Access K-12 Scaffold of the Common Core State Standards
Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

Knowing the Common Core skills for your grade level isn't enough. Looking at the skills as they develop over the grades is essential. The IDOE posted a link to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction site. They developed a skill scaffold for the Common Core State Standards. [read more...]

Reveal "Good" Writing Before Students Write
Monday, March 23rd, 2009

No matter what grade-level you teach, no matter what the subject matter is, no matter what genre you are teaching -- you want to show students an example of a "good one" before they write. Besides just modeling a teacher example, reveal an actual student example or anchor paper. Give [read more...]

Writing Teacher Websites
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

These sites have a lot to offer. Many are grade-level based for easy reference. One acts as a quick reference guide for MLA style, APA style, Judging Sources, and Research Links. There are many writing teacher resources tucked into these websites. [read more...]

Rubric & Assessment Websites
Wednesday, December 10th, 2008

K-2 teachers will love this analytic writing rubric that measures growth from pictures & scribbles to simple sentences. This site allows teachers to practice scoring K-12 student writing samples using the 6-Traits Analytic Rubric. Then, you can compare your scores [read more...]

Writing Prompt Websites
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

Although not full-fledged prompts, this site includes a list of hundreds of writing topics. With a little revision, these could become prompts, or use them as ideas to spark your writers. Love this list of writing topics, sorted by grade-level appropriateness. Although not [read more...]

Picture Book Website
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

This site identifies teachers’ favorite picture books for working with the 6 Traits. Each set of titles is not only sorted by trait but also identifies those better for primary or the intermediate/secondary grades. Ruth Culham has identified her favorite Scholastic picture books for teaching the traits. [read more...]

Anchor Paper Websites
Friday, June 6th, 2008

After selecting your grade-level range (K-5 or 6-8), then look for the key word “Benchmark Papers.” The anchor papers within this site are sorted by grade-level and by genre. And each set gives you a couple in the middle and a low sample all to the same writing prompt. NOTE: Conventions within all [read more...]

Mini-Lesson & Teaching Strategy Websites
Friday, June 6th, 2008

Nancy Herta has published two books full of motivating mini-lessons! Toying With Writing and Toying With Writing Two outline mini-lesson strategies that utilize children’s toys (crayons, Matchbox car, Slinky, Mr. Potato Head, etc.) as lesson triggers. The books also identify the 6-Traits [read more...]

Other Websites to Support the 6 Traits of Writing
Friday, June 6th, 2008

Scroll down this page for many trait resources. There is so much here…trait-based mini-lessons; picture books recommended for teaching the traits; anchor papers for the K-2 classroom; and much more! This site also has some links to other writing trait websites. There is even a link [read more...]