Final answer:
The most effective skill for the 6th-grade teacher to focus on would be identifying the independent clause at the heart of a sentence. This skill can help students understand the overall meaning and structure of complex sentences, analyze sentence structure, and identify and correct sentence fragments and run-on sentences.
Step-by-step explanation:
The most effective skill for the 6th-grade teacher to focus on would be identifying the independent clause at the heart of a sentence. This skill is important because the independent clause is the main idea or complete thought in a sentence, and understanding it can help students grasp the overall meaning and structure of complex sentences.
By identifying the independent clause, students can better comprehend how the other clauses and phrases in the sentence are related to it. This skill can also help students analyze sentence structure and identify phrases that may be modifying the independent clause.
Additionally, recognizing the independent clause can aid students in determining the subject and predicate of a sentence, as well as identifying and correcting sentence fragments and run-on sentences.