Grade Six

Language Arts

Listening Skills. Listening Skills will be given in 20-to 45-minute presentations of stories, myths, legends and factual content taken from the history of Rome and the Middle Ages. Students will demonstrate competencies in the following areas:

• Oral recall of the main sequence of the presentation after 24-hour interval
• Oral recall of the factual details of the presentation after 24- hour interval
• Oral recall of factual details over longer durations with a 70% accuracy
• Choral and individual recitation of poetry and prose dramatizations taken from the above areas up to fifteen minutes in length with a minimum of five minutes
• Ability to follow oral and written directions relating to the study of the above areas and two general classroom protocols
• Ability to write dictations of varying lengths generated and spoken orally by the teacher from the above material

Spelling Skills. Given sources of words, students will be introduced to etymology as it pertains to spelling. Students will develop vocabulary lists each week of new words introduced through their academic subjects. Given corrected compositions of their own and simple editing instructions, students will increase their ability to proofread. Given teacher- and pupil-generated weekly lists and spelling strategies, students will develop ones that allow them to obtain 80% average accuracy on tests. Given rules for syllabication, students will be able to syllabicate words that follow these rules. Grammar skills will be developed by giving presentations, reviews, and oral and written practice. Students will demonstrate competencies in editing and writing samples containing the following:

• Simple declarative, interrogative, exclamatory and imperative sentences
• Compound sentences with coordinate conjunctions and semi-colons
• Complex sentences with adjective phrases and clauses
• Adverbs
• Adverbial phrases and clauses
• Subordinate conjunctions
• Three forms of a sentence
• Diagramming of simple sentences
• Punctuation
• Proper capitalization

Writing Skills. Writing skills will be developed by given 20 to 45 minutes oral presentations of curriculum content. Students will perform the following:

• Written recall of main sequence of the presentation after a 24- hour interval.
• Written recall of factual details of the presentation after a 24-hour interval.
• Written recall of main sequence over longer duration with 70% accuracy.
• Written recall of factual details over longer duration with 70% accuracy.

Given topics from science and history, students will research then develop simple outlines emphasizing main ideas and supporting details. Then they will write a report (see Science and Social Studies). Given addresses and review of form, students will write business and friendly letters. Students will write expositions from ideas generated in class that relate to following at least six sequential directions. Given examples of biographical sketches, the students will be able to generate writing in narrative form from material they have heard or read.

Reading Skills. Students will read at least nine books in a class reading program. They will read three of these as in-class readers, and nine on their own, six of these assigned and followed by comprehension questions, and three chosen individually followed-up by an artistic presentation. Students will present oral reports and orally answer questions by the teacher from a book list of readings. Students will expand and develop reading comprehension, speed and word recognition at sixth grade level skills or above through the following:

• Continued use of reference materials
• Reading and oral recall of reports written by the student and other classmates
• Showing an understanding of ideas presented
• Drawing critical conclusions
• Showing an understanding of main ideas, supporting details, and foreshadowing in juvenile literature.
• Computation Skills. Given appropriate review and practice, students will show mastery of the four processes: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
• Given appropriate review and practice, students will show mastery of the four processes with whole numbers, fractions and decimals

Mastery will be evaluated through:

• Class participation
• Board work
• Written exercises
• Tests.
• Math Concepts with Computation

Percents. Given appropriate curriculum stories, anecdotes and practical examples, students will master the following:

• Introduction of percentage
• Ratio and proportion
• Product of means is equal to product of extremes
• Conversion of fractions to decimals and the reverse
• Conversion of fractions to percentage and the reverse.

• Business Mathematics: Given appropriate curriculum story problems that involve the four processes, students will develop applied business skills using: whole numbers, fractions, decimals, and percentage

In practical  storytelling, students are introduced to:

• Beginning bookkeeping
• Simple interest
• Selling price
• Margin
• Loss
• Profit
• Computing and compounding interest
• Dividends and principal on checking and savings accounts
•  Bills of various types

Geometry. Given appropriate curriculum stories, the student will become familiar with the history of geometry and early earth measure.

The student will practice everyday life problems and written exercises using the following geometric concepts:

• Square measure for area, pictorially and arithmetically
• Geometric drawing with compass and ruler
• Constructions of various polygons using different methods and materials
• Names and shapes of basic geometric polygons
• Computation of perimeters of polygons
• Computation of areas of parallelograms, triangles, squares and rectangles
• Development of pi, pictorially and arithmetically
• Computation and construction of area, circumference, radius, diameter, angles, arcs and chords of a circle
• Introduction to the use of a protractor
• Construction with the compass and straight edge of polygons, angles, perpendicular bi- sectors and parallel lines
• Introduction to both concepts and diagrams of parallel lines, corresponding angles, interior angles of a triangle, quadrilaterals, right and oblique prisms.

Social Studies

History. Given the objective of understanding the history of Rome with emphasis on culture and the evolution toward government and laws, the student will, through written and oral presentation, show an understanding of:

• The Seven Kings
• Virgil’s Aeneid
• Mythological pictures of early statehood
• Stories with emphasis on Roman emperors from Romulus and Remus to the Pax Romana
• Legends of early Christianity
• The Fall of Rome
• Students will examine the development of Western civilization from Rome through the Middle Ages through the following:
• Stories of Germanic tribes, including Charlemagne, the Angles, Saxons and Vikings
• Biographies of Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, Marco Polo and Henry the Second, and others
• The Crusades
• The Fall of Constantinople

Geography

Students will develop an understanding of world geography using maps and globes with an emphasis on the following:

• Seasonal changes
• Biotic zones
• Wind and water currents
• Meridians and parallels of latitude
• Specific landforms (e.g., glaciers, volcanoes, icebergs)
• Comparisons and contrasts of various climates
• Comparisons and contrasts of various vegetation (e.g., tundra, grasslands, deserts)
• Free hand drawings of continents and bodies of water.
• Students will give oral presentations, create appropriate drawings, point out on maps and create written reports on the above subjects

Science

Physics. The student will examine and observe the phenomenon of acoustics in the following areas:

• Natural sounds
• Pitch
• Overtones
• Tone vs. noise
• Doppler Effect
• Chladni’s Sound Figures

The student will examine and observe the phenomenon of magnetism in the following areas:

• Positive and negative poles
• Attraction and repulsion
• Magnetic field of the earth
• Types of magnets
• Magnetic force through various substances
• Electromagnetism.
• The student will examine and observe the phenomenon of heat in the following areas:
• Expansion and contraction
• Conductivity of various states of matter
• Transference of heat: conductions, convections, radiation
• Fahrenheit and centigrade
• Frictions
• Changes of volume: solids, liquids, gases
• Evaporation and condensation

The student will examine and observe the phenomenon of optics in the following areas:

• Nature of light
• Reflection and refraction
• Color/prisms
• Convex and concave lenses
• Afterimages 

Mineralogy. The objective is to develop an understanding of basic mineralogy through examining and observing the following areas:

• Crystals and gems
• Metals
• Geographic and geologic relationship of minerals
• Classification and formation of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks

Astronomy. The objective is to develop an understanding of basic astronomy through observation and study of:

• Movement of celestial objects
• Sun, the moon, the planets, the solar system, the stars and constellations
• Meteors and comets