Horseheads Intermediate School
Welcome to sixth Grade
6th Grade Academics Overview
The following overview of our programs should enhance your understanding of our curriculum. Sixth grade students are heterogeneously grouped by varying abilities within a team of two teachers. Special subjects including art, vocal and instrumental music, and physical education are taught separately by specialists in their respective fields. Students receive instruction on various topics during library class as well.
All students are expected to complete assignments on time, put forth their best effort, practice good study habits and be prepared for tests/quizzes.
| English Language Arts (ELA): | We use the Guided Reading framework for ELA instruction. This approach utilizes literature and informational text to focus on comprehension, oral language, word study, reading, and language arts. Research and library skills will be taught to help the students realize the potentialities of the language arts learning outcomes and performance tasks. Students will engage in writing arguments to support claims, narratives to develop events, and informative/explanatory texts to analyze relevant content. The students will be completing district-wide common performance tasks at the completion of each unit. There will be two class novels that students will read this year. The first one is Schooled by Gordon Korman and will be tied into the unit 1 content and the second novel is The Unteachables, also written by Gordon Korman which will be tied into unit 4. Students will be encouraged to read a variety of genres throughout the year and strive to meet or exceed the 4K reading challenge. The two class novels we will read this year will count toward the 4K book goal of reading 4,000 pages between the summer and the end of the school year. Our curriculum is aligned with the Next Generation Standards which can be found at http://www.nysed.gov/next-generation-learning-standards. |
| Mathematics: | We continue to implement the Next Generation Standards, which can be found at http://www.nysed.gov/next-generation-learning-standards. Sixth grade will use components of Mid School Math and other resources to provide students with a variety of strategies and learning opportunities that provide a balance of conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and the application and transfer of knowledge. |
| Science: | Using STEM based resources such as FOSS, the aim of the science curriculum is to increase students’ scientific literacy. This will be accomplished by developing skills, positive science attitudes, and acquiring knowledge about the natural world. Students will demonstrate their growth through collaborative problem solving, using hands-on activities and labs throughout the year. |
| Social Studies: | The Social Studies series, World Studies- The Ancient World by Prentice Hall Publishers, will give the students an opportunity to study the ancient civilizations of Africa, Asia, and Europe from economic and geographic points of view. We will also tie these ancient cultures into our current world today so students can make connections and understand why and how we have certain inventions and legacies that came from previous generations. Students will be involved in activity-oriented social studies experiences. These participation projects provide an excellent opportunity to reinforce the content, concepts, and skill goals of the state social studies requirements. Because the projects are activity oriented, they encourage students to participate with a wide variety of skills and abilities. |
Building a collaborative, caring classroom is a grade level initiative. The experiential learning cycle and adventure education enhance many important skills such as collaboration, caring and tolerance, empathy, trust, and problem-solving. We emphasize character education and the Habits of Mind of persisting, managing impulsivity, listening with understanding and empathy, thinking flexibly, thinking about your thinking, striving for accuracy/thinking and communicating with clarity and precision, questioning and posing problems and taking responsible risks.
We look forward to a year filled with learning opportunities for your child. Your continued support is appreciated and will help your child succeed