In middle school, the majority of the time spent on teaching material is on ideas and organization however, I find many teachers get caught up with teaching and assessing conventions and word choice. While it is called VOICES as a way to help you remember what the Six Traits of Writing are called, the order they should be taught is the following: This is a bonus if you are a newer or pre-service teacher and you are asked, “How are you going to grade this assignment?” Some of these feedback points can be great places to start when it comes to assessing student work. I also use this framework to help guide my feedback. Again, this framework applies to all types of writing, so as we move throughout the blog post, you will see how I apply the ideas of the Six Traits of Writing to the academic essay. Often, they are also called Six +1 Traits of Writing when you add the element of Presentation into the equation. The Six Traits of Writing is a writing framework made largely popular with the books created by Ruth Culham. VOICES is an acronym to remember each part of the Six Traits of Writing. Why the Six Traits of Writing? USE YOUR WRITING VOICES!
The expectation is that everyone completes a similar assignment under a number of specified guidelines and a certain set of skills are included in the objectives of the assignment. Literary Analysis (8th-grade and higher) Note: Literary Analysis is not included in this post. Narrative (Personal, descriptive, viewpoint, historical, linear, non-linear)Įxpository (Informational, cause & effect, problem & solution, compare & contrast, definition, classification, process)Īrgumentative (Persuasive, research, analysis, personal) This could include many different types of writing including, but not limited to: There is a common expectation for how the assignment will be graded whether that involves teacher feedback, rubrics, or other evaluation tools.
Throughout this post, you will find examples and tips on how to approach each part of the academic essay.Īn academic essay boils down to an essay that is assigned with a specific prompt and has a particular structure. For the sake of this post, I am going to use the Six Traits of Writing as a common language to talk about how writing is taught in a classroom. I like the six traits of writing because all of the terms used can apply to many different types of writing. This post serves as a starting point for a larger discussion about how the genre of academic essays is implemented throughout the various grade levels. I am not saying that my way to teach any academic essay is better than anyone else’s method of teaching the essay. As I get the opportunity to work with more and more teachers, I find that this type of assignment is largely assigned based on the teacher’s own personal learning experiences, the teacher’s experiences with their mentor teacher, or a commonly known set of skills that everyone thinks is accurate. Whenever I met with my middle school English department, sat down with a colleague to collaborate, or simply talked to other others that teach any type of writing, the question would always come up: “So, how do you teach the essay anyway?” The academic essay is often largely subjective in terms of skill sequence and design involved in a unit plan. Using the Six Traits of Writing as Common Language for Teaching Any Academic Essay