6-Traits/the journal: Practice makes writers from Burke Reading

6-Traits/the journal: Practice makes writers

There six traits of analytical writing and teachers in Beaverton, Oregon realized that there were common aspects to the different levels and types of writing. The teachers began to evaluate students work and came to identify some aspects and traits of effective writing and called Six plus One.

·         Ideas- Are the heart of the message and the content of the piece, the main theme, together with the details and that create and develops the main theme

·         Organization-is the internal structure of the piece of writing, the thread of central meaning, and the logical and sometime intriguing patterns of the idea.

·         Voice-is the heart and soul, the magic, the wit, along with the feeling and conviction of the individual writers and writing style

·         Word Choice-the use of rich, colorful language that lightens the reader

·         Sentence Fluency –is the rhythm and low of the language, the sound of word, patterns, and the way the writer conveys

·         Conventions-are the mechanical correctness of the piece-selling, grammar and usage, paragraphing, capitalizations and punctuation.

The journal:

 Practice makes writers- Burke encourages the usage of journals in English classrooms. Journal is an essential tool for students; it allows students to write more on a daily basis. Journaling is a place where students can feel free to express their thoughts freely and the teacher doesn’t always have to worry about grading it. It is road map for students to see and explore different avenues. Journaling is a place where students express their feelings, thoughts and test out their own experiences against the ideas of many things and possibilities. Journaling is a wonderful ways to encourages and motivate students who are struggle writers or English learners it promotes:

·         They promote fluency of thinking and writing and thus are never graded based on conventions:

·         They are used for a variety of purposes but most commonly as a place to think about a subject to be discussed, a text you are studying or aspects of your own life.

·         They promote, indeed even require, experimentation as a means of learning to write or think in new ways without the fear of judgment

·         They belong to the students, who are able to personalize the book through words and visual art, photographs and color.

You can use many things to motivate students to write whether if it is articles or promotes from their reading or any other texts. Students do not always have an idea of what to write so the teacher has to steer students into that directions. Teachers have to be models as well and keep journaling as means of encouraging students to write as well. Students can collaborative through writing by writing on the journals of their peers.

Other ideas of motivating students or steering students that in those directions are Collaborative Interpretation through writing, Reader Response which are similar to dialectical journals or readers response logs. The students can also do letter poems or character log where you choose one character at the beginning of the book and follow them through the novel.