English Language Arts
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS Grade 6 Honors ABSTRACT This full year course for grade 6 students is designed to incorporate all aspects of English language arts. The units of study focus on mastery of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This includes an in-depth study of literature, informational texts, writing, and language. Students’ study of literature will include mythology, folktales, and fables; classic and contemporary fiction and poetry; and literary nonfiction. They will come away with enduring understandings about growing up, courageously facing life’s challenges, and embracing America’s rich heritage. Students will continue to deepen their understanding of morphology, etymology, and word history throughout the year, building their own dictionaries of words they have investigated. Writing and language study will be mastered through the writing process and the writer’s workshop. With the help of their own writer’s notebook and process portfolio, students will monitor their growth as writers of narratives, literary responses, and reflective and argumentative compositions. Oral communication will also be important, as students learn to articulate their opinions and stories during writer’s workshop, literature circles, and formal multi-media presentations. By the end of the course students will be able to study literature with complex and challenging themes, as well as express those themes through writing and speaking. APPROVED BY BOARD OF EDUCATION 1 OCTOBER 16, 2012 ELMWOOD PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNIT: Unit 1: Unit 2: Unit 3: (Title, Month(s), Number of Days) Growing Up Folklores, Fables & Heroes What Can We Learn From Our Eight Weeks Mistakes? Eight Weeks STAGE 1: DESIRED RESULTS ESTABLISHED GOALS: Common Core Common Core Common Core (NJ CCCS and/or CCS) R.L.6.1-10 R.L.6.1-10 R.L.6.1-10 R.I.6.1-10 R.I.6.1-10 R.I.6.1-10 W.6.1-10 W.6.1-10 W.6.1-10 SL.6.1-6 SL.6.1-6 SL.6.1-6 L.6.1-10 L.6.1-10 L.6.1-10 Technology Technology Technology 8.1 8.1 8.1 8.2 8.2 8.2 21st Century Life and Careers 21st Century Life and Careers 21st Century Life and Careers 9.1.8.A.1-3 9.1.8.A.1-3 9.1.8.A.1-3 9.1.8.B.1 9.1.8.B.1 9.1.8.B.1 9.1.8.C.1-3 9.1.8.C.1-3 9.1.8.C.1-3 9.1.8.D.2-5 9.1.8.D.2-5 9.1.8.D.2-5 9.1.8.F.3 9.1.8.F.3 9.1.8.F.3 ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS: • Growing up is a part of life that • Folklore, which includes myths, • There is always a lesson to be (Students will Understand that . .) cannot be stopped. legends, and tall and pourquoi learned from one’s mistakes. • It is fairly common for authors tales, reveals information about • Students will understand and read to write about what they know world cultures – including our from a variety of texts and discuss and the experiences they have own. how to handle their mistakes and had. • Folklore provides a limited view how to learn lessons from them. • There is much we can learn of a culture. • Students will understand the APPROVED BY BOARD OF EDUCATION 2 OCTOBER 16, 2012 ELMWOOD PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNIT: Unit 1: Unit 2: Unit 3: (Title, Month(s), Number of Days) Growing Up Folklores, Fables & Heroes What Can We Learn From Our Eight Weeks Mistakes? Eight Weeks from characters in stories and • Many folklores from around the differences between historical the author’s who created them. world have commonalities in fiction and historical nonfiction. theme and structure. • Students will understand how to • Fables teach moral lessons. write an open-ended reflective • The literary or mythological epilogue that answers the hero/heroine always overcomes essential question. his/her flaws. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS: 1. How can we learn from 1. How is folklore simultaneously 1. What can we learn and reveal (What provocative questions will foster characters and the authors who revealing and limiting? about ourselves through our inquiry, understanding, and transfer of wrote about them? 2. How do insights into characters, experiences? learning?) 2. How do different authors plot developments, and society 2. What is meant by the word present the theme of “growing in general provide insight into a “mistake”? up”? particular civilization? 3. How do stories provide insight 3. What does the phrase “I won’t 3. What does informational text into life’s experience? grow up” mean to you? tell you about a country/culture 4. What role do making mistakes 4. How much of an author’s that folklore does not? provide in learning something experience do you “see” after 4. What are the similarities and new? learning more about him/her? differences among myths, 5. How can we learn to appreciate 5. What elements of an original legends, tall tales, and pourquoi our similarities and differences work are important to maintain tales? through literature? in creating a prequel? 5. Why are stories that teach a 6. What are the connections lesson passed down through the between a prequel to another ages? story? 6. What do all heroes have in 7. How is listening to an common? audiobook similar/different 7. How does “knowing the story APPROVED BY BOARD OF EDUCATION 3 OCTOBER 16, 2012 ELMWOOD PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNIT: Unit 1: Unit 2: Unit 3: (Title, Month(s), Number of Days) Growing Up Folklores, Fables & Heroes What Can We Learn From Our Eight Weeks Mistakes? Eight Weeks from reading the book? behind the character” give you deeper insight into artwork? 8. How can word origins, or etymology, affect our understanding of the words? 9. How does knowing information enhance your understanding of the folklore from a particular country? STAGE 2: ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE PERFORMANCE TASKS: Literature reflection journal Literature reflection journal Literature reflection journal (Through what authentic performance Reader’s theater Reader’s theater Reader’s theater tasks will students demonstrate the Writer’s notebook Writer’s notebook Writer’s notebook desired understandings?) Film criticism Film criticism Film criticism (By what criteria will performances of Original poetry Original poetry Original poetry Rubrics Rubrics Rubrics understanding be judged?) Oral Presentations Oral Presentations Oral Presentations Debates Debates Debates Literature circles Literature circles Literature circles Document-based responses Document-based responses Document-based responses OTHER EVIDENCE: • Reports • Reports • Reports (Through what other evidence (e.g. • Compositions/Essays • Compositions/Essays • Compositions/Essays quizzes, tests, academic prompts, • Homework • Homework • Homework observations, homework, journals) will • Think Alouds • Think Alouds • Think Alouds APPROVED BY BOARD OF EDUCATION 4 OCTOBER 16, 2012 ELMWOOD PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNIT: Unit 1: Unit 2: Unit 3: (Title, Month(s), Number of Days) Growing Up Folklores, Fables & Heroes What Can We Learn From Our Eight Weeks Mistakes? Eight Weeks students demonstrate achievement of • Tests/Quizzes • Tests/Quizzes • Tests/Quizzes the desired results?) • Discussions • Discussions • Discussions (How will students self-assess their • Notebook assignments • Notebook assignments • Notebook assignments learning?) • Peer evaluations • Peer evaluations • Peer evaluations • Bulletin boards of exemplars • Bulletin boards of exemplars • Bulletin boards of exemplars • Daily Oral Language • Daily Oral Language • Daily Oral Language RESOURCES: Literary Texts: Literary Texts Literary Texts Stories Greek and Roman Myths Stories • "Eleven" (Sandra Cisneros) • Greek Myths • Time to Tell 'Em Off! • Peter Pan (J.M. Barrie) • http://www.historyforki (Deanna Miller) The Lion, the Witch, and the • ds.org/learn/greeks/relig o www.obooko.com Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis) ion/greekrelig.htm Leah (J. M. Reep) • • The Magician’s Nephew • Roman Myths o www.obooko.com (C.S. Lewis) • http://www.angelfire.co Poems • James and the Giant Peach m/geek/romanmyth/myt • “Poems” (Langston Hughes) (Roald Dahl) hs/index.html http://www.crmvet.org/poetry • Charlie and the Chocolate • Persephone (Alice Low) /fhughes.htm Factory (Roald Dahl) • The Twelve Labors of Audiobooks Hercules (Walker Brents) Informational Texts • Peter Pan (BBC Radio • Black Ships Before Troy: Autobiographies Presents) (Random House The Story of the ‘Iliad’ • National Center for Missing Audio) (Rosemary Sutcliff) and Exploited Children • Peter and the Starcatchers • Heroes, Gods and Monsters o http://www.netsmartz.o (Audiobook CD) (Brilliance of the Greek Myths (Bernard rg/RealLifeStories Audio) Evslin) Articles • James and the Giant Peach • The Lightning Thief: Percy • 25 Costliest Mistakes in APPROVED BY BOARD OF EDUCATION 5 OCTOBER 16, 2012 ELMWOOD PARK PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNIT: Unit 1: Unit 2: Unit 3: (Title, Month(s), Number of Days) Growing Up Folklores, Fables & Heroes What Can We Learn From Our Eight Weeks Mistakes? Eight Weeks (Audiobook CD) (Puffin Jackson and the Olympians: History Books) Book 1 (Rick Riordan) o http://www.businessins • The Lion, the Witch, and the • Women Warriors: Myths ider.com/worst- Wardrobe (CD) and Legends of Heroic mistakes-in-history- Poems Women (Marianna Mayer 2011-4# • “Past, Present, Future” and Heller Julek) Internet Sources (Emily Bronte) Folktales • www.readwritethink.com • “A Birthday” (Christina • All Stories are Anansi’s • New York Times - to be used Rossetti) (Harold Courlander) with media literacy lessons Informational Texts • Pecos Bill (Mary Pope • www.bookrags.com Biographies Osbourne) Anthology • J.M. Barrie: The Magic • Doc Rabbit, Bruh Fox, and • Reading with Purpose, Behind Peter Pan (Susan Tar Baby (Virginia Course 1 Bivin Aller) Hamilton) • C.S. Lewis (Internet • The Toad and the Donkey sources) (Toni Cade Bambara) Autobiographies Short