In this course you'll observe children in grades K-2 classrooms in the spring of the year as teachers support and scaffold their writing development using the six traits of effective writing. These young authors began writing on the very first day of school and have been participating every day in writing workshop and six trait writing activities and lessons.

This course contains a variety of teaching strategies that focus on each of the six traits. You'll observe age-appropriate instruction, scaffolding, and writing experiences for kindergarten, first and second grade learners. You'll also see how intertwined and interdependent the traits are and how they artfully combine to create effective student writing.

You will learn how to:

• Make excellent use of children's literature to determine how effectively authors have used the six writing traits
• Expand students' repertoire of organizational frameworks for writing
• Implement a variety of word choice strategies that enliven primary students' writing with vivid and interesting words
• Engage even your most reluctant writers with prompts designed to generate high levels of voice
• Create editing tasks that reinforce students' accuracy and correctness
• Introduce students to the trait of fluency and guide their early experiences with this aspect of writing
• Teach primary-age children how to revise for targeted writing traits
• Extend students' writing progress well beyond introductory levels
• Nurture children's increasing independence as writers.

Watch an excerpt from this course:

Optional Brandman University Graduate Level Professional Development Credit course code: EDLU 9109

"this six trait model of writing should be a required course for all elementary school teachers! I have benefited greatly in learning the methodology of how to become a better writing teacher to my students. I hope to help my students feel like successful authors by the end of the school year. Thank you very much!!!"
              – S. Rodriguez

"This was my first experience with the On Demand Video Course format. It is definitely my favorite format for BER classes! I am so impressed. It was valuable practical inspiring and very well done. Additionally I appreciated being to save the summaries and resources for each module so I can refer to them and use them as I apply the concepts and strategies. Thank you!"
              – C. Ablutz

"I learned many great strategies from this course. Each video offered new things to try in my classroom. It was great to see teachers and students in action in real classrooms participating in these activities. The action plan is a great way to keep track of the different lessons that were observed and the activities that I will use in my classroom. I really enjoyed this course. It was my first on-line course and each time I sat down at my computer I looked forward to the new things I would learn. Thank you!"
              – M. Kennon