6th Grade Writing Resources
The VDOE has a progression of Writing & Grammar Skills that students are expected to have mastered by the end of the 6th Grade. These skills are cumulative - they start in Kindergarten and build on one another throughout all of the years. The following resources and documents cover some skills that are from previous grades (as a review) while others are meant to be mastered at the end of the 6th grade year.
Below you will find resources and/or lessons for each skill set. The materials linked are intended to be review of the skill and/or further instruction (adding to the complexity or the skill.) While they are split into categories for ease of location, they are not isolated skills and should be combined whenever possible or appropriate.
6th Grade Grammar
Review of Previous Skills:
The following are skills that were mastered prior to 6th grade:
The following are skills that were mastered prior to 6th grade:
- Begin each sentence with a capital letter and use ending punctuation.
- Use complete sentences.
- Capitalize all proper nouns and the first person pronoun I.
- Use singular and plural nouns and pronouns.
- Use apostrophes in contractions and possessives.
- Use contractions and singular possessives.
- Use past and present verb tense
- Use commas in a series.
- Use subject-verb agreement.
- Use noun-pronoun agreement.
- Eliminate double negatives
- Use quotation marks with dialogue.
- Use plural possessives.
- Use adjectives and adverb comparisons.
- Use interjections.
- Use prepositional phrases.
- Use commas to indicate interrupters, items in a series, and to indicate direct address.
- Edit for fragments and run-ons.
- Use coordinating conjunctions.
- Use subject-verb agreement with intervening clauses and phrases
- Use pronoun-antecedent agreement to include indefinite pronouns.
- Maintain consistent verb tense across paragraphs.
6th Grade Writing
The following are skills that were mastered prior to 6th grade:
- Differentiate pictures from writing.
- This is a K-1 skill and therefore we will not be adding resources.
- Generate ideas.
- This is a K-2 skill and therefore we will not be adding resources.
- Compose simple sentences.
- This is a K-2 skill and therefore we will not be adding resources.
- Begin each sentence with a capital letter and use ending punctuation.
- This is a K-2 skill and therefore we will not be adding resources.
- Identify audience and purpose.
- What to Write - Audience & Purpose
- Watch: Why Do Writers Write? Understanding the Purpose for Writing
- RAFTS -- RAFT is a writing strategy that helps students understand their roles as writers, the audience they will address, the varied formats for writing, and the topic they'll be writing about. LESSON PLAN AND RESOURCES
- Focus on one topic.
- Organize writing to suite purpose.
- Revise writing by adding description.
- Write an opinion and give a reason.
- Engage in the writing process.
- Use strategies for organization according to writing type.
- Organize writing to include a beginning, middle, and end.
- Write facts to support main ideas.
- Use prewriting activities.
- Revise writing for clarity.
- Write a clear topic sentence focusing on main idea.
- Elaborate by adding supporting details.
- Use transition words for sentence variety.
- Give fact based support for opinions.
- Write a paragraph focusing on a main idea.
- Select audience and purpose.
- Narrow the topic.
- Picking and Narrowing a topic (Lesson with Handouts)
- Practice Narrowing Your Topic (YouTube Intro Video)
- Recognize different forms of writing have different patterns of organization.
- Write related paragraphs on the same topic.
- Clearly state a position including reasons and evidence to persuade the intended audience.
- Write multi paragraph compositions.
- Use precise and descriptive vocabulary to create voice and tone.
- Utilize elements of style, including word choice and sentence variation.
- Compose thesis statements for expository and persuasive writing.
- Notes on Thesis Statements
- Examples of Thesis Statements
- Practice with Thesis Statements
- Select vocabulary and information to enhance central idea, tone, and voice.
- Expand and embed ideas by using modifiers, standard coordination, and subordination in complete sentences.