Sixth Grade

Language Arts

The Language Arts program will focus on four strands: reading, writing, spelling, and grammar and mechanics.

Reading

In the sixth grade, students focus on active engagement with the text. They will analyze, identify, define, explain, and critique elements of the literary works that they will read independently and as a class.

Word recognition – read aloud narrative and expository text fluently and accurately with appropriate pacing and expression

Vocabulary and concept development – identify and interpret figurative language, recognize word origins and meanings, use context clues to determine meaning, and understand and explain “shades of meaning”

Reading Comprehension – understand grade level material, describe and connect the essential ideas, arguments, and perspectives in text

Literary Response and Analysis – read and respond to historically and culturally significant works of literature that enhance their study of history

Narrative Analysis – Identify forms of fiction, analyze character and setting, identify the speaker, identify theme, symbolism, and imagery in a variety of fictional and nonfictional texts

Writing

Students will write clear, coherent, and focused narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive essays of at least 500 words. They will complete a number of research reports and write responses to literature. Students will display organization and focus in writing letters and poems. They will revise writing to improve organization and consistency of ideas within and between paragraphs.

Grammar and Mechanics

Sixth grade grammar builds on earlier topics such as complete subjects and complete predicates, compound sentences, action verbs and linking verbs, conjunctions, irregular verbs, past-tense verbs, negatives, commas, direct and indirect quotations, sentence diagramming and more.   Students will use simple, compound, and compound complex sentences to express complete thoughts. They will identify and properly use indefinite pronouns and present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect verb tenses and ensure that verbs agree with compound subjects. Sixth graders will review the rules of punctuation and learn the proper use of colons and semicolons.

Spelling

Our spelling program treats spelling as a developmental process. Students progress in stages, much as they learn to speak and read. Students learn spelling skills based on phonics through unique, cross-curricular reading passages, practice, and writing activities throughout the program.

Listening and Speaking

Students will deliver focused, coherent presentations that convey ideas clearly. They will have opportunities to deliver well-organized formal presentations including both narrative presentations as well as informative presentations.

Mathematics

Our math program allows students to review, maintain, and build upon previously learned skills. It provides explicit instruction of new content and vocabulary. It promotes cumulative learning and conceptual understanding. Students will master the following skills, inshaAllah:

• solves multi-digit addition and subtraction problems of whole numbers and decimals
• solves multi-digit multiplication problems
• demonstrates proficiency with long division with whole numbers with multi-digit divisors
• composes and decomposes numbers, including factors to solve problems
• finds and uses decimal and percent equivalents for common fractions
• compare and order positive and negative fractions, decimals, and whole numbers
• four arithmetic operations with whole numbers, positive fractions, positive decimals, and positive and negative integers
• statistics and probability
• concepts of mean, median, and mode of data sets and calculation of the range
• analyze data and sampling processes for possible bias and misleading conclusions
• use addition and multiplication of fractions to calculate the probabilities for compound events
• conceptually understand and work with ratios and proportions
• understanding of pi and the fomulas for the circumference and area of a circle
• use letters for numbers in formulas involving geometric shapes and in ratios to represent the unknown part of an expression
• solve one-step linear equations

History and Geography

Students will participate in classroom activities focusing on United States history and geography.

• describe the people and events associated with the development of the U.S. Constitution
• understand the influence of location and physical setting on the founding of the original 13 colonies, and identify on a map the locations of the colonies
• know the location of the current 50 states and the names of their capitals
• describe the major pre-Columbian settlements
• trace the routes of early explorers and describe the early explorations of the Americas
• understand the political, religious, social, and economic institutions that evolved in the colonial era
• describe the introduction of slavery into America, the responses of slave families to their condition, and the institutionalization of slavery
• explain the causes of the American Revolution
• understand the course and consequences of the American Revolution

Science

Units of exploration in the area of Science will include:

Earth Science

• Water Distribution
• Water Cycle
• Resource use and conservation

Solar System

• Astronomy
• Phases of the Moon
• Meteorology

Weather Science and Atmosphere

• Wind / convection currents
• Oceans influence weather patterns
• Severe weather
• Atmospheric pressure

The following scientific process skills will be emphasized:

• work individually and as a team member to collect and share information
• conduct investigations to test a hypothesis and record results; begin to control variables in an experimental situation
• predict probable outcomes; use facts to support conclusions
• communicate scientific information in various ways through written materials, pictures, graphs, charts, or models

Electives

Students will participate in the following electives:

Fall – Ramadan and Eid Crafts

Winter – Sewing

Spring – Gardening

Movement

Twice a week all year long, students build strength and agility in aerobic exercises, cooperative and competitive games. In the winter the students participate in martial arts.

Qur’an

Sixth graders will begin memorization of the Qur’an with Sura Al Kahf and Sura Al Baqarah. They will inshaAllah memorize both of these beautiful Suras and learn many of the stories and lessons they contain.

Arabic

Arabic in the sixth grade consists of four main components as in the other grades; oral language, reading, writing, and poetry. They will learn to communicate in Arabic, learn fluency in reading, word roots, handwriting, and memorize and learn Arabic poems.