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College of Education
Mailstop 288
Univ. of Nevada-Reno
Reno, Nevada 89557
Phone: 775-784-1161
Fax: 775-784-4758
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The National Writing Project
The University of Nevada-Reno
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Northern Nevada Writing Project: Our 6-Trait Initiatives
In Northern Nevada, our Writing Project was providing 6-trait inservices and workshops long before the 6 writing traits became the language of our state writing assessment. Our NNWP approach to the traits has always been to consider traits as a classroom language for writing instruction, not because it's the language used to assess the test, but because a writing classroom needs to have a language with which to talk about the writing that's being done.
Dena Harrison is our Northern Nevada Writing Project's Six Trait Coordinator. She took the NNWP Summer Institute in 2001. For 6 years, she served as a Head Reader for the State of Nevada's writing exams. Since 2006, Dena has headed one of the NNWP's formative 6 trait data teams, providing data to fifth grade teachers helping their students as they prepare for the January writing test. Dena teaches 7th and 8th graders at Mendive Middle School in Sparks, Nevada.
Dena also hosts her own website for middle school teachers, and you can access it by clicking here. |
Dena (at right) meets one of her favorite trait authors, Ruth Culham. |
16-hour inservice classes: At least three times a year, we offer trait-based inservice courses for the teachers of Northern Nevada.
Our longest-running traits class (offered every January) not only shares our Going Deep with 6 Trait Language workbook, but participants can also become qualified state scorers by taking the class.
Each Fall and Spring, we offer 6-Trait lesson writing workshops, and the best lessons proposed by teachers attending this course are published on-line at our site-sponsored website: WritingFix |
The NNWP's Going Deep with 6 Trait Laguage Workbook is available for purchase at our Publications page. |
2- and 3-hour trait workshops: Thanks to our strong partnership with Nevada's Northwest Regional Professional Development Program, we offer on-site trait workshops during early release days for schools.
Teachers receive copies of the Going Deep with 6 Trait Language workbook, and they plan site-based strategies to address trait-based needs of their students. |
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Formative Traits Data Program for 5th grade Teachers and Students: 5th grade Nevada students typically take the state writing assessment test in January. To help inform instruction, the NNWP sponsors three traits-reading teams, who offer their services to a dozen Northern Nevada schools.
Four times before the students take the actual writing test, their teachers give them an agreed-upon practice prompt, then send the samples off to one of our three formative trait data teams. Within a week, the fifth grade teachers and their students have the samples scored and sent back to them. Principals who sign their schools up for this program agree to give their fifth grade teachers time to analyze the data and make informed decisions about how to proceed with writing instruction.
Not only does the NNWP's scoring teams provide the schools with data, we also provide them with resources to direct their instruction. The resources we provide can be found at WritingFix's Nevada Writing Test page.
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On-line Trait Resources: Our ever-growing collection of free trait-based classroom ideas and tools can be accessed from WritingFix's 6 Trait Homepage.
Of particular interest may be one of our trait-based lesson collections:
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The
Northern Nevada Writing Project: |
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We're teachers teaching fellow teachers how to use writing as a powerful learning tool in all our classrooms. |
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