RADNOR TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT
Course Overview
Accelerated Language Arts – Grade 6
General Information
Prerequisite: Student has met readiness level
Length: Full year
Format: Meets for two periods daily
Course Description
Accelerated LA allows high performing, highly motivated, and academically gifted students to pursue
rigorous coursework that is tailored toward students who are performing two or more years above
grade level. Students are admitted to accelerated courses based on criteria that consider past
performance and demonstrated readiness. This course builds on and extends the range of basic content
from the on-grade-level language arts course and pursues skills and content from advanced grade levels.
Students in this course will develop advanced skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening, and
research. Rigorous in and out of class reading, challenging class discussions and a variety of writing
experiences will be required. Summer assignments will also be required.
Course Objectives:
1. Students will be able to read, understand, and respond to informational text such as essays, articles,
and biographies at an advanced level.
2. Students will be able to read, understand, and respond to works of literature, including novels,
stories, poetry, and drama at an advanced level.
3. Students will develop the skills of informational, argumentative, and narrative writing at an
advanced level.
4. Students will engage in evidence-based analysis of text at an advanced level.
5. Students will focus on communication skills that enable critical listening and effective expression of
ideas, including collaborative discussion, inquiry, and presentation.
6. Students will develop and refine advanced vocabulary skills to improve reading, writing, speaking,
and listening.
7. Students will practice grammatical conventions, and apply them consistently as they write across all
content areas.
Common Assessments:
Required Assessments:
Common Assessments (all sixth grade students in all levels):
1. Essay (on demand): Figurative Language: after reading a selection from Tuck
Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, Students will write a multi paragraph essay explaining how
an author’s use of figurative language helps set mood and tone.
2. Folktale Identification (on demand): After reading Under the Rice Moon, students will
write a well developed paragraph that explaining why the piece is a folktale.
3. Determining Author’s Purpose (on demand): is a text dependent analysis piece that
will require students to read an informational argument article and determine the author’s
purpose.
4. Research Paper (process piece in conjunction with Social Studies): Students will
select a country that has not previously been studied in class and write a research-based
paper about how that country has been impacted by and adapted to its geographic
conditions.
Common Course Assessments:
Unit 1: Artful Reading and Writing
Dialectical Reading Journal : scored with rubric
Essay: using textual evidence and quotes to support analysis of figurative language.
Narrative writing: RTSD Writing Rubric: Personal Narrative
Wordly Wise Tests: Units 1-5
Test : Grammar Workshop Unit 1- Sentences
Test : Grammar Workshop Unit 2- Nouns
Unit 2: Growing and Changing
Dialectical Reading Journal : scored with rubric
Essay: using textual evidence and quotes to support analysis of characterization
Close Reading Poetry: Identification and interpretation of mood and tone and other poetic
devices.
Informative/Explanatory- process and timed pieces
Test :Grammar Workshop Unit 3 – Verbs
Test : Grammar Workshop Unit 4 A - Adjectives, Adverbs, Conjunctions and Prepositions
Tests: Wordly Wise Lessons 6-10
Unit 3: Literature Reflects Life
Dialectical Journal: using textual evidence and quotes to support analysis of theme.
Historical fiction literature circle: A collection of notes assessing questions posed,
summarizing, and predicting, as well as a group presentation.
Biography choice: a letter written to a figure from Character is Destiny illustrating both
understanding of the main idea and author’s purpose.
Opinion/argumentative: process and timed pieces
Student created poetry: using and identifying imagery, mood, allusion, rhythm, and
rhyme.
Test :Grammar Workshop Unit 4– Conjunctions and Prepositions
Test: Grammar Workshop Unit 5 - Pronouns
Test: Wordly Wise Lessons 11-15 and Review Test Lessons 9-12
Unit 4: Dramatically Speaking
Identifying and analyzing plot structure using stories in Tales of Shakespeare.
Students will rewrite one of the stories in Tales of Shakespeare into a scene.
Dialectical Reading Journal using a selection from the mystery literature circle choices:
scored by a rubric.
Research Paper: outlines, bibliography, interim progress checks
Test: Grammar Workshop- Review capitalization, punctuation, commonly confused words
Tests: Wordly Wise Lessons 16-20
Other Possible Assessments (May Vary):
Major Units of Study:
Units of study are organized in a manner that encourages students to make connections across complex
skills, strategies, and content.
Unit #1
Unit #2
Unit #3
Unit #4
Artful Reading and Writing
Growing and Changing
Literature Reflects Life
Dramatically Speaking
Materials & Texts
Unit 1: Artful Reading and Writing
Common Text and Resources:
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Folktales From Around the World edited by Jane Yolen
Grammar Workshop Sadlier 2013
Common Course Text and Resources
Literature for Thought: Family Matters Perfection Learning 2006
Cycle Of Life (Diamantes) by Dawn Slanker
Fountain of Youth by Stanley Cooper
Selected poetry from various literature anthologies
Wordly Wise 3000 Book 7 Educators Publishing Service
Criterion Online Writing Evaluation, a service that evaluates students’ writing skills
Supplemental Texts and Resources (may vary):
Selected materials from Laying the Foundation, an organization that provides teacher resources
Poetry in Three Dimensions
Unit 2: Growing and Changing
Common Texts and Resources:
Grammar Workshop Sadlier 2013
Common Course Texts and Resources:
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Wordly Wise 3000 Book 7 Educators Publishing Service
Criterion Online Writing Evaluation, a service that evaluates students’ writing skills
Selected poetry from various literature anthologies
Supplemental Texts and Resources (use may vary):
Selected materials from Laying the Foundation, an organization that provides teacher resources
One of the following literature circle selections:
 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
 Black Storm Comin’ by Diane Lee Wilson
 Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye
 Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan
 Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata
 A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck
 Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
 The Cay by Theodore Taylor
Unit 3 Literature Reflects Life
Common Text and Resources:
Grammar Workshop Sadlier 2013
Common Course Text and Resources:
Character is Destiny by John McCain
Various poems including The Wreck of the Hesperus
Wordly Wise 3000 Book 7 Educators Publishing Service
Criterion Online Writing Evaluation, a service that evaluates students’ writing skills
Selected poetry from various literature anthologies
Supplemental Texts and Resources (may vary):
Selected materials from Laying the Foundation, an organization that provides teacher resources
Sky by Hanneke Ippisch or other biography choice
One of the following literature circle selections:
 The Samurai’s Tale by Erik Haugaard
 Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary Schmidt
 A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
 The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
 The Watson’s Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis
 Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Unit 4 Dramatically Speaking
Common Text and Resources:
Grammar Workshop Sadlier 2013
Common Course Text and Resources:
Tales from Shakespeare by Mary and Charles Lamb
Wordly Wise 3000 Book 7 Educators Publishing Service
Criterion Online Writing Evaluation, a service that evaluates students’ writing skills
Selected poetry from various literature anthologies
Supplemental Texts and Resources (may vary):
Selected materials from Laying the Foundation, an organization that provides teacher resources
One of the following literature circle selections:
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Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Rebel Fire by Andy Lane
Chomp by Carl Hiassen
Flush by Carl Hiassen
Scat by Carl Hiassen
Rush for Gold by John Feinstein
The Rivalry: Mystery at the Army vs. Navy Game by John Feinstein
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Summer Assignment
STUDENTS IN ACCELERATED LA SHOULD READ AT LEAST FOUR BOOKS OVER THE SUMMER. Two will be
assigned; two will be student choice.