ELA- Grade 6
Year-at-a-Glance
Short Stories / Narrative Structure
Notice and Note Strategies for Close Reading (Beers and Probst)
Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech / Novel Unit: quests “Every Trip is Quest (Except When It’s Not)” / grief/ frame story / sketchnoting
Novel in Verse/Poetry Unit: Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson / selected poems
Literature Circles/ Diverse Voices and Experiences “Windows and Mirrors”
Ongoing: independent reading, 1 independent book project (IBP) assigned per term, book groups as appropriate, grammar, writing process
Core Texts:
“Thank You, Ma’am” by Langston Hughes
“All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury
Walk Two Moons Sharon Creech
Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson
Selected Poems (a sampling):
“Mother to Son” and “Dream” by Langston Hughes
“Hope is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson
“Cliché” by Billy Collins
“All the world’s a stage” (excerpt from As You Like It)
Assorted odes by Gary Soto and Pablo Neruda
“Ozymandias” Percy Bysshe Shelley
Short Stories (a sampling):
“What Do Fish Have to Do with Anything?” by Avi, “The Bracelet” by Yoshiko Uchida, “Ta-Na-E-Ka” by Mary Whitebird, “The Dog of Pompeii” by Louis Untermeyer, “Stray” by Cynthia Rylant, “Everything Will Be Okay” by James Howe, “La Bamba” by Gary Soto
“The Wimp of Sparta” Gordon Korman “The All-American Slurp” by Lensey Namioka
“Sweet Difficult Sounds” I.M. Desta “Suzy and Leah” Jane Yolen “The Fun They Had” Isaac Asimov “The Stone” Lloyd Alexander “Museum” Naomi Shihab Nye “Thank You, M’am” Langston Hughes “All Summer in a Day” Ray Bradbury
Literature Circles:
Refugee by Alan Gratz
Shooting Kabul by NH Senzai
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
I am Malala, Young Reader’s Edition by Malala Yousefsi
Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson
Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac
Holes by Louis Sachar
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
Core 6th Grade Skills
Reading
Developing strategies for independence
Making inferences about character traits and motivation
Analyzing theme
Analyzing author’s craft (figurative language, word choice, purpose, basic symbolism)
Locating (the best) evidence to support an idea
Using structure of narrative and informational texts to support comprehension
Poetry: Poetry is for everyone.
Students will feel ownership and pride for their own poetry.
Key terms and vocabulary:
Form & sound:
rhyme scheme
lines, stanzas
Onomatopoeia
alliteration
Imagery:
sensory details
Metaphor & simile
Personification
hyperbole
Deeper meaning:
Symbolism
theme
Skills: Students will be able to…
Interpret words and phrases to analyze for meaning and tone.
Analyze how part of a poem fits into the overall structure and develops the theme, setting, or plot.
Understand and interpret figurative language in context.
Writing
Defending a claim with textual evidence
Primarily paragraph responses, developing to longer essays by end of year
Personal narrative writing, argument writing, compare/contrast writing, and literary analysis
Some opportunities for poetry and creative writing throughout the year (not a major focus except through choice projects)
Grammar
Parts of a sentence (subject, verb, object, modifiers)
Pronouns
Commas
Sentence combining / varying sentence structure
As Middle School Students
Apply reading / writing skills across all curricular areas
Giving and receiving constructive criticism
Developing more sophisticated discussion techniques