In 6th Grade English Language Arts, students explore the topic of “coming-of-age” through texts that feature protagonists from diverse backgrounds, places, and time periods, all of whom face significant challenges as they struggle to define their identities and claim their place in the world: The Watsons Go to Birmingham, The Giver, Life in Motion, The Outsiders, Refugee, The Unwanted, and additional supporting texts: articles, poems, and digital media. Across the 5 units, students deepen their writing skills through argumentative, informational, and narrative tasks, and continue to build their academic vocabularies, speaking and listening skills, and social-emotional competencies.

Throughout the course, students address all ELA Common Core Standards as they engage with increasingly complex texts, participate in class discussions, and write daily. Each unit helps build students’ knowledge and understanding of the world around them through thematically organized core and supplemental texts, embedded writing instruction and extended writing assignments in response to Essential Questions, and daily opportunities to engage in multiple tiers of academic discourse.