Skills Taught
Students learn so much in 6th grade reading! We will be learning the following skills this year:
Select appropriate synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms within context. Use context clues and prior knowledge of roots and affixes to determine the meaning of multi-meaning words. Use context clues and prior knowledge of roots and affixes to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. Use dictionaries, thesauruses, electronic sources, and glossaries as aids in determining the meaning of unfamiliar words. Identify correctly and incorrectly spelled words in context. Recognize and use grade-appropriate and content-specific vocabulary within context. Use knowledge of root words, affixes, syllabication, and/or spelling patterns as aids in determining meaning within context.
Identify the purpose of a speech (i.e., to inform, to describe, to explain, to persuade, to entertain). Identify the targeted audience of a speech. Identify the thesis and main points of a speech. Select the most appropriate behaviors for participating productively in a team (e.g., contribute appropriate and useful information and ideas, understand the purpose for working as a team, understand the responsibilities of various roles within the team). Identify the functions and responsibilities of individual roles within an organized group (i.e., reporter, recorder, information gatherer, leader, timekeeper). Determine the most effective methods for engaging an audience during an oral presentation (e.g., making eye contact, adjusting speaking rate). Organize ideas in the most effective order for an oral presentation. Select the best summary of a speech.
Identify the purpose for writing (i.e., to inform, to describe, to explain, to persuade). Identify the audience for which a text is written. Select an appropriate thesis statement for a writing sample. Rearrange multi-paragraphed work in a logical and coherent order. Select illustrations, descriptions, and/or facts to support key ideas. Choose the supporting sentence that best fits the context flow of ideas in a paragraph. Identify sentences irrelevant to a paragraph’s theme or flow. Select appropriate time-order or transitional words/phrases to enhance the flow of a writing sample. Select an appropriate concluding sentence for a well-developed paragraph. Select an appropriate title that reflects the topic of a written selection. Complete a graphic organizer (e.g., clustering, listing, mapping, webbing) with information from notes for a writing selection. Select the most appropriate format for writing a specific work-related text (i.e., instructions, directions, letters, memos, e-mails, reports).
Select the most focused research topic. Rank research resources according to reliability. Determine the most appropriate research source for a given research topic. Distinguish between primary (i.e., letters, interviews, diaries, newspapers) and secondary (i.e., reference books, periodicals, Internet, biographies) sources. Discern irrelevant research material from written text. 
Predict future events of a given text. Determine whether a given statement in text is fact or opinion. Identify stated or implied cause-effect relationships. Identify examples of persuasive devices (i.e., bandwagon, loaded terms, testimonial, name-calling). Specify a logical word choice to complete an analogy, using synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, categories, subcategories, whole/part, and functions. Indicate the sequence of events in text. Make inferences and draw conclusions based on evidence in text.
Formulate clarifying questions for use before, during, and after reading. Identify the main idea and supporting details in a text. Use text features to locate information and make meaning from text (e.g., headings, key words, captions, footnotes). Interpret factual, quantitative, technical, or mathematical information presented in text features (e.g., maps, charts, graphs, time lines, tables, and diagrams). Locate and verify information in text to support inferences, opinions, predictions, and conclusions. Select the best summary of a text. Recognize that purpose determines text format. Choose the correct order of a set of instructions.
Select the medium that best reinforces a viewpoint or enhances a presentation. Select the visual image that best reinforces a viewpoint or enhances a presentation. Identify the purpose of a medium (i.e., to inform, to persuade, to entertain, to describe). Draw an inference from a non-print medium. Choose the statement that best summarizes/communicates the message presented by a medium. Identify the type of conflict (i.e., person vs. person, person vs. self, person vs. environment, person vs. technology) represented in a non-print medium. Distinguish among various literary genres (e.g., fiction, drama, nonfiction, poetry). Identify the setting and conflict of a passage. Determine the main ideas of plots, their causes, how they influence future actions, and how they are resolved. Distinguish between first and third person points of view. Identify the kind(s) of conflict present in a literary plot (i.e., person vs. person, person vs. self, person vs. environment, person vs. technology). Identify the stated or implied theme of a literary text. Analyze figurative language (i.e., hyperbole, similes, metaphors, personification,) within context. Identify examples of sound devices (i.e., accent, alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhyme, and repetition). Identify patterns of rhyme and rhythm. Determine the author’s purpose for writing.
