The main goals for 6th Grade English:

1) improving your reading and vocabulary skills
2) enhancing your ability to express yourself through writing and speaking

We will use the textbook, newspapers, film, video, and other outside sources to study biographies, short stories, poems, plays, novels, and essays. Literary elements such as plot, character, turning point, dialogue, setting and sequence will be examined. We also will seek to connect our reading, writing, and speaking to global issues that affect our lives through the study of other cultures and their perspectives.

Each week you will be assigned a new list of vocabulary words to analyze. We will look at where words come from and what they mean in the context of the story. In addition, we will write research reports and learn the importance of footnotes, bibliographies, and the issues surrounding plagiarism. If you need help with grammar, please visit the ELA conventions page.

District mandated periodic assessments take place in October, January, March, and June covering four instructional genres that are part of the California State Standards. (Narrative, Expository, Response to Literature, and Persuasion) The first test will focus on how character traits effect the storyline in narrative works.

ELA focus-
NARRATIVE - September / October (Culminating narrative essay about changes in your life)
EXPOSITION/RESEARCH - Novemeber / Decemeber / January (Journalism essay)
RESPONSE TO LITERATURE - January / February / March
PERSUASION - April / May / June (Designing advertisements, writing a persuasive business letter)

DETAILS

NARRATIVE - September / October
- telling a story

CHARACTER
- A character is anyone in a story
- Usually, the main character is the most important character.
- You'll learn how a character might grow and change in a story.

CHARACTER's QUALITY or TRAIT
- The character's personality shown through words, thoughts, actions

SETTING
- Where and when a story takes place

PLOT
- a series of actions or events in a story. (found in a novel, play, movie, tv show, game, etc.)

CONFLICT
- a problem or disagreement

RESOLUTION
- When and how a problem or conflict is solved in the story

THEME
- The lesson about life learned from the story

EXPOSITION/RESEARCH
- Stating a thesis

- Making assertions about a text through accurate, supporting citations

- Writing a well organized essay (a journalism profile on Buddhism)

RESPONSE TO LITERATURE
Examining the believability of a character and how much the plot seems real or fake.

PERSUASION
2.5 Write persuasive compositions:
a. State a clear position on a proposition or proposal.
b. Support the position with organized and relevant evidence.
c. Anticipate and address reader concerns and counterarguments.

Persuasion Vocabulary:
Propaganda • Evidence • Arguments • Counterargument • Assertion •
Advocate • Position • Fallacious Reasoning • Relevant • Adequate • Unsupported Inferences •
Appropriate • Reasonable •

Some of the stories we will read can be found in the Prentice Hall Copper Level Literature textbook, Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes.

In addition, to develop writing skills, we will utilize the 6-Trait Instruction and Assessment developed by Vicki Spandel along with strategies and materials from the Great Source Education Group including the book Write Source 2000.