truth is, these kids have been authors before they even entered kindergarten. Stories are formed in their imaginations constantly during play, talking with friends, and viewing pictures and images in books, for example. Now that they are in their first year of school, what an excellent opportunity to begin hearing, seeing, and learning about what it means to be an author. They can begin to understand how they can share their stories and ideas that we want to share with others. Empowering the students as authors now can propel them forward as they progress from year to year, developing further each time on each “trait” of writing.
In my English classes, I have already formally introduced the traits of “Ideas” and “Organization” and, without the students knowing it (yet), “Conventions.” My goals for teaching “Ideas” to the kindergarteners have been for them to learn how to focus their ideas into manageable writing topics. By writing, I don’t necessarily mean writing words, sentences, and paragraphs. Their ideas and writing can also be expressed through drawing as well!
We practiced making “watermelon” ideas (very large ideas, such as “school” or “lions”) and breaking them down into “seed” ideas (smaller, more specific ideas such as “break time at school” or “lions eat meat”). This skill of breaking our ideas down into smaller, more manageable pieces will be very useful as they grow as writers. Sometimes, even just coming up with a good idea for our writing can be the hardest part! Hopefully the students can master this skill and apply it to their future writing.
The trait of “Organization” features a skill that nearly all students this age practice in school – that is, identifying the beginning, middle, and end of a story. As writers, we need to ensure that we place the events in the proper order. We have had some fun with this concept, pointing out that Miss Allen cannot begin reading a book on the last page, for example!
The “Conventions” trait focuses on using proper punctuation, capitalization, spelling, etc. The kindergarteners don’t know it yet, but we have been practicing “Conventions” for a long time: discussing using capital letters at the beginning of sentences and for names, as well as placing a period, question mark, or exclamation point at the end of sentence. Instilling these good writing habits at an early age will help them remember it as they move on to first grade, so that they may continue to focus on content and not get tripped up on the smaller, yet still important, details. When I do introduce the “Conventions” writing trait, I anticipate that the kids will shout: “We know! We already learned this!”
We have produced one of our first writing pieces, a personal narrative. I have taught the students the definition of “personal narrative” with a chant with motions: “A personal narrative is a story about me. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end.” I gave the students a prompt of “At the park…” and asked the students to finish the sentence and add another sentence if they so desired. They excelled at this opportunity! After all the talking about writing, they were so eager to give it a try. That eagerness… that excitement about writing is what I hope will continue as they are equipped with the tools that the 6 + 1 Traits provides.
In the future, they will be able to communicate clearly with their teachers, regardless of grade, by using common vocabulary of ideas, organization, word choice, sentence fluency, voice, conventions, and presentation. There will be no mistaking what they are referring to, as the traits never change. Their content can be built upon and expanded, but the vocabulary remains the same. The students will learn how being an author is a way to share their ideas and stories, and not just a homework that they must finish by a deadline. Writing can be fun – let’s give the kids the tools that they need to accomplish their writing goals!
