Core Subjects

The English 6 course uses the StudySync Grade 6 Curriculum. Each of the six units (Testing our Limits, You and Me, In the Dark, Personal Best, Making Your Mark, and True to Yourself) include lesson sequences and materials structured to meet the Common Core State Standards in meaningful ways and to provide flexibility for a range of learners. Formative assessments in each unit are designed to measure student progress towards mastering focus indicators for the processes and content of English. StudySync is a comprehensive English Language Arts curriculum that is designed for all 21st century learners. StudySync combines print books with a digital platform for reading and writing. Students will have their own online digital binder where they will receive their assignments, store their writing, and receive teacher and peer reviews.

English 6 for ELs 1 & 2

Double period class that focuses on StudySync 6th grade curriculum coupled with English Language development in order to meet the Common Core State Standards. .

English 6 for ELs 3

Single period class that uses the StudySync 6th grade curriculum and language supports in order to meet the Common Core State Standards.

The daily physical education program offers a comprehensive and well-balanced series of instructional activities. At each grade level, there are six focus areas: Exercise Physiology, Biomechanics, Personal and Social Responsibility, Fitness, Physical Activity and Motor Learning. The six focus areas are taught throughout the year in the following units: net games, invasion games, striking activities, conditioning and physical fitness, and dance. Team sports and individual sports game tactics and fundamental skills are taught throughout the units. Students are assigned a locker with a lock for their clothes. Each student is expected to change into approved P.E. attire, i.e., shorts, t-shirts, sweats/warm-ups, and proper shoes.

Comprehensive health education is taught for a term of 9-weeks during Grade 6. Knowledge, concepts, skills, and strategies essential to making healthful decisions are presented promoting lifelong health and well-being. Certified Health Education teachers implement a variety of learning activities to promote and practice wellness skills and health literacy. The development of lifelong positive health-related attitudes and behaviors are emphasized to promote self-reliance and self-regulation. Skills include accessing information, decision-making, goal setting, communication skills, analyzing influences, and advocacy.

Key Concepts

• Mental and emotional health - personal well-being; analyzing influences; accessing information; interpersonal communication; decision making; goal setting; managing emotions; stress-management; advocacy.

• Alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs - benefits of a drug-free lifestyle.

• Personal and consumer health - personal hygiene; health care products.

• Safety and injury prevention - media, technology, and harassment; cyber-bullying and bullying; personal safety; first aid and emergency response.

The NGSS aligned Investigations in Earth Science course provides opportunities for students to engage in science and engineering practices and apply crosscutting concepts to deepen their understanding of core ideas across science disciplines. The curriculum is phenomena-based; instruction is woven around a relevant problem/project that drives student learning. Students apply their understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to propose solutions to problems. Instruction provides opportunities for hands-on explorations, productive discourse, and purposeful reading and writing. The course starts with a foundational approach to science instruction to develop student skills in the metric system, scientific method, and science and engineering practices, taught through the lens of stream ecology. Additional units include weather and climate, earth’s materials and processes, natural resources, and geologic history. Students are awarded 10 SSL hours for participating in activities built into the course.

Investigations in Earth Science

Unit 1: Watershed Science

Unit 2: Atmospheric Phenomena

Unit 3: Dynamic Earth

Unit 4: Earth’s Geologic Past

Unit 5: Earth’s Energy Resources and Human Impacts

Students learn about the rich culture and history from the earliest human settlements of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and China to great civilizations of the year 1000 CE. Students are challenged to analyze archeological evidence, ask questions to further their knowledge, and understand history as an ongoing investigation. They are introduced to historical thinking skills including sourcing, close reading, corroboration, and research as they analyze primary and secondary documents. This course lays a foundation for students to understand key principles of cultural, political, economic and geographic systems both in the past and today.

This course is built around the core Grade 6 social studies curriculum, Historical Inquiry in World Studies 6, that includes historical content from early civilizations, the empires of Greece and Rome, the dynasties of China, and civilizations of the first millennium.

Cohort students will go beyond this core as they learn additional content, explore deeper connections to today, engage in investigative inquiry to strengthen their writing through Document Based Questions, and enhance their learning through relevant literature connections. They will also participate in a culminating Model UN simulation at the end of the year. Students will be enrolled in this course based on teacher recommendation and/or assessment data.

Grade 6 is a year of exciting mathematics. Students study ratio and rate, learn to divide fractions by fractions, extend their understanding of numbers to include negative numbers, and understand and use variables, to name just some of the major work of this year. This course unfolds across 9 units that range in length from about 16 to 22 days. Grade 6 begins with a unit on reasoning about area and understanding and applying concepts of surface area. It is common to begin the year by reviewing the arithmetic learned in previous grades, but starting instead with a mathematical idea that students haven’t seen before sets up opportunities for students to surprise the teacher and themselves with the connections they make.

This course extends students’ understanding of mathematical concepts developed in Math 6 and accelerates the pace of instruction to prepare for Algebra 1. This course compacts all of the Grade 7 and 8 Common Core State Standards into a single year. Students who successfully complete AIM are prepared for Algebra 1. AIM will focus on four critical areas: (1) developing a unified understanding of a number, recognizing fractions, decimals (including both those that have a finite or a repeating decimal representation), and percents as different representations of rational numbers; (2) using linear equations and systems of linear equations to represent, analyze, and solve a variety of problems; (3) comparing two data distributions and reasoning about differences between populations; (4) analyzing geometric relationships in order to solve real-world mathematical problems.

Topics of Study:

• Rational Numbers and Exponents

• Proportionality and Linear Relationships

• Statistics and Probability

• Creating, Comparing, and Analyzing Geometric Figures

AIM is designed to extend students' understanding of mathematical concepts aligned with Common Core State Standards, accelerating the pace of instruction while diving deeper into concepts.

The Illustrative Mathematics AMP Courses compact 3 on-grade level courses, Math 6 – 8, into two coursework-years completed in Grade 6 and Grade 7. AMP6+ is offered to 6th graders and is a pre-requisite for AMP7+ as a 7th grader. AMP6+ provides cyclical & connected instruction on Math 6 - 8 standard threads. Rather than completing an entire grade level course at an accelerated pace and then moving into the subsequent grade level course and cycling through the standards again, the AMP6+ course aligns math standards from each grade level to be instructed together.