Pacing Guide for 6th Grade English

Fishtank ELA lessons are designed for a 60-minute class period. During each lesson, students read and write about unit texts, building their vocabulary, language, and writing skills.

Most Fishtank ELA 6th Grade lessons are designed with the understanding that students are coming into class having already read the text that will be analyzed, discussed, and/or written about in class that day. As such, we recommend students either be given 30-40 minutes of dedicated independent reading time during the school day or be assigned required homework reading. See our Teacher Tool on Independent Reading for Homework for more information and suggestions for implementation.

We suggest five units to comprise a recommended scope and sequence that balances literature and informational texts across a variety of genres. Units have been designed intentionally to build upon one another, spiraling vocabulary, standards, and content knowledge from one unit to the next. Teaching the units in order ensures that the students engage with grade-level reading and writing standards in a coherent sequence that builds appropriately over the course of the school year.

Note that we intentionally did not account for all 180 school days to allow teachers to fit in additional review or extension, teacher-created assessments, and school-based events. Each unit includes a specific number of reading, writing, and Socratic Seminar lessons, and two days for assessments.