This resource accompanies our Rethink 6th Grade ELA course. It includes ideas for use, ways to support exceptional children, ways to extend learning, digital resources and tools, tips for supporting English Language Learners and students with visual and hearing impairments. There are also ideas for offline learning. 

This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 6th grade English Language Arts content.

This teacher's guide for Addie on the Inside by James Howe contains discussion questions, activities, and research assignments.

The Adventurers of Sojourner presents a third-person narrative account of the Mars Pathfinder mission, which included the deployment of a small science rover named Sojourner. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this history through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

In this lesson, students will have an opportunity to analyze their assessment of plot development in Flush.

In this lesson, students recognize the cultural contributions of ancient Greek and Roman mythology and drama. They will read and analyze a myth and then create a puppet skit to demonstrate the myth.

In this lesson, students will discuss the focus question regarding Frightful's decision to migrate or stay near Sam in Frightful's Mountain, and use the excerpt "Double Whammy" from "The Exterminator" in order to identify the author's claims and evidence.

What drives changes to classic myths and fables? In this lesson students evaluate the changes Disney made to the myth of "Hercules" in order to achieve their audience and purpose.

The short story, titled “Becky and the Wheel-and-Brake Boys,” is about how Becky desperately wants to own a bike despite the resistance she is met with from her mother and Granny-Liz. In this CCSS lesson students will explore this short story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

This story, set in 1820s Austria, is a series of letters written between a young boy, Christoph, who lives in Vienna and his uncle, a music student who lives in Salzburg. In the letters, Christoph tells his uncle of the strange gentleman, Ludwig van Beethoven, who has rented a room in the boy’s home. In this CCSS lesson students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

A teachers guide for Betsey Brown by Ntozake Shange, including chapter-specific questions for increased comprehension, questions for class discussion, and suggestions for further study.

For this lesson, students are invited to attend a 19th Century party as a character from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. To play this role, students must understand the values and customs Dickens' characters represented in Victorian society. This lesson is divided into three stages: Group Investigative Roles, Individual Characterizations, and Individual Presentations. Students collaboratively research the life and times of Charles Dickens as it relates to a character, and write and present a first-person character analysis.

For this activity, 4th and 5th grade AIG learners will read a book of choice featuring characters who are gifted in some way. Students will then use the bibliotheraphy questions to create a presentation showing how they identify and do not identify with the characters and events of the book.

While the resource is targeted to upper elementary school students, it could be modified to use with middle school students.

In this alternative to the traditional book report, students have to really understand a character from a book they have read in order to successfully communicate the essence of the character using a few words and symbols on a business card. They begin by discussing the details commonly found on business cards and looking at samples. They think about how font, colors, and logos can be used to represent their characters, as well as the taglines, products and services, and other details that could be included. Students then use planning sheets to think through the elements they want to include on their business cards before creating the final version using a word processing program on the computer.

Students examine graphic novels and comic books and discuss the important components of the genre, such as captions, dialogue, and images. They then use an online tool to create a six-panel comic highlighting six key scenes in a book they have read. By creating comic strips or cartoon squares featuring characters in books, students are encouraged to think analytically about the characters, events, and themes they've explored in ways that expand their critical thinking by focusing on crystallizing the significant points of the book in a few short scenes.

In this lesson, students are given the opportunity to be imaginative as they create illustrated postcards that depict one of the settings of their novel choices featuring journeys. Furthermore, they communicate about the importance of the settings as they write the text of their postcards.

In this lesson, students are introduced to familiar characters, from literature and from popular culture, whom readers first encounter as adults, but whose childhood stories are only told later. Students first discuss Merlin from the stories of King Arthur before reading Jane Yolen's Merlin and the Dragon. They then discuss the characteristics and stories of other familiar literary characters who are first introduced as adults. Then, in groups, students plan their own versions of a childhood for a selected character, and describe that childhood in the form of a short story, journal entry, or time capsule letter. This lesson uses Jane Yolen's Merlin and the Dragon to model the concept, as well as several examples from literature and popular culture. A suggested booklist is also provided.

Facebook-like pages used as book reports provide students a unique format to review several elements of fiction typically found in a traditional book report. Through the sharing of their Facebook-like pages in class, students will have suggestions for future reading.

Students work in groups to read and discuss a book, keeping track of their feelings and opinions about the book, as well as facts and quotations, as they read. Students then decide which parts of their review they wish to annotate, with each student in the group responsible for one topic. Each student writes about his or her topic, including bibliographic information.

This teacher's guide for The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson with Marilyn J. Harran and Elisabeth B. Leyson contains discussion questions and activities for reading comprehension, learning about craft and structure, integrating information, and writing practice.

Ruri, a young Japanese girl, and her family are taken to an internment camp during WWII because the US government was afraid Japanese Americans would ally with Japan. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

This activity is designed as a project-based learning activity. It allows students to collaborate, requires them to comprehend what they have read and engages them in critical thinking. This activity can be adjusted to fit the needs and grade levels of your students.

Recommended for grades 5-7Novel study unit for middle grades novel CLIMB by Melissa McGovern Taylor; novel available on Amazon

In this short story, Jose learns a valuable lesson about himself when he tries to impress Estella by challenging her to a game of racquetball. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

A list of character traits with a short project to reinforce actions associated with those traits.

This three week lesson provides instruction in the basic elements of literature by reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Students are also provided the opportunity to understand how their choices can change their attitudes and behavior through a reading of the novel and a series of writing assignments.

Students are introduced to character, plot development, point of view, and tone through the use of comic strips. Students will identify these four attributes in comic strips and present their findings to the class.

A series of worksheets, projects, lessons and activities on characterization for various student levels.

In this lesson, students compare and contrast two versions of the same fairy tale. Students use a Venn diagram to graphically illustrate the similarities and differences in the two stories.

After their car crashes in a blizzard and their parents are injured, Danielle and Jake must climb to a weather station near the top of a mountain to get help for themselves and their family. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

In this lesson, students use the Cornell notes tool to do close reading of informational text.

Includes six text-dependent questions, one constructed response writing prompt, and explanatory information for teachers regarding alignment to the CCSS.

In this CCSS lesson, students will explore these stories through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

Movies can be an integral part of the language arts classroom when they are used in ways that encourage and develop students’ critical thinking. In this activity, students explore matching texts—novels and the movies adapted from them—to develop their analytical strategies. They use graphic organizers to draw comparisons between the two texts and hypothesize about the effect of adaptation. They analyze the differences between the two versions by citing specific adaptations in the film version, indicating the effect of each adaptation on the story, and deciding if they felt the change had a positive effect on the overall story. Students then design new DVD covers and a related insert for the movies, reflecting their response to the movie version.

Students are introduced to concepts of social justice, such as diversity, tolerance, equity, and equality, through a literary text, class discussions, and guided research. Students plan a service-learning project, then work in small groups using Photo Story software to produce a multimedia presentation designed to foster community support for the project. Students also use the ReadWriteThink.org Printing Press to create informational fliers about the project. The lesson concludes—and the service-learning project begins—with a showing of the Photo Story productions for parents and other community members.

The media has a huge effect on popular culture. Television programs underscore stereotypes of various groups of people.This lesson provides a platform in which students can critically analyze popular television programs. By looking at the media critically, students develop an awareness of the messages that are portrayed through the media.

Cross Curricular Activity: Integrating ELA and Math Grade: 6Objective 1: Students will analyze and describe the plot of a math-based story and how the characters respond to events from the story. Objective 2: Students will use drawings and numbers to demonstrate how they found answers to a problem.

This curriculum guide covers six works of Laurie Halse Anderson (Chains, Forge, Ashes, Fever 1793, Independent Dames: What You Never Knew About the Women and Girls of the American Revolution, and Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving), and contains discussion prompts, key vocabulary terms, and ideas for assignments and activities related to each book.

This resource includes an excerpt from the book, "Two Hot Dogs with Everything", six text-dependent questions, one constructed-response writing prompt, and explanatory information for teachers regarding alignment to the CCSS.

This teacher's guide for The Dark Side of Nowhere by Neal Shusterman contains a summary of the text, discussion questions, activities, and research assignments.