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Mentor Text Lessons: 6 Traits and Primary Writers
You are looking at our webpage devoted to our 2008 publication: Six by Six: Traits Writing for Little Writers. Classroom teachers, currently teaching the primary grades, who have explored how to teach the traits to five and six year olds, created this guide of thirty six lessons. This group of eager and excited professionals took the time to teach each of these lessons in their classrooms to their students. We know these lessons work. We have tested them. We know these lessons produce good work. We have included student samples. We know you’re going to enjoy teaching these lessons. When the group came together to share our work, we couldn’t wait to go back to class and try each other’s lessons.
In the way she outlines her ideas of traits as concepts, Spandel opens the door wide for teachers who wish to think in this way as an avenue to bring the trait language in reach for students who are generating little, or maybe no, text. For example, she explains that Ideas can be thought of as “something to write about.” Using the concept of Ideas, Spandel suggests that students use lists as a way to capture ideas and hold them for future reference (p.90). In Creating Young Writers, Spandel gives advice on how to conceptualize each of the six traits. Later in her volume, she briefly outlines teaching ideas using the traits as concepts. Spandel shares some awesome lesson ideas and our group realized right away that conceptualizing the traits leads to a plethora of primary writing lessons. Once our teaching group started thinking of the traits as concepts, we couldn’t stop. Lessons we had previously taught, we rethought in light of conceptualization. New lessons popped into our heads. The students’ work and creativity led us further still into the traits as concepts. What a perfect way to bring the language of the traits, the concepts of the traits, the “what are they?” of the traits, to the littlest writers. On this page, we feature lessons from the print guide we created, and we also feature resources that the Six by Six Guide has inspired since its publication. Please feel free to borrow ideas featured on this page, and please consider supporting this website by purchasing the complete guide created through this project by clicking here. |
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Hello, my name is 
In order to create a viable focus for traits lessons in the primary grades, kindergarten and first grade exclusively, our group borrowed a key idea from Vicki Spandel. In her book 
Twelve Nevada Teachers Who Helped Build our 6 x 6 Guide |
Six Complimentary Lessons from our 6 x 6 Guide |
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 Shannon Allan lesson contributor |
 Dee Lynn Armstrong lesson contributor |
 Lisa Daines lesson contributor |
The NNWP's 6 x 6 Guide: Traits Writing with Little Writers Guide contains thirty-six lessons, six for each trait. Teachers in Northern Nevada have been thrilled with the variety of lessons featured in the guide:
Below, find six of the thirty-six lessons from the guide. If you decide to purchase the complete 6 x 6 Guide from the NNWP, you will help WritingFix continue to grow.. |
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 Jody Dallas lesson contributor |
 Brenda Freund lesson contributor |
 Launie Gardner guide editor |
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 Kristy Grow lesson contributor |
 Corbett Harrison webpage designer |
 Karen McGee lesson contributor |
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 Traci Mendoza lesson contributor |
 Anne Newlin lesson contributor |
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Primary Classroom Lessons Inspired after the Publication of our 2008 6 x 6 Guide |
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The 6 X 6 Guide was distributed in December of 2008. Since then, teachers who have used it have created their own lessons, using the lesson template we provide them. Here, find additional lessons written by both teachers who contributed to the original guide and teachers who enroll in our workshops and inservices for K-2 teachers. |
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Click on the lesson's title or the book thumbnail to read an overview and to access the entire lesson and its resources, including student samples and graphic organizers. |
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More Primary Lessons Featured at our Other Projects: |
Our Resources for Older Student Writers: |
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Lessons featured at our iPods Across the Curriculum Workshop: |
If you're asking, "What about older student writers?" then you haven't thoroughly explored WritingFix yet! First of all, our 2006 resource--the Going Deep with 6 Trait Language Guide--contains trait-inspired resources from 3rd-12th grade students. In addition, the two lesson collections listed below were all designed by Nevada 3rd - 12th grade teachers. Enjoy exploring these two collections, if working with older students: |
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Lesson: Lesson's Mentor Texts: "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," sung by Jack Johson and Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin, Jr. Lesson Objective: Students create original pieces of writing about saving the environment. |
Lesson: Lesson's Mentor Texts: "I Love," sung by Tom T. Hall and the picture book, I Love, by Brigitte Minne Lesson Objective: Inspired by both mentor texts' ideas, students create an original poem about things they love. |
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Lessons featured at our Comparison & Contrast Workshop: |
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WritingFix's Picture Book Lesson Collection Dozens and dozens of lessons inspired by favorite picture books. Although these lessons were written by 3rd-12th grade teachers, most could be adapted for K-2nd grade. |
WritingFix's Chapter Book Lesson Collection Dozens and dozens of lessons inspired by favorite chapter books. Although these lessons were written by 3rd-12th grade teachers, most could be adapted for K-2nd grade. |
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Lesson: Lesson's Mentor Texts: The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton and Farewell to Shady Glade by Bill Peet Lesson Objective: Students write a perspective journal entry from the point of view of a character inspired by the two mentor texts. |
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Our 2008 6 x 6 Guide is a collection off lessons specifically designed for kindergarten and first-grade teachers. Our second- and third-grade teachers, especially those at schools with high populations of language-learning students, have also found appropriate inspiration within its pages. 
Looking for Quick Interactive Writing Prompts to Inspire Young Writers? |
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Way back in 2002, we sat down with a large group of energetic elementary teachers, and we showed them the interactive writing games that can still be found on our Right-Brained Writing Prompts homepage and our Left-Brained Writing Prompts homepage. We asked, "What would similar writing prompts--desgined to inspire the very youngest of writers--look like?" The result of those conversations led to the creation of the fourteen interactive word games you find below. We hope you enjoy inspiring your students to write original stories using them.
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 The Noun Game |
 The Verb Game |
 The Adjective Game |
 The Crazy Animal Game |
 The Colored Wheels Game |
 The Colored Animal Game |
 The Feeling Game |
 The Memory Game |
 The Top Three Game |
 The Setting Game |
 The Wacky Word Game |
 The Opposite Game |
 The Color Game |
Do you like these fourteen interactive writing games, all designed by teachers? Do you think you have what it takes to design our fifteenth interactive prompt, to be featured in this spot? Do you want to earn ten copies of the Six by Six Guide to share with your own staff? Contact us at webmaster@writingfix.com, if you're interested in submitting a proposal for an interactive prompt that we can feature here. |
 The Idea Game |
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