Sixth Grade Reading Outline

Reading Street – Textbook will be used one day per week as a whole class. Students may re-read it as many times as they wish. There is no district pacing guide, so I will be using the one I created (attached.) The textbook story will be read in class and re-read for homework. Students will have an opportunity each week to reflect on the story using Gaggle, the Wiki/Blog, or a Notebook.

Reading Groups – Students will meet with me at least twice a week. We will use a combination of the Scott Foresman leveled readers and novels. Students will do appropriate vocabulary building and comprehension activities before, during, and after reading.

Reading “Centers” – Students will do a variety of “centers” to build their reading stamina while I meet with small groups.

Reflection – Students will rotate between the computer and a class notebook. They will respond to the given question using Gaggle, Wiki/Blog, and the notebook. Questions will be based on leveled readers, novels, Reading Street, Read Alouds, or independent reading. Students will be able to share their thoughts and communicate with their peers about reading.
Independent Reading – Students will complete a “Reading 4 Box” sheet each week. The boxes will pertain to skills and strategies taught in class. Students will use their independent reading books, leveled readers, novels, Reading Street Stories, and AR books to answer the questions. Questions are open-ended and require higher levels of thinking. Students will be challenged to read 40 or more books this year. (Details attached.)
Word Study – Students will work with Vocabulary and Spelling words in a variety of ways.
Nonfiction – Students will work with a variety of nonfiction texts for a variety of purposes.
Fiction – Students will read a variety of fiction texts (including poetry) for a variety of purposes.

Accelerated Reader – Students will be given individual goals, based on their personal needs and individual reading level. All students will be monitored once a week. Students will be moved to Percent Clubs as they progress toward their goal. The clubs will be the 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%+. At the end of the marking period, all students in each club will receive a small celebratory token (bookmark, 5 minutes extra recess,etc.)

Homework – Students will be given a weekly reading log. They will need to summarize their reading each night. Once per week, students will be given a passage from the book “Week-by-Week Homework for Reading Comprehension and Fluency.” They will have the entire week to complete the reading and activity. Both items will be “graded” with a +, , or -. At the end of the marking period, one grade for each compiled item (Reading Logs and Homework sheets) will be entered in as a report card grade.

Grades – Students will be graded in a variety of ways.

Once per Quarter

Reading Logs
Reading Homework
Rubric (attached)

Weekly

Reading 4 Box
Fresh Read Quiz
Spelling/Vocabulary

Assorted

Workbook pages
Skill/Strategy activities
Center Activities
Projects

Focus Wall – A focus wall will be used to organize all the information for the current unit of study. Information will include:

Title and Author
Essential Question(s)
Comprehension Strategy
Comprehension Skill
Vocabulary Words
Spelling Words
Text Features
Text Structures
Genre

Block Schedule – Each block will be 85 minutes. The time will be divided as follows:

1 day per week (probably Wednesdays)

45 minutes for Assessment of previous story, strategies, and skills
45 minutes for Introduction of new story, skills, and strategies

4 days per week

5 minutes greeting and review
22 minutes group
3 minutes transition
22 minutes group
3 minutes transition
22 minutes group
5 minutes closure

Sixth Grade Reading Pacing Guide

	Skill	Strategy	Unit and Title	Genre
First Quarter	Main Idea and Details	Monitor and Fix-Up	U2 The Universe	ENF
		Prior Knowledge	U2 Dinosaur Ghosts	ENF
		Text Structure	U5 Gold	ENF
	Sequence	Visualize	U3 Hatchet	RF
		Predict	U3 Learning to Swim	AB
		Monitor and Fix-Up	U5 The House of Wisdom	HF
	Author’s Purpose	Answer Questions	U4 The Chimpanzees I Love	ENF
		Monitor and Fix-Up	U4 Inventing the Future	B
		Ask Questions	U6 Don Quixote and the Windmills	HF
	Draw Conclusions	Text Structure	U3 Elizabeth Blackwell	DR
Second Quarter		Answer Questions	U6 The Aztec News	IT
		Visualize	U4 Space Cadets	DR
	Fact and Opinion	Graphic Organizers	U1 Saving the Rain Forests	ENF
		Answer Questions	U1 When Crowbar Came	NNF
		Prior Knowledge	U5 Harvesting Hope	B
	Cause and Effect	Summarize	U4 Into the Ice	NNF
		Prior Knowledge	U4 Black Frontiers	ENF
		Graphic Organizers	U5 The River That Went to the Sky	My
	Compare and Contrast (t-chart activity)	Summarize	U1 Viva New Jersey	RF
		Ask Questions	U2 Good-bye to the Moon	SF
		Visualize	U6 The All American Slurp	RF
Third Quarter	Generalize/Summarize	Ask Questions	U3 When Marian Sang	B
		Predict	U3 Juan Verdades	FT
		Ask Questions	U6 Where Opportunity Awaits	ENF
	Graphic Sources	Text Structure	U2 A Week in the 1800s	ENF
		Summarize	U2 Egypt	ENF
		Graphic Organizers	U6 Ancient Greece	ENF
	Literary Elements	Visualize	U1 Old Yeller (setting)	HF
		Summarize	U1 Mother Fletcher’s Gift (character)	RF
		Predict	U5 The View From Saturday (plot)	HuF

This document was created using Scott Foresman’s Guide on the Side. Stories are grouped by skill rather than strategy to make assessing easier. This also allows for students to see how skills can be used with different strategies and genres. By doing 2 stories at a time, there will be extra stories. The highlighted stories will be taught during 4th quarter EOG Review. This will allow for a review of all the skills and strategies before EOGs in May. Alternatively, the stories could be covered where they may fit in SS or Science classes or during “short weeks” throughout the year.

Genre Codes

NNF= Narrative Nonfiction ENF= Expository Nonfiction RF= Realistic Fiction

HF= Historical Fiction HuF=Humorous Fiction DR= Drama/Play

SF= Science Fiction B= Biography AB=Autobiography

FT=Folk Tale My=Myth IT=Informational Text

40 Book Challenge

The 40 Book Challenge is a way to give structure to independent reading. All books are selected by the student. Students may ask the teacher or their peers for recommendations, but there are no specific title requirements. Students will be expected to read at least 40 books. They will have the following guidelines. A book that counts as 1 challenge entry will have more than 50 pages and less than 350.

Poetry collections – 2

Realistic fiction – 5
Historical fiction – 2
Fantasy – 4
Science fiction – 2
Mystery – 2
Informational text – 4
Biography, Autobiography, Memoir – 3
Chapter book (free choice) – 9
Myths – 2

This does not total 40. Students may choose the remaining books on their own. The guidelines give students a place to start. This also ensures they are meeting SCOS Objective 5.02 (reading a variety of literature and other texts.)

Students are not limited to books of a certain level or length. Students may read any book that interests them. Here are some general equivalents.

Books that are less than 50 pages

5 books will equal 1 challenge entry

Books that are more than 1 grade level below the student’s reading level

6 books will equal 1 challenge entry

Books that are more than 350 pages will count as 2 challenge entries

This challenge will be tracked in the student’s data notebook. Students will record titles, genres, and dates of completion in a chart. They will be able to track their progress and share it with their family often.

Miller, Donalyn, and Jeff Anderson. "Reading Requirements: Why Forty Books?" The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2009. 76-80. Print.

Quarterly Reading Rubric

Level 1:

No evidence of use or mastery.

Level 2:

Inconsistent use or mastery.

Level 3:

Consistent use. Demonstrates mastery at a sixth grade level.

Level 4:

Uses and demonstrates mastery at a level above sixth grade.

Skill	Description of Skill	1	2	3	4
Word Study	Apply phonics and word analysis to decode words by using roots, suffixes, prefixes, less common vowel patterns, syllable breaks					__ 9 __%
	Apply meanings of common prefixes and suffixes to decode words in text to assist comprehension.
	Use word reference materials (e.g., dictionary, glossary) to confirm decoding skills, verify spelling, and extend meanings of words.
Comprehension	Independently uses strategies to comprehend text: reread/read ahead, adjust reading speed, question, visualize, retell/synthesize, make connections					___ 12 __%
	Independently monitors comprehension and applies strategies.
	Uses comprehension skills to better understand text.
	Responds to a variety of texts to increase comprehension.
Fluency	Reads on-level fiction and nonfiction texts in a connected, smooth, and expressive manner. Reads a grade level amount of words per minute.					___ 6 __%
Book Choice	Read independently daily from self-selected materials (consistent with the student's independent reading level) to: increase fluency build background knowledge extend vocabulary. Independently chooses on-level books of multiple genres and does not abandon them frequently. Explain choice of reading materials congruent with purposes (e.g., solving problems, making decisions).

Rubric from an online source, creator unknown (discovered many years ago and modified)

Created by E. Bowden July 2011