In sixth grade we work through four primary modes of writing: descriptive writing, research writing, story writing, and persuasive essay. We typically have a fifth mode at Lux in our final quarter, which is biography.
In each mode we have minilessons to teach the techniques we are introducing or reviewing, quick writes so students write each day and practice the technique we are working with, teacher-student writing conferences to support individual students as writing is taking place, and process writing. In process writing we prewrite, draft, revise, edit, and publish a piece of writing in the mode that we are working with in that quarter.
In writing, we use the Six Traits framework. The six traits inlcude: Ideas (what the piece is about), Organization (the structure of the writing), Voice (getting the author’s personality into the writing), Word Choice (the use of rich, colorful and precise language), Sentence Fluency (the flow and rhythm of the phrases and sentences), and Conventions (the spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and paragraphing).