Grade 6 ELA Washington standards Standards

Media Literacy and Critical Thinking

Research and Inquiry

Research and Media Literacy

Structure and Function of English

Knowledge of Language

Language

Voice

Public Speaking and Presentations

Collaboration

Discussion

Speaking, Listening, and Digital Forums

Share and Publish

Revise and Edit

Draft and Establish Voice

Plan and Generate Ideas

Writing Purposes and Products

Writing

Analyzing, Evaluating and Using Texts

Comprehending and Interpreting Texts

Text Features

Reading

Students identify and discuss when and why language is used differently according to the setting.

Compare and contrast the varieties of English used in different settings and media.

Distinguish literal and figurative meanings of words and phrases between contexts.

Students read and recite grade-level speeches, poetry and prose orally with purpose, understanding, and accuracy, improving speed and expression on successive readings.

Students vary sentence patterns for meaning, clarity, and style in group and individual activities in the context of conversations and writing about experiences, events, and sixth grade content.

Use commas, parentheses, and dashes to set off additional information and/or elements within a sentence.

Students determine the meaning of and use new and multiple-meaning words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading, and being read to.

Use context as a clue to the meaning of a word of phrase.

Identify and use pronouns accurately.

Use resources to verify or define the meaning of a word or phrase.

Students demonstrate understanding of figurative language, explore word relationships and distinguish shades of meaning in the context of sixth grade conversations and reading about experiences, events, and ideas.

Use grade-appropriate Greek and Latin root words and affixes as clues to the meaning of an unknown word.

Distinguish among the use and connotations of words with similar denotations.

Recognize, interpret, and explain figures of speech.

Students demonstrate command of the English language to speak and write clearly, and to comprehend more fully when reading, listening, or viewing.

Students think critically about the effects, purposes, and accuracy of media messages, the credibility of information sources, and how they will engage with media messages.

Students read self-selected texts.

Select texts that interest them and/or that are recommended by peers and adults.

Spend time accessing and reading a variety of texts.

Students know and use text features.

Describe how visual elements in a text represent and/or add meaning to the written text.

Not in 6th.

Students read with accuracy and fluency.

Use combined knowledge to read accurately in context and out of context.

Students comprehend and interpret texts using a variety of strategies.

Preview the text while reflecting on their purposes for reading.

Visualize to make sense of the text.

Make predictions and inferences, checking them against textual evidence.

Maintain motivation and reconnect when the flow of reading is interrupted using a variety of strategies.

Describe details they understand from the topic or story, including information, ideas, how a plot unfolds in a series of episodes, or how events and characters respond or change as the plot develops.

Identify a theme or main idea that the text explores or develops, referring to details and/or examples.

Students analyze texts.

Analyze the specific viewpoint the author presents on a topic, event, experience, question, idea, or controversy.

Identify details in a text that lead readers to make inferences by using their previous experiences, assumptions, or expectations.

Analyze how the author introduces, illustrates and develops key characters, events, or ideas.

Explain how choices about language, organization, and visual elements advance the author’s purpose and fit within the genre, medium, or platform.

Compare and contrast similar content presented in different genres, mediums, and platforms.

Students evaluate texts.

Describe how well an element of a text effectively supports the reader to visualize and/or empathize.

Describe how well an element of a text is relevant to the student and/or the intended audience.

Describe how well an element of a text engages the reader or provokes thought, understanding, or action.

Students use texts they have read for purposes relevant to them.

Explore questions, issues, and skills relevant to their contexts using texts.

Develop their own ideas, perspectives, arguments, projects, and/or plans for action while reading, discussing, and writing about texts.

Develop a summary or paraphrase, and/or select quotations related to their purpose/s in using a text.

Use and adapt choices made by authors and creators of multimodal texts as mentors for their own multimodal compositions. [See W6th.4b.]

Students introduce and attribute a few pieces of textual evidence to support their analysis, evaluation, or use of a text.

Students ask questions, refining and asking new questions as understanding of the topic evolves.

Students seek answers from information sources.

Generate ideas for how to start searching based on prior knowledge.

Select and access a variety of relevant print and digital information sources, including by navigating libraries.

Use digital search tools effectively based on an understanding of the technologies that deliver results, adapting search terms as needed.

Identify people with relevant information to share.

Students gather relevant information using a variety of strategies.

Students synthesize new learning to use and/or share.

Students identify how personal perspectives and dispositions affect people’s reactions to media messages.

Identify how emotional responses to media messages affect reactions.

Identify how different levels of trust affect reactions to media messages.

Students identify the purposes of media messages and how those purposes are achieved.

Determine whether the main purpose of a media message is to inform, persuade, sell, or entertain.

Describe the techniques, including appeals and integration of multimedia, used to achieve the media message’s purpose.

Students evaluate different parts of media messages when they’re looking for information that’s accurate.

Determine whether statements in media messages can be verified as true or false, express an opinion, or make a claim.

Check the accuracy of information that can be verified as true or false by comparing what multiple reliable sources say about it.

Describe how technology can be used to manipulate images, video, and audio.

Determine whether there’s evidence to support claims in media messages.

Students evaluate the credibility of information sources.

Identify those responsible for the content of an information source.

Determine whether those responsible for information sources have expertise about the topic.

Determine whether those responsible for information sources have reputations for conveying information fairly and accurately.

Students make informed choices about how they will engage with media messages based on their personal and community experiences, values, and goals.

Describe how media messages can have consequences for themselves and/or their communities.

Describe how technology helps determine how information spreads.

Distinguish between intentional and unintentional motivations for spreading different types of information.

Students read, comprehend, interpret, analyze, evaluate, use, and appreciate fiction, poetry, drama, and nonfiction from a broad range of genres, cultures, and media in the context of grade-level content to understand themselves, others, and the world.

Students ask a variety of questions, seek answers using relevant tools and techniques to select and access sources, and use their learning.

Students listen, respond respectfully, and contribute during discussions.

Reflect on who is present in a conversation and what they know about their interests, strengths, and skills.

Discuss expectations and roles within the community, changing them when needed.

Review previous conversations when continuing a discussion.

Draw on experience, prior knowledge, and/or research to contribute.

Explain what they understood from others’ contributions and ask for clarification or more information to build common understanding

Connect statements to others’ contributions to build community and propel conversation.

Summarize points of agreement or disagreement.

Respond to feedback about how others interpret their communication by reflecting on how and why others might experience their communication differently than intended.

Explain when, how, and why opinions or understandings have changed.

Review memorable and/or important moments or ideas.

Students prepare for planned discussions by thinking, reading, and/or researching the topic.

Students collaborate on projects or tasks.

Discuss expectations, roles, and timelines, changing them when needed.

Connect the project or prompt to their interests, experiences, and/or community needs.

Prepare for meetings by completing portions of the project as agreed.

Review progress and discuss what needs to happen next.

Students present reports, speeches, and creative work in a variety of genres such that listeners can empathize and/or follow the line of reasoning.

Identify topics from the situation, experience, imagination, reading, research (see RML6th.4) media, conversations, and/or products from W6th.1.

Develop content by considering what they want to communicate within the situation and the audience’s background knowledge and/or position.

Use images, media, and artifacts in presentations to clarify content and support the audience’s engagement.

Students determine how to present themselves and their ideas.

Craft voice by building on strengths, experiences, personality, and role within the community in which the discussion, speech, or presentation occurs.

Determine how to respond to others given the expectations of the community, their role, and how they wish to express themselves and their ideas.

Determine which language and/or languages support their purpose.

Identify potential impacts on future goals and opportunities of how they present themselves and their ideas in digital forums.

Students use voice, gesture, and pacing to illuminate the content and engage the audience.

Students comprehend, engage in, and learn from collaborative discussions, presentations, and public speaking in a variety of genres in the context of grade-level content, in person and/or through teacher-moderated digital forums.

Students compose to process and reflect, respond to reading and learning, explore and develop ideas, record observations, experiment with language, and make sense of the world, events, and experiences. [Not all products from W6th.1 must be taken through W6th.2 – W6th.10.]

Students share and publish compositions in person and/or on digital or non-digital platforms.

Determine where to publish after considering potential impacts of intended and unintended audiences.

Students compose multimodal texts in a variety of genres to communicate with others.

Describe experiences, ideas, and imaginings, including concrete, sensory details and figurative language.

Inform others about their observations and explanations of the world.

Persuade others through arguments, evaluations, and other appeals.

Tell stories and narratives, using a variety of techniques and devices consistent with the genre.

Students manage and complete writing projects.

Analyze the prompt to determine the purpose of the project and how to meet it.

Connect the project to personal and/or community needs.

Determine the process or steps and plan the time needed to complete the project.

Adjust to feedback and shifts in focus and timeline when needed.

Students generate and gather ideas and material, including appropriate use of tools.

Generate ideas for topics, genres, and material from experience, imagination, reading, research (see RML6th.4), media, conversations, the communicative situation, products from W.1, and/or desire to communicate with a variety of audiences.

Determine which features and conventions of genres and medias to follow, adapt, or combine from mentor texts.

Curate ideas and material, including findings from their research (see RML6th.4) and media, identifying when and how it’s fair to use the creative work of others.

Students draft content within the genre to develop ideas, engage the audience, and express voice.

Develop descriptions to activate and build on the audience´s prior learning and opinions, and to help the audience to imagine and empathize with the content.

Develop analysis of experience, events, information, ideas, and/or texts.

Draft claims and support them with relevant and credible evidence connected by sound and valid reasoning.

Develop appeals to emotion and reason.

Use evidence from texts to support analysis, reflection, or research.

Select and integrate images, charts, headings, and other text features as appropriate to the genre and useful to audience.

Attribute sources in ways consistent with the genre, using technology appropriately.

Students craft introductions and conclusions within genre and purpose to engage the audience, establish voice, and support content in the body of the text.

Students organize content, using and/or adapting the genre’s structure, to lead readers through the student’s thinking.

Students evaluate drafts.

Re-read to determine whether the draft says what they want it to say.

Re-read to identify differences between what they intend and what the audience would understand from the text itself.

Gather feedback and determine whether it supports their intentions and/or improves readers’ understanding.

Students revise and edit using a variety of strategies, including use of appropriate technology.

Use what they learned from re-reading and feedback to strengthen their compositions.

Edit for conventions and consistency of text features, including attributions. [See Language standards 1–6.]

Students compose multimodal texts in a variety of genres in the context of grade-level content.