Language Arts

The sixth grade student will be an active participant in classroom discussions.  The student will present personal opinions and understand differing viewpoints, as well as distinguish between fact and opinion.

The student will begin the study of word origins and continue vocabulary development.

The student will also read independently a variety of fiction and nonfiction, for appreciation and comprehension.

Students will plan, draft, revise, and edit narratives, descriptions, and explanations, attending to composition and style, as well as sentence formation, usage, and mechanics.

Students will demonstrate correct use of language, spelling, and mechanics by applying grammatical conventions in writing and speaking.

Finally, reading and writing will be used as tools for learning academic concepts; available technology will be used as appropriate.

Math

The needs of sixth grade students will be met through differentiated services.  General instruction will occur in each homeroom; support is provided for students through specialists as well as a program of accelerated instruction.  This is the culmination of the program of accelerated study begun in third grade, directed towards algebra in seventh grade. 

Students will participate in four BART windows of assessment.  The parent, teacher, and student can each monitor the student’s progress through the following curricula:

Quarter 1 – statistics and the real world use of whole numbers, graphing, introduction to basic algebra, work  with decimals

Quarter 2 – measurement (units), area of polygons, circles, number theory, connecting fractions and decimals, solids and      surface area, volume

Quarter 3 – adding & subtracting fractions and mixed numbers, multiplying & dividing fractions, the geometry of polygons (lines, angles, transformations)

Quarter 4 – integers, ratios and rates, proportions, percents, and probability
***  review for SOL  ***

Science Curriculum

First Quarter:  Patterns of Weather
The students will investigate and understand the role of solar energy in drivind most natural processes within the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and on the Earth's surface and the properties of air and the structure and dynamics of the Earth’s atmosphere. 

Second Quarter:  Investigating Matter -Liquids
Students will investigate and understand the unique properties and characteristics of water and its role in the natural and human=mande environment.

Third Quarter: Astronomy
Students will investigate and understand the organization of the solar system and the relationship among the various bodies that comprise it.

Fourth Quarter: Energy and Its Uses
Students will investigate and understand basic sources of energy, their origins, transformations, and uses and public policy decisions relating to the environment.

United States History to 1877

In sixth grade, students will study the following units:

Evaluate primary and secondary source documents
Sequence events and interpret ideas from different perspectives
Geography  - continents, regions, and water features
Native Americans – Inuit, Kwakiutl, Iroquois, Hopi, & Sioux
European exploration in North America and West Africa (Ghana, Mali, & Songhay)
Factors that shaped Colonial America
Revolution and the New Nation
Causes and results of the American Revolution
Challenges faced by the new nation
Expansion and Reform
Westward expansion, abolition, and suffrage movements
Inventions & the Industrial Revolution
Civil War and Reconstruction
Causes, major events and battles, and effects of the War
Effects of Reconstruction on American life