Grade 6 Curriculum

Humanities: EL ELA

Units of Study
Over the course of the school year, children and teachers embark on four in-depth studies:

Unit 1: Mythology & Traditional Literature
Unit 2: American Indian Boarding Schools
Unit 3: Hidden Figures & the Remarkable Accomplishment of the Space Race
Unit 4: Critical Problems & Design Solutions

Sixth graders start the year with a study of mythology and traditional literature. Why do Greek myths continue to be relevant and popular today? is the driving question of this unit. In this module, students meet figures from ancient Greek mythology who are placed in a contemporary setting and evaluate how stories from a different time and place continue to resonate.

Despite their painful and long-lasting impact, American Indian boarding schools are an often neglected topic of study. In the second unit of study, students are introduced to this topic, with the goal of amplifying long unheard voices and better understanding this critical time in North American history. Students consider the purported objectives of American Indian boarding schools and compare these against the often far darker experiences reported by the students who attended these schools

With the third unit of study, students learn about remarkable accomplishments in space science, paying special attention to accomplishments and people that may have been overlooked until recently. After reading texts to learn about key events and well-known figures of the Space Race students read engaging informational texts about important events in the Space Race of the mid-twentieth century, leading up to the Apollo 11 moon landing. Students also encounter the story of the “West Computers,” the first black women hired by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, later NASA), which had previously enforced discriminatory hiring policies. The work of these tremendously talented mathematicians, like Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson, led to major advances in space science and helped land human beings on the moon. This unit provides opportunities for students to uncover and uplift the stories of these and other hidden figures who have typically not been centered in popular accounts of space science. Students read arguments that challenge the United States’ decision to invest in space exploration, especially when civil rights abuses were taking place at home.

Design thinking makes clear the systematic process that allows innovators to learn and apply techniques to solve critical problems in a creative way. In this final unit of the year, students read the true story of William Kamkwamba and how he used design thinking to confront the devastating effects of famine in his country, Malawi. Kamkwamba models how innovative thinkers can leverage design thinking to address critical problems in their own communities. Inspired by this concept, students work to  research and present other innovative solutions designed to address a critical issue, explaining how design thinking and habits of character led to the development of a successful solution.

For more detailed information on the specifics of the Grade 6 EL ELA curriculum, click here.

Mathematics: Illustrative Math

In Grade 6, the Illustrative Mathematics curriculum is designed to progressively build upon foundational concepts. Each unit connects to and extends ideas from previous units, weaving a coherent mathematical narrative throughout the year. The Illustrative Math Curriculum uses a problem-based learning approach, ensuring that students not only master grade-level content but also develop critical, lifelong cognitive skills. This methodology deepens conceptual understanding, promotes active learning, and fosters skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and perseverance. The curriculum is designed to be student-centered, encouraging inquiry, collaboration, and active engagement with challenging real-world problems.

The year is organized into eight units:

Unit 1: Area and Surface Area
This unit extends students' previous work with geometry and geometric measurement, focusing on area and surface area. Students explore area beyond rectangles, applying strategies for finding areas of parallelograms, triangles, and other polygons. They learn to decompose and rearrange shapes, developing formulas for areas of various figures. The unit also covers surface areas of polyhedra, including assembling and drawing nets for these shapes. This unit builds on elementary arithmetic and geometric concepts, integrating these into more complex geometrical reasoning.

Unit 2: Introducing Ratios
This unit draws from students' understanding of numbers and operations, introducing the concept of ratios. Students learn about ratios in various contexts (like recipes and mixtures), using discrete diagrams and double number line diagrams to understand equivalent ratios. This unit connects with previous work on multiplicative comparison and scaling, setting the stage for more advanced study of proportional relationships and rates.

Unit 3: Unit Rates and Percentages
Building on the foundation of ratios, this unit introduces unit rates and percentages. Students interpret unit rates and percentages in different contexts, using these concepts to solve practical problems involving measurements and conversions. Students deepen their understanding of ratios, preparing them for more complex applications in real-world contexts.

Unit 4: Dividing Fractions
This unit revisits fractions, focusing on division. Through various contexts, students explore division involving fractions, including partitive and quotitive interpretations. They connect division with multiplication, understanding division by fractions. This relates to earlier work on multiplication and arrays, enhancing students' numerical fluency and algebraic thinking.

Unit 5: Arithmetic in Base Ten
In this unit, students extend their arithmetic skills to decimals. The unit covers efficient algorithms for decimal operations, including long division. Students use base-ten diagrams to understand decimal operations.The unit builds on prior understanding of place value and properties of operations, preparing students for more advanced numerical and algebraic concepts.

Unit 6: Expressions and Equations
This unit introduces algebraic expressions and equations. Students work with linear equations, writing and solving them, and use tape and area diagrams for representation. They explore expressions with whole-number exponents and understand solutions to equations. The unit extends understanding from arithmetic to algebra, linking with earlier work on fractions and ratios.

Unit 7: Rational Numbers
This unit introduces students to signed numbers and inequalities. Students plot points in all four quadrants of the coordinate plane, work with simple inequalities, and understand concepts like absolute value and opposites. Connecting with previous work on number lines and coordinates, this work expands students’ number sense to include negative values and rational numbers.

Unit 8: Data Sets and Distributions
Unit 8 focuses on understanding and interpreting data. Students make and interpret histograms, bar graphs, and box plots, learning about measures of center and variability such as mean, median, and range. They describe distributions using statistical language. Students draw on numerical understanding from previous units, applying it to real-world data analysis and interpretation.

Unit 9: Putting it All Together
The final unit consolidates learning from previous units and offers opportunities to apply skills and reasoning in engaging and real-world contexts such as Fermi problems, equivalent ratios, and voting systems. By integrating and applying concepts from the entire year, this unit encourages creative application of mathematical concepts and fosters an understanding of the interrelatedness of mathematical ideas.

For more detailed information on the specifics of the Grade 6 Illustrative Math curriculum, click here.