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Sixth graders are working on building strength in all aspects
of the Language Arts and they are learning how important these
skills are in every facet of their lives. They need to be able
to read effectively and for content in every subject, they have
to write reports and analyses in science, math and history and
they have to speak to everyone. Knowing how to approach each of
these tasks effectively comes through their studies in Language
Arts.
In reading, students have built their vocabularies by using context to decode
unfamiliar words, use prefixes, suffixes and roots within word
structure to understand multisyllabic words and use questions
about whether a meaning sounds right or makes sense (syntax or
semantics) to discover new words. Sixth graders recognize words
they read and see often and can fluently read grade-level-appropriate
texts. They develop new strategies such as connotation or denotation
to add more new words to their vocabularies.
They are able take a narrative text and analyze it according
to the elements found in specific genres such as fantasy, westerns
or historical fiction. They recognize main characters, minor characters,
plot, universal themes and setting. Students understand author
motivation and recognize imagery and the use of dialogue to drive
the story. In reading expository texts, students use footnotes,
endnotes, indices and other text features to further understand
the facts presented. In accessing these texts, students connect
universal or global themes to their own experience or knowledge
in order to further comprehend it. In doing so, they are able
to retell or summarize the author's meaning in their own narrative
style.
Sixth graders are able to practice reflective thinking while
reading or listening and use internal questioning, predicting,
summarizing and inference strategies to insure they are getting
the whole picture or all the details. They use metacognitive study
skills to improve their reading comprehension. These techniques
include PQRST (preview, question, read, study, test), SQ3R (survey,
question, read, review, report), or PQ4R (preview, question, research,
read, review, report.) Students can then compare their own work
with others.
These students are able to write narrative fiction, writing from
experience or strictly from their imaginations. They can mimic
authors' styles and are able to write from many genres including
fantasy, folk tales or tall tales. They know and follow each genre's
conventions and thematic devices. Students can write to persuade,
entertain or inform. Sixth graders may also take on a project
which involves developing a topic as a thematic unit, having their
peers read it and test themselves on it and rate its effectiveness.
Writers in the sixth grade are also working to develop their personal
style. While staying within the conventions of the class, the
student will want to use emotion, humor, personal experience or
history to inform or entertain. Students use a writing process
that involves a series of steps to eliminate grammatical errors,
inconsistencies and repetitive word choices. Students use a variety
of grammatical structures and many combinations of phrases and
clauses to keep their writing fresh and interesting. They are
careful with spelling, making sure to use dictionaries, thesauri
or spell check if they are writing on the computer. By sixth grade,
most writing is done on a computer, although the students should
be able to write legibly in cursive.
Students in the sixth grade have developed the skills to present
their work orally and respond properly to audience proffered questions.
They should use available techniques to speak naturally and in
an interesting manner. All presentations should be done in proper
English, leaving slang and idiomatic discourse for private conversation
with peers. Sixth graders are able to engage in interactive conversations
in most social situations and know to match the message to the
audience.
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