Literature Studies
Grade 6
Focus Genre: Historical Fiction
Essential Question
How does learning history through literature enhance the historical literature experience?
Content/Academic Vocabulary
Alliteration
Autobiography/Biography
Chronological Order
Context
Economics
Exaggeration
Hyperbole
Main Idea & Details
Personification
Protagonist
Setting
Third-Person Point of View
Antagonist
Cause/Effect
Climax
Culture
Epilogue
First-Person Point of View
Idiom
Metaphor
Point of View
Religion
Simile
Timeline
Audience
Characterization
Compare/Contrast
Discrimination
Era
Heritage
Inference
Narrator/Narration
Primary Source
Resolution
Symbolism
Theme
Author’s Purpose
Characters
Conflict
Draw Conclusions
Events
Hero
Legacy
Onomatopoeia
Prologue
Secondary Source
Stereotypes
Focus Questions
How are a character’s motives in an historical fiction novel influenced by the specific time period?
Based on a book’s historical setting, what can I learn from making connections to characters and their experiences?
What literary devices does an author in a given historical fiction book use to create meaning?
How and why do characters change and develop throughout this historical fiction novel?
How can we understand the perspective of a historical fiction novel?
Literature Studies
Grade 6
Focus Genre: Historical Fiction
Student Outcomes
Think about what you want the student to know and be able to do.
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Identify significant historical events and their level of impact on the novel.
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Create a timeline anchoring the fictional parts of a story to actual historical events.
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Demonstrate understanding of a text by interpreting significant scenes for classmates.
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Locate literary devices and explain how the author uses them to improve the reader’s understanding.
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Compare and contrast texts in various forms including written, audio, staged, or multimedia versions .
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Analyze accounts of the same historical event and describe important similarities and differences with details from
the text.
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Locate and identify primary sources that will help the reader understand the historical climate.
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Design and share Q-Matrix questions, focusing on stem numbers 13 – 36, that correspond to assigned texts.
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Create an historical narrative is if you were the character in your historical novel.
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Compare and contrast an historical fiction novel and a documentary based on the same time period.
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Discern which passages from the text contribute to the development of the text’s plot, setting, and/or theme.
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Write pieces expressing the opinions of characters about their struggles.
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Write constructed responses using text evidence and personal opinions related to the historical text.
ELA Focus Standards:
Key Ideas and Details
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as
inferences drawn from the text.
Literature Studies
Grade 6
Focus Genre: Historical Fiction
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular
details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.3 Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well
as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
Craft and Structure
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of a specific word choice on meaning and tone
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.5 Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall
structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.6 Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.7 Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to
or viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text, including contrasting what they “see” and “hear” when reading
the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch.
(RL.6.8 not applicable to literature)
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.9 Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres (e.g., stories and poems;
historical novels and fantasy stories) in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and
poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Comprehension and Collaboration
Literature Studies
Grade 6
Focus Genre: Historical Fiction
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and
teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 6 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing
their own clearly.
o CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.1a Come to discussions prepared, having read or studied required material;
explicitly draw on that preparation by referring to evidence on the topic, text, or issue to probe and reflect on
ideas under discussion.
o CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.1b Follow rules for collegial discussions, set specific goals and deadlines, and
define individual roles as needed.
o CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.1c Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making
comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion.
o CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.1d Review the key ideas expressed and demonstrate understanding of multiple
perspectives through reflection and paraphrasing.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.2 Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually,
quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.3 Delineate a speaker’s argument and specific claims, distinguishing claims that are
supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not.
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
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CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.4 Present claims and findings, sequencing ideas logically and using pertinent
descriptions, facts, and details to accentuate main ideas or themes; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume,
and clear pronunciation.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.5 Include multimedia components (e.g., graphics, images, music, sound) and visual
displays in presentations to clarify information.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.6.6 Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal
English when indicated or appropriate. (See grade 6 Language standards 1 and 3 here for specific expectations.)
Suggested Works: Historical Fiction Grade 5 (Instructional Levels 3-6+)
(CC)-Common Core/Highly Recommended
A Boy At War, Harry Mazer
A Long Way From Chicago, Richard Peck (CC)
Al Capone Does My Shirts, Gennifer Choldenko (CC)
Literature Studies
Grade 6
Focus Genre: Historical Fiction
And Then What Happened Paul Revere?, Jean Fritz (CC)
At Ellis Island, Louise Peacock (CC)
Baseball in the Barrios, Henry Horenstein (CC)
Bat 6, Virginia Euwer Wolff (CC)
Bud, Not Buddy, Christopher Paul Curtis (CC)
Esperanza Rising, Pam Munoz Ryan (CC)
Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson (CC)
George Washington’s Socks, Elvira Woodruff (CC)
Hiroshima, Laurence Yep (CC)
Hurricanes, Seymour Simon (CC)
Iron Thunder, Avi
Jackie and Me, Dan Gutman
Moonshiner’s Son, Carolyn Reeder (CC)
Morning Girl, Michael Dorris (CC)
Mr. Tucket, Gary Paulsen (CC)
My Brother Sam is Dead, James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier (CC)
Number the Stars, Lois Lowry (CC)
One Crazy Summer, Rita Williams-Garcia (CC)
Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse (CC)
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Mildred D. Taylor (CC)
Shooting the Moon, Frances O’Roark Dowell (CC)
Sing Down the Moon, Scott O’Dell (CC)
Snow Treasure, Marie McSwigan (CC)
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly (CC)
The Fighting Ground, Avi (CC)
The Great Serum Race, Debbie S. Miller (CC)
The Sign of the Beaver, Elizabeth George Speare (CC)
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Avi (CC)
The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963, Christopher Paul Curtis (CC)
The Whipping Boy, Sid Fleischman (CC)
War Comes to Willy Freeman, James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier (CC)
Zia, Scott O’Dell (CC)
Literature Studies
Grade 6
Focus Genre: Historical Fiction
Possible Assessments:
Formal AssessmentsMAP w/ Descartes
Special Ed Probes
PSSA
DRA
Summative AssessmentsDiscussion/Group Participation
Self/Teacher Assessment Guided Reading Participation
Weekly Response Journals tied to Independent Reading
Focus Skills
End of Book Tests
Q-Matrix
Constructed Reponses
Story Elements
Charting Organizational Constructs
Vocabulary (Shared/Guided Reading)
Words Their Way Assessments
Making Meaning Assessments
Writing Pieces using Common Core Writing Standards
Oral/Slate Assessment
Teacher Created Rubric (Rubistar)
Culminating Book Projects