Grade 6 Writing Curriculum

Family-facing version of the grade 6 Writing curriculum

Quarterly Overview of Grade 6 Writing

The objectives and outcomes for each unit are common across FCPS and based on the Virginia Standards of Learning. The pacing by quarter and by week provides an example of how the curriculum can be organized throughout the year. Teacher teams may adjust the pacing or order of units to best meet the needs of students.

Units and Details

Unit 1: Building a Community of Writers

Students will be able to: 

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Listen actively and speak using appropriate discussion rules with awareness of verbal and nonverbal cues. 
    • Participate as a facilitator and a contributor in a group. 
    • Participate in collaborative discussions with partners building on others’ ideas. 
    • Ask questions to clarify the speaker’s purpose and perspective. 
    • Summarize the main points a speaker makes. 
    • Analyze the effectiveness of participant interactions.
    • Evaluate own contributions to discussions. 
    • Demonstrate the ability to collaborate with diverse teams.
      Work respectfully with others and show value for individual contributions.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, expository, persuasive, and reflective with an emphasis on narrative and reflective writing:
    • Engage in writing as a recursive process. 
    • Choose audience and purpose. 
    • Use a variety of prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas. 
    • Organize writing to fit mode or topic. 
  • Self-and peer-edit writing for capitalization, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Use correct spelling for frequently used words.

Extended Standards

In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Participate in group discussions as a listener and a speaker in seminars. 
    • Develop listening/oral communication skills.
    • Articulate understanding of a reading to a partner.
    • State the main ideas or themes of the story.
    • Engage in a dialogue about the meaning of a selection.
    • Make informative and persuasive oral presentations using purposeful structure and visuals. 
    • Ask clarifying questions and take notes when listening to a speaker. 
    • Develop skills of argument formulation in persuasive communication. 
    • Support opinions with examples and details.
    • Engage in discussions with others by exchanging ideas, asking questions, actively listening, and responding thoughtfully to the comments of others.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, descriptive, opinion, and expository:
    • Select a topic and develop a plan for writing for a variety of purposes and audiences. 
    • Focus, organize, and elaborate to create an effective message. 
    • Synthesize author techniques to improve or create a new piece of writing.
    • Use description, details, and examples.
    • Reflect individuality through word choice and style.
    • Develop persuasive writing skills.
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Develop linguistic competency.

Unit 2: Memoir

Students will be able to: 

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Listen actively and speak using appropriate discussion rules with awareness of verbal and nonverbal cues. 
    • Demonstrate the ability to collaborate with diverse teams. 
    • Work respectfully with others and show value for individual contributions.
  • Create multimodal presentations that effectively communicate ideas:
    • Use language and vocabulary appropriate to the audience, topic, and purpose.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, expository, persuasive, and reflective with an emphasis on narrative and reflective writing:
    • Engage in writing as a recursive process. 
    • Choose audience and purpose. 
    • Use a variety of prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas. 
    • Organize writing to fit mode or topic. 
    • Write narratives to include characters, plot, setting, and point of view. 
    • Write multi paragraph compositions with elaboration and unity.
      Use transition words and phrases. 
    • Select vocabulary and information to enhance the central idea, tone, and voice.
    • Expand and embed ideas by using modifiers, standard coordination, and subordination in complete sentences.
    • Revise writing for clarity of content including specific vocabulary and information. 
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Use pronoun-antecedent agreement to include indefinite pronouns. 
    • Maintain consistent verb tense across paragraphs. 
    • Use correct spelling for frequently used words.

Extended Standards

In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Ask clarifying questions and take notes when listening to a speaker. 
    • Engage in discussions with others by exchanging ideas, asking questions, actively listening, and responding thoughtfully to the comments of others.
    • Participate in group discussions as a listener and speaker in seminars. 
    • Lead and contribute to discussions and viewpoints with others across content areas and in seminars.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, descriptive, opinion, and expository:
    • Select a topic and develop a plan for writing for a variety of purposes and audiences. 
    • Focus, organize, and elaborate to create an effective message.
    • Synthesize author techniques to improve or create a new piece of writing.
    • Use description, details, and examples.
    • Reflect individuality through word choice and style.
    • Develop persuasive writing skills. 
    • Evaluate the effective use of words, sentences, and paragraphs in context.
    • Use the elements of reasoning to develop strong, convincing arguments in persuasive writing.
    • Provide evidence and data to support a claim, issue, or thesis sentence. 
    • Vary sentence type, length and order to maximize the written message.
    • Use descriptive details and examples.
    • Revise based on peer review, teacher feedback and self-evaluation by adding, deleting, and changing information to improve writing.
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Develop linguistic competency

Unit 3: Literary Nonfiction

Students will be able to: 

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Listen actively and speak using appropriate discussion rules with awareness of verbal and nonverbal cues. 
    • Ask questions to clarify the speaker’s purpose and perspective.
    • Summarize the main points a speaker makes. 
    • Demonstrate the ability to collaborate with diverse teams. 
    • Work respectfully with others and show value for individual contributions.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, expository, persuasive, and reflective with an emphasis on narrative and reflective writing:
    • Engage in writing as a recursive process. 
    • Choose audience and purpose. 
    • Use a variety of prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas. 
    • Organize writing to fit mode or topic.
    • Establish a central idea incorporating evidence and maintaining an organized structure.
    • Write multi paragraph compositions with elaboration and unity. 
    • Use transition words and phrases. 
    • Select vocabulary and information to enhance the central idea, tone, and voice.
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Use correct spelling for frequently used words.

Extended Standards

In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Ask clarifying questions and take notes when listening to a speaker. 
    • Engage in discussions with others by exchanging ideas, asking questions, actively listening, and responding thoughtfully to the comments of others.
    • Participate in group discussions as a listener and speaker in seminars. 
    • Lead and contribute to discussions and viewpoints with others across content areas and in seminars.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, descriptive, opinion, and expository:
    • Select a topic and develop a plan for writing for a variety of purposes and audiences. 
    • Focus, organize, and elaborate to create an effective message.
    • Synthesize author techniques to improve or create a new piece of writing.
    • Use description, details, and examples.
    • Reflect individuality through word choice and style.
    • Develop persuasive writing skills. 
    • Evaluate the effective use of words, sentences, and paragraphs in context.
    • Use the elements of reasoning to develop strong, convincing arguments in persuasive writing.
    • Provide evidence and data to support a claim, issue, or thesis sentence. 
    • Vary sentence type, length and order to maximize the written message.
    • Evaluate the effective use of words, sentences, and paragraphs in context.
    • Revise based on peer review, teacher feedback and self-evaluation by adding, deleting, and changing information to improve writing. 
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Develop linguistic competency.

Unit 4: Investigative Journalism

Students will be able to: 

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Listen actively and speak using appropriate discussion rules with awareness of verbal and nonverbal cues. 
    • Participate as a facilitator and a contributor in a group. 
    • Participate in collaborative discussions with partners building on others’ ideas. 
    • Ask questions to clarify the speaker’s purpose and perspective. 
    • Summarize the main points a speaker makes.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, expository, persuasive, and reflective with an emphasis on narrative and reflective writing:
    • Engage in writing as a recursive process. 
    • Choose audience and purpose. 
    • Use a variety of prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas. 
    • Organize writing to fit mode or topic. 
    • Write narratives to include characters, plot, setting, and point of view. 
    • Establish a central idea incorporating evidence and maintaining an organized structure. 
    • Write multi paragraph compositions with elaboration and unity.
    • Use transition words and phrases.
    • Select vocabulary and information to enhance the central idea, tone, and voice. 
    • Expand and embed ideas by using modifiers, standard coordination, and subordination in complete sentences. 
    • Revise writing for clarity of content including specific vocabulary and information.
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Use subject-verb agreement with intervening phrases and clauses. 
    • Use quotation marks with dialogue. 
    • Use correct spelling for frequently used words. 
  • Find, evaluate, and select appropriate resources to create a research product:
    • Collect and organize information from multiple sources. 
    • Evaluate and analyze the validity and credibility of sources.

Extended Standards

In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Participate in group discussions as a listener and a speaker in seminars.
    • Develop listening/oral communication skills.
    • Articulate understanding of a reading to a partner.
    • State the main ideas or themes of the story.
    • Engage in a dialogue about the meaning of a selection.
      Make informative and persuasive oral presentations using purposeful structure and visuals. 
    • Ask clarifying questions and take notes when listening to a speaker. 
    • Develop skills of argument formulation in persuasive communication. 
    • Support opinions with examples and details.
    • Engage in discussions with others by exchanging ideas, asking questions, actively listening, and responding thoughtfully to the comments of others.
  • Create and deliver multimodal, interactive presentations:
    • Know the type of information found in various reference materials including atlases, dictionaries, and websites.
    • Participate in group discussions as a listener and a speaker in seminars.
    • Use specific vocabulary to communicate ideas.
    • Ask clarifying questions and take notes when listening to a speaker.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, descriptive, opinion, and expository:
    • Select a topic and develop a plan for writing for a variety of purposes and audiences 
    • Focus, organize, and elaborate to create an effective message 
    • Synthesize author techniques to improve or create a new piece of writing
    • Use description, details, and examples
    • Reflect individuality through word choice and style
    • Develop persuasive writing skills
    • Evaluate the effective use of words, sentences, and paragraphs in context
    • Use the elements of reasoning to develop strong, convincing arguments in persuasive writing 
    • Provide evidence and data to support a claim, issue, or thesis sentence
    • Vary sentence type, length and order to maximize the written message
    • Revise based on peer review, teacher feedback and self-evaluation by adding, deleting, and changing information to improve writing.
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Develop linguistic competency.

Unit 5: Poetry

Students will be able to: 

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Listen actively and speak using appropriate discussion rules with awareness of verbal and nonverbal cues. 
    • Participate as a facilitator and a contributor in a group. 
    • Participate in collaborative discussions with partners building on others’ ideas. 
    • Ask questions to clarify the speaker’s purpose and perspective. 
    • Summarize the main points a speaker makes.
    • Summarize and evaluate group activities.
    • Work respectfully with others and show value for individual contributions.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, expository, persuasive, and reflective with an emphasis on narrative and reflective writing:
    • Engage in writing as a recursive process. 
    • Choose audience and purpose. 
    • Use a variety of prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas. 
    • Organize writing to fit mode or topic. 
    • Select vocabulary and information to enhance the central idea, tone, and voice.
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Choose adverbs to describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. 
    • Use correct spelling for frequently used words.

Extended Standards

In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Participate in group discussions as a listener and a speaker in seminars. 
    • Develop listening/oral communication skills.
    • Make informative and persuasive oral presentations using purposeful structure and visuals.
    • Ask clarifying questions and take notes when listening to a speaker. 
    • Lead and contribute to discussions and viewpoints with others across content areas and in seminars.
    • Engage in discussions with others by exchanging ideas, asking questions, actively listening, and responding thoughtfully to the comments of others.  
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, descriptive, opinion, and expository:
    • Select a topic and develop a plan for writing for a variety of purposes and audiences. 
    • Synthesize author techniques to improve or create a new piece of writing
    • Focus, organize, and elaborate to create an effective message 
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Develop linguistic competency

Unit 6: Content Area Research

Students will be able to: 

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Listen actively and speak using appropriate discussion rules with awareness of verbal and nonverbal cues. 
    • Participate as a facilitator and a contributor in a group. 
    • Participate in collaborative discussions with partners building on others’ ideas. 
    • Ask questions to clarify the speaker’s purpose and perspective.
    • Demonstrate the ability to collaborate with diverse teams.
    • Work respectfully with others and show value for individual contributions.
  • Create multimodal presentations that effectively communicate ideas:
    • Use effective verbal and nonverbal communication skills to deliver multimodal presentations.
    • Use language and vocabulary appropriate to the audience, topic, and purpose. 
    • Give collaborative and individual formal and informal interactive presentations. 
    • Paraphrase and summarize key ideas of a presentation.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, expository, persuasive, and reflective with an emphasis on narrative and reflective writing:
    • Engage in writing as a recursive process.
    • Choose audience and purpose. 
    • Use a variety of prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas. 
    • Organize writing to fit mode or topic. 
    • Establish a central idea incorporating evidence and maintaining an organized structure. 
    • Compose a thesis statement for expository and persuasive writing. 
    • Write multi paragraph compositions with elaboration and unity.
    • Use transition words and phrases.
    • Select vocabulary and information to enhance the central idea, tone, and voice. 
    • Expand and embed ideas by using modifiers, standard coordination, and subordination in complete sentences. 
    • Revise writing for clarity of content including specific vocabulary and information.
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Use correct spelling for frequently used words. 
    • Use subordinating and coordinating conjunctions.
  • Find, evaluate, and select appropriate resources to create a research product:
    • Formulate and revise questions about a research topic. 
    • Collect and organize information from multiple sources. 
    • Evaluate and analyze the validity and credibility of sources. 
    • Cite primary and secondary sources. 
    • Avoid plagiarism by using own words and following ethical and legal guidelines for gathering and using information.
    • Demonstrate ethical use of the Internet.

Extended Standards

In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Participate in group discussions as a listener and a speaker in seminars. 
    • Develop listening/oral communication skills.
    • Articulate understanding of a reading to a partner.
    • State the main ideas or themes of the story.
    • Engage in a dialogue about the meaning of a selection.
    • Make informative and persuasive oral presentations using purposeful structure and visuals. 
    • Ask clarifying questions and take notes when listening to a speaker. 
    • Develop skills of argument formulation in persuasive communication. 
    • Support opinions with examples and details.
    • Engage in discussions with others by exchanging ideas, asking questions, actively listening, and responding thoughtfully to the comments of others.
  • Create and deliver multimodal, interactive presentations:
    • Know the type of information found in various reference materials including atlases, dictionaries, and websites.
    • Participate in group discussions as a listener and a speaker in seminars.
    • Use specific vocabulary to communicate ideas.
    • Ask clarifying questions and take notes when listening to a speaker.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, descriptive, opinion, and expository:
    • Select a topic and develop a plan for writing for a variety of purposes and audiences.
    • Focus, organize, and elaborate to create an effective message. 
    • Synthesize author techniques to improve or create a new piece of writing.
    • Use description, details, and examples.
    • Reflect individuality through word choice and style.
    • Develop persuasive writing skills.
    • Evaluate the effective use of words, sentences, and paragraphs in context.
    • Use the elements of reasoning to develop strong, convincing arguments in persuasive writing.
    • Provide evidence and data to support a claim, issue, or thesis sentence.
    • Vary sentence type, length and order to maximize the written message.
    • Revise based on peer review, teacher feedback and self-evaluation by adding, deleting, and changing information to improve writing.

Unit 7: Historical Fiction: Stories, Diaries, or Letters

Students will be able to: 

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Listen actively and speak using appropriate discussion rules with awareness of verbal and nonverbal cues. 
    • Participate in collaborative discussions with partners building on others’ ideas. 
    • Ask questions to clarify the speaker’s purpose and perspective. 
    • Evaluate own contributions to discussions.
    • Work respectfully with others and show value for individual contributions.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, expository, persuasive, and reflective with an emphasis on narrative and reflective writing:
    • Engage in writing as a recursive process. 
    • Choose audience and purpose. 
    • Use a variety of prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas. 
    • Organize writing to fit mode or topic. 
    • Write narratives to include characters, plot, setting, and point of view. 
    • Write multi paragraph compositions with elaboration and unity.
    • Use transition words and phrases. 
    • Select vocabulary and information to enhance the central idea, tone, and voice.
    • Expand and embed ideas by using modifiers, standard coordination, and subordination in complete sentences.
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Use pronoun-antecedent agreement to include indefinite pronouns. 
    • Use correct spelling for frequently used words.

Extended Standards

In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Participate in group discussions as a listener and a speaker in seminars. 
    • Develop listening/oral communication skills.
    • Articulate understanding of a reading to a partner.
    • State the main ideas or themes of the story.
    • Engage in a dialogue about the meaning of a selection.
    • Make informative and persuasive oral presentations using purposeful structure and visuals. 
    • Ask clarifying questions and take notes when listening to a speaker. 
    • Develop skills of argument formulation in persuasive communication. 
    • Support opinions with examples and details.
    • Engage in discussions with others by exchanging ideas, asking questions, actively listening, and responding thoughtfully to the comments of others.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, descriptive, opinion, and expository:
    • Select a topic and develop a plan for writing for a variety of purposes and audiences.
    • Focus, organize, and elaborate to create an effective message.
    • Synthesize author techniques to improve or create a new piece of writing.
    • Use description, details, and examples.
    • Reflect individuality through word choice and style.
    • Develop persuasive writing skills.
    • Evaluate the effective use of words, sentences, and paragraphs in context.
    • Use the elements of reasoning to develop strong, convincing arguments in persuasive writing.
    • Provide evidence and data to support a claim, issue, or thesis sentence.
    • Vary sentence type, length and order to maximize the written message.
    • Revise based on peer review, teacher feedback and self-evaluation by adding, deleting, and changing information to improve writing.
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Develop linguistic competency.

Unit 8: Persuasive Essay

Students will be able to: 

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Listen actively and speak using appropriate discussion rules with awareness of verbal and nonverbal cues.
    • Participate as a facilitator and a contributor in a group.
    • Participate in collaborative discussions with partners building on others’ ideas. 
    • Ask questions to clarify the speaker’s purpose and perspective.
    • Summarize the main points a speaker makes. 
    • Summarize and evaluate group activities. 
    • Analyze the effectiveness of participant interactions.
    • Evaluate own contributions to discussions.
    • Demonstrate the ability to collaborate with diverse teams.
    • Work respectfully with others and show value for individual contributions.
  • Create multimodal presentations that effectively communicate ideas:
    • Use effective verbal and nonverbal communication skills to deliver multimodal presentations. 
    • Use language and vocabulary appropriate to the audience, topic, and purpose. 
    • Give collaborative and individual formal and informal interactive presentations. 
    • Paraphrase and summarize key ideas of a presentation.
  • Determine the purpose of media messages and examine how they are constructed: 
    • Compare and contrast techniques used in a variety of media messages. 
    • Identify the characteristics and effectiveness of a variety of media messages. 
    • Interpret information presented in diverse media formats and explain how it contributes to the topic. 
    • Craft and publish audience-specific media messages.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, expository, persuasive, and reflective with an emphasis on narrative and reflective writing:
    • Engage in writing as a recursive process. 
    • Choose audience and purpose. 
    • Use a variety of prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas. 
    • Organize writing to fit mode or topic. 
    • Write narratives to include characters, plot, setting, and point of view.
    • Establish a central idea incorporating evidence and maintaining an organized structure. 
    • Compose a thesis statement for expository and persuasive writing. 
    • Write multi paragraph compositions with elaboration and unity. 
    • Use transition words and phrases.
    • Select vocabulary and information to enhance the central idea, tone, and voice. 
    • Expand and embed ideas by using modifiers, standard coordination, and subordination in complete sentences. 
    • Revise writing for clarity of content including specific vocabulary and information.
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Eliminate double negatives.
    • Use correct spelling for frequently used words.
  • Find, evaluate, and select appropriate resources to create a research product: 
    • Formulate and revise questions about a research topic.
    • Collect and organize information from multiple sources. 
    • Evaluate and analyze the validity and credibility of sources. 
    • Cite primary and secondary sources.
    • Avoid plagiarism by using own words and following ethical and legal guidelines for gathering and using information.
    • Demonstrate ethical use of the Internet.

Extended Standards

In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Participate in group discussions as a listener and a speaker in seminars. 
    • Develop listening/oral communication skills.
    • Articulate understanding of a reading to a partner.
    • State the main ideas or themes of the story.
    • Engage in a dialogue about the meaning of a selection.
    • Make informative and persuasive oral presentations using purposeful structure and visuals. 
    • Ask clarifying questions and take notes when listening to a speaker. 
    • Develop skills of argument formulation in persuasive communication. 
    • Support opinions with examples and details.
    • Engage in discussions with others by exchanging ideas, asking questions, actively listening, and responding thoughtfully to the comments of others.
  • Create and deliver multimodal, interactive presentations:
    • Know the type of information found in various reference materials including atlases, dictionaries, and websites.
    • Participate in group discussions as a listener and a speaker in seminars. 
    • Use specific vocabulary to communicate ideas.
    • Ask clarifying questions and take notes when listening to a speaker.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, descriptive, opinion, and expository:
    • Select a topic and develop a plan for writing for a variety of purposes and audiences. 
    • Focus, organize, and elaborate to create an effective message. 
    • Synthesize author techniques to improve or create a new piece of writing.
    • Use description, details, and examples.
    • Reflect individuality through word choice and style.
    • Develop persuasive writing skills.
    • Evaluate the effective use of words, sentences, and paragraphs in context.
    • Use the elements of reasoning to develop strong, convincing arguments in persuasive writing. 
    • Provide evidence and data to support a claim, issue, or thesis sentence.
    • Vary sentence type, length and order to maximize the written message.
    • Revise based on peer review, teacher feedback and self-evaluation by adding, deleting, and changing information to improve writing.
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Develop linguistic competency.

Unit 9: Independent Writing Projects

Students will be able to: 

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Listen actively and speak using appropriate discussion rules with awareness of verbal and nonverbal cues.
    • Participate as a facilitator and a contributor in a group.
    • Participate in collaborative discussions with partners building on others’ ideas. 
    • Ask questions to clarify the speaker’s purpose and perspective. 
    • Summarize the main points a speaker makes. 
    • Work respectfully with others and show value for individual contributions.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, expository, persuasive, and reflective with an emphasis on narrative and reflective writing:
    • Engage in writing as a recursive process. 
    • Choose audience and purpose. 
    • Use a variety of prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas. 
    • Organize writing to fit mode or topic. 
    • Establish a central idea incorporating evidence and maintaining an organized structure.
    • Use transition words and phrases. 
    • Select vocabulary and information to enhance the central idea, tone, and voice. 
    • Expand and embed ideas by using modifiers, standard coordination, and subordination in complete sentences.
    • Revise writing for clarity of content including specific vocabulary and information.
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Use correct spelling for frequently used words.
    • Use subordinating and coordinating conjunctions.

Extended Standards

In addition to the Virginia Standards of Learning above, students who receive full-time Advanced Academic (AAP Level IV) Services engage with these extensions.

  • Use effective oral communication skills in a variety of settings:
    • Ask clarifying questions and take notes when listening to a speaker. 
    • Engage in discussions with others by exchanging ideas, asking questions, actively listening, and responding thoughtfully to the comments of others.
    • Participate in group discussions as a listener and speaker in seminars. 
    • Lead and contribute to discussions and viewpoints with others across content areas and in seminars.
    • Engage in discussions with others by exchanging ideas, asking questions, actively listening, and responding thoughtfully to the comments of others.
  • Write in a variety of forms to include narrative, descriptive, opinion, and expository:
    • Select a topic and develop a plan for writing for a variety of purposes and audiences. 
    • Focus, organize, and elaborate to create an effective message.
    • Synthesize author techniques to improve or create a new piece of writing.
    • Use description, details, and examples.
    • Reflect individuality through word choice and style.
    • Develop persuasive writing skills. 
    • Evaluate the effective use of words, sentences, and paragraphs in context.
    • Use the elements of reasoning to develop strong, convincing arguments in persuasive writing.
    • Provide evidence and data to support a claim, issue, or thesis sentence. 
    • Vary sentence type, length and order to maximize the written message.
    • Use descriptive details and examples.
    • Evaluate the effective use of words, sentences, and paragraphs in context.
    • Revise based on peer review, teacher feedback and self-evaluation by adding, deleting, and changing information to improve writing.
  • Self- and peer-edit writing for capitalization, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraphing, and Standard English:
    • Develop linguistic competency

Virginia Department of Education Resources

Assessments

Student assessments are part of the teaching and learning process.

  • Teachers give assessments to students on an ongoing basis to
    • Check for understanding 
    • Gather information about students' knowledge or skills.
  • Assessments provide information about a child's development of knowledge and skills that can help families and teachers better plan for the next steps in instruction.

For testing questions or additional information about how schools and teachers use test results to support student success, families can contact their children's schools.

In Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), grade 3 tests focus on measuring content knowledge and skill development.

Looking for other grade 6 information?