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.

In this lesson, students will evaluate speeches according to volume, stress, pacing, and pronunciation, and examine the importance of these values in delivering an oral presentation.

In this middle school lesson from Teaching Tolerance, students will explore the calendar to determine why different religions celebrate different holidays and establish what factors school and government leaders should consider when deciding whether public schools should be closed for religious holidays. Students will work in groups to create solutions for school calendars that respect all students and beliefs.

Beneath Blue Waters comes from the trade book with the same title, focuses on the layers of the ocean, and takes students to the deepest zone in a three crew member, submersible called Alvin. In this CCSS lesson students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

In this lesson, students will learn to distinguish between emotional and logical arguments in advertising.

As a way to support teachers with English Language Arts (ELA) instruction during the pandemic, the NCDPI ELA team created choice boards featuring standards-aligned ELA activities.The intended purpose of these choice boards is to provide a way for students to continue standards-based learning while schools are closed. Each activity can be adapted and modified to be completed with or without the use of digital tools. Many activities can also be repeated with different texts. These standards-based activities are meant to be a low-stress approach to reinforcing and enriching the skills learned during the 2019-2020 school year. The choice boards are to be used flexibly by teachers, parents, and students in order to meet the unique needs of each learner.Exploration activities are provided for a more self-directed or guided approach to independent learning for students. These activities and sites should be used as a way to explore concepts, topics, skills, and social and emotional competencies that interest the learner. 

In this lesson, students participate in a Socratic seminar discussing a person's right to refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance.

This resource includes nonfiction two texts, a link to a video, and 13 text-dependent questions (including one optional constructed-response prompt for students). Also includes explanatory information for teachers regarding alignment to the CCSS.

In this lesson students examine how imagery is used to represent ideas, themes, periods of history, and make cultural connections to poem, "Still I Rise." Students will reflect through written expression how resiliency is in their lives, school, and community.

In this PBS Learning Media resource on Oratory Tips and Tricks, students will find a four minute video, various pdf handouts, and tips for effective public speaking.

In this activity students perform a role play of immigrant mothers and daughters arguing over who should get to keep the daughter's wages. This activity is used to teach with the film Heaven Will Protect the Working Girl, but can be completed without the film.

In this lesson plan from PBS Learning Media, students will learn to summarize historical speeches in the author’s own words, as well as paraphrase the speech using their own words.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 6th Grade English Language Arts. 

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 6th Grade ELA.

In this 3 day lesson plan on The Rhetorical Triangle from PBS Learning Media, students will focus on understanding Aristotle’s three elements of persuasive speech—the ancient Greek words ethos, pathos and logos. Additionally, students will be able to analyze the effectiveness of rhetorical strategies and elements in commercials and speeches.

In this lesson, students view non-print campaign advertisements and analyze them for factual and persuasive information, then determine which advertisement is the most persuasive and share reasons to support their decisions with a peer.

Students will evaluate the information from chapters 1-3 of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, particularly how the Logan children are treated by the white students and the bus driver. They will then decide if they agree or disagree with the decision made by the Logan children to seek revenge. Students will defend and provide support for their opinion.

In “Water”, Helen Keller describes her first experiences with her new teacher. Keller finally grasps the idea that a word Anne Sullivan is spelling, water, corresponds to the water flowing over Keller’s hand. This insight leads Keller to make connections and open doors of knowledge and opportunity previously closed to her. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.