6th grade English Language Arts
12 units matched to the Oregon State Standards. Kids see this subject as “Language Arts”.
Focus areas
- Reading: analysing arguments and sources
- Writing: argument writing with evidence
- Speaking and listening: sharing ideas and building on what others say
- Language: grammar, vocabulary and conventions
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.
Learning standard: ELA.6.RL.6 · point of view and narration
Unit 2
Text Forms & Features
Recognizing problem-and-solution reports, scripts, and web features like menus, and explaining how pictures and graphics add to a text.
Learning standard: ELA.6.RI.5; ELA.6.RI.7 · text patterns, scripts and visual features
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.
Learning standard: ELA.6.W.1; ELA.6.RI.8 · claims, evidence and counterarguments
Unit 4
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.
Learning standard: ELA.6.RL.4; ELA.6.L.5 · connotation and tone
Unit 5
Roots & Analogies
Using Greek and Latin roots (like “geo,” “aud” and “port”) to work out unfamiliar words, and completing analogies that compare word relationships.
Learning standard: ELA.6.L.4; ELA.6.L.5 · Greek and Latin roots and analogies
Unit 6
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.
Learning standard: ELA.6.L.1 · subject-verb and pronoun agreement
Unit 7
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.
Learning standard: ELA.6.L.1; ELA.6.L.2 · fixing fragments, run-ons and comma splices
Unit 8
Commas & Clauses
Finding dependent clauses, telling simple, compound and complex sentences apart, and using commas in lists, compound sentences, introductions and appositives.
Learning standard: ELA.6.L.2 · commas, clauses and sentence types
Unit 9
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.
Learning standard: ELA.6.L.2 · colons, scripts and transitions
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.
Learning standard: ELA.6.W.7; ELA.6.W.8 · research questions and judging whether a source is credible
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.
Learning standard: ELA.6.RI.6; ELA.6.SL.2 · an author's purpose and the techniques media messages use
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.
Learning standard: ELA.6.L.2 · spelling correctly with suffix rules, tricky patterns and commonly confused words
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