6th Grade English Language Arts
Pacing Guide & Standards
6th Grade Year at a Glance (Pacing Guide)-This is the outline of the year for 6th grade ELA. Teachers are expected to follow these units and stick to the pacing as closely as possible. Students should be assessed for mastery on all priority standards. (Updated December 2014)
6th Grade Missouri Learning Standards
6th Grade Missouri Learning Standards
- Standards Website
- 6th Grade Standards Placemat-All 6th grade standards on one ledger size piece of paper.
Writing Workshop
Writing Workshop Units of Study: Use your Lucy Calkins Units of Study for Writing Kit to teach writers workshop.
Writing Assessment: Students should be assessed in writing workshop using the on-demand writing prompts included in your Writing Kit (they are in the Writing Pathways book). All students should be pre-assessed at the beginning of the year on all three strands of writing (Narrative, Informational, Opinion/Argument), and then post-assessed at the end of each writing unit using the on-demand prompt that matches the unit that was taught. Teachers should also conduct informal assessment of students writing through conferencing and keep an ongoing record of these conferences.
Writing Workshop Resources:
- Unit 1: Narrative Writing-Personal Narrative: Crafting Powerful Life Stories
- Unit 2: Argumentative Writing-The Literary Essay: From Character to Compare & Contrast
- Unit 3: Informational Writing-Research Based Informational Writing-Books, Websites, & Presentations
- Unit 4: Poetry-Immersion & Innovation (from If, Then Curriculum book in kit)
- Unit 5: Argumentative Essay-Crafting a Call to Action from Informational Evidence (from If, Then Curriculum book in kit)
Writing Assessment: Students should be assessed in writing workshop using the on-demand writing prompts included in your Writing Kit (they are in the Writing Pathways book). All students should be pre-assessed at the beginning of the year on all three strands of writing (Narrative, Informational, Opinion/Argument), and then post-assessed at the end of each writing unit using the on-demand prompt that matches the unit that was taught. Teachers should also conduct informal assessment of students writing through conferencing and keep an ongoing record of these conferences.
Writing Workshop Resources:
- Units of Study for Writing CDs- Because many of the district computers do not have CD drives, we have placed the contents of the CDs that were included in the writing kits here for use by those that have writing kits. Tip: Download the entire file for your grade level onto your computer and then open the file labeled "start"...it will take you to a navigation page that makes accessing the resources seamless. It's a great idea to print out all of the resources and put them into a 1/2" binder for each unit.
- Videos of Reading and Writing Workshop in Action
Reading Workshop
Reading Workshop Units of Study: Use the units below for reading workshop, beginning in 2015-2016. These units are based on the 6th Grade Curricular Calendar for Reading Workshop each unit below breaks apart the units included in this book to provide support and guidance in teaching the units.
Reading Assessments:
Reading Resources:
- Unit 1: Building A Reading Life
- Unit 2: Agency & Independence
- Unit 3: Investigating Characters Across Series
- Unit 4: Developing Analytical Lenses for Informational Reading
- Unit 5: Nonfiction Research Clubs-Tackling Complex Texts
- Unit 6: Social Issues Book Clubs
Reading Assessments:
- STAR Reading-Should be used at each benchmark period. It can be used more frequently for progress monitoring of students scoring below grade level.
- Running Record Assessments: Students should be assessed using running records at least by the end of the 2014-2015 school year so that this information can be sent to their teacher for the fall.
Reading Resources:
- Every building has a leveled library. Pull from this often!
- Videos of Reading and Writing Workshop in Action
Word Work
Sight Words:
- Sight Words-Sight word lists and assessments for students in K-2. Students in 3rd grade and above, that have not mastered all sight words, should continue to work on the sight word list until they have mastered all words.
Additional Components of Balanced Literacy
Interactive Read Aloud-This is a time when the teacher reads a piece of quality writing aloud to the whole class and stops at planned points to think aloud (model comprehension work for students) or to ask questions that elicit student response. Students learn to think deeply about text, to listen to others, and to grow their own ideas. The teacher models metacognitive reading strategies, provides opportunities for students to practice the strategy and invites students to participate in a grand (whole class) conversation about the text following the read aloud. During the interactive read aloud, students should engage in accountable talk. Accountable talk is when, at points during the read aloud, students turn and talk to a partner to discuss their thoughts and ideas about the text. Questions posed for turn and talk should be open ended and thought provoking.
- Purpose: To get kids ready for books clubs in Grades 2-6; Gets kids to think and talk deeply about text; Gives us a toolbox of texts to use with conferring later
- Schedule: 10-15 min/day