our sixth grade program
Humanities
At St. Anne's School, we find that students learn best when they topics they study are meaningful and integrated. The humanities curriculum, through explorations of history and literature, using written and oral expression, encourages students’ natural curiosity by making connections and building an understanding of the world around them and their place in it.
Through the humanities curriculum, students are exposed to an array of integrated literature and social studies topics. Students take a trip around the world, through time and place developing cultural awareness and skills to interpret both historical and literacy sources and develop their own abilities, evolving as thinkers, writers and citizens.
Students learn and apply skills such as the writing process, reading strategies, identification and interpretation of historical sources, grammatical structures and spelling. In particular, the writing process is emphasized: students identify topics that matter to them, and draft, revise and polish finished pieces of poetry, fiction and memoir.
Sixth Grade Humanities
Sixth Grade Humanities curriculum centers on the question, “How are we responsible for changing the world?” Sixth Grade students explore the history of ancient civilizations including the first known settlements in Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, India and China. They experience how historians learn about the past through a first-hand archaeological dig and investigate ways in which ancient societies’ early accomplishments contribute to our lives. In order to understand primary resources, student create a “museum” and act as docents. The exhibit contains primary objects and documents from their families.
Students “travel” to the Nile in conjunction with their Language Arts, Science, and Art classes to study its geography, topography, cultures, animals, mythology and works of art. They enter the Valley of the Kings and explore the pyramids with an emphasis on King Tutankhamen’s tomb and record their travels in their journals. To conclude their study, the history, geography and culture of India and China are examined. Students choose an Egyptian-themed play to block and direct.
Discussion of this question begins in the first few weeks when the class defines “community” and identifies the problems with the communities in A Wrinkle in Time and The Giver. The students also think about the question of changing the world when they write Chesapeake Bay poems about the problems caused by pollution. Additional class reading includes a mythology/fairytale unit and a study of Harlem Renaissance literature and poetry.
Students continue to develop the reading strategies learned in Fifth Grade while adding new reading strategies to their repertoire. These include analyzing how setting, character and overall themes are developed in a story; comparing and contrasting texts; identifying main ideas and details; and identifying and analyzing points of view. While all students in the class are reading an assigned novel, they are also expected to read a book of their choice every night and turn in a variety of independent book projects throughout the year. Direct instruction in grammar, spelling, vocabulary and writing skills is a focus, and is also incorporated in all core subjects. Writers’ and Readers’ Workshop techniques are used along with projects and productions.
The Sixth Grade Humanities skills include:
- Identifying and understanding the basic elements of maps and globes
- Locating the hemispheres, the five oceans and the continents
- Identifying longitude and latitude on the map and using a grid system to find location.
- Differentiating between primary and secondary sources.
- Reading a variety of texts for information, taking notes, researching, outlining, referencing materials and utilizing Internet technologies.
- Sequencing dates and information.
- Challenging and questioning information
- Viewing information from multiple perspectives.
- Presenting information to an audience
- Working as part of a group
- Visualizing, planning and completing student choice projects
- Reading Strategies: Identify main ideas, details and point of view; reflecting and evaluating; sequencing events; comparing and contrasting; critiquing and analyzing to make connections among literary works
- Writing Strategies: writing process – drafting, revising, editing; paragraph writing – changing style based on purpose (narrative, persuasive, expository, descriptive); topic sentences, supporting details and conclusions; five-paragraph essays – supporting thesis with examples from text; including transitions between paragraphs; writing well organized paragraphs, compare and contrast essays; creative writing – writing poems, using sensory details to enhance meaning and texture, using figurative language such as similes and metaphors; imitating authors’ styles; researching and note taking
- Identifying parts of speech
- Punctuating with a focus on appropriate use of apostrophes, commas, end punctuation, hyphens, dashes, quotation marks, and semi-colons
- Applying proper usage related to homonyms, plural forms, pronouns sentence structure and verbs
- Discussing and presenting in small and large group interactions.
- Understanding the elements of debate
- Developing leadership skills while working in groups
- Enhancing ability to view problems through multiple perspectives