Grade 6 English Language Arts
14 units matched to the Nunavut Curriculum. Kids see this subject as “Language Arts”.
Learning focus
- Uqausiliriniq: communication and language, creative and artistic expression, and reflective and critical thinking.
- Comprehension: listen, view and read to understand a range of texts.
- Production: speak, write and represent ideas clearly for different audiences and purposes.
Units
Unit 1
Learning to Learn
Practises using prior knowledge, asking open-ended questions, making connections, adjusting reading rate, and choosing and tracking learning goals.
Approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Comprehension · prior knowledge, questions, connections, reading rate, and setting and tracking learning goals
Unit 2
Close Reading
Reading original stories and information texts, then finding the theme or main idea, making inferences, explaining why characters act as they do and choosing the sentence that best supports an answer.
Approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Comprehension · making predictions, checking understanding and summarizing key ideas
Unit 3
Text Features & Forms
Practises text features such as the table of contents, index, glossary, captions and diagrams, the names of common text forms, and subject-specific vocabulary.
Approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Production · text features, kinds of texts, and subject-specific vocabulary
Unit 4
Point of View
Telling first person, third person limited and third person omniscient apart, and thinking about what each narrator can and can't know.
Approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Comprehension · how the point of view chosen by the text creator shapes a text
Unit 5
Figurative Language
Naming similes, metaphors, personification, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, alliteration and idioms, explaining what they mean, finding the sense an image appeals to and working out what a symbol stands for.
Approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Comprehension · figurative language, vivid verbs and specific nouns
Unit 6
Connotation & Tone
Words can share a dictionary meaning (denotation) but carry different feelings (connotation), like “cozy” and “cramped.” Students choose words for effect and identify a writer's tone.
Approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Production · word choice, tone and the feeling of words
Unit 7
Roots & Analogies
Using Greek and Latin roots (like “geo,” “aud” and “port”) to work out unfamiliar words, and completing analogies that compare word relationships.
Approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Production · word parts, roots and relationships between words
Unit 8
Media, Bias & Diversity
Practises how multimodal texts combine modes, how audience and purpose shape a text, and how to notice bias, stereotypes, inclusion and equity in texts.
Approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Comprehension · diversity and bias in texts, and creating multimodal texts
Unit 9
Sources & Bias
Separating fact from opinion, judging whether a source is reliable, spotting loaded words and one-sided reporting, and asking who made a message and why.
Approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Comprehension · bias in sources, and checking information
Unit 10
Plan & Organize Writing
Practises choosing a focused topic for an audience, planning with organizers, using organization patterns such as cause and effect, and building introductions, paragraphs and conclusions.
Approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Production · choosing a topic, planning, gathering information and organizing writing
Unit 11
Make Your Case
Building an argument: stating a claim, choosing the strongest evidence, recognizing counterarguments and rebuttals, spotting persuasive techniques and ordering a persuasive paragraph.
Approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Production · persuasive writing and presenting ideas to persuade
Unit 12
Agreement
Making verbs agree with their subjects (even with tricky phrases, “each,” “everyone” and “either…or”) and choosing pronouns that clearly match the nouns they replace.
Approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Production · subject-verb agreement in sentences
Unit 13
Commas & Clauses
Finding dependent clauses, telling simple, compound and complex sentences apart, and using commas in lists, compound sentences, introductions and appositives.
Approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Production · commas and clauses in simple, compound and complex sentences
Unit 14
Sentence Repair
Spotting sentence fragments, run-on sentences and comma splices, and choosing correct ways to fix them with periods, semicolons, joining words or dependent clauses.
Approved guide: NWT English Language Arts (2011), Production · fixing fragments and run-ons when revising
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