Seeing with New Eyes: A Guidebook on Teaching and Assessing Beginning Writers Using the Six-Trait Writing Model

The 1999 edition of the guidebook provides ideas and tools for teaching and assessing beginning writers. It is designed to help primary teachers put content, voice, and purpose ahead of mechanics when assessing students' writing, using the Six-Trait Writing model. Children move through several stages in learning to write, from readiness exhibited by scribbles; through drawing, dictation, and copying; first efforts to form words; and more lengthy and complex writing efforts such as poems and stories. The book includes a continuum of writing skills detailing how children move through these stages as they progress from kindergarten through second grade. Also included is a rubric that spells out the criteria for good writing and guides teachers in observing the growth of young writers.