Using Each Trait to Improve Student Writing

This is a fantastic collection of a wide variety of rubrics for writing, listening, and speaking! The resource contains over 14 rubrics for assessing such items as a summary, autobiographical sketch and narrative, speech, oral report,...

On July 20, 1969 humans landed on the moon for the first time. As the culminating assignment in a 19-lesson unit on narrative writing, class members imagine what that experience was like and craft a narrative in the voice of Neil...

As an introduction to argument writing, groups examine two argument essays, observing how the writers state their claims and organize and support their ideas. Individuals then craft an argument essay, taking a position on the question of...

Are student athletes under too much pressure to perform? Middle schoolers use evidence from a series of provided videos and articles to support their stance on this highly-charged topic. 

Shake it up! Shake your tablet to bring up a unique writing prompt for journaling or blogging with your class. Shake again and a new one appears. Prompts can come from different categories (sketches, scenes, texts, words, news) to help...

"What?" she said. "That video just told me to eavesdrop, get to know imaginary people, and talk to myself. Interesting." It's all for a good cause, though! These three techniques will help your young writers improve their fictional...

Students study examples of each trait in literature. They discuss how each trait adds to the craft of writing and practice revision of a writing piece with a particular trait in focus. They rate their writing on the trait of Ideas using...

Students revise their writing using the six traits. In this six traits lesson, students review each trait and see examples in books they read. They apply these traits to revise a writing piece they are working on.

Do your young authors suffer from writer's block when they try to write short stories? Access their natural creativity with C-Gor, the writing monster! The instructional activity takes aspiring authors through a new writing process...

The writing process meets the 21st century in this instructional activity centered around the Inspiration Software program. Using a diagram, learners complete the cyclical process through pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and...