Using Mentor Texts to Teach Writing With the Traits

Ruth Culham, Ed.D., is the president of the Culham Writing Company and former Unit Manager of the Assessment Program at Education Northwest in Portland, Oregon. She is the recognized expert in the traits of writing field and author of many professional resources published by Scholastic, including 6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide, Grades 3 and Up; 6+1 Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for the Primary Grades; and Traits of Writing: The Complete Guide for Middle School, winner of the 2011 Teacher's Choice award. As a pioneering researcher in this field, Ruth creates and conducts teacher workshops to provide professional development at local, district, and state levels; at state and national conferences she's a featured speaker on teaching writing using the traits. The highlight of her 19-year teaching career was being named English Teacher of the Year in Montana. But most recently, she'd proudest of authoring Traits Writing, a revolutionary writing program for grades K-8 available from Scholastic.