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.

In this lesson, students will begin recording the authors, titles, sources, and dates of the sources in order to collect research information.

In this 14 day unit plan students read, research, draw conclusions, and write beginning level argumentative essays comparing/contrasting major world religions.

This lesson provides an introduction to the use of factual information in creative writing. Students first examine texts to identify how a published author incorporates facts in fiction writing by reading and questioning the books Diary of a Worm, Diary of a Spider, and Diary of a Fly (Cronin). After conducting inquiry on their own to gather facts on a topic decided upon by the class, students use their facts to write several diary entries collaboratively, entries which will contribute to a class book modeled on the mentor texts. Finally, students peer review each other’s work, and revise and edit their own writing before using the Multigenre Mapper interactive to publish their work.

Through this lesson, the teacher will model the think-aloud strategy for students. Components of think-alouds will be introduced, as well as type of text interactions. Students will develop the ability to use think-alouds to aid in reading comprehension tasks.

In this lesson, students will think analytically about the research they collected in their researcher's notebook, coding information into two categories: Benefits of DDT or Harmful Consequences of DDT. Students will use their Cascading Consequences chart as a visual to support their claims and findings.

In this lesson, students will complete "Text 2" information on the Comparing and Contrasting Authors' Presentation graphic organizer using "Rachel Carson: Sounding the Alarm on Pollution."

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.

While this lesson makes use of websites about Anne Frank and the Holocaust, teachers can easily adapt the activities to a variety of topics. Guided by the questions on the Observation and Inquiry Sheet provided, students work together to explore several online texts on the chosen topic. Then they examine one website in depth and consider how the unique features of the site are used to convey information about the topic. In a subsequent Silent Conversation, students initiate their own queries and discussions about the substantive content of the online texts. Students meet as a class to share their impressions and opinions of the various sites.

Read the explanation the ancient Greeks had for earthquakes.  Then read the explantion we use today.  Then compare the two.  

In this lesson, students present their research-based claim during class using visual aid to answer the overarching research question: “Do the benefits of DDT outweigh its harmful consequences?”

This unit develops students’ abilities to analyze arguments from a range of perspectives on energy and hydraulic fracturing. Students also learn to develop, write and revise their own evidence-based arguments.

This unit develops students’ abilities to read closely for textual details and compare authors’ perspectives through an examination of a series of texts about wolves.

In this lesson, students will read two informational articles in order to compare and contrast two texts in a simulated research activity.

In this lesson that includes 7 activities, students will delineate and analyze the position, premises, reasoning, evidence, and perspective of arguments.

In this multi-day, 5 activity lesson, students will review and evaluate arguments using objective criteria and their own developing perspective of the issue.

In this lesson, students will review and evaluate their materials and analysis, revisit their Inquiry Questions based on the evaluation, and return to their sources in order to address the identified gaps.

In this lesson, students will read two articles from different authors that provide additional information about DDT, increasing their knowledge and skills for expanding vocabulary and improving understanding.