by Paula Mellinger, Professional Development Coordinator

The Professional Development Department will offer a two part training for K-12 teachers who want to learn to use the Write Traits Instruction and Assessment Model.  This basic course is for teachers who have no previous training in the model or for those who would like to refresh their understanding of the process.

The two-part workshops will be held on December 8, 2008 and January 12, 2009.  Please register on ODIE.

Six-Trait Writing is not a curriculum or program.  It is a way of thinking and talking about writing that helps teachers and students answer the question "What makes writing work?"  The traits identify what a good piece of writing should have.

The six traits include:

• Ideas:  the heart of it all, the writer's message and details
• Organization:  the internal structure of a piece that gives support and direction to the ideas
• Voice:  the writer's fingerprints, the special thing that keeps readers reading
• Word Choice:  the just-right word or phrase that makes everything clear for the reader
• Sentence Fluency:  the rhythm and flow of the piece of writing
• Conventions:  the skill in using an editor's tools to enhance readability and meaning

Assessment is the door to understanding.  As Lucy Calkins points out in The Art of Teaching Writing, we assess to learn.  You cannot revise a piece of writing unless you can hear problems within the text.  Helping students understand the traits will also help them as they revise and improve their writing.

Vicki Spandell in Creating Writers Through Six-Trait Writing, gives 10 important reasons to include six-trait writing in your instructional vision of success for students:

1. The model defines clearly what it means to write well.
2. Using a rubric keeps your assessment consistent and honest.
3. The six traits make writing and revising manageable.
4. The traits support and strengthen the writing process.
5. Trait-based instruction makes revision and editing purposeful.
6. Making students partners in writing assessment empowers them.
7. Learning to assess with confidence increases student motivation.
8. Six-trait instruction connects reading and writing by encouraging students to read like writers and write like readers.
9. Six-trait writing is real.
10. Working with well-written writing guides can save assessment time.

Students understand expectations and thus increase their chances of success in writing.  To achieve this success we must pay attention to both process and product.

by Susan Sandoval, Information Specialist

Autumn is in the air and at the ESU 10 Media Center that always means it's Preview Time. In September the Nebraska IMat (Instructional Materials) group met with several national vendors. We perused through their catalogs selected titles that aligned to the standards. 

Those titles have been entered into the ESU 10 Media Catalog on ODIE and will be available for preview from October through December. We need your help in viewing and evaluating each of these titles. You can find these titles by going to the Featured List on the front page of the ODIE Media Library. Scroll down and click on PREVIEW ITEMS and then choose the titles you would like to preview.

Here are just a few preview titles that are available for check-out:

            Argentina - Turning Around

            Build Green

            Greening of Southie

            Radically Simple

            This is Emily Yeung-A Day in My Life

            This is Emily Yeung-Let's Get Cooking

            This is Emily Yeung-At the Farm

            Gimme Green

            Ladies of the Land

            Ochberg's Orphans

            Pollution in China: The People Protest

            Latin America: Life on the Line

            Hannah's Story

            Science Please

            Hood to the Hill: The Next Generation

            ECO=Kids Explore-Wind Power

            ECO=Kids Explore-Solar Power

            ECO=Kids Explore-Geothermal

            ECO=Kids Explore-Hybrid Cars

            ECO=Kids Explore-Ethanol

Please fill out the evaluation sheet that is provided with each DVD.

Thank you for all your help during the past years of previewing. Based upon your evaluations from last year’s preview session, we purchased over 120 titles and are presently in the process of entering them into the ESU 10 Media Catalog on ODIE.

FREE VIDEOS

Video Placement Worldwide (VPW) offers educational materials FREE to qualified teachers, librarians, media specialists and youth leaders throughout the United States, courtesy of some of America's leading companies and organizations.  For over 75 years, corporations, trade associations, and information agencies have been providing free educational materials (DVDs, CDs, teachers’ guides and student worksheets) that help teachers enrich the learning experience for their students. There is no obligation or charge to teachers.  For more information, go to http://www.vpw.com/.

If you have any questions about ordering online, extending material to a later date, or want more information on our Media Library, contact Susan Sandoval at mediacenter@esu10.org  or call her at 308-237-2280.