Teaching Strategies

Teaching Strategy: Introducing Students to the Traits of Good Writing

In their book Creating Writers (1997) Vicki Spandel and Richard Stiggins identify six traits that make writing work: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. To make these traits come alive for your students try the following mini-lesson.

Recall the movie Mary Poppins. Remember her bag filled with all the items she needed to make her room a home? An engaging way to introduce the traits of good writing to children is to fill a shopping bag with objects that represent each trait then slowly reveal each object as you describe the trait to your class.

1. Fill a shopping bag labeled "My Bag of Traits" with a light bulb, a dictionary, a puzzle, music (CD, tape), a megaphone (the P.E. teacher may have one or roll a piece of paper into a megaphone shape), and a pencil.
2. As you display each item explain how good writers use that trait. The words below will help you get started:
   
   Ideas (light bulb): When you see this light bulb in our room it will remind you that good ideas are the heart of a piece of writing.
   
   Word Choice (dictionary): What is inside this dictionary? Yes, words! Good writers know there are many words to choose from and they choose their words carefully.
   
   Organization (puzzle): See the picture on the front of this puzzle box. Do the pieces inside this box look like this? No, you're right. Writers have to put their writing together carefully fitting each piece in just the right spot to get a complete picture.
   
   Sentence Fluency (music, CD, tape): Hum a familiar tune for your students. How did you know that was (the tune you hummed)? Yes, you recognize that tune because each piece of music has a distinct rhythm and beat. Writing is the same. When you read good writing aloud it flows. It has a distinct rhythm and beat. Good writers read their words aloud so they can hear how they sound.
   
   Voice (megaphone): When I talk through this megaphone you can hear my voice loud and clear. Each writer has his/her own voice.
   
   Conventions (pencil): We write to communicate with others. After we draft a piece we must edit it for proper conventions. Using correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation is a courtesy to the reader.

Teaching Strategy: Getting Started with Book Leveling

As you begin to build your classroom library it is important to include books at various levels. It is not necessary to have every book in your classroom library leveled, but it is important that you are familiar with a section of books and their levels so that you can help guide students to choose books that are just right for them. Finding a specific level using resources such as Matching Books to Readers: Using Leveled Books in Guided Reading K-3 (Fountas & Pinnell, 1999) or Leveled Books for Readers Grades 3-6 (Pinnell & Fountas, 2001) is an important but time-consuming process. If you are just starting out consider this simple but effective way to organize your books:

1. Begin by selecting a small group of books that you want to level.
2. Quickly glance through each book noting the amount of words on the page, the size of print, the vocabulary used, and the illustration support. Using this criteria separate the books into two stacks, easy and hard.
3. Look through each book in the easy stack and separate them into an easy and hard stack.
4. Look through each book in the hard stack and separate them into an easy and hard stack.
5. You now have four levels of books easiest, easy, medium, and hard. You can put these books into four baskets and begin to match readers to these books. As you listen to children read the books, you will discover challenges that you did not notice and will have to move books from basket to basket. As your classroom library grows continue this process to add more books to your leveled baskets.

Note: If you want more than 4 levels continue to process until you have six or eight.