A 6th Grade ELA Lesson on Literary Nonfiction
When we ask students to read nonfiction in 6th grade, they often treat the text like a data dump. They scan for facts and dates, feeling satisfied once they have captured a few bullet points. This approach works for an instruction manual, but it falls apart the moment... read more
Building Better Discussions for 6th Grade English Language Arts
Classroom discussions often fall flat because students view them as performance rather than collaboration.In 6th grade English Language Arts, the goal shifts toward getting students to treat their peers as partners in a search for meaning. The lesson Building Better... read more
Supporting 6th Grade Discussion with Active Listening Skills
If you have ever watched a classroom discussion drift into a series of disconnected statements rather than a real conversation, you know the value of teaching active listening. This 6th grade English Language Arts lesson is built to fix that exact problem. It gives... read more
Teaching Fact, Opinion, and Reasoned Judgment in 6th Grade ELA
I suspect we both see the same thing in our 6th grade English Language Arts classrooms: students often take every printed word as a gospel truth. It is a hurdle we face when moving them from learning to read toward reading to learn. In this 6th grade English Language... read more