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6e - Curricular Standards

6e (6th grade) - Links to Curriculum Standards

Austin International School's units of instruction are primarily based on the French National Curriculum's program of studies. Important to the development of these units, however, are links to the American Common Core Standards as well as the Standards for Foreign Language Learning published by the American Council on the Teaching of  Foreign Languages. Integration of these three systems allows Middle School students to learn essential content and skills through the languages, communities, and cultures of the world.

Common Core Standards (6th grade)

Reading: Literature

  • Key Ideas and Deatails
    • Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
    • Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
    • Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
       
  • Craft and Structure
    • Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone
    • Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.
    • Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
       
  • Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
    • Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text, including contrasting what they "see" and "hear" when reading the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch.
    • Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres (e.g., stories and poems; historical novels and fantasy stories) in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics.
       
  • Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
    • By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Reading: Informational Text

  • Key Ideas and Details:
    • Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
    • Determine a central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
    • Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdotes).
       
  • Craft and Structure:
    • Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings.
    • Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas.
    • Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.
       
  • Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:
    • Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue.
    • Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.
    • Compare and contrast one author's presentation of events with that of another (e.g., a memoir written by and a biography on the same person).
       
  • Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:
    • By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Writing

  • Text Types and Purposes:
    • Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence.
      • Introduce claim(s) and organize the reasons and evidence clearly.
      • Support claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.
      • Use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationships among claim(s) and reasons.
      • Establish and maintain a formal style.
      • Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the argument presented.
         
    • Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
      • Introduce a topic; organize ideas, concepts, and information, using strategies such as definition, classification, comparison/contrast, and cause/effect; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics (e.g., charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
      • Develop the topic with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples.
      • Use appropriate transitions to clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts.
      • Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.
      • Establish and maintain a formal style.
      • Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the information or explanation presented.
         
    • Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
      • Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically.
      • Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
      • Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another.
      • Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to convey experiences and events.
      • Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events.
         
  • Production and Distribution of Writing:
    • Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
    • With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.
    • Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting.
       
  • Research to Build and Present Knowledge:
    • Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate.
    • Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources.
    • Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
      • Apply grade 6 Reading standards to literature (e.g., "Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres [e.g., stories and poems; historical novels and fantasy stories] in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics").
      • Apply grade 6 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (e.g., "Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not").
         
  • Range of Writing:
    • Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

Speaking and Listening

  • Comprehension and Collaboration:
    • Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
      • Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material; explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on ideas under discussion.
      • Follow rules for collegial discussions, set specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed.
      • Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion.
      • Review the key ideas expressed and demonstrate understanding of multiple perspectives through reflection and paraphrasing.
         
    • Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study.
    • Delineate a speaker's argument and specific claims, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.
       
  • Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas:
    • Present claims and findings, sequencing ideas logically and using pertinent descriptions, facts, and details to accentuate main ideas or themes; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.
    • Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, images, music, sound) and visual displays in presentations to clarify information.
    • Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

Language

  • Conventions of Standard English:
    • Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
      • Ensure that pronouns are in the proper case (subjective, objective, possessive).
      • Use intensive pronouns (e.g., myself, ourselves).
      • Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in pronoun number and person.
      • Recognize and correct vague pronouns (i.e., ones with unclear or ambiguous antecedents).
      • Recognize variations from standard English in their own and others' writing and speaking, and identify and use strategies to improve expression in conventional language.
         
    • Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
      • Use punctuation (commas, parentheses, dashes) to set off nonrestrictive/parenthetical elements.
      • Spell correctly.
         
  • Knowledge of Language:
    • Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.
      • Vary sentence patterns for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style.
      • Maintain consistency in style and tone.
         
  • Vocabulary Acquisition and Use:
    • Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 6 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
      • Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word's position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.
      • Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., audience, auditory, audible).
      • Consult reference materials (e.g., dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech.
      • Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (e.g., by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary).
         
    • Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
      • Interpret figures of speech (e.g., personification) in context.
      • Use the relationship between particular words (e.g., cause/effect, part/whole, item/category) to better understand each of the words.
      • Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (e.g., stingy, scrimping, economical, unwasteful, thrifty).
         
    • Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
ACTFL Standards for Language Acquisition

“Knowing how, when, and why to say what to whom”

All the linguistic and social knowledge required for effective human-to-human inter-action is encompassed in those ten words. Formerly, most teaching in language classrooms concentrated on the how (grammar) to say what (vocabulary). While these components of language are indeed crucial, the current organizing principle for foreign language study is communication, which also highlights the why, the whom, and the when. So, while grammar and vocabulary are essential tools for communication, it is the acquisition of the ability to communicate in meaningful and appropriate ways with users of other languages that is the ultimate goal of today’s multilangual classroom.

The ACTFL Standards for Language acquisition for all levels of instruction are encapsulated by the five Cs of Foreign Language Education: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. These standards are:

Communication: Communicate in Languages Other than their Mother Tongue

  • Students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions.
  • Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics.
  • Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience oflisteners or readers on a variety of topics.

Cultures: Gain Knowledge and Understanding of Other Cultures

  • Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the culture studied.
  • Students demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the products and perspectives of the culture studied.

Connections: Connect with Other Disciplines and Acquire Information

  • Students reinforce and further their knowledge of other disciplines through a new language.
  • Students acquire information and recognize the distinctive viewpoints that are only available through the foreign language and its cultures.

Comparisons: Develop Insight Into the Nature of Language and Culture

  • Students demonstrate understanding of the nature of language through comparisons of the language studied and their own.
  • Students demonstrate understanding of the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own.

Communities: Participate in Multilingual Communities at Home and Around the World

  • Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting.
  • Students show evidence of becoming life-long learners by using the language for personal enjoyment and enrichment.

Adapted from the
ACTFL Standards for Foreign Language Learning:
Preparing for the 21st Centur

 
Common Core Standards (6th grade)

Mathematics: Ratios & Proportional Relationships

  • Understand ratio concepts and use ratio reasoning to solve problems.
    • Understand the concept of a ratio and use ratio language to describe a ratio relationship between two quantities. For example, "The ratio of wings to beaks in the bird house at the zoo was 2:1, because for every 2 wings there was 1 beak." "For every vote candidate A received, candidate C received nearly three votes."
    • Understand the concept of a unit rate a/b associated with a ratio a:b with b ≠ 0, and use rate language in the context of a ratio relationship. For example, "This recipe has a ratio of 3 cups of flour to 4 cups of sugar, so there is 3/4 cup of flour for each cup of sugar." "We paid $75 for 15 hamburgers, which is a rate of $5 per hamburger."
    • Use ratio and rate reasoning to solve real-world and mathematical problems, e.g., by reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number line diagrams, or equations.
      • Make tables of equivalent ratios relating quantities with whole-number measurements, find missing values in the tables, and plot the pairs of values on the coordinate plane. Use tables to compare ratios.
      • Solve unit rate problems including those involving unit pricing and constant speed. For example, if it took 7 hours to mow 4 lawns, then at that rate, how many lawns could be mowed in 35 hours? At what rate were lawns being mowed?
      • Find a percent of a quantity as a rate per 100 (e.g., 30% of a quantity means 30/100 times the quantity); solve problems involving finding the whole, given a part and the percent.
      • Use ratio reasoning to convert measurement units; manipulate and transform units appropriately when multiplying or dividing quantities.

Mathematics: The Number System

  • Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division to divide fractions by fractions.
    • Interpret and compute quotients of fractions, and solve word problems involving division of fractions by fractions, e.g., by using visual fraction models and equations to represent the problem. For example, create a story context for (2/3) ÷ (3/4) and use a visual fraction model to show the quotient; use the relationship between multiplication and division to explain that (2/3) ÷ (3/4) = 8/9 because 3/4 of 8/9 is 2/3. (In general, (a/b) ÷ (c/d) = ad/bc.) How much chocolate will each person get if 3 people share 1/2 lb of chocolate equally? How many 3/4-cup servings are in 2/3 of a cup of yogurt? How wide is a rectangular strip of land with length 3/4 mi and area 1/2 square mi?.
       
  • Compute fluently with multi-digit numbers and find common factors and multiples.
    • Fluently divide multi-digit numbers using the standard algorithm.
    • Fluently add, subtract, multiply, and divide multi-digit decimals using the standard algorithm for each operation.
    • Find the greatest common factor of two whole numbers less than or equal to 100 and the least common multiple of two whole numbers less than or equal to 12. Use the distributive property to express a sum of two whole numbers 1-100 with a common factor as a multiple of a sum of two whole numbers with no common factor. For example, express 36 + 8 as 4 (9 + 2).
       
  • Apply and extend previous understandings of numbers to the system of rational numbers.
    • Understand that positive and negative numbers are used together to describe quantities having opposite directions or values (e.g., temperature above/below zero, elevation above/below sea level, credits/debits, positive/negative electric charge); use positive and negative numbers to represent quantities in real-world contexts, explaining the meaning of 0 in each situation.
    • Understand a rational number as a point on the number line. Extend number line diagrams and coordinate axes familiar from previous grades to represent points on the line and in the plane with negative number coordinates.
      • Recognize opposite signs of numbers as indicating locations on opposite sides of 0 on the number line; recognize that the opposite of the opposite of a number is the number itself, e.g., -(-3) = 3, and that 0 is its own opposite.
      • Understand signs of numbers in ordered pairs as indicating locations in quadrants of the coordinate plane; recognize that when two ordered pairs differ only by signs, the locations of the points are related by reflections across one or both axes.
      • Find and position integers and other rational numbers on a horizontal or vertical number line diagram; find and position pairs of integers and other rational numbers on a coordinate plane.
         
    • Understand ordering and absolute value of rational numbers.
      • Interpret statements of inequality as statements about the relative position of two numbers on a number line diagram. For example, interpret -3 > -7 as a statement that -3 is located to the right of -7 on a number line oriented from left to right.
      • Write, interpret, and explain statements of order for rational numbers in real-world contexts. For example, write -3°C > -7°C to express the fact that -3°C is warmer than -7°C.
      • Understand the absolute value of a rational number as its distance from 0 on the number line; interpret absolute value as magnitude for a positive or negative quantity in a real-world situation. For example, for an account balance of -30 dollars, write |-30| = 30 to describe the size of the debt in dollars.
      • Distinguish comparisons of absolute value from statements about order. For example, recognize that an account balance less than -30 dollars represents a debt greater than 30 dollars.
         
    • Solve real-world and mathematical problems by graphing points in all four quadrants of the coordinate plane. Include use of coordinates and absolute value to find distances between points with the same first coordinate or the same second coordinate.

Mathematics: Expressions & Equations

  • Apply and extend previous understandings of arithmetic to algebraic expressions.
    • Write and evaluate numerical expressions involving whole-number exponents.
      • Write, read, and evaluate expressions in which letters stand for numbers.
        • Write expressions that record operations with numbers and with letters standing for numbers. For example, express the calculation "Subtract y from 5" as 5 - y.
        • Identify parts of an expression using mathematical terms (sum, term, product, factor, quotient, coefficient); view one or more parts of an expression as a single entity. For example, describe the expression 2 (8 + 7) as a product of two factors; view (8 + 7) as both a single entity and a sum of two terms.
        • Evaluate expressions at specific values of their variables. Include expressions that arise from formulas used in real-world problems. Perform arithmetic operations, including those involving whole-number exponents, in the conventional order when there are no parentheses to specify a particular order (Order of Operations). For example, use the formulas V = s³ and A = 6 s³ to find the volume and surface area of a cube with sides of length s = 1/2.
           
    • Apply the properties of operations to generate equivalent expressions. For example, apply the distributive property to the expression 3 (2 + x) to produce the equivalent expression 6 + 3x; apply the distributive property to the expression 24x + 18y to produce the equivalent expression 6 (4x + 3y); apply properties of operations to y + y + y to produce the equivalent expression 3y.
    • Identify when two expressions are equivalent (i.e., when the two expressions name the same number regardless of which value is substituted into them). For example, the expressions y + y + y and 3y are equivalent because they name the same number regardless of which number y stands for.
       
  • Reason about and solve one-variable equations and inequalities.
    • Understand solving an equation or inequality as a process of answering a question: which values from a specified set, if any, make the equation or inequality true? Use substitution to determine whether a given number in a specified set makes an equation or inequality true.
    • Use variables to represent numbers and write expressions when solving a real-world or mathematical problem; understand that a variable can represent an unknown number, or, depending on the purpose at hand, any number in a specified set.
    • Solve real-world and mathematical problems by writing and solving equations of the form x + p = q and px = q for cases in which p, q and x are all nonnegative rational numbers.
    • Write an inequality of the form x > c or x < c to represent a constraint or condition in a real-world or mathematical problem. Recognize that inequalities of the form x > c or x < c have infinitely many solutions; represent solutions of such inequalities on number line diagrams.
       
  • Represent and analyze quantitative relationships between dependent and independent variables.
    • Use variables to represent two quantities in a real-world problem that change in relationship to one another; write an equation to express one quantity, thought of as the dependent variable, in terms of the other quantity, thought of as the independent variable. Analyze the relationship between the dependent and independent variables using graphs and tables, and relate these to the equation. For example, in a problem involving motion at constant speed, list and graph ordered pairs of distances and times, and write the equation d = 65t to represent the relationship between distance and time.

Mathematics: Geometry

  • Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, surface area, and volume.
    • Find the area of right triangles, other triangles, special quadrilaterals, and polygons by composing into rectangles or decomposing into triangles and other shapes; apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
    • Find the volume of a right rectangular prism with fractional edge lengths by packing it with unit cubes of the appropriate unit fraction edge lengths, and show that the volume is the same as would be found by multiplying the edge lengths of the prism. Apply the formulas V = l w h and V = b h to find volumes of right rectangular prisms with fractional edge lengths in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
    • Draw polygons in the coordinate plane given coordinates for the vertices; use coordinates to find the length of a side joining points with the same first coordinate or the same second coordinate. Apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.
    • Represent three-dimensional figures using nets made up of rectangles and triangles, and use the nets to find the surface area of these figures. Apply these techniques in the context of solving real-world and mathematical problems.

Mathematics: Statistics & Probablity

  • Develop understanding of statistical variability.
    • Recognize a statistical question as one that anticipates variability in the data related to the question and accounts for it in the answers. For example, "How old am I?" is not a statistical question, but "How old are the students in my school?" is a statistical question because one anticipates variability in students' ages.
    • Understand that a set of data collected to answer a statistical question has a distribution which can be described by its center, spread, and overall shape.
    • Recognize that a measure of center for a numerical data set summarizes all of its values with a single number, while a measure of variation describes how its values vary with a single number.
       
  • Summarize and describe distributions.
    • Display numerical data in plots on a number line, including dot plots, histograms, and box plots.
    • Summarize numerical data sets in relation to their context, such as by:
      • Reporting the number of observations.
      • Describing the nature of the attribute under investigation, including how it was measured and its units of measurement.
      • Giving quantitative measures of center (median and/or mean) and variability (interquartile range and/or mean absolute deviation), as well as describing any overall pattern and any striking deviations from the overall pattern with reference to the context in which the data were gathered.
      • Relating the choice of measures of center and variability to the shape of the data distribution and the context in which the data were gathered.