Ruth Culham

Ask successful writers and they'll tell you, the key to writing well is revision. Ask elementary school teachers and they'll tell you, the real challenge of writing instruction is teaching kids how to revise. Ruth Culham is both a successful writer and a writing teacher, and she's discovered how to teach writing and revision in a way that's accessible to both teacher and students: First read the writing, assess it using the traits of writing, then teach the writers and guide revision decisions using traits as a common language and map. This book shows you how to assess and teach writing in a way that's practical and doable--and best of all, see results. Part 1 walks you through the traits of writing and their key qualities, showing step by step how to read students' writing and offer feedback that nudges them forward through the revision process. Chapters will help you address challenges students face within each mode of writing (narrative, expository, persuasive), and provide tools young writers can use to evaluate their own writing and make revision decisions accordingly. Part 2 dives into instruction, offering specific guidance for how to use what you've learned from reading student writing to design lessons that scaffold students toward making their own craft decisions and revisions. In addition, there's an entire chapter devoted to mentor texts that you can use to model traits and key qualities for your students.

How to Assess Writing, Invigorate Instruction, and Rethink Revision

Teach Writing Well

Teaching writing just got easier and more effective because of these sturdy “crates.” In them, teachers will find everything they need to help students use the six traits-ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions-improve their writing. Each crate contains an array of materials designed to engage students and enrich their writing experiences, including: • 6 high-interest picture books hand selected for each trait • 6 teaching guides filled with step-by-step lessons, graphic organizers, a scoring guide, and extension activities • Sing-Along Trait Songs, a music CD containing lively, trait-specific songs to share with your students. Includes a “bonus track” on presentation. • 6 full-color 17” x 22” posters contain lyrics to the songs on the CD • Color-coded stickers for organizing classroom libraries and teaching materials • Using Picture Books to Teach Writing With the Traits: K-2, 112-page resource containing 18 step-by-step lessons and 150 annotations of new and classic books, organized by trait What's more, each crate comes with hanging folders—one for each trait—for easy, expandable storage for years to come. Second Grade Picture Books Ideas: Tulip Sees America Organization: A Busy Year Voice: Alice the Fairy Word Choice: The Best Class Picture Ever! Sentence Fluency: Dizzy Conventions: Chameleon! For use with Grade 2.

Picture Books, Model Lessons, and More to Teach Writing With the 6 Traits

The Trait Crate Grade 2

Picture books, model lessons, and more to teach writing with the 6 traits.

Grade 4: Picture Books, Model Lessons, And More To Teach Writing With The 6 Traits

The Trait Crate

This time-saving resource contains over 50 reproducible forms for assessing writing, planning instruction, keeping records, communicating with parents, and--most importantly--helping students in grades 6 to 8 write with conviction and confidence.Includes a CD of reproducible forms from the book; all-new scoring guides and scoring sheets for each trait, developed just for middle school teachers; essential tools that help both teachers and students determine progress in writing; handy checklists for use throughout the writing process--drafting, revising, and editing.An easy-to-navigate format, organized by "forms for teachers" and "forms for students".The perfect companion to Cullham's Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for Middle School.

Middle School

Reproducible Forms for the Writing Traits Classroom

In these amazing kits, writing expert Ruth Culham gives you grade-perfect mentor texts with in-depth lessons to help you teach the traits of writing ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. Each kit includes: 6 mentor texts 6 16-page teaching guides, each with four model lessons, student reproducibles, a scoring rubric, and extension activities A CD with mentor-text passages, passages, student reproducibles, and scoring guides. 6 teaching posters perfect for middle school Add to this Culham's best-selling professional book, Using Mentor Texts to Teach Writing With the Traits, and color-coded stickers, and you've got a complete resource for teaching with the traits. Best of all, these materials are organized in a sturdy box with hanging folders -- one for each trait-for easy, expandable storage that will accommodate traitbased lesson materials for years to come. 6th Grade Mentor Texts: Rules by Cynthia Lord The Journey: Stories of Migrations by Cynthia Rylant The Bunyans by Audrey Wood Any Small Goodness by Tony Johnston Shipwreck by Gordon Korman The Day Martin Luther King, Jr.,Was Shot by Jim Haskins

Mentor Texts, Model Lessons, and More to Teach Writing with the 6 Traits

Trait Crate, Grade 6

A unique trait-based resource from expert Ruth Culham, this big, informative flip chart is a student-friendly guide to the traits—ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. For each trait, you’ll find a definition, writing tips, a scoring rubric, and two model essays (low- and high-scoring samples). The large print and oversize pages make it perfect for mini-lessons, small-group work, conferences, and more. The ideal companion to any trait-based writing classroom. For use with Grades 3-5.

A Big Classroom Reference Guide

The Traits of Writing

Whether your students are just beginning to write or crafting whole sentences, useful, encouraging feedback is essential to their growth. In this guide, Ruth Culham provides over 180 just-right trait-specific comments, plus a K-2 scoring guide for each trait, to help you assess writing. Since primary learners benefit more from oral than written communication, the guide is ideal for use in one-on-one conferences, small groups, and even whole-class instruction. All of Culham's comments are correlated to the scoring guides and based on the five-levels of achievement. Spiral-bound, tabbed for easy access, and printed on sturdy coated paper, this guide is meant for years of use. For use with Grades K-2.

A Quick Guide for Giving Constructive Feedback to Young Writers

180 Trait-specific Comments, K-2

The most daunting tasks of writing-revision and editing-just became easier and more manageable with the publication of this book. Ruth Culham targets specific skills with short, powerful activities that help students gain independence and confidence as they revise their work for ideas, organization, voice, word choice, and sentence fluency, and edit it for conventions. The book contains 180 reproducible/downloadable activities-one for each day of the school year-on paper and CD. Plus think-abouts, scoring guides, checklists, and more. For use with Grades 3 and up.

180 Revision and Editing Activities to Kick Off Writing Time

Daily Trait Warm-Ups

Discover practical strategies for supporting and assessing writing instruction in all content areas while equipping teachers with instructional practices that emphasize this critical skill, which students need to adapt to the demands of the CCSS and thrive in the 21st century. This guide offers the pedagogical expertise every administrator needs to serve as an effective leader.

What Principals Need to Know About Teaching and Learning Writing

Presents a collection of reproducible forms that help in planning instruction, assessing writing, keeping records, and communicating with parents.

Provides ideas for comments to give to students when evaluating writing exercises, with each comment categorized according to its corresponding writing trait.

A Quick Guide for Giving Constructive Feedback on Student Writing

100 Trait-specific Comments

Shares tips and techniques in providing constructive criticism to student writers, with comments that correlate to the middle school scoring guides and allows teachers to target instruction.

A Quick Guide for Giving Constructive Feedback to Writers in Grades 6-8

100 Trait-Specific Comments - Middle School

In this amazing kit, writing expert Ruth Culham gives you grade-perfect picture books with in-depth lessons to help you teach the traits of writing—ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. The fifth-grade version includes • 6 picture books: Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street; A. Lincoln and Me; Dear Mrs. LaRue; Blood & Gore Like You've Never Seen!; Black Cat; and Francine Fribble, Proofreading Policewoman • Six 16-page teaching guides, each with a step-by-step model lesson, graphic organizers, a scoring rubric, and extension activities; • 12 transparencies; and • 6 colorful teaching posters. Add to this Culham's best-selling professional book, Using Picture Books to Teach Writing With the Traits, and color-coded stickers, and you’ve got a complete resource for teaching with the traits. Best of all, these materials are organized in a sturdy box with hanging folders—one for each trait—for easy, expandable storage that will accommodate trait-based lesson materials for years to come. For use with Grade 5.

Grade 5

Trait Crate

Raymond Coutu

"Reliable, level-headed, easy-to-follow advice on using the traits -- ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions -- so you begin seeing results in your students' work from day one."--Pg.4 of cover.

Writing Lessons, Activities, Scoring Guides, and More for Successfully Launching Trait-Based Instruction in Your Classroom

Getting Started With the Traits Grades 3-5

Trait expert Ruth Culham has culled papers from diverse classrooms and collated them here into a unique trait-based teaching resource. Each paper is scored by trait and includes teacher commentary explaining the evaluation based on Culham's scoring guides, which are included in the book. You'll find six papers per trait, spanning the grading continuum from low to high. Put papers on the overhead or Smartboard as models for a whole-class writing lesson, make copies for small-group discussions of a trait, invite students to critique or rank papers...these are just a few of the possibilities. All papers are included on CDin two versions--original and with teacher comments.- Includes CD with interactive PDFs!- Perfect for interactive white boards!

Grades 3-5

Using Benchmark Papers to Teach Writing with the Traits

James Blasingame

150 Carefully Chosen Books to Strengthen Students' Writing in All 6 Traits

Middle School: Grades 6-8

Using Mentor Texts to Teach Writing With the Traits

Describes the traits of good writing in any genre and includes information on assessing student writing skills, lesson planning, and activities.

Six Plus One Traits of Writing

Provides thirty-two trait-focused lessons based on specific picture books along with two hundred annotations of both new and classic books.

An Annotated Bibliography of More Than 200 Titles with Teacher-tested Lessons

Using Picture Books to Teach Writing with the Traits

Provides teachers with trait-specific assessment materials, including scoring guides, benchmark papers, and sample conference comments, along with warm-up exercises, focus lessons, and activities for the middle school classroom.

The Complete Guide for Middle School

Traits of Writing

"There is power that resides in outstanding culturally diverse literature--a power that has the potential to engage students in reading and teach them about the art and craft of writing." --Ruth Culham We dream of a time when all students will be confident, capable readers and writers. When we teach students to read as writers using mentor texts, we awaken that dream and make it real. Imagine the power of providing students with books that show them their faces, their culture, their lives on every page. And imagine how every classroom's collection of mentor texts can grow by adding books that celebrate diversity. In Dream Wakers: Mentor Texts That Celebrate Latino Culture, Ruth Culham focuses her love of children's literature--and her decades of work developing the traits of writing--on books that celebrate Latino life and culture. She provides a wide variety of ideas to teach writing using some of the richest and most beautiful children's books available. Dream Wakers gives you: * An annotated list of more than 120 books with do-it-today lesson ideas for teaching the traits of writing--Ideas, Organization, Voice, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency, and Conventions. More than half of the books listed are bilingual or offer English and/or Spanish editions. * Eleven original, insightful essays by renowned children's authors of some of the featured books * A handy reference chart that helps teachers locate books quickly by trait, genre, language, and author/publisher information. Ruth encourages all of us to make sure students of all backgrounds have access to high-quality, culturally diverse texts and recognize the difference those texts will make in their reading lives, as well as in their perception of themselves as a thinkers, learners, and citizens.

Ruth Culham

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