English Language Arts (ELA) is more than just reading and writing. It also includes skills like speaking, listening, and viewing. ELA offers us a way to communicate. Through ELA, your child can apply what s/he learns to solve real problems at home, at school and in the community.

Here are the skills your child should have mastered by the end of sixth grade:

Word Recognition

  • Use word structure, sentence structure and prediction to learn and understand the meanings of words when reading.
  • Fluently read sixth-grade text and text that increases in difficulty throughout the year. 

Narrative Text

  • Think about how characters in good literature form opinions about one another in ways that can be fair or unfair.
  • Analyze elements and style of narrative textssuch as folktales, fantasy and adventure. 

Writing

  • Write a narrative piece such as an adventure, tall tale or personal narrative story that includes well developed characters and plot.
  • Write a well-organized essay to support key ideas in the form of a persuasive, personal or comparative piece for a real audience. 

Spelling

  • Spell commonly misspelled words correctly in papers composed. 

Handwriting

  • Write legible essays and other papers.