Grade 6

Students know and use text/visual features.

1. a.Use text/visual features to identify sections of a longer text that are likely to contain needed information.
2. b.Describe how text/visual features represent and/or add meaning to the written text.

Students read grade-level texts with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression to support understanding.

1. a.Apply knowledge of syllable patterns and morphology (roots, prefixes, suffixes) to read unfamiliar multisyllabic words in and out of context.

Students comprehend and interpret texts using a variety of strategies.

1. a.Preview the text while reflecting on their purposes for reading.
2. b.Visualize, imagine, and/or otherwise engage the senses to make meaning of the text.
3. c.Make inferences and predictions, checking them against textual evidence.
4. d.Maintain motivation and reconnect to the flow of reading using a variety of strategies.
5. e.Identify author’s purpose and choices about text/visual features that advance the author's purpose and fit within the genre, medium, or platform.
6. f.Identify literary techniques and their effects.
7. g.Describe what they understand from the topic or story, including how information, ideas, or elements of a story interact and/or change.
8. h.Explain how the author's use of language shapes meaning and affects reader understanding.
9. i.Explain how authors use text structure to guide readers' understanding and shape meaning.

Students analyze texts, introducing and attributing textual evidence when relevant.

1. a.Explain how authors' choices influence readers' choices and/or actions.
2. b.Describe the communicative situation in which an author writes a text, including their purposes, their perspectives, and the genre and platform they choose.
3. c.Explain the main idea, theme, or key information in a text, how it deepens, expands, or changes their previous understanding, and how it connects to their own experiences.
4. d.Compare and contrast similar content presented in different genres, mediums, and platforms.

Students evaluate texts.

1. a.Describe how effectively an element of a text invites the reader to visualize and/or empathize, using shared criteria.
2. b.Describe how effectively an element of a text engages the reader or inspires ideas or actions, using shared criteria.

Students compose multimodal texts in a variety of genres across content areas for a variety of purposes.

1. a.Compose in order to describe experiences, ideas, and imaginings.
2. b.Compose in order to record observations and/or inform others about their observations and explanations of the world.
3. c.Compose in order to make a claim about an issue.
4. d.Compose in order to persuade others.
5. e.Compose in order to tell stories and narratives.

Students manage and complete writing projects, connecting to interests, experiences, needs, or perspectives.

1. a.Analyze the prompt to determine the purpose of the project and how to meet it.
2. b.Determine who the audience is and what they may already know, think, and/or feel about the topic.
3. c.Determine the process or steps and plan the time needed to complete the project.
4. d.Adjust to feedback and shifts in focus and timeline when needed.

Students draft content within the genre, using technology appropriately.

1. a.Generate ideas for topics, genres, and material.
2. b.Select and organize ideas and material, including findings from research and/or multimedia artifacts, identifying when and how it's fair to use the creative work of others.
3. c.Follow, adapt, or combine genre-specific text elements from mentor texts.
4. d.Develop descriptions with concrete, sensory, and/or abstract details and figurative language to help the audience imagine and empathize with the content.
5. e.Develop analysis of experience, events, information, ideas, and/or texts by identifying relationships, patterns, causes, or connections.
6. f.Support analysis by using evidence from texts, paraphrasing, summarizing, and/or selecting quotations when relevant.
7. g.Support claims with relevant and credible evidence.
8. h.Use persuasive techniques, including arguments, and appeals to emotion and reason.
9. i.Use a variety of narrative techniques and devices consistent with the genre.
10. j.Attribute sources in ways consistent with the genre, using technology appropriately.

Students organize content by using and/or adapting the genre's structure based on purpose.

1. a.Craft engaging introductions by using strategies that orient the reader to the topic.
2. b.Organize content using genre-specific strategies.
3. c.Compose conclusions that provide a sense of closure.

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

1. a.Re-read draft to evaluate clarity, organization and development of ideas and to determine next steps.
2. b.Gather and consider using feedback about their compositions.
3. c.Use what they learned from re-reading and feedback to strengthen their compositions.
4. d.Edit for conventions and consistency of text/visual features, including attributions. [Demonstrate command of Language standards in grades 1-6.]

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

1. a.Determine where to publish after considering potential impacts on intended and unintended audiences and the permanence of digital platforms.

Students listen, respond respectfully, and contribute during face-to-face discussions and/or in digital forums.

1. a.Maintain expectations for engaging in civil discourse, including other participants, and considering diverse perspectives, especially in digital forums.
2. b.Express ideas clearly by drawing on research, experience, and/or prior knowledge.
3. c.Develop common understanding by connecting to others' contributions.
4. d.Ask for clarification or more information and/or explain what they understood from others' contributions.
5. e.Respond to feedback about how others understood their communication, especially in digital forums.
6. f.Explain when, how, and why their opinions or understandings changed.
7. g.Summarize points of agreement or disagreement from the discussion.

Students collaborate on projects or tasks.

1. a.Discuss expectations, reviewing and adapting them when needed.
2. b.Contribute productively by leveraging strengths and taking on challenges.
3. c.Communicate to build community by addressing concerns, considering others' strengths and perspectives, and/or navigating conflict.

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

1. a.Identify focused topics from the situation, experience, imagination, reading, research, media, conversations, and/or products from ELA.6.W.1.
2. b.Develop content by considering what they want to communicate within the situation and the audience’s background knowledge and/or position.
3. c.Use images and/or multimedia artifacts in presentations to explain, emphasize or enhance content and support the audience’s engagement.
4. d.Attribute sources used.

Students determine how to present themselves and their ideas in different contexts.

1. a.Express a distinct voice through intentional word choice by drawing on their assets, experience, attitudes, and perspectives.
2. b.Identify how presentations of selves and ideas in digital forums can impact future goals and opportunities.

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

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

1. a.Compare and contrast the uses of English across communities and contexts.
2. b.Compare and contrast the uses of English in various genres.

Students vary sentence patterns for meaning, clarity, and style in conversations and writing about experiences, events, and ideas.

1. a.Develop well-formed sentences (syntax) to communicate relationships among ideas, including use of parallel structure.
2. b.Use phrases, clauses, and transitions with punctuation to communicate relationships among ideas.
3. c.Use verb tenses and modal auxiliaries to communicate time, sequence, states, and conditions.

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

1. a.Determine the meaning of words and phrases by using context, roots, affixes, and reference materials strategically.
2. b.Use discipline-specific and academic vocabulary accurately across contexts.
3. c.Distinguish among related words and phrases to communicate precise meaning.

Students demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, nuances in word meaning in the context of conversations, reading, and writing about experiences, events, and ideas.

1. a.Recognize, interpret, and explain figures of speech in context.
2. b.Use the relationships among words, including cause/effect, part/whole, and item/category, to understand and express nuances in meaning.
3. c.Distinguish among words with similar denotations but different connotations.

Students develop fluent and accurate writing skills.

1. a.Write complete sentences that use varied sentence structures and precise language to support clarity and meaning.
2. b.Spell academic and discipline-specific vocabulary using knowledge of roots, affixes, and spelling conventions.
3. c.Use conventional spelling patterns and generalizations, consulting reference materials and/or tools as needed to check and correct spelling.
4. d.Use commas, parentheses, and dashes to set off additional information within a sentence.
5. e.Develop automaticity in spelling and handwriting and/or other modalities to support written expression.

Students engage in research and inquiry by asking questions and seeking answers from information sources.

1. a.Ask different types of questions, refining and asking new questions as understanding of the topic evolves.
2. b.Generate ideas for how to initiate their search based on prior knowledge.
3. c.Select and access a variety of relevant information sources, considering library collections and knowledgeable people, among other options.
4. d.Select and use digital search tools effectively based on an understanding of the technologies that deliver results, adapting search or prompt terms and analyzing results as needed.
5. e.Gather and organize relevant information using a variety of strategies.
6. f.Synthesize new learning to use and/or share.

Students identify how people’s reactions to media messages are affected.

1. a.Identify how perspectives affect reactions to media messages.
2. b.Identify how emotional responses to media messages affect reactions.
3. c.Identify how different levels of trust affect reactions to media messages.

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

1. a.Determine whether the main purpose of a media message is to inform, persuade, sell, or entertain.
2. b.Describe the techniques, including appeals and integration of multimedia, used to achieve the media message’s purpose.

Students evaluate components of media messages, as well as content generated by technology, when looking for information that’s accurate.

1. a.Determine whether statements can be verified as true or false, express an opinion, or make a claim.
2. b.Check the accuracy of information that is either true or false by comparing what multiple reliable sources say about it.
3. c.Describe how technology can be used to manipulate images, video, and audio.
4. d.Determine whether there are reasons and evidence to support claims.

Students evaluate the credibility of those responsible for media messages, as well as content-generating technology.

1. a.Identify those responsible for the content of media messages.
2. b.Determine whether those responsible for media messages have expertise about the topic.
3. c.Identify resources that evaluate the reputations for accuracy of those responsible for media messages.
4. d.Determine whether those responsible for media messages exhibit a perspective relevant to the topic.