6th Grade Language Arts Links
Starting off on the right foot:
Bulletin board idea "START OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT"
Tips and Ideas for New Teachers
Beginning Your Career as a Classroom Teacher - For New Teachers
14 ACTIVITIES FOR THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
Four Steps for Better Classroom Discipline
Suggestions to help you and your students start out the school on a very positive note!!
Suggestions for Your Own Class Web Page
English Language Arts & Reading 6-8 Curriculum Connections
The Biography Assignment - For the first or second week of school. The whole class will start off in groups, then form pairs, and finally each student will produce a project which involves listening, writing and creative skills.
Paragraph Evaluation -- Samples - Have students mark the sample paragraphs -- the spelling mistakes are deliberate. Then discuss the different evaluations. Try this and then assign a paragraph to write.
Daily Writing Program - This is a writing program that is perfect for producing large amounts of graded work without a lot of heavy marking. At the same time, the writing program allows you to get to know each student's strengths and weaknesses, and supplies an enormous amount of rough work for future polished writing.
Introductory Writing/Art Assignment -- Intermediate - This is a great exercise for the beginning of the school year or semester. It involves art and writing in a nice blend of the creative and applied. You can really get to know your students and their abilities in a quick and fun way.
Common Errors Diagnostic Exercise - How much do your students know about common errors?
Analysis of Literature - The Meaning of Literature
Independent Novel Study - An independent novel study that takes into account every difference in ability in your class. Each student picks his or her own novel and does any number of assignments that up to 50 marks.
A Board Game from a Novel - an interesting independent study project
Connotation and Denotation This is a challenging writing assignment that uses the song "You Learn" by Canadian superstar Alannis Morissette. You can use it as a poetry lesson, a writing assignment, or both.
Short Story Assignment - independent study projects
Allusion in Thornton Wilder's Skin of Our Teeth - Allusion can be a difficult concept to teach but this lesson makes it not only easier to understand but interesting as well.
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Wax Museum |
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Walk in Their Shoes - Gather biographical information on a person and then summarize the information in order to write a first-person memoir as that person. |
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English Language Arts Unit On Heroes – 10 Lessons |
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WHAT MAKES A HERO? – 7 Lessons |
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Biographical Dictionary - This dictionary includes more than 27,000 notable men and women who have shaped our world from ancient times to the present day. |
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In this resource you will find background information, election results, cabinet members, notable events, and some points of interest on each of the presidents. |
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Reading Anticipation guide - Questions can be used to introduce issues and ideas confronted in the novel. |
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EXPLORING LITERARY ELEMENTS - Cushman's books are the result of a great deal of historical research. All focus on a strong female protagonist, and all, to some degree, are coming-of-age stories. |
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What's in a Name? In this lesson, students use Internet and library resources to find the meanings of their first and/or last names and discuss the evolution of the concept of naming individuals |
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Portal to the Past - Medieval Europe |
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A prejudiced, blind white boy is stranded on a West Indian island with an old black man. |
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Before Reading the McGraw-Hill Selection: The Cay by Theodore Taylor |
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The Cay WebQuest - Learn how to read ocean and wind currents to locate Philip and Timothy's lost raft in the Caribbean. |
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Literature Guide Unit - PDF File |
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Review, Things to Notice and Talk About, Activities, and Related Books |
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Caribbean Cruisers- This unit will expand students' knowledge of Caribbean life and explore scientific concepts related to the ocean. Based on the books The Cay and Timothy of the Cay by Theodore Taylor |
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The "Non-Tourist-Trap" guide to Nevis, West Indies |
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Culture Clash: Two Sides to Every Story - An On-line Literature Circles Project |
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In this Showtime Original Picture, a spoiled 16-year-old Jewish girl is transported back in time to experience her family's difficult past during the Holocaust. Support Materials (PDF File) are available. |
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Also - Lesson Plans for Daily Oral Language, Current Events, Spelling, and Reading |
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A thirteen-year-old girl gains a much more sympathetic understanding of her relationship with her mother when she has to spend a day in her mother's body. |
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After Reading the McGraw-Hill Selection: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli |
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Theme Opener, Cross-curricular activities, and Research assignments |
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Review, Characters, Things to Notice and Talk About, Activities |
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Maniac Magee as a Mural - Activity: create a mural of the landmarks in the story! |
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TeacherView - Reading Activities |
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Karen Cushman - Teacher Resource File |
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EXPLORING LITERARY ELEMENTS - Cushman's books are the result of a great deal of historical research. All focus on a strong female protagonist, and all, to some degree, are coming-of-age stories. |
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Middle Ages - students learn more about the Middle Ages. Various aspects of that time are compared to aspects of our current society in the United States. |
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ThinkQuest - explores the life of the distaff side of families from each of three classes: the lower class (serfs, servants, and peasants), the middle class (town dwellers, burghers, and tradespeople), and the upper class (gentry, nobility, and royalty). Birth, childhood, marriage, and death were four things common to all classes. |
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Student centered integrated research project. Science topics are weather and tornadoes. Social Studies include the Geography of Tornado Alley. Language Arts will be the reading of Night Of The Twisters by Ivy Ruckman. |
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The 1980 Tornadoes – The Real Night of the Twisters, original documents about the disaster |
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The Grand Island, Nebraska Tornadoes of June 3, 1980 - Web page was made by Mr. Theis's Fifth Grade Class at C. Ray Gates Elementary School in Grand Island Nebraska |
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Why Files - Twisters |
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WebQuest - TORNADO!! |
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Night of the Twisters – Buy The Family Channel Movie |
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Literary Explorer -Peer Reviews, Study Guide, All About Yorkshire, A Map Tour of India, About the Author, and Arts of India |
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S.O.S. Survival On the Sea with emphasis on the book and An Introduction to the book |
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Thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle, proud of the "Indianness in her blood," travels from Ohio to Idaho with her eccentric grand- parents. |
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Culture Clash: Two Sides to Every Story - An On-line Literature Circles Project |
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AADIZOOKAANAG -- Traditional Stories, Legends and Myths |
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"The Wonder Behind the Wizard of Oz" Lesson Plans, Notes, Student Bibliography, Student Resource, and Teacher Bibliography |
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Birthday of L. Frank Baum with activity sheet |
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Anticipation Guides - An anticipation guide is a prereading guide for students and teachers. These guides present statements about topics that will be presented in the books and novels listed below. Having students answer questions pertaining to book topics prepares them to read as active participants. |
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Alphabetical listing of teacher's guides from Random House |
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Author! Author! Transform a short story or novel excerpt into a one-act stage play. |
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Unit Framework: Author Study During an author study, students can examine the writer's craft in depth, and identify and categorize a variety of elements of style (e.g., imagery, metaphor, hyperbole, connotation, alliteration, understatement), providing that the study of elements does not detract from the enjoyment of the reading. |
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Literary Concepts - Elements of a Story |
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BOOK SHELVES - On-Line titles CLASSICS, FAIRY AND FOLK TALES, STORIES AND RHYMES |
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Bookplans created by teachers enrolled in various graduate classes through the Minnesota State University Department of Curriculum and Instruction. |
Web-linked lesson plans that enrich McGraw-Hill School Division's Spotlight on Literature
ENGLISHTOWN! This site is subtitled, "everything about english", and it certainly is ambitious. Use this site to update your curriculum, or cull daily lesson plans from here. English tests are also available. You may subscribe, or access archives at the site. You will also find a host of other resources to aid you in course-planning: games, culture, book club, dictionaries, class materials... the list continues at some length.
GUIDE TO GRAMMAR AND WRITING: Professor Charles Darling from Capital Community Tech College (CT) has provided an excellent and comprehensive guide to English grammar, sentence construction, spelling and composition. Also find categories for Forms of Communication (e.g. business letter, resumes, research papers); Ask Grammar (If you're puzzled about or stuck on a particular grammar problem, you may submit a question; do check the FAQ file first.) and Online Interactive Quizzes. This site is quite extensive and provides a wonderful resource for teachers, parents and students alike.
SPELLING & VOCABULARY LESSONS: Teachers can find numerous lessons here in both spelling and vocabulary; all grade levels. This site also contains many of its lessons in fun game formats. From Teacher's Desk.
STORY FUN! This site is a madlibs story format. Practice adjectives, nouns, etc., or don't pretend you're learning anything at all and just have fun making the weirdest stories you can possibly think of and see what's returned to you!