Week

Weekly Theme

Main Selection

Phonics/Spelling Skill

Comprehension               Strategy

Grade 6 Unit 1

1

Rescue Teams

Summer of the Swans, The

Short Vowels  (with variant spellings: rhythm, myth, shove, tough, thread)

Analyze Story Structure

2

A Lost City

Lost City, The Discovery of Machu Picchu

Long Vowels  (VCe, ee, ea, ai, oa, y for long i—theme, quaint, league, coax, nylon)

Analyze Story Structure

3

Science for All

Gecko Glue, Cockroach Scouts, and Spider Silk Bridges-TFK

ei or ie  (freight, yield, seize)

Make Inferences and Analyze

4

Sharing Traditions

Magic Gourd, The

R-Controlled Vowels  (lair, fierce, scorn, surf)

Make Inferences and Analyze

5

Protecting Wildlife

Interrupted Journey

Compound Words  (applesauce, downpour, flashbulb)

Make Inferences and Analyze

Week

Comprehension             Skill

Fluency

Paired Selection Title

Paired Selection                Strategy

Paired Selection Skill

Grade 6 Unit 1

1

Character, Setting, Plot

Phrase-Cued Text: Pauses and Stops

Storm Surprises Maine Students

Text Feature

Photo and Captions

2

Character, Setting, Plot

Echo Reading: Pronunciation of city names, pauses and intonation

Empire in the Andes

Text Feature

Textbook

3

Main Idea and Details

Echo Reading: Pronunciation of vocabulary and other hard words

Study Skill

Media Center: with Internet search engines

4

Cause and Effect

Echo Reading: Punctuation

The Origin of Ghana

Text Feature

Time Line

5

Main Idea and Details

Choral Reading: Tempo

Birdfoot's Grampa and "This Land is Your Land"

Literary Elements

Alliteration and Imagery

Week

Weekly Theme

Main Selection

Phonics/Spelling Skill

Comprehension               Strategy

Grade 6 Unit 2

1

Team Spirit

How Tia Lola Came to Visit/Stay

Plurals  (wolf, wolves; potato, potatoes; piano, pianos; medium, media)

Generate Questions

2

The Solar System

Some of the Kinder Planets

Inflected Endings Adding –ed, -ing (traveling, compelling; piloting, permitting)

Generate Questions

3

Helping Hands

Zoo Story-TFK

Words with /ô/, /ou/, /oi/ Variant/Ambiguous vowels (ou: mound, sought; oi: foyer; au: naughty; oo: gloom, hook)

Generate Questions

4

Tales of Old

Rumpelstiltskin's Daughter

VCCV and VCCCV Patterns (doublets: mat/ter--and different: mar/gin)

Summarize

5

Sled Dogs as Heroes

Great Serum Race, The

V/CV and VC/V Patterns  V/CV in unstressed first syllable (a dopt, se cure)

Summarize

Week

Comprehension             Skill

Fluency

Paired Selection Title

Paired Selection                Strategy

Paired Selection Skill

Grade 6 Unit 2

1

Make Inferences

Phrase-Cued Text: Pause, stops, and intonation

Baseball by the Numbers

Text Feature

Chart and Almanac

2

Make Inferences

Echo Reading: Punctuation

Earth and the Sun

Text Feature

Graphs

3

Make Generalizations

Echo Reading: Pronunciation of vocabulary and other hard words

Study Skill

Using the Internet (online resources)

4

Problem and Solution

Echo Reading: Tempo

The Golden Touch

Literary Elements

Moral and Hyperbole

5

Sequence 

Echo Reading: Pronunciation of vocabulary words and context clues

Haiku

Literary Elements

Symbolism and Metaphor

Week

Weekly Theme

Main Selection

Phonics/Spelling Skill

Comprehension               Strategy

Grade 6 Unit 3

1

The Old Southwest

Juan Verdades: The Man Who Couldn't Tell a Lie

Accented Syllables

Analyze Story Structure

2

Putting It in Writing

Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street

Final /schwa-r/  (senator, similar, messenger)

Monitor Comprehension

3

Energy

Building Green-TFK

Final /schwa-n/ and /schwa-l/  (weapon, frighten; struggle, mental, channel)

Analyze Text Structure

4

Archaeology

Emperor's Silent Army, The

Words with Prefixes  (encourage, supermarket)

Monitor Comprehension

5

Show Time

Case of the Phantom Poet, The

Adding –ion, -ation  (construct, construction; examine, examination)

Monitor Comprehension

Week

Comprehension             Skill

Fluency

Paired Selection Title

Paired Selection                Strategy

Paired Selection Skill

Grade 6 Unit 3

1

Character, Setting, Plot

Phrase-Cued Text: Pauses, stops, and intonation

In the Days of the Vaqueros: America's First True Cowboys

Text Feature

Maps

2

Draw Conclusions

Echo Reading: Punctuation

Student Interview with Author Karen Odom

Text Features

Questions and Answer Format

3

Cause and Effect

Echo Reading: Pronunciation of vocabulary and other hard words

Study Skill

Study Strategies Skimming, Scanning

4

Summarize

Choral Reading: Pronunciation of vocabulary words

Ozymandias

Literary Elements

Meter and Consonance

5

Draw Conclusions

Readers' Theater: Dialogue, tempo, and intonation

How to Conduct a Survey

Text Feature

Tables

Week

Weekly Theme

Main Selection

Phonics/Spelling Skill

Comprehension               Strategy

Grade 6 Unit 4

1

Uncommon Champions

Uncommon Champions

More Words with –ion  with spelling changes (explode, explosion; permit, permission)

Evaluate

2

Oceanography

Exploring the Titanic

Words with –ive, -age, - ize  (attractive, storage, modernize)

Evaluate

3

Helping Others

Saving Grace-TFK

Prefixes, Suffixes, Base Words  (disgraceful, unkindness)

Make Inferences and Analyze

4

Cycling

Major Taylor

Vowel Alternation  (crime, criminal; wise, wisdom)

Make Inferences and Analyze

5

Pieces from the Past

Single Shard, A

Consonant Alternation  (select, selection; magic, magician; critic, criticize; office, official)

Evaluate

Week

Comprehension             Skill

Fluency

Paired Selection Title

Paired Selection                Strategy

Paired Selection Skill

Grade 6 Unit 4

1

Author’s Purpose

Phrase-Cued Text: Pauses, stops, and intonations

Amazing Artificial Limbs

Text Feature

Diagrams and Labels

2

Fact and Opinion

Echo Reading: Commas and exclamation points

Old Stormalong Finds a Man-Sized Ship

Literary Elements

Hyperbole and Dialogue

3

Compare and Contrast

Echo Reading: Pronunciation of vocabulary and other hard words

Study Skill

Parts of a Book

4

Fact and Opinion

Choral Reading: Tempo

Bicycle Riding and "The Sidewalk Racer or on the Skateboard"

Literary Elements

Assonance and Onomatopoeia

5

Author’s Perspective

Echo Reading: Homophones

Encyclopedias

Text Feature

Text Features: Type faces (bold, color, all caps)

Week

Weekly Theme

Main Selection

Phonics/Spelling Skill

Comprehension               Strategy

Grade 6 Unit 5

1

Mentors

Breaking Through

Homophones  (principal, principle; stationary, stationery)

Evaluate

2

Smart Thinking

Ta-Na-E-Ka

Latin Roots  (tract, spect, port, scrib/script)

Monitor Comprehension

3

Money Matters

Many Countries, One Currency: Europe and the Euro

Greek Roots  (therm, photo, chron)

Evaluate

4

Collections

Honus and Me

Suffixes -able,  -ible  (impossible, respectable)

Evaluate

5

Taking a Stand

Let It Shine: Stories of Black Women Freedom Fighters

Suffixes –ant, –ent; -ance, -ence  (important, importance; present, presence)

Monitor Comprehension

Week

Comprehension             Skill

Fluency

Paired Selection Title

Paired Selection                Strategy

Paired Selection Skill

Grade 6 Unit 5

1

Author’s Purpose

Phrase-Cued text: Pauses, stops, and intonation

Mentoring Matters

Text Feature

Schedules

2

Compare and Contrast

Echo Reading: Punctuation and characters' voices

A Fable by Aesop

Literary Elements

Moral and Personification

3

Persuasion

Echo Reading: Pronunciation of vocabulary and other hard words

Study Skill

Dictionary/Thesaurus

4

Make Judgments

Choral Reading: Tempo

Cool Collections

Text Feature

Photos and Captions

5

Summarize

Echo Reading

from "Caged Bird" and "I Dream a World"

Literary Elements

Rhyme, Simile, and Repetition

Week

Weekly Theme

Main Selection

Phonics/Spelling Skill

Comprehension               Strategy

Grade 6 Unit 6

1

Great Designs Last Forever

Leonardo's Horse

Greek and Latin Prefixes  (co, con, post, pro, sub)

Generate Questions

2

Time Travel

LAFFF

Absorbed Prefixes  (immobile, illegal; attain, commute, occupy)

Generate Questions

3

Keeping in Touch

These Walls Can Talk

Greek Suffixes  (-logy,- ician, -crat)

Summarize

4

Print, Past and Present

Breaking into Print: Before and After the Printing Press

Words from Mythology  (Ceres—cereal, Mars—martial, Pan—panic, Jove—jovial)

Generate Questions

5

Volcanoes, Past and Present

Donkey of God, The

Words from Around the World  (bazaar, bronco, sombrero, caribou, denim, gong, igloo, pizza)

Summarize

Week

Comprehension             Skill

Fluency

Paired Selection Title

Paired Selection                Strategy

Paired Selection Skill

Grade 6 Unit 6

1

Make Generalizations

Phrase-Cued Text: Pauses, stops, and intonation

Leonardo da Vinci

Text Feature

Primary Source

2

Sequence

Echo Reading: Punctuation, context voices' clues, and characters' voices

Reading Online About Time Travel

Text Feature

Hyperlink and Links--Keyword

3

Problem and Solution

Echo Reading: Pronunciation of vocabulary and other hard words

Study Skill

Functional Documents (forms)

4

Description

Choral Reading: Tempo

Future Bookmaker

Literary Elements

Rhyme Scheme, Rhythmic Patterns,  and Personification

5

Theme

Echo Reading: Pronunciation of vocabulary words and context clues

Volcano!

Text Feature

Graphic Aids