Sixth grade students will be able to select a service site.

Building upon skills and curriculum covered in fifth grade, sixth grade English/History focuses on reading, writing, speaking, and listening within the context of American history, but not limited to it. We will be using a reading workshop model as the core of our English curriculum. Students will read many books of their own choosing as well as selected novels to accompany the history course content. Response journals will be used with the reading, both as a vehicle for teacher supervision and a tool for deeper reading and comprehension. Twenty minutes of reading, five nights a week will be assigned for homework to reinforce the goal of developing life-long reading habits in our 6th grade students. The mechanics of writing, grammar, and usage are taught in the context of writing but are also practiced with the aid of grammar and spelling texts. The writing process, concentrating on solid paragraph development and moving to the longer five-paragraph essay, will utilize editing and rewriting to final form. Writing assignments will generally be in response to literature or relating to topics in history. An introduction to United States history for sixth graders builds on the skills learned in the fifth-grade study of ancient civilizations and asks students to apply these same tools to one specific country. This course takes a topical approach to American History, exploring specific periods from the arrival of the first Americans through the Revolutionary War. The tools of historical inquiry are woven throughout each of these six units enabling students to begin constructing their own interpretation of the past. We examine major events from multiple perspectives and understand their impact on our lives today. The concepts of democracy and citizenship will not only be investigated in historical terms, but also practiced within the classroom.