6th grade English Language Arts
12 units matched to the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards. Kids see this subject as “Language Arts”.
Focus areas
- Reading: central idea, citing evidence, and author's purpose
- Writing, speaking and listening: argument writing, and judging media messages
- Language: building vocabulary and using grammar, spelling and punctuation
Units
Unit 1
Point of View
Telling first person, third person limited and third person omniscient apart, and thinking about what each narrator can and can't know.
Benchmark: 6.1.5.1; 6.1.6.1 · point of view and how different accounts tell the same events
Unit 2
Connotation & Tone
Words can share a dictionary meaning (denotation) but carry different feelings (connotation), like “cozy” and “cramped.” Students choose words for effect and identify a writer's tone.
Benchmark: 6.2.3.2; 6.1.8.1 · denotation, connotation and the effect of word choice on tone
Unit 3
Make Your Case
Building an argument: stating a claim, choosing the strongest evidence, recognizing counterarguments and rebuttals, spotting persuasive techniques and ordering a persuasive paragraph.
Benchmark: 6.2.4.1; 6.1.7.1 · arguments and counter-arguments, and relevant evidence
Unit 4
Agreement
Making verbs agree with their subjects (even with tricky phrases, “each,” “everyone” and “either…or”) and choosing pronouns that clearly match the nouns they replace.
Benchmark: 6.2.1.3 · verb tense and pronouns in sentences
Unit 5
Sentence Repair
Spotting sentence fragments, run-on sentences and comma splices, and choosing correct ways to fix them with periods, semicolons, joining words or dependent clauses.
Benchmark: 6.2.1.1 · fixing sentence errors with correct punctuation
Unit 6
Commas & Clauses
Finding dependent clauses, telling simple, compound and complex sentences apart, and using commas in lists, compound sentences, introductions and appositives.
Benchmark: 6.2.1.1; 6.2.3.2 · commas, clauses and varying sentence structure
Unit 7
Roots & Analogies
Using Greek and Latin roots (like “geo,” “aud” and “port”) to work out unfamiliar words, and completing analogies that compare word relationships.
Benchmark: 6.2.1.2; 6.1.8.2 · Greek and Latin roots in reading and spelling
Unit 8
Punctuation Power
Using a colon in a formal greeting or after a speaker's name in a script, and putting a comma after words like However and phrases like For example.
Benchmark: 6.2.1.1 · dashes, hyphens, ellipses and other punctuation
Unit 9
Text Forms & Features
Recognizing problem-and-solution reports, scripts, and web features like menus, and explaining how pictures and graphics add to a text.
Benchmark: 6.1.5.2; 6.1.5.3 · how parts of a text fit its structure, and what graphics add
Unit 10
Check the Source
Children practice judging whether a source is credible and accurate, reading laterally, checking text and images made by technology such as chatbots, narrowing research questions and citing sources.
Benchmark: 6.1.9.2; 6.2.7.1 · judging a source's credibility and relevance, and research questions
Unit 11
Media Techniques
Children name persuasion techniques such as bandwagon, testimonials, fear and scarcity, notice camera angles, music and what is left out, and think about why people react to the same message differently.
Benchmark: 6.2.4.2; 6.1.6.3 · persuasive techniques and tracing an argument
Unit 12
Spelling: Endings and Sound-Alikes
Children practice US spelling: when to double a final consonant, -ance and -ence, -cious and -tious, words that break i before e, and commonly confused words such as their, there and they're.
Benchmark: 6.2.1.2 · spelling patterns and rules
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