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.

The purpose of this project is two-fold: first, to encourage students to make the reading of poetry a creative act; and, second, to help students appreciate particular literary devices in their functions as semaphores or interpretive signals. Those devices that are about the imagery of a poem (metaphor, simile, personification, description) can be thought of as magnifying glasses: we see most clearly that upon which the poet focuses our gaze. Similarly, those poetic devices that are about the sound of the poem (alliteration, consonance, enjambment, onomatopoeia, and repetition) can be thought of as volume buttons or amplifiers: we hear most clearly what the poet makes us listen to most attentively.

Studying the influence of mass media on our lives allows students to view advertising in a new light. This lesson provides students with the opportunity to look at mass media in a critical way. Students become aware of the tremendous amount of advertising that they are exposed to on a daily basis. By looking at advertising critically, students begin to understand how the media oppresses certain groups, convinces people to purchase certain products, and influences culture.

This interactive unit encourages students to evaluate the effect of the inclusion of figurative langauge in Amy Tan's nonfiction narrative essay Fish Cheeks paired with the poem Face It by Janet Wong. This lesson will assist students in understanding the power of language. Students will be compelled to write by the conclusion of this lesson.

This lesson provides hands-on differentiated instruction by guiding students to search for the literal definitions of figurative language using the Internet. It also guides students in understanding figurative meanings through the use of context clues and making inferences.

In this lesson, students look closely at the new routine in which they examine “Bud’s Rules and Things.” Bud’s rules show up throughout the novel and offer students another insight into him as a character. Bud’s rules will provide a bridge connecting the novel to texts students will be reading in the second half of Unit 1 and in Unit 2.

In this lesson, students read like a writer and analyze figurative language and the author’s word choice, meaning, and tone in Chapter 3 of Bud, Not Buddy.

In this lesson, students continue using the Figurative Language in Bud, Not Buddy graphic organizer to analyze figurative language from the novel, now without any modeling or input from the teacher. This increased independence will help prepare them for the mid-unit assessment in Lesson 5.

In this mid-unit assessment, students re-read a passage of Bud, Not Buddy Chapter 5. They are asked to identify and interpret the figurative language in this passage using a graphic organizer identical to the one they have been using to track figurative language throughout the novel. Students are then asked a series of short constructed response questions about word choice.

In this lesson, students dig deeper into the meaning of the first stanza, with teacher questioning using the close reading guide.

In this lesson, students dig deeper into interpreting the meaning of the second stanza of "If", with teacher questioning using the close reading guide.

In this lesson, students focus on the third stanza of the poem “If.” Students dig deeper into interpreting the meaning of the third stanza, with teacher questioning using the close reading guide. Students answer more of the questions independently in this lesson in preparation for the mid-unit assessment.

In this lesson, students complete the mid-unit assessment using the final stanza of the poem, which they haven’t yet worked with.

In this lesson, students will close read, Part 1: “Hugo, the Lord’s Nephew”

In this lesson, students will close read, Part 2: “Hugo, the Lord’s Nephew”

In this lesson, students will close read, Part 2: “Taggot, the Blacksmith’s Daughter”

This lesson is the second of two parts in which students work in triads to do a close read of one of the four monologues selected for a Jigsaw presentation.

In this mid-unit assessment, students read the monologue “Pask, the Runaway” in Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! They are asked to determine the themes of adversity, identify and interpret figurative language, and consider how the author’s word choice affects tone and theme development. They will use graphic organizers identical to the ones they have been using to track theme and figurative language in previous lessons. Students are then asked a series of short constructed-response questions about word choice.