FCPS Grade 6 Mechanics and Usage Anchor Annotations ...

Usage and Mechanics
Grade 6

Anchor Annotations

4-H Camp - Proficient, 4

• Simple, compound, and complex sentences are consistently correct
• Standard word order throughout
• Consistently expands and embeds ideas
• Verb tense consistently correct
• Subject/verb agreement consistently correct
• Pronoun usage consistently correct
• Plurals consistently correct
• No double negatives used
• Adjectives and adverbs used correctly and effectively
• Punctuation used correctly including advanced punctuation such as ellipses and

semicolons
• Capitalization consistently correct
• Paragraphs consistently delineated
• Spelling consistently correct throughout

A Fearsome Beast – Basic, 3

• Uses a variety of complete sentences with occasional errors
• Uses standard word order most of the time; an occasional error (“I staggered

backward, so shocked of seeing a black bear…”)
• Expands and embeds ideas correctly most of the time; an occasional error (“ My

mom and dad sprinted again to the doorway and slammed and locked the door
with a key.”)
• Verb tense correct; an occasional error (“But I don’t think I would be able to sleep
tonight.”)
• Pronoun-antecedent agreement most of the time; an occasional error (“Ohhh,
black bear cubs! It’s round, black eyes…)
• Adjectives used correctly/no use of adverbs
• Uses appropriate punctuation; occasional errors
• Uses commas correctly most of the time, although some necessary commas are
missing
• Uses apostrophes correctly most of the time; occasional error (“It’s round, black
eyes…)
• Dialogue correctly punctuated most of the time; occasional error (“I stammered,
there was a B-B-Black Bear!!!’”)
• Capitals used correctly; occasional error (“Black Bear”)
• Proper nouns capitalized; no use of proper adjectives

Fairfax County Public Schools, 2013

Usage and Mechanics, Grade 6
Anchor Annotations
Page Two

A Fearsome Beast – Basic, 3 (continued)
• Paragraphs delineated correctly most of the time; occasional error when
formatting dialogue
• Hyphens used incorrectly (“nervousne-ss”; “tonigh-t”)
• Frequently used words spelled correctly
• Homophones/homonyms spelled correctly (“through”; “there”; “threw”)
• Content and challenging vocabulary spelled correctly (“bellowing”; “stammered”;
“staggered”; “nervousness”)

Giant – Partial, 2

• Uses a variety of sentences, but many run-ons and fragments
• Some confusion about standard word order (“…my dad told me and my brother is

we want to go fishing”)
• Attempts to expand or embed ideas; overuses “so”
• Some confusion about verb tense (“So I was waiting about 10 minutes and I

think…”; “…disappoint’ did”)
• Some first person pronouns incorrect (“…told me and my brother…”)
• Limited use of adjectives (“…big fish”; “…big greenish fish”) and a single use of

an adverb (“…she was really happy for me.”)
• Attempts to use punctuation; many errors
• Some commas missing
• Apostrophes used correctly some of the time (“let’s”; “that’s”)
• Attempts to punctuate dialogue, but is incomplete (“…’oh no’ we all said.”)
• Some paragraphs delineated
• One incorrect use of hyphen (“…sm-all…”)
• Dialogue not formatted correctly
• Some frequently used words misspelled (“frist”; “in stad” for instead; “of” for off)
• Attempts challenging vocabulary; some sound/symbol relationship demonstrated

(“tos” for toss; “railt” for “reel it in”)

#9 – Minimal, 1

• Fragments and frequent run-on sentences
• Significant confusion about standard word order (“When we got there a lot of

people taking photos…)
• Uses excessive coordination (“but” “but”), used twice in same sentence
• Very limited use of adjectives; no adverbs
• Most punctuation missing or used incorrectly (e.g., period placed on next line

which is not standard formatting)
• Commas missing

Fairfax County Public Schools, 2013

Usage and Mechanics, Grade 6
Anchor Annotations
Page Three
#9 – Minimal, 1 (continued)

• No use of apostrophes
• Quotation marks with internal punctuation missing
• Many capitals missing; some random capitalization
• Capitalization of proper nouns missing
• No delineation of paragraphs
• Frequently used words misspelled (“becuase”)
• Challenging words have some sound/symbol relationship (“vidiotaping” for

videotaping; “faild” for failed; “perfshinal” for professional); does not
consistently apply knowledge of spelling strategies (“faild,” “videotaping”)

Fairfax County Public Schools, 2013

Fairfax County Public Schools, 2013

Fairfax County Public Schools, 2013

Fairfax County Public Schools, 2013

Fairfax County Public Schools, 2013

Fairfax County Public Schools, 2013

Fairfax County Public Schools, 2013