Grades 5 to 6 - Making Connections

Fifth and sixth grade students begin to experiment with their writing in order to make an impact on their audience. As they gain confidence in their ability to express themselves, they feel more comfortable taking risks. Students practice manipulating subjects and predicates to vary their sentence style. They integrate dialogue in order to flesh out a character or add quotations to drive home a point. They play with the sequence of paragraphs to see what order works best. This experimentation helps students to make connections between ideas and pull together and use what they have learned about writing. Skills that fifth and sixth grade students practice include the development of a theme/argument and the proper formatting and structure of paragraphs.

Introductory Module:

• Getting Started

Core Skill Modules:

• Focus (topic development)
• Showing
• Sentence Mechanics and Usage I
• Sentence Mechanics and Usage II
• Dialogue and Evidence I
• Setting and Context I
• Logical Structure I
• Logical Structure II

Core Genre Modules:

• Personal Essay
• Short Story
• Response to Literature

Additional Skill Modules:

• Strong Verbs
• Sensory Detail
• Character Development
• Verb Tense
• Subject Verb Agreement I
• Subject Verb Agreement II
• Setting and Context II
• Dialogue and Evidence II
• Punctuating and Formatting Quotations