Sixth grade is a pivotal year in that the content, workload and expectations become greater. Students are becoming more independent, while learning to become more organized.
Note: These are general guidelines for 6th graders. Of course students could be working towards this or ahead, however this is a baseline in case support is needed.
Concepts Sixth Graders should work on:
📖Reading: citing text, determine theme in text, plot, figurative and connotative meanings of words, authors point of view, compare/contrast literature to movies and videos, compare/contrast genres, read and comprehend different forms of literature, summarize
✏️Writing: writing arguments with evidence, formal writing style, informative writing including quotations, evidence and examples, write narratives with descriptive writing and narrative techniques (dialogue pacing, developing characters and events), use technology to publish writing, short research projects (my projects at www.buildaproject.net/shop are great for this!), pronouns, punctuation (commas, colons, parentheses, dashes), consult reference materials, figures of speech
🧮Math: ratios and proportional relationships, multiply and divide fractions, compute multi-digit numbers, rational numbers, absolute value, graphing, algebraic expressions, distributive property, inequalities, quantitative relationships, area, surface area, volume, statistical variability
🧬Science: molecules, chemical reactions, heat effects, Newton’s Third Law, electric and magnetic forces, kinetic energy, energy in waves, cells, photosynthesis, ecosystems (I have a project on ecosystems!), organisms, natural selection, solar system, history of earth, weather and climate, human impacts
🗺Social Studies: heavily focused on ancient civilizations (Greece, Mesopotamia, India, China, Rome and Egypt), Hunter-gatherer societies, how humans gathered in one location and the communities they built, how climates effected regions and humans, Ancient Hebrews lifestyle
Ways to teach these concepts:
🌀Implement projects for critical thinking, presentations, and research (check out my projects at www.buildaproject.net/shop)
🌀Group work when possible
🌀Build models