6+1 Trait® Writing

Education Northwest developed the 6+1 Trait Writing Model of Instruction & Assessment to help educators provide clear, consistent, and evidence-based feedback on student writing. Many schools and districts are beginning to emphasize students’ writing skills across the curriculum. This makes it even more essential that all staff members use a common terminology and common strategies to provide feedback. We offer a broad range of training, technical assistance, and resources, including free starter materials such as rubrics and Common Core crosswalks.

Services

Customized Training

We provide customized on-site, virtual, or blended professional development across the country to improve writing instruction, whether delivered online or face to face. Our writing coaches can help you and your team integrate 6+1 Trait Writing into your existing curricula and approaches. We are skilled at working with teachers across all grades and all levels of experience. Our trainings can be customized for special education and English language teachers, literacy coaches and trainers, curriculum specialists, and school and district administrators.

Assessment Support

Using samples of your students’ writing, our assessment experts can provide scoring for regular assessments or develop a customized set of benchmark papers to support teachers and students in using the 6+1 Trait model consistently and effectively. You will receive detailed, objective feedback as well as scores. Our virtual scoring service includes a 20-minute consultation to plan the project, as well as a 20-minute debriefing session to ensure you and your staff feel confident using the model on your own.

Pre-recorded Trainings

To make sure students receive consistent feedback, all school and district staff should learn to use 6+1 Trait Writing thoughtfully and systematically. Recordings of our virtual presentations are a useful, inexpensive resource to streamline training for your entire team. We regularly add new presentations to this bank of resources in response to teacher requests, so the materials are timely and relevant. Include the recordings as part of a training package to receive virtual support that can be used throughout the year.

Resources

  • Photo of writing teacher and student

    6+1 Trait Rubrics

    Education Northwest has refined and updated the 6+1 Trait ® rubrics that that specify how to assess the quality of student writing and tailor instruction to students’ needs.
  • closeup of a student writing

    Scoring With 6+1 Trait Writing

    Whether you’re just starting with the 6+1 Trait ® model or want a refresher on scoring, our assessment experts are here to help. We can score writing samples from your own students to provide objective...
  • Photo of students standing near lockers

    6+1 Trait Writing Training/Coaching

    To help your teachers with online or face-to-face writing instruction, we provide on-site, virtual, and blended professional development for teachers at all levels of experience. Our training is customized and...
  • Woman at a computer

    6+1 Trait Writing Resources

    As schools and districts increasingly take a cross-curricular approach to improving student writing skills, it’s more important than ever that students get clear, consistent feedback from all their teachers...

Contact - Jacqueline Raphael

Photograph of Jacqueline Raphael

Jacqueline manages the 6+1 Trait® Writing program at Education Northwest and serves as a lead on several school and district improvement projects. Writing is very much a part of her life outside of work, too: She spends her spare time writing fiction and poetry. Contact Jacqueline for more information about 6+1 Trait Writing.