Using Picture Books to Teach Writing Traits by Ruth Culham

[Stacey Saulsgiver]

With kindergarten students in the past, I was happy with anything they could produce onto paper. Currently I have higher expectations. I want to expose my students to the academic language and expectations and the process of writing. As a school, we struggle with this and it is not only the responsibility of the 5th grade teachers to have students pass the writing exam.
Each chapter in this book by Ruth Culham and Raymond Coutu takes a trait and suggests many picture books to illustrate the point of that trait. Three lesson plans are given within each trait, a kid friendly definition, and also a list of several other picture books for consideration. I am always been leery of books suggesting other books because often they are obscure books but this was not the case. Books mentioned for use were popular books such as Polar Express, The Kissing Hand, Duck on a Bike, The Important Book, Ish, Diary of a Worm, etc...
Upon reading this book, I was jump started in my thinking about other books in my classroom that could be used for each trait. This book did exactly what I wanted it to do: get me more familiar with teaching the traits to little ones; get ideas and enthusiasm started for my classroom next year.
Now that I have the arsenal to teach to my students, how should I go about it?
One trait each month....Are they some traits that are easier-better to teach first? Are there some traits more difficult that kids should be exposed to early in education to grasp by fifth grade? Is there one I should not devote much time to because developmentally 5 and 6 year olds are not ready to grasp
Does your school work on traits as an entire group or does each teacher do her own writing plan?

[Wendy Ritter]

Hello Stacey,

What a great book selection to jump start your school year. First off, Writingfix.com is a great website that has a ton of lesson plans for each writing trait using a variety of books.
The trait of voice is learned primarily from exposure to good books and language. So, reading a variety of books throughout the year would help your students hear how language can be used and manipulated to create pictures and mood. I think the trait of organization and idea development could easily be incorporated into your daily lessons. When you are interactively writing a story or having students sequence stories, you are modeling the trait of organization. You could also highlight great beginnings or endings of stories and make note of transition words. Interactive writing would also be a great place to show students how to add details, opinions and added ideas to expand their writing. Even adding some adjectives or adverbs may be a simple place to start. It seems that conventions may be a trait in which to spend less time. I believe you are primarily working on a capital at the beginning of a sentence and a period or question mark at the end of the sentence. Remembering that simple rule continues to be an issue for students in the upper grades. : ) Just exposing the students to the trait vocabulary would be a great.

At Drake, each teacher works within his/her own writing plan. Some teachers have been using the Lucy Calkins' Writing Units of Study, while others use the writing from Houghton Mifflin as their base. With my writing groups, I teach to each of the traits using the resources from Writingfix.com.

It seems if students are exposed to and practice the writing traits beginning in kindergarten, they will gain a better understanding, and will be able to "play around" with the traits as they get older instead of spending time learning the basics.
Your work with interactive writing fits so perfectly with teaching the writing traits. Have fun with it.

Happy writing,
Wendy

[Gisela Daniel]

Hi Stacey,
This sounds like a very interesting and useful book for me. I always use the same books to teach the same traits but, I don’t know books for every trait. Is always exiting when books give you specific information you can use. It sounds like a good idea to use a read aloud as a spring board for every trait. In my school every teacher teaches the traits at their own time. A couple of years ago I did a training in an elementary school where the whole school taught the same trait at the same time. I don’t remember for how long but at the end they gave the students a writing assignment to assess that specific trait. The whole school did it at the same time and they gave all the students the same writing prompt. Then the teachers met and graded the papers from another grade. Third grade teachers graded 2nd grade papers then met with the teachers to guided them on what to work on to get the students ready for 3rd grade. All the teachers liked it and they said their writing scores when up.
Gisela

[Jetta Lovett]

Hi Stacey,

At Dilworth each teacher is on their own to teach the traits, but we periodically give the same writing prompt and we take an afternoon to grade them as a department. We look for trends and adjust our teaching from there. I have taught the traits different ways as well. Some years, I teach a trait a month and others I skip around, so the kids don't get tired of the same thing. I use picture books as well as writingfix.com. With my kids, I focus on organization and voice, because that seems to be where they are lacking. This year we are using the program, Step Up to Writing, so I am excited to see if this helps our kids with organization. They seem to struggle with that.

Jetta Lovett

Gisela Daniel said:

Hi Stacey,
This sounds like a very interesting and useful book for me. I always use the same books to teach the same traits but, I don’t know books for every trait. Is always exiting when books give you specific information you can use. It sounds like a good idea to use a read aloud as a spring board for every trait. In my school every teacher teaches the traits at their own time. A couple of years ago I did a training in an elementary school where the whole school taught the same trait at the same time. I don’t remember for how long but at the end they gave the students a writing assignment to assess that specific trait. The whole school did it at the same time and they gave all the students the same writing prompt. Then the teachers met and graded the papers from another grade. Third grade teachers graded 2nd grade papers then met with the teachers to guided them on what to work on to get the students ready for 3rd grade. All the teachers liked it and they said their writing scores when up.
Gisela

[Amy Webber]

Hello Stacey!
I think one trait a month will be a terrific way to break it down for your little ones. Let them get really comfortable with this new concept of "traits" by using small steps. Ideas is a great trait to start with. As you know, young children have lots of ideas and stories that they want to share. If you could just give them a little nudge into expanding their ideas by using books...super! Conventions may be a great one to teach after ideas. Starts with a capital letter and ends with a period (I am unsure of K standards). Sentence fluency and word choice could be covered next using poetry. Voice may be difficult...save for the end of the year along with organization.

As for school-wide writing (we work at Palmer together, but for our other fellows), we just received a writing binder that includes a timeframe for constructed response, writing prompts, and multigenre writing using HM pacing. It covers the standards and test prep for all grade levels. It will be implemented this year, and it is to be used as a guide and resource. Our teachers can pull in other ideas too, not just the ones presented in the binder. For instance, third graders need to write a story, but instead of using the lesson in the HM book, the teacher can go to Writingfix.com and use a mentor text instead.

See you Monday!
Amy