Here are a few reasons why:

1. Writing is an art. There is not an easy answer key for the writing teacher.

2. The way writing is taught can often seem esoteric to children. It seems to them that the rules of good writing sure do seem to change a lot. “The teacher liked what I wrote yesterday, but today they say this is not good. I don’t get it.”

3. Staying on top of student writing is hard work for teachers. As such, students have more opportunities to slack off and practice writing the wrong way.

Without a doubt “Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay Writing” has gotten a hold of all of these issues. I will admit, the “Pattern Based Writing” program does not teach every aspect of what good writing is. However, what it completely and absolutely solves is what this video below talks about.

Elementary School Essay Writing vs. High School Essay Writing

What is shocking about this video is that it is from Ashworth University and is designed for high school students. (It’s an excellent video on the 5-paragraph essay. The teacher is very clear and concise.)

As you watch it, imagine an entire class of third graders sitting there watching this video and saying, “Yes, we can do all that. We learned that last month. We can organize and write one of those five-paragraph essays in less than 30-minutes.”

The third graders I am talking about are from the inner city and their teacher had become ill early in the year. This began a long string of substitute teachers. I came in at the end of their school year and took them from unorganized sentences to excellent five-paragraph essay in just 37 days.

“Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay” solves the essay problem. Whether your students are in elementary school or middle school you can revolutionize their writing quickly and easily. This should not be an issue in high school.

Enjoy the video!

P.S. Concerned parents, “Pattern Based Writing” is an easy way for you to bring control to your child’s writing.

A pioneer of Six Traits writing was Paul B. Diederich. His traits were a little different than the current Six Traits of Writing; however, his traits did include both organization and ideas. In fact, for Diederich organization and ideas were the most important traits and they received greater weight.

Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay agrees with Paul B. Diederich. Did you know that Pattern Based Writing guarantees that students will be able to get ideas, organize their ideas, and then write a complete essay based around those ideas… quickly and easily? It does. Click Organization and Ideas in Writing to learn more.

It’s not that organization and ideas are the only traits; but once students have mastered these two traits, everything else in teaching writing become easier. The truth is, it is easy to layer the other traits on top of great ideas and effective organization. The reverse is not true! Here’s why…

Organization: The Hardest Trait

Organization is the hardest trait.
K-12 Student Writers Across America

Not only is organization one of the most important traits, but it is also one of the hardest traits for students to master. I have seen the above quote many times over the years. I’ll admit, I’m not sure exactly who “K-12 Student Writers Across America” is; however, my experience teaching writing has me agreeing with them.

Do Students Understand Organization in Writing?

Have you ever been surprised to discover what your students’ understanding of a concept was? Sometimes teachers believe they have done a great job teaching a concept, and then a student says something which lets them know that their students don’t understand the concept at all!

I have found this to be VERY true with students’ understanding of the organizational structure of good writing. It can be very eye-opening to ask students what a main idea is! Whatever you do, don’t ask your students what a topic sentence, a paragraph, an introduction, a conclusion, or paragraph form are. You may be shocked.

Actually, I’ll be quite frank here; it doesn’t really matter what your students’ answers are. Being able to explain what these concepts are is not important. When it comes to the skill of writing, that’s not how you show understanding. In fact, being able to explain all of these organizational concepts could be considered the booby prize. The reason this is so is because writing is a skill. Let’s face it, a homerun hitter doesn’t need to understand how to hit a homerun; they just need to be able to hit one.

The truth is we want our students to understand these concepts so that they will be able to apply these concepts to their writing. When students understand organization in writing, they will demonstrate their understanding by applying organizational concepts to their writing. In other words, their writing will be nicely organized.

There are aspects of Pattern Based Writing: Quick & Easy Essay that are traditional; however, there are many parts of the program that simply rely on pattern. “Just do this. Follow the pattern. What do you think?”

Does this method work? Yes! When it comes to getting ideas and organizing ideas… you will have a classroom full of homerun hitters!

Click Essay Writing Success to find out how!

In teaching elementary students how to write well, there is grammar and there is writing. Many teachers teach A LOT of grammar because when it comes to teaching writing they are at a loss.

What does it mean to teach writing? A useful model that can help elementary teachers is “The Six Traits of Writing” model. “The Six Traits of Writing” was developed in the 1980’s by several groups of researchers and teachers in order to bring about a more reliable method for analyzing and evaluating student writing.

Starting With the End in Mind: The Six Traits of Writing

“The Six Traits of Writing” model describes what good writers do. Like many breakthrough methods of instruction, this model was created by working backwards. The starting point was examining samples of excellent writing and then determining what made them excellent. The outcome of this project was these six common traits.

Overview of the Six Traits of Writing

• Trait #1 Ideas – The message along with the main theme and details.
• Trait #2 Organization – The internal connecting structure.
• Trait #3 Voice – The unique expression of common words and ideas.
• Trait #4 Word Choice – Using the right words to express ideas clearly, concisely, and creatively.
• Trait #5 Sentence Fluency – Connecting strings of sentences with rhythm and flow.
• Trait #6 Conventions – Grammar, spelling, punctuation, and everything else us nitpickers love to pick over.

The Six Trait Writing Model in Elementary School Writing

Understanding the Six Traits model can be very valuable for teachers. This model can be an excellent guide and reference in planning instruction and in evaluating student writing. The truth is that most writing taught in elementary school falls under at least one of the six traits. In other words, the Six Traits model puts a name and structure to what we are already teaching.

“The Six Traits” is Not All There is To Elementary Writing

The truth is there are many aspect of elementary school writing that are not addressed in the above six traits. Let’s look at some “vocabulary words” that the elementary school writing teacher must know:

Poetry, report writing, writing a friendly letter, writing with a purpose, writing to inform, writing to persuade, writing to explain, narrative writing, first person narrative, expository writing, compare and contrast writing, creative writing, journal writing, process writing, descriptive writing, the writing process, revising, prewriting, writing a summary, research papers, editing, proofreading, fantasy writing, genres of writing, vocabulary, writing lists, writing short answers, writing a newspaper article, writing a business letter, literary response, writing a critique or review…

In other words…

The Six Trait Model is Big Picture Thinking for the Teacher

It’s true that the teacher will want to be giving lessons on the above six traits. The teacher will also want to keep these traits in mind as they conference with students and evaluate student writing. However, we should also keep in mind that there is more to teaching writing than just these six traits.

The truth is, for many elementary writers, voice is not nearly as important as simply being able to create writing which will get them good grades and allow them to complete their work in a reasonable amount of time. Too many elementary students struggle with simply getting the job done. In fact, too many middle school students struggle with simply getting the job done.

In elementary school, some traits are more important that other traits!

Here are THREE GREAT RESOURCES for learning how to see the end in mind in your elementary writing instruction:

The first resource is Stephen R. Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Habit #2 in this excellent book is “start with the end in mind.” Remember: Highly effective people make for highly effective teachers!

The second resource is Understanding by Design by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. This book is an exciting new addition to understanding curriculum development though backwards design (also known as backwards planning). Once again, start with the end in mind!

The third resource for mapping out what you wish to accomplish in your writing instruction is the state standards for “English Language Arts.” The state standards may seem a bit dry, but they do explain where your students have been and where you need to take them.

Wishing you total writing success!

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.
Lewis Carroll

If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.
Henry A. Kissinger

VS.

You cannot be lost on a road that is straight.
Proverb

Let’s Compare a Typical Fictionalized Version of a Writer vs. a Real Life Working Writer

Fictional Writer

Starting Out In the Evening is a movie about a once successful writer who is also a professor that teaches writing. He routinely explains his process by saying things such as, “I never know what my characters are going to do…” and “I let them go where they want to go and then see what happens.”

It seemed the process worked well in his early years, but now this writer/professor has been working on his current novel for nearly a decade. A novel that in the end goes nowhere and ends up in the trash. It took him a decade to realize that his story had nothing really important to say.

Real Life Writer

David Simon is a real life writer and creator of the television show The Wire. This is a show that many consider to be one of the greatest television shows ever. He said, “We know how it’s supposed to end and we know what happens to every character, and we know the thematic context of what we are trying to say. Then we start to break it down into how the parts are going to play out over 13 episodes.”

Our goals as teachers of writing should be clear based on this comparison!

(Note: The Wire is known for its realistic portrayal of inner-city decay. Season 4 took place inside the Baltimore, MD school system and gives a powerful and realistic portrayal of the challenges many inner-city schools face. One of the creators of the series was a former school teacher in the Baltimore school system, so he knows firsthand.)