6th Grade English Language Arts
Fall Semester | |||
Unit Title | Setting Literacy Foundations | Reading, Writing, and Analyzing Informational Texts | Reading, Writing, and Analyzing Literary Texts |
Time | 5 weeks | 7 weeks | 6 weeks |
Understandings | Students practice daily writing (micro-writing) and establish core reading routines, including building focus and stamina through sustained independent reading.
Students practice deep comprehension by drawing conclusions (inferences), using specific evidence to support their ideas, and making connections between texts and their lives.
Students learn to combine information (synthesize) from texts to create new understandings of key ideas or arguments.
Students develop their first writing piece, a narrative (a story), focusing on components of the writing process such as planning, revising, and publishing.
Students apply fundamental grammar skills, including capitalization, correct sentence structure (simple and compound sentences), and punctuation (semicolons), to make their writing clear. | Students learn to analyze informational texts by identifying the controlling idea (main message) and explaining how authors use facts, evidence, and graphic features to support it.
Students analyze how informational texts are organized using various patterns, such as definition or comparing advantages/disadvantages, to effectively convey a message.
Students practice research skills, including gathering relevant information and evaluating sources for reliability and bias.
Students develop skills in restating information in their own words (paraphrasing) and combining details (synthesizing) from multiple sources.
Students write and publish a research-based informational essay to clearly explain or define a topic. | Students learn to analyze fictional texts, including identifying the central themes and connecting them across different texts.
Students analyze how the story’s setting (historical context) and character responses (thoughts, feelings, actions) shape the plot’s development and movement.
Students examine a narrative structure, analyzing plot elements like rising action, climax, and non-linear devices such as flashbacks.
Students analyze the author's craft and explain how literary devices, figurative language (metaphor, personification), and point of view (omniscient, limited) shape the story’s meaning, mood, and voice.
Students write a literary analysis essay to argue an interpretation of a text, supporting their ideas with textual evidence |
TEKS | 6.5E, 6.5F, 6.5G, 6.5H, 6.6B, 6.6F, 6.7A, 6.9F, 6.10A, 6.10Di, 6.10E, 6.11A | 6.5C, 6.5E, 6.5F, 6.5G, 6.5H, 6.6D, 6.6E, 6.8Di, 6.8Dii, 6.8Diii, 6.9B, 6.9C, 6.10A, 6.10Bii, 6.10E, 6.11B, 6.12D, 6.12F, 6.12G, 6.12Hi, 6.12I, 6.12J | 6.5E, 6.5F, 6.5G, 6.5H, 6.6A, 6.6B, 6.6C, 6.6F, 6.6G, 6.7A, 6.7B, 6.7C, 6.7D, 6.8A, 6.9A, 6.9D, 6.9E, 6.9F, 6.10A, 6.10C, 6.10E, 6.11C |
TEKS embedded in all units | 6.1A, 6.1B, 6.1C, 6.1D, 6.2A, 6.2B, 6.2C, 6.3, 6.4 | ||
Spring Semester | ||||
Unit Title | Poetry and Drama Exploration | Reading, Writing, and Analyzing Argumentative Texts | Literacy Practices for STAAR Success | Book Clubs |
Time | 5 weeks | 5 weeks | 4 weeks | 5 weeks |
Understandings | Students analyze poetry and drama, focusing on how structural elements like meter, line breaks, dialogue, and stage directions convey meaning.
Students analyze literary devices and point of view to understand how authors shape the tone, mood, and overall message in poetry and drama.
Students analyze and compare themes across paired texts from different genres.
Students analyze and compare texts before planning, writing, revising, and editing a formal Extended Constructed Response (ECR) supported by text evidence. | Students learn to identify the central claim in an argumentative text and analyze how authors use various types of evidence (logical, empirical, anecdotal) to support their position.
Students practice critical thinking by evaluating the credibility of sources and identifying faulty reasoning, bias, or logical fallacies within arguments.
Students develop research skills, learning how to gather, synthesize, and cite information correctly while differentiating between paraphrasing and plagiarism.
Students write and publish a fully processed argumentative essay, creating their own claim and supporting it with research and logical reasoning. | Students review and reinforce all reading and writing skills learned throughout the year across multiple genres (fiction, informational, literary nonfiction).
Students focus on core comprehension skills: making connections, evaluating details to find key ideas, drawing supported conclusions (inferences), and combining information (synthesizing).
Students practice planning, revising, and editing high stakes assessments such as Short Constructed Responses (SCR) and Extended Constructed Responses (ECR) to effectively convey and organize ideas.
Students address specific areas of need identified through classroom data, such as sentence structure, verb usage, and punctuation. | Students apply analytical skills learned throughout the year and engage in collaborative reading by selecting novels and discussing them in small group Book Clubs.
Students practice deep reading strategies, including setting a clear purpose for reading, visualizing events to deepen understanding, and generating meaningful questions.
Students analyze how characters' thoughts, feelings, and external actions shape the plot and theme of their selected novels.
Students use the correct tone and format for an audience to compose formal or friendly correspondence (letter, email) that expresses an opinion, complaint, or request related to their reading. |
TEKS | 6.5E, 6.5F, 6.5G, 6.5H, 6.6B, 6.6C, 6.6F, 6.7A, 6.8B, 6.8C, 6.9E, 6.9F, 6.10A, 6.10Bii, 6.10C, 6.10E | 6.5I, 6.6G, 6.6I, 6.8Ei, 6.8Eii, 6.8Eiii, 6.8F, 6.9A, 6.9G, 6.10A, 6.10Bi, 6.10Bii, 6.10C, 6.10E, 6.11C, 6.12A, 6.12B, 6.12C, 6.12D, 6.12E, 6.12F, 6.12G, 6.12Hi, 6.12Hii, 6.12I | 6.5E, 6.5F, 6.5G, 6.5H | 6.5A, 6.5B, 6.5D, 6.5F, 6.5H, 6.6C, 6.6F, 6.6H, 6.7A, 6.7B, 6.9F, 6.10A, 6.10Bi, 6.10Bii, 6.10C, 6.10Di, 6.10E, 6.11D |
TEKS embedded in all units | 6.1A, 6.1B, 6.1C, 6.1D, 6.2A, 6.2B, 6.2C, 6.3, 6.4 | |||