1. 6th Grade Language Arts and Social Studies Program

2. Integrated Vocabulary
LANGUAGE ARTS
Reading
Writing
Integrated Grammar
Integrated Vocabulary

3. Reading

4. Reading Reader’s Workshop Whole class stories Reading Comprehension
Teaching the reader; skills based instruction
Whole class stories
Reading Comprehension
Reader’s responses such as inference, connect, predict
Noticing patterns across story elements
Critical Thinking Skills such as
Inference, analyzing, synthesizing, finding theme
Read and discuss (Socratic Seminars) elements of literature
Written analysis of literature
Note and Notice for literature…active reading
Lot’s on this slide, acknowledge and move on to just one or two.

5. Workshop Model in Reading
Student choice, teacher conferring, and skills application in right-fit book allow teachers to meet your student where they are.
Make point that workshop model lends itself to rigor and differentiation. You can be sure that choosing traditional path

6. Focus skills across LA and SS in 6th grade:
WRITING
Focus skills across LA and SS in 6th grade:
Claim/Main Idea
Document based Evidence and analysis
Language/Vocabulary
Style/Organization
Writer’s Workshop
Teaching the writer
Strategy and skills based
Narrative Writing
Explanatory Writing
Argumentative Writing

7. Independent Reading!
Students will be expected to read independently outside of school.
How reading will be assessed in Language Arts:
Book chats
Reading logs
Plot mountains
Note and Notice
Reading Projects

9. 6th Grade Social Studies
Curriculum aligned with Common Core Standards
Curriculum Focus: Ancient Civilizations
How did geography influence ancient civilizations?
Emphasis on source analysis (articles, maps, images)
What text explicitly states or shows
Inferences based on text

10. 6th Grade Social Studies
Written and verbal expression of ideas
Create a claim based on analysis of sources
Support claim with specific text evidence
Provide analysis explaining why evidence supports claim
Focus on “social studies vocabulary” to strengthen analysis

11. Advanced Language Arts Recommended Test scores
4th grade SBA in ELA = 2630 or higher
5th grade report card reading grade = 4
Ask yourself, “How much support does my student need to get a ‘4’ in writing?”
Are you helping a lot or is your student getting the score independently.

12. Advanced Language Arts
Have a love of learning, reading and writing
Highly motivated and organized
Have excellent study habits and complete all assignments routinely
Ready for homework every night
Ready to actively join class discussions
Ready to write extensively for various audiences
Ready to read complex texts for a variety of purposes

13. Advanced LA – What does it take to be successful?
From 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Teachers
“motivated, enjoys challenges and comfortable working outside comfort zone”
“intrinsically motivated to read, write, and actively engage in classroom discussion using higher level thinking skills”
“Advanced Language Arts purpose is to provide a rigorous environment where topics covered may be the same or similar to regular LA, but each topic will be covered with greater depth, a faster pace, and often with more challenging literature.”
“Independence and initiative is fostered through student choice and project-based learning.”

14. Finding the right fit for your student
Should I register my student for Advanced LA?
Language Arts pathway can be changed year-to-year
Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop model promote rigor and differentiation in both pathways
Traditional pathway in ISD is rigorous

15. HOMEWORK!
Yes, there will be homework in 6th Grade Language Arts class:
Around one hour of homework for all classes is what we aim for---but that depends on each student…. keeping the following in mind…
The EXACT SAME homework assignment might take one student 10 minutes and another student an hour and a half!
If the latter is the case let the teacher know!