6th Grade Curricula

6th Grade Course Overviews by Content Area
Provided below are brief overviews of the content taught in core academic classes.  For more specific information regarding the scope and sequence of each curriculum, please utilize our curriculum maps, which can be found in Rubicon Atlas..


Language Arts
Students in ELA 6 read both fiction and nonfiction, with close attention to key ideas and details, craft, structure, and the integration of new ideas and knowledge. Reading units include Story Elements, Character Analysis, Text Structures of Nonfiction, and Biography/Memoir. Students write opinion, informational, and narrative pieces, using the craft elements and organization appropriate to each. Sixth grade grammar includes a review of parts of speech (with a particular focus on pronouns), subject-verb agreement and subject/predicate. Students learn Greek and Latin affixes and roots to develop vocabulary and improve fluency.

Math

Math 6 focuses on four critical areas: (1) Number and Quantity; (2) Algebra; (3) Geometry; (4) Measurement, Data, and Probability. Students will: (a) Perform operations with multi-digit numbers and find common factors and multiples; (b) Divide fractions by fractions; (c) Extend understanding of numbers to the rational number system; (d) Use ratios to solve problems; (e) Perform arithmetic with algebraic expressions; (f) Solve one-variable equations and inequalities; (g) Analyze relationships between dependent and independent variables; (h) Solve real-world mathematical problems involving area, surface area, and volume; (i) Develop understanding of statistical variability, and summarize and describe distributions.
Math Online Resources

Science
6th grade science provides an inquiry-based approach to Earth and Space Science. Our units include Earth’s Water & Atmosphere, Geologic Processes & History, Earth & Human Activity, and Space Science. We focus on the forces at work, and the results these forces have had, on our physical world. Students research, create projects and investigate the Earth, planets, stars and space.

 

Social Studies
6th grade social studies covers topics in early American history beginning with the motivations for and the establishment of the early U.S. government, the drafting of the Constitution in 1787 and the early electoral process. With that strong civic foundation, students then learn about westward expansion, slavery, the first Industrial Revolution, international and domestic conflicts and treaties, social justice movements, exploration, forced migration, emigration and competition for land and resources, and changing U.S. geography from the mid-18th through the mid-19th centuries.