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WritingFix: Idea Development...one of the 6 writing traits
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The Writing Traits: Idea Development
helping your students "go deep" with developed ideas during classroom writing instruction

This introduction comes from the Northern Nevada Writing Project's Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Guide (click here for details on ordering this print resource): I once watched a writing teacher ask her students to self-evaluate their rough drafts for just the trait of Idea Development. When the students requested a refresher explanation of this trait (students need constant refreshers, don’t they?), the teacher strategically referred to a poster on her wall. The poster explained simply that, “Idea development is a writer’s focus,” and it was accompanied by a very nicely drawn picture of a light bulb. I watched as almost all of the students ranked themselves very high in this single trait; by their own perceptions, they felt they had remained “focused,” and they certainly felt their papers were guided by some sort of light bulb inside their heads. The word focused and the light bulb metaphor left these young writers with a shallow feel for what idea development is. I knew what this teacher wanted her students to do; she wanted those kids to really analyze their writers’ focus in order to make some revision decisions. They weren’t going to do that with just the word focus and a light bulb to guide them.

I couldn’t help myself. I interrupted her students. I said, “Hey, I know I’m a guest, but do me a favor, please. You all know you have a light bulb going on in your writing. Everyone does, unless they’re copying straight out of a book. So ask yourself, and be really honest: ‘If you had to label your paper’s light bulb as a 20 watt, a 40 watt, a 60 watt, an 80 watt, or a 100 watt bulb, which would it be? And how come?’”

I quietly watched students silently revisit their drafts in order to make this determination about their focus. Many writers who had earlier ranked themselves fairly high on their focus were only giving themselves 40 or 60 watts. A few ranked themselves at 80, but not one gave himself a perfect light bulb rating. All noticed spots where they still could have been “brighter.” When the teacher asked them to talk with a neighbor about the light bulb wattage they had decided upon, I heard very interesting discussions about where their papers could have been more focused at times. Each paper was focused to some degree, but that focus moved in and out as the papers progressed. The light bulb metaphor with the wattage addition helped them move beyond the vagueness of the word focus.

A few weeks later, I visited the same teacher’s classroom. She had modified my outburst into a technique of which I had never thought. Still working on idea development, she was now requiring her students to draw and label a light bulb in the papers’ margins next to each paragraph or section. The teacher was delighted to see her students were ranking some of their paragraphs higher than others: Here is an 80 watt paragraph, but this is only a 40 watt paragraph. She told me, “Now, if I ask them to focus on a certain paragraph to revise their writing, they actually know right where to begin. It’s a lot less daunting for them to think of paragraph revision as opposed to entire draft revision.”

She had found a new meaning to the word focus in the writing process. She had discovered focus means too many things for it to serve as the definition of idea development.

Our Idea Development Categories
WritingFix offers resources on the following sub-skills of idea development. Click a link below to see our entire collection of lessons and resources for each of these trait-based skills:

What's Idea Development?
A writer thinks about these bullets when working on the trait of idea development:

  • There is an appropriate balance of showing and telling
  • Having quality details are more important than having quantity details
  • A unique idea  is being written about or approach is being used
  • Bigger topics are supported by sub-topics
  • The writing centers around thesis statements or main idea statements or themes
WritingFix's 6-Trait Poster Set
WritingFix's Trait Post-Its

Free Poster Resource for your Classroom:

Like the foundation of a house, idea development serves as the solid base on which a good piece of writing rests. If you start with a solid idea, your writing can grow as big as you want.

This set of seven posters was created collectively by Dena Harrison, Mary Dunton, Nancy Thomas, Corbett Harrison, and Vivian Olds of the Northern Nevada Writing Project.

WritingFix offers a free template of Idea Development Post-It sized notes. These can either be printed on green colored paper and cut out and stapled to students' drafts, or you can--if you dare--attempt to print them on real 3 x 3 Post-It Notes.
  • Click here to open and print WritingFix's 7-page poster set, inspired by our "Building a House" metaphor.
  • Click here to open and print a sheet of six idea development revision post-its.
  • Click here to visit WritingFix's Post-It homepage, where you can find instruction on printing our post-its on actual Post-It notes.

Building a 6-Trait Mentor Text library for your classroom or your school's library?
Six "Mentor Text" Suggestions for the Trait of Idea Development
(Click here to access WritingFix's complete bibliography of cited picture books and chapter books.)
Below are three idea development "mentor text" suggestions from the
WritingFix Website:
(Click the words lesson link after each suggestion below to access the lesson.)
Below are three idea development "mentor text" suggestions from the
NNWP's Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Guide:
(Click here to find out how to order this awesome resource from the NNWP.)
1. We dare you to find a better mentor text for your classroom than Nothing Ever Happens On 90th Street by Roni Schotter. Here's a book about a young person struggling to find something to write about. Like many of your students, Eva thinks everything that happens to her is uninteresting, ordinary, and hardly worth writing down. In this book, young Eva receives four pieces of excellent advice from four characters living on 90th Street, and the young protagonist is able to turn a story about "nothing" into an exciting story about something...and best yet...when she is done telling her story, she actually hints that her story will be better next time when she gets some time to revise it. Seriously...if you don't have this book, click on the book cover and order it for your classroom now. Click on this lesson link to see WritingFix's free-to-use lesson suggestion for this mentor text.

1. Theme is a hard concept for young student writers. Many students think that story themes happen by accident; they don't realize that authors plan story themes before writing their stories. One great way to help students understand theme better is to read a book with a theme they can connect to. After reading the book, ask, "What lesson about life do you think this book is trying to teach us?" Write all the student answers on the board in the form of complete sentences, vote on a class favorite, then ask, "If we were to tell an original story that taught us that exact same theme, what might our story be about?" Have each student create an original story that leads to the same theme. When I Was Five by Arthur Howard is a great book with great themes about friendship that students can not only relate to, but they also have a great time coming up with original stories that teach the same theme.
2. Want a book that your students will love imitating with original ideas? May we suggest The Secret Knowledge of Grown-Ups by David Wisniewski. Wisnieski shares creative, clever and completely fictional reasons for the rules that adults enforce when dealing with the young. The result is a hysterical book that makes student writers want to create original fictitious reasons for rules not covered by Wisnieski. Your students will not only appreciate he invitation to be creative, but they'll also appreciate the easy-to-imitate format that Wisnieski shares with the top secret rule reasons from this clever picture book. Click on this lesson link to see WritingFix's free-to-use lesson suggestion for this mentor text. 2. They say a picture is worth ten-thousand words, and we agree. Some of our best original writing assignments are inspired by interesting pictures--from postcards, magazines, from photo drawers. When students are asked to write about a picture with very few (if any) words attached to it, the writing they can produce turns out to be very original. Chris Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick remains one of the best collection of pictures to inspire original writing from your students. We suggest you purchase the "portfolio edition" for your classroom if you order, because it's designed to be seen by all your writers as they look at at Van Allsburg's amazing pictures. Plus...in the portfolio edition...you get one bonus picture not found in the original book.
3. There's an excerpt in chapter 16 of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach that shows what destruction a giant peach can cause when it rolls out of control. For whatever reason, this idea really appeals to students writers. After discussing Dahl's writing craft and word choices, challenge your writers to create a giant something that rolls through an unusual somewhere. This on-line lesson comes with great student samples and a great graphic organizer that will help your students not only develop an original idea but also create an organized piece of writing. Click on this lesson link to see WritingFix's free-to-use lesson suggestion for this mentor text 3. One of the suggestions found in the Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Guide is to show students how a well-known story can become an original idea in the hands of an excellent writer. One story with numerous interpretations is the Cinderella fairy tale, and one of the best original interpretations of this story is Robert D. San Souci's' version, Cinderella Skeleton. After students explore a familiar story told in many original ways, challenge them to create their own version for the same story, or their own version of another familiar fairy tale.
Self-Reflecting on Personal Experience

Your personal experiences are what make you unique, and they are where you should do your best self-reflection when developing writing ideas.  Even a two-day old baby, if he had the ability to write, has already had enough experiences to self-reflect on life. 

Every personal experience has the ability to become a great story.

Webmaster's favorite self-reflection prompt:

Our "make a list to inspire writing" prompts are wonderful! Click here (or on the image above) to access the prompt.

Right-Brained Writing Prompts:

Left-Brained Writing Prompts:

Picture Book Inspired Lessons:

Chapter Book Inspired Lessons:

Poetry & Lyric Inspired Lessons:

Literature Inspired Lessons:

Sharpening Details

Vanilla ice cream is delicious, but a gooey, sticky banana split smothered under whipped cream is pretty great.

Without details, you'd  always be eating plain vanilla ice cream.  Great details help you turn your writing and stories into a banana splits for your readers to crave and devour.

Webmaster's favorite sharpening details lesson:

Jerry Spinelli's chapter book, Wringer, has a wonderful chapter wherein the main character gets knuckle-punched in the arm nine times on his ninth birthday. The punches are counted aloud, and between the moments of pain, Spinelli slows the world down and "explodes" the details. This chapter is the basis of our writing lesson--Counting Up/Down Stories. Students think of a time when a person or a group of people is counting out loud. Details between the counted numbers are brainstormed and chosen carefully.

Click here (or on the image above) to access the lesson on-line.

Right-Brained Writing Prompts:

Left-Brained Writing Prompts:

Picture Book Inspired Lessons:

Chapter Book Inspired Lessons:

Poetry & Lyric Inspired Lessons:

Literature Inspired Lessons:

Developing Original Ideas in Pre-determined Structures


Balancing the traits of idea development and organization simultaneously can be overwhelming to some student writers. Thinking of an idea while also structure...well, that shuts some writers down, and they spend a lot more time staring at a blank page than need be.

To teach, then assign a safe structure to student writers allows them more time to develop original ideas.

Webmaster's favorite pre-determined structure lesson:

Doreen Cronin's picture book, Diary of a Worm, is full of humor that is intelligent and silly. When students are challenged to create a diary for an abstraction (like a decimal point) or for an animal (like a squid), humor can be explored in different ways. The Unlikely Diary Keepers lesson challenges students to develop both unique ideas and a funny bone while they explore a concept they have learned about.

Click here (or on the image) to access the lesson on-line.

Right-Brained Writing Prompts:

Left-Brained Writing Prompts:

Picture Book Inspired Lessons:

Chapter Book Inspired Lessons:

Poetry & Lyric Inspired Lessons:

Literature Inspired Lessons:

Encouraging Unique Idea Development:

How do you catch a unique rabbit? You neak up on it!

How do you encourage unique ideas from your students--who, if given a choice, would probably prefer to write stories about SpongeBob than something original? You find ways to "neak" up your instructions and your lessons. "Neaking" means "original ideas only!"

WritingFix offers a variety of lessons that encourage unique ideas, but students will need to be reminded of "neaking" rules before, during, and after writing.

Webmaster's favorite unique ideas lesson:

Bruce Coville's chapter book, Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Catcher, puts magic literally into the hands of its main character. In an odd little magic shoppe, Jeremy receive his magic egg, with instructions on how to care for it. This idea is the basis of our writing lesson--Adventurous Magic. Students get to visit the same shoppe, but they must find a completely unique item on the store's shelves. They cannot find a dragon's egg, because Bruce Coville already made that story. Students must "neak" up on a topic.

Click here (or on the image) to access the lesson on-line.

Right-Brained Writing Prompts:

Left-Brained Writing Prompts:

Picture Book Inspired Lessons:

Chapter Book Inspired Lessons:

Poetry & Lyric Inspired Lessons:

Literature Inspired Lessons:

Letting THEME or THESIS or MESSAGE Drive Idea Development:

Many students think that themes and main ideas just happen as a result of writing; they don't realize that authors usually decide on a theme or thesis before they start drafting.

WritingFix is currently developing new lessons that help students think more deeply about story themes and paper theses before they begin drafting.

Webmaster's favorite theme & theme prompt:

Serendipitous Story Themes:

The "serendipitous story theme" creator is pretty great! Click here (or on the image above) to access the prompt.

Right-Brained Writing Prompts:

  • Serendipitous Theses (under construction)

Left-Brained Writing Prompts:

Picture Book Inspired Lessons:

Chapter Book Inspired Lessons:

Poetry & Lyric Inspired Lessons:

  • In Fall of 2008, we will be launching a new collection of poetry and lyric-inspired writing prompts. Check back with us soon.

Literature Inspired Lessons:

   

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