GRADE 6 ELA INSTRUCTIONAL FOCUS

The following grade-level resource page is designed to follow the GCR2 ELA Resource Graphic:
  • Priority & Supporting Standards - Tells us what essential knowledge, skills and strategies must be acquired at each grade- PS helps teachers prioritize.
  • Literacy Blueprint - Describes a Balanced Literacy Model for designing your block of ELA instruction and explains the district philosophy.
  • ELA Modules - Clusters the standards in a way that makes sense across the year.
  • Mentor Texts and Close Reading Passages - Supports all teachers in designing ELA lessons using identified high quality texts aligned to MLS and our students needs.
  • Module Lesson Maps - Provides teachers with a sequenced description of lessons aligned to our modules, using our Mentor Texts, and suggesting standards and ideas for instruction.
  • Assessments - Provides us with information as to whether our students are acquiring the knowledge skills and strategies we are teaching and informs our instructional decisions.
  • Standards-Based Education - Individual standards (highlights denote power standards) with rubrics and KUDs (Documents that describe what students need to know, understand, and be able to do to meet each standard.

PRIORITY & SUPPORT STANDARDS

The following resources have been developed and/or gathered to support Sixth Grade teachers as they implement the Missouri Learning Standards in 2015-2016. Just click on the links below to access these documents.
Sixth Grade “I Can” Statements were designed for teachers to post daily classroom objectives one at a time and standards that are spread out over a number of pages.  Standards flow one to the next. Some teachers have chosen to make them into posters and highlight the day’s learning target with a clothespin or large arrow cut-out. Another idea to help with the organization of all of these posters is to put them on a binder ring so that they can easily be flipped through and displayed each day.

LITERACY BLUEPRINT

The following document was designed for classroom teachers, instructional coaches, and school administrators to provide a vision and structure for  literacy instruction. 

ELA MODULES

Each grade level has a proposed curriculum map of the ELA standards divided into 4 Modules (or chunks) of instruction spanning the school year. These modules are detailed in the chart below. You might consider shortening each module into 4-5 weeks and cycling through 2 rounds, the first as an introduction and the second taking it deeper. This will ensure that all standards are covered prior to state testing.
  •  NEW 6th Grade Module Overviews – Coming Summer 2015

MENTOR TEXTS AND CLOSE READING PASSAGES

Mentor Texts and Toolkit for 2015-2016 
  • Sixth Grade Mentor Text List
  • Ideas for Sixth Grade Mentor Texts
  • Sixth Grade Science Mentor Texts
  • Sixth Grade DOK by standard
The “Toolkit” that follows is a collection of resources filtered from various web sites. Word documents were maintained whenever possible. While these do not directly relate to our Mentor Texts and Close Reading passages they are strong examples for you to use or modify with your grade level text selections in order to support CCSS and the inherent rigor.
  • Tools 
  • Handouts 
  • Checklists 

MODULE LESSON MAPS 

The following modules were created as sample curriculum maps at each grade level. The modules include all the English Language Arts Common Core standards. Our goal was to show how the priority and supporting standards from all ELA areas (reading, writing, listening/speaking, language and the foundational skills at Elementary) can be spread throughout the year but grouped in a logical fashion. Although there are “focus” standards for each module they are designed to build upon the previous one(s) so that by the end of the year all standards have been addressed and the priority standards assessed in appropriate levels of text. Focus standards may be introduced in a module however the teacher will make the decision as to when students will be assessed. Students continue to have multiple opportunities to show they have met the standards throughout the year in various venues including whole group, small group, or individually.

Each module is designed to last approximately 8 weeks and might include 1-3 smaller units. You’ll notice that the module designers chose some standards that they felt should be addressed in all modules. These standards are contained within the section titled “Yearlong Skill Development.”  While Section 1 of the map could be used with any rich content, Section 2 was created as an example as to how a teacher or team might take the curriculum map and integrate the ELA standards with specific content such as a social studies or science unit, or even a literature study. We invite you to use this template “as is” or as a springboard for your own curriculum map or module creation. 
MODULES
Module 1: Close Reading and Writing to learn/ Launching Readers and Writers Workshop
  • In this module students begin to closely read literary and informational text and respond in writing. In reading students will focus on elements of plots. Their careful focus on the narrative writing and figurative language standards should begin to incorporate different types of media. The unit integrates reading, writing, language and speaking/listening standards as students examine the mentor texts’ elements of plot, characters, setting, theme, structure, etc. and practice these in performance narrative writing tasks. Teachers also introduce yearlong standards in vocabulary, writing process, and language conventions. 
Module 2: Developing critical readers, writers, and thinkers of narrative text
    • In this module, students thoroughly examine text to see its underlying structure and make inferences about what the text says. Writing ramps up to include a three page presentation using technology and grounded in text evidence. While writing, students will concentrate on focusing on their topics, and organizing their text for purpose and task. They revisit the usage language standards as well as examining evidence presented in text and distinguishing whether a claim presented is backed by evidence or not. 
    Module 3: Learning Through Research
    • In this module students will examine author’s purposes for writing, gathering and evaluating evidence, researching reasons for writing and understanding points of view in text, and an author’s culture and perspective. Readers begin to examine why authors say what they say in both informational and literary, pulling information that is credible and finally conducting a short research project based on a question.  
    Module 4: Forming Positions
    • In the final module, students are able to compare and contrast themes across author’s, texts, genres and formats and use this information for a position paper. They are able to evaluate information presented, and are equipped to answer evaluative questions. They can confidently support their opinions and present their ideas using technology, language, writing and discussions to make a complete, well-written position paper.

      EQ  Idea: How can I make difference? 
    UNITS OF STUDY
    Launching Readers Workshop
    Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair; Extreme Animals: The Toughest Creatures on Earth; Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez; Richard Wright and the Library Card; Sad Underwear and Other Complications: More Poems for Children and their Parents; Shelf Life: Stories by the Book
    Launching Writers Workshop
    Hey World, here I Am!; Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow; This Is Just to Say: : 

    STANDARDS-BASED EDUCATION

    Individual standards (highlights denote power standards) with rubrics and KUDs (Documents that describe what students need to know, understand, and be able to do to meet each standard.