6th grade Reading/Writing and Math
What should my child know and be able to do at the end of sixth grade?
Importance of Math and Communication Skills
No subjects in school are more important to a student’s future success than reading, writing,
and mathematics.
Without these skills, students will have a more difficult time learning in the next grade.
They must know how to use reading, writing, and math in all their school subjects, including art, music,
science, social studies, health, and physical education.
Our district has identified the most important for success in the next grade.
This pamphlet describes what we want your child to learn in reading, writing, and math by the
end of the year.
It may give you some ideas about specific skills you would like to help your child practice.
As you will see, our expectations are high.
There may be content, such as geometry, that you would not have expected so early in your child’s education.
There may also be terms which are unfamiliar to you.
If there are parts you are unsure of, please ask your child’s teacher for more information.
One of our goals as a school district is to have as many children as possible reach these
expectations – or learn even more – by the end of each school year.
Communication Skills – Reading/Writing
By the end of sixth grade, a student should:
Develop word knowledge and reading strategies
~ Use strategies to increase understanding of printed material, such as consulting another
source and considering what is already known.
~ Adjust rate of reading and attention to detail based on the purpose and difficulty of the
material being read.
Understand the meaning of what is read
~ Gather information from multiple sources, including websites and print, to answer a
question or solve a problem.
~ Understand elements of plot and character development, for example, character traits,
conflict, and motivation.
~ Support opinions and conclusions with evidence and examples from the story or
informational material.
~ Evaluate and author’s effectiveness.
Build habits of a thoughtful reader
~ Read independently on a daily basis.
~ Read from a variety of materials, (fiction, classics, contemporary and historical poetry, electronic print, and public documents.
~ Set goals and identify strategies to improve reading.
Write clearly and effectively
~ Choose the focus and supporting information based on the audience and purpose for writing.
~ Use paragraphs that seem complete and center on one idea.
~ Use effective conclusions, not simply restating ideas or saying, “Thank you for listening.”
~ Use different kinds of sentences and different sentence lengths.
~ Understand and apply commonly accepted English grammer rules, such as subject-verb agreement.
~ Spell words appropriate for sixth grade correctly.
~ Understand and apply punctuation to make reading clear and easy.
Use processes and habits of a thoughtful writer
~ Choose the most effective order for ideas and details.
~ Use technology tools that help with writing process.
~ Revise to make the writing more effectively.
~ Use resources such as a computer spellchecker to proofread for accuracy.
~ Share writing with others.
~ Maintain a journal of personal writing, notes, observations, questions, ideas; set own
writing improvement goals.
Mathematics Concepts and Skills
By the end of sixth grade, a student should know the following:
Number Sense and Computation
~ Understand the meaning of fractions, and percents and use them to solve problems.
learn this skill
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~ Develop and use strategies for adding and subtraction fractions and adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing decimals accurately.
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~ Solve problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of numbers.
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~ Understand factors and multiples and solve simple problems involving them.
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Measurement
~ Classify angles by size, such as right, acute, obtuse.
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~ Measure accurately.
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~ Use formulas for finding the perimeter, area, and volume.
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~ Determine the area of irregular shapes.
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Geometric Sense
~ Identify geometric features that appear outside of math, such as line relationships (parallel, perpendicular, symmetries, congruence, similarity)
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~ Compare, contrast, and construct isosceles, equilateral, and scalene triangles.
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~ Describe simple transformations using combinations of slides, flips, and turns.
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Probability and Statistics
~ Collect, organize, display, and analyze data to answer a question.
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~ Describe the characteristics of data, such as mode, median, mean, and range.
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~ Make predictions based on data.
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~ Understand experimental and theoretical probabilities and the relationship between them.
Experimental:
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Theoretical:
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Algebraic Sense (Patterns & Functions)
~ Show understanding of linear functions for patterns with tables, graphs, and words.
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~ Begin to develop an understanding of and equation and a variable.
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