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6th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 13 of 17

Plan & Organize Writing

Choose a topic, plan, and organize ideas in paragraphs.

What your child practices

Practices choosing a focused topic for an audience, planning with organizers, using organization patterns such as cause and effect, and building introductions, paragraphs and conclusions.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 6W2 · planning informational writing and organizing it in paragraphs and text patterns

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Choose a focused topic and think about your audience.
  2. Organize ideas in a pattern: chronological (time order), cause and effect, or compare and contrast.
  3. A paragraph has a main idea with supporting details: facts, examples or reasons.

Example: A text tells how a seed grows from planting to flower. Which pattern fits? It follows steps in time. Time order is a chronological sequence. Answer: Chronological sequence

Plan & Organize Writing in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 13 of 17 in 6th grade English Language Arts, after Spelling: Endings and Sound-Alikes and before Media, Bias & Diversity.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    A paragraph groups…

    • every idea in the report
    • all the titles
    • sentences about one main idea

  2. Question 2

    Notetaking is best done…

    • by copying whole pages
    • in your own words, with the key ideas
    • by drawing doodles only

  3. Question 3

    What does the introduction do?

    • Ends the story
    • Tells the reader what the text is about and draws them in
    • Lists the spelling errors

  4. Question 4

    A text that shows how frogs and toads are alike and different uses…

    • cause and effect
    • compare and contrast
    • time order

  5. Question 5

    A text that tells how a seed grows from planting to flower fits which pattern?

    • Description only
    • Chronological sequence
    • Problem and solution

  6. Question 6

    You find two sources that disagree about a fact. What should you do?

    • Ignore the topic
    • Choose the shorter one
    • Check a third reliable source

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