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 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.

Students become more aware of the language and techniques used in print advertising, as well as the impact of advertising on their daily lives. The unit will focus on three key media literacy concepts: construction of reality, representation, and audience. Students will learn to analyze the format and structure of advertisements, differentiate between information and selling, and learn about target audiences.

In this lesson, students will independently apply the same reading strategies and skills they practiced in reading and analyzing the Steve Jobs speech.

Students become more aware of the media"™s role in determining what, and who, are perceived as being cool. Through class discussion and activities, students explore the differences between superficial and real "coolness," how marketers use cool to sell products, and how their own attitudes and perceptions are affected by media messages that reinforce specific messages about what coolness is.

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.

In this lesson, students will use the jigsaw method to collaborate with peers in order to learn about peregrine falcons. This lesson reviews reading for the gist and gives students practice in annotating informational texts.

Students look at the ways in which consumer frenzy develops around a particular product. They begin by brainstorming the characteristics that make a toy a "must-have" possession; and discuss and reflect on the "Tickle Me Elmo" phenomenon as an example of this sort of marketing occurrence. Students discuss the ethical issues associated with consumerism, and how they respond to "gotta have it" pressures from peers and the media. Students will demonstrate and understanding of the ways in which marketers use hype to sell products, an awareness of how consumers respond to marketing hype, and an awareness of the elements that make a product desirable.

This curriculum guide for The Heart of Everything That Is: Young Readers Edition: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, an American Legend by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin contains discussion questions for each chapter, key vocabulary terms, and extra activities for after reading.

Working in small groups, students will work produce sections of an historical newspaper or journal for publication in democratic Athens. Using the resources of this Web site (as well as books and other resources listed in the Research Links & Resources Page) pick an approximate date and research stories for your newspaper. This section has been tailored for a newspaper about Athens during the time of Pericles, because of the greater amount of information available for that period. However, with some adaptation and additional research it would be possible to compile newspapers for early or later periods.

In this lesson, students will continue to cite text-based evidence in order to answer text dependent questions, as well as develop their own claims using details from paragraphs 20-23 of Steve Jobs' speech. Additionally, students will connect the events described by Steve Jobs to those experienced by Bud in Bud, Not Buddy.

This story is about a dinosaur find in New Mexico and after many years of information, the paleontologist attempts to persuade the reader about what happened to kill the dinosaur. In order to do so the author gives many ideas and theories but by evaluating evidence, narrows it down to one. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments; writing samples included.

This lesson and resource uses point-by-point arguments to help students develop higher order thinking skills by learning to distinguish fact from opinion.

Worksheets and activities with answer keys to help students of differing levels identify and/or determine the difference between fact and opinion in selected passages.

Students will explore the Articles of Confederation and the Articles' influence in revising the Constitution of 1787. Students will experience the sentiments of Federalists and Anti Federalists by participating in a partner debate as either North Carolina Federalist James Iredell or Anti Federalist Willie Jones.

In this lesson, students will make connections about DDT by reviewing the informational articles, videos, charts, and graphs in order to draft personal claims and identify evidence to support them.

In this lesson, students will share reasons for the decline in the peregrine falcon population, focusing on the "Public Fear" excerpt from "The Exterminator."

In this lesson students continue to plan for their literary analysis by studying a model essay and determining the theme of The Lightning Thief.