The sixth grade English curriculum immerses students in a rich and rewarding celebration of the English language, designed to spark students' interest in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and to create a strong literary community. Students make connections, take ownership in individual and team projects, and become actively engaged in their own learning. Higher order thinking skills are stimulated as students learn to analyze literature and discuss their findings. Interdisciplinary connections are made with other subject areas, bringing their world and their lives into play with their study of literature.
Literary Texts
We encourage students to be analytical readers, responding to what they read with journal entries or specific assignments. Literary analysis begins with learning and applying key literary elements such as characterization, point of view, theme, symbol, conflict, setting, and foreshadowing. The school year begins with a character sketch related to a required summer reading book, and culminates with a benchmark essay on a specific short story. Literature circles, discovery stations, and project-based learning are key components of the program.
A varied collection of poetry is used to make thematic connections as well as to teach poetic devices such as alliteration, simile, metaphor, personification, point of view, rhythm, and rhyme. Students read and discuss classic short stories such as “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Monkey's Paw,” “The Necklace,” “The Moustache,” and “All Summer in a Day.” A selection of novels read by the whole class is chosen year-to-year to teach critical reading and literary elements; such novels include A Day No Pigs Would Die and The Outsiders. In our intensive reading unit, which focuses on the theme of “Coming of Age and Discovering Identity,” we encourage students to read as much as possible, and to apply the critical reading skills they learned in class. Intensive reading books include Among the Hidden, Dave at Night, Flush, One Fat Summer, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Tangerine, A Single Shard, Stargirl, and Where the Red Fern Grows. Reading class gives students time to read independently almost every day.
Grammar and Writing Skills
Students learn the mechanics of formal, written English and refine their editing skills throughout the year. Work begins with expository paragraph writing and learning the objective tone. Students learn the stages of producing finished copy: prewriting, drafting, revising, conferencing, editing, and finally publishing their papers and projects.
Essential grammar and mechanics lessons include parts of speech, sentence fragments, common sentence errors, sentence combining, homophones, punctuation, and spelling. As part of learning writing structure, students examine a variety of genres such as memoirs, poetry, essays, research papers, news articles, and letters. Students incorporate an inquiry-based method of research into a final demonstration of their work.
Throughout the year, students have opportunities to read aloud, discuss, and present their work in small groups and individually.Students complete a speech unit as part of the English curriculum, which introduces them to the basics of public speaking, including pitch/tone, gesture/poise, voice/volume and eye contact.
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