Grade 6

Power, Justice, and Human Rights

Sixth Grade language arts is built around literature, memoir, poetry, nonfiction, and the themes of identity, belonging, power, justice, moral obligation, resistance, and memory. Students read texts that help them examine how characters respond to conflict, how setting and social systems shape choices, and how authors use language to create meaning. Throughout the year, students develop confidence as close readers, thoughtful writers, and evidence-based participants in discussion.

Students read a diverse array of texts including The Only Road, When We Flew Away, Born a Crime (Young Readers Edition), The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Raven. Writing includes narratives, literary analysis, argumentative paragraphs, and a formal five-paragraph argumentative essay.

Core Skills

• Analyze characterization, setting, conflict, mood, suspense, symbolism, irony, and theme.
• Annotate texts to identify important details, make inferences, and ask purposeful questions.
• Cite relevant textual evidence to support analysis and interpretation.
• Write argument paragraphs and essays using claims, context, evidence, reasoning, transitions, and counterclaims.
• Write narratives with developed characters, settings, conflict, dialogue, imagery, and purposeful endings.
• Analyze how authors’ choices affect readers and contribute to a text’s meaning.
• Build vocabulary through word origins, context, usage, and regular application in writing and discussion.
• Revise and edit writing through feedback, reflection, and the writing process.

In sixth grade, students transition into middle school mathematics by discovering ratios and unit rates, exploring negative rational numbers, dividing fractions, and evaluating algebraic expressions.

• Unit 1: Area and Surface Area | Finding the area of triangles/parallelograms and surface area of 3D solids using nets.
• Unit 2: Introducing Ratios | Understanding ratio relationships, equivalent ratios, and double number line diagrams.
• Unit 3: Unit Rates and Percentages | Solving real-world problems involving unit prices, constant speed, and percentages.
• Unit 4: Dividing Fractions | Visualizing and calculating fraction division using models and algorithms.
• Unit 5: Arithmetic in Base Ten | Fluently calculating multi-digit decimal operations and long division.
• Unit 6: Expressions and Equations | Writing, evaluating, and solving algebraic expressions, equations, and inequalities.
• Unit 7: Rational Numbers | Exploring negative numbers, absolute value, and plotting points across all four coordinate quadrants.
• Unit 8: Data Sets and Distributions | Analyzing center and spread using mean, median, IQR, MAD, histograms, and box plots.
• Unit 9: Putting It All Together | Applying middle school math concepts to real-world research and design projects.

Sixth grade social studies examines how identity, power, law, geography, and human choices shape history. Students begin with identity, belonging, geography, and historical thinking before studying European encounter and conquest, Indigenous societies, the Holocaust, human rights, and apartheid in South Africa. Students consider how systems of inequality are created and challenged, while also studying resistance, survival, memory, justice, and civic responsibility.

By the end of the year, students develop a deeper understanding of the society they navigate and the confidence to recognize human dignity, question injustice, evaluate evidence carefully, and participate thoughtfully in their communities.

Core Skills

• Analyze primary and secondary sources, including maps, laws, photographs, speeches, testimony, and historical accounts.
• Distinguish historical context, perspective, evidence, and interpretation.
• Explain how identity categories, laws, institutions, and geography can shape people’s opportunities and choices.
• Compare historical case studies while preserving the distinctiveness of each history.
• Evaluate different forms of resistance, justice, reconciliation, and public memory.
• Develop evidence-based arguments and participate thoughtfully in historical discussions.
• Synthesize learning across units through essays, presentations, museum projects, and civic reflection.

Charles River School uses STEMScopes Life Science curriculum for Grade 6. The program has two parallel aims: (1) for students to develop a strong basis in the Life Sciences through lab investigations, readings, and discussions and, (2) to engage students through hands-on real world experiences in the scientific process of discovery and design.

The lessons and labs are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ curricular standards for middle school. Skills include scientific observation, generating testable questions, design and engineering practices, data collection and analysis, and communicating findings. Topics include: Cells and Organelles, Bodies and Systems, Reproduction in Plants and Animals, Sensory Receptors, Inheritance and Genetic Variation, and Growth of Organisms. 

Middle school students at CRS take either French or Spanish. Grade 6 is the first year of a three-year world language program. Our goal is to have students feel comfortable and successful while learning a new language. Students are introduced to the fundamentals of French/Spanish grammar, vocabulary and many aspects of Francophone/Hispanic culture. The emphasis in 6th grade is on how to best learn a language.

Skills at this level include:

• Learning and using vocabulary in the target language
• Learning and using structures of grammar in the target language

French

Sixth grade French students begin the year studying verbs and vocabulary related to family and housing. Students can accurately identify and describe members of a family and name the parts of a house.  They can successfully form sentences using the irregular verbs être and avoir, regular -er verbs, adjectives, and objects.  Next, they study school subjects, daily class schedules, school supplies, and numbers to 100. Through reading, collaborative projects and modern-day music, students end the year with a unit about the geography and history of Québec.

Example skills / topics include:

• Verb conjugation
• Sentence structure
• Francophone family project
• Shopping for school supplies
• Collaborative project about Indigenous groups of Quebec

Spanish

Using the Avancemos text, sixth graders dive into the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures through two foundational units: “It’s Nice to Meet You” and “Who Am I?” Students learn conversational essentials, including greetings, sharing personal details, and expressing likes and dislikes. Next, they tackle practical vocabulary like school subjects, daily schedules, supplies, and numbers up to 100. Grammar introductions feature subject pronouns, articles, regular present-tense verbs, weather expressions, and key irregular verbs like ser and tener. Students also build comprehension by reading short stories and books including Capibara con botas and Berto y sus amigos, focusing heavily on listening, speaking, and vocabulary.

Example skills / topics include:

• Verb conjugation
• Sentence structure
• Weather project
• Shopping for school supplies

The major themes of the year include data literacy, ethical AI usage, and design thinking, with an eye towards demystifying modern technology by analyzing how machine learning algorithms match patterns, training custom datasets, and critically examining the ethical risks of algorithmic bias. Students also move beyond visual coding blocks into text-based computer languages like Swift to master functions and conditional structures. This is complemented by economic and business simulations that merge mathematical formulas, data graphing, and spreadsheet tools with economic fundamentals like supply, demand, expenses, revenue, and profit. The year concludes with a focus on project and time management, helping to prepare them for the increased independence of middle school.

Examples of skills and activities include:

• Teachable Machines (AI and Machine Learning)
• Swift playground (Coding)
• Designing clocks on the lasercutter
• Lemonade stand (Business simulation)
• Dominos/Mini Golf in Tinkercad 
• Independent Projects 

The sixth grade art program is a sequential curriculum integrating studio work with major classroom themes.

Developmental Skills:

• Through projects such as mono prints, drawing animals in a setting, and capturing observed features, students learn about shapes, marks, and lines
• Students learn about color theory by matching observed colors, sequencing colors, and capturing color values in observed subject matter
• Students explore texture, pattern, and 3-D form with carving, printing making, and building projects

In sixth grade, students expand skills of creative musical participation through singing, playing instruments, and composition. Students explore sound and composition through the use of both original and “junk” instruments. They learn about musical theater, developing their presence and confidence onstage. They continue their study of the ukulele.  They also use technology to create musical compositions.

Students will:

• Sing independently with accurate pitch and in unison and two part harmony
• Create original compositions with percussion and other instruments
• Learn to play basic chords and strums on the ukulele in a self-paced unit
• Choose, learn, choreograph and perform a medley of musical theater songs

The Physical Education program is developmental and skill-based. The program includes cooperative games, standard games, such as capture the flag and ultimate Frisbee, and team sports including field hockey, soccer and basketball. Students practice motor and sports skills throughout these activities. Students develop sports skills through movement exploration, specific skill work and playing games.

Developmental Skills:

• Sports Skills:  Throw, Dribble, Kick, Bat, Catch, Shoot (basketball), Volley
• Fitness Exercises, Relays, Cooperative Games, Group Challenges, Obstacle Courses,  Lifetime Fitness Activities

Sixth grade students are familiar with the library, its facilities, and how to make use of them. They continue to use the library as a resource for reading for pleasure and information, and to a greater extent, for developing skills in inquiry and research.

Students will:

• Identify and read various genres of literature
• Identify, evaluate, and select appropriate sources of information, both digital and print
• Organize and synthesize research information for presentation
• Develop media literacy for informed decision making

At Charles River School, Grade 6 students participate in a comprehensive social and emotional learning program designed to support the transition into Middle School and help students better understand themselves and others. 

Through our advisory program and weekly Growth and Education (GE) sessions, students develop self-awareness and identity, strengthen peer relationships and belonging, and build executive functioning skills. Students also learn mindfulness and emotional regulation strategies, effective communication, and conflict resolution skills. They also explore topics related to human growth and development, healthy relationships, consent, and personal boundaries. Throughout the year, students identify, build and strengthen connections with trusted adults within the school community, learning how to seek support, and advocate for themselves. Together, these experiences help students build confidence, resilience, empathy, and the skills needed to thrive both academically and socially.