Teaching sixth graders how to write an essay is a significant challenge in and of itself. Teaching them to write an essay based on a quote is even more of challenge because of the potential narrowness of the topic. Sixth graders tend to have shorter attention spans than older students and must be taught to focus and how to research the context of the quote in order to produce an accurate analysis in their essay.

Instruct your class to research the quote. Knowing how to write an essay from a quote requires that the students fully understand the context from which the quote comes. If the quote is from a historical figure, teach your students how to examine the historical context of the quote based on readings from a basic history text and other information gathered through basic Internet searches. If the quote comes from fiction, many of these same rules still apply. Instruct your students to do additional reading on the background of the fictional work and the author.

Provide your students with a list of questions to ask as they read their research source material. Questions to ask can include: What is the source of the quote? Is it from a real person or a fictional one? What is the historical context of the quote? What is the immediate context (within the book or other literary work) of the quote? What do you think the quote means? Why do you think this to be the case? All of these questions can guide your students as they write their essays.

Teach your students how to construct an outline of the information they have gathered. The outline should help them organize their thoughts and put the essay into a coherent form. You will also need to instruct them on how to write a basic thesis statement. This statement should be included in the introduction of the outline and then the essay. The outline should be framed by an introduction and a conclusion, around a body of about three major points the student wishes to make about the quote.

Show the students how to begin writing their essays based on the outline. Show them how the introduction states the main thesis and the body of the essay provides at least three supporting facts. The supporting facts can include biographical information about the author or speaker quoted, the context in which it was spoken or written and its significance.

Conclude your lesson by instructing your students in how to write a conclusion. Explain to them that the conclusion should summarize the thesis and the main points of their essay. Their conclusion should reiterate what has already been stated.