I found the 6+1 Trait very useful when
thinking about grading assignments. When I was a student, my teachers seemed to
read through what was written, picking and choosing what aspects they liked
best. For example, I had a teacher who did not agree with one of my arguments
and graded me down for it. He felt that because I was arguing an idea not
discussed in class, that I should lose points. This made me question what I was
supposed to do during my next writing assignments. Should I write an essay that
I am not interested and get points taken off because I did not analyze enough?
Should I continue to write arguments that I am passionate about and get points
deducted because I am not writing what he says word for word? Both of these
situations appeared to be lose-lose situations. Either arguments used in
following papers would force me to lose points and not do as well as I have
done previously in that class. I would not have had a problem writing his
arguments if he still gave us the space to investigate.
Although this class was not an English class,
we were analyzing poems, as if it was a typical English class. We were asked to
analyze how word choice, imagery, and symbols drive and enhance the main theme
of the text. My teacher, unfortunately, treated our essays poorly unless they
looked like he wrote them. If he graded us using the 6+1 Trait model, papers
would have been fairer and we would have had more fun in class as students.
Instead of looking to see if our ideas were interesting or unique, he looked to
see if they matched what he read. If he treated each student essay as one by an
individual writer, he would have seen the potential we had in his class. I
think the issue with this grading was that he knew his content so well and was
so widely trained in it that he was just as excited about his ideas as we
initially were about ours. If he took a step back to appreciate the thoughts
and work we put into each assignment, he may have had a change in viewpoint
could have possibly dismissed his own interpretation. Using the 6+1 Trait
model, this teacher would have been more objective in his grading, giving us
the space and confidence to develop as writers.
This is definitely a very interesting example. I have had similar experiences, where teachers would read a paper, decide whether or not they agree, and then grade accordingly. I felt that some teachers will say "as long as you support your argument you can write whatever you want" but in practice, they focus too much on whether or not they like what you've argued. The 6+1 Trait is a great way to overcome that, and it really rewards students for what they do well. Since "validity of argument" is not a trait, the teacher would be forced to either conference or provide written feedback to the student about the argument and the grade could only be affected under the "idea" category. That way, the student doesn't lose points across the board, and they are still rewarded for the good elements of their work such as word choice, sentence fluency, etc.
ReplyDeleteI found your post interesting. It's a shame that your teacher graded you on the argument you made rather than focus on the quality of your argument. I agree that, had he taken the 6+1 approach, he would have been forced to focus on the quality of the argument you made rather than grading you against your point. Whether or not we agree with our students, we should be focusing on how they write more than what they write. Students should be allowed to have differing opinions and we should be focused on helping them to articulate these opinions well.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that bothers me about the 6-Traits is the focus is on writing quality and not ideas/argument as Jenna and Jessica point out. I wonder if it could be more even-handed.
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