Step Up to Writing assessments and scoring guides can be used alone or with scoring models like 6+1 Traits. Many teachers, schools, and school districts have successfully combined the Step Up to Writing strategies with the 6+1 Traits Model.
Step Up to Writing strategies offer the "how-to-write" and the 6+1 Traits offers advice about what qualities to expect in good writing. The Step Up scoring guides also work well with other scoring guides (sometimes called rubrics) designed by classroom teachers, schools, school districts, states, or other professional groups.
Both models provide guidance for scoring student writing and helping student writers see the strengths and weaknesses in their writing. In addition, Step Up provides explicit instructions - the "how" of writing: how to write an essay, a summary, and advertisement, a compare/contrast report, and more.
"Step Up to Writing supports and teaches the writing skills used with Six Traits assessments. With Step Up, students learn many strategies for organization that help with idea development. They build strong vocabulary skills, which help with word choice and voice. They also learn and frequently practice different sentence structures. This knowledge empowers them to write with the kind of sentence variety that Six Traits suggests. When student writers combine good sentence variety and word choice, they begin to develop a style and voice of their own. Finally, Step Up teaches students proper conventions for editing and revising their work to make it the best it can be."
If you or your district already uses 6+1 Traits, you will find it easy to add the Step Up to Writing methods and strategies.