2020 Colorado Academic Standards Online
Use the options below to create customized views of the 2020 Colorado Academic Standards. For all standards resources, see the Office of Standards and Instructional Support.
Current selections are shown below (maximum of five)
clear Content Area: Reading, Writing and Communicating // Grade Level: Sixth Grade // Standard Category: All Standards Categories
Reading, Writing and Communicating
Sixth Grade, Standard 1. Oral Expression and Listening
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Prepared Graduates:
- 1. Collaborate effectively as group members or leaders who listen actively and respectfully; pose thoughtful questions, acknowledge the ideas of others; and contribute ideas to further the group’s attainment of an objective.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Employ appropriate presentation and collaboration strategies to meet the needs of a given task and purpose.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- 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. (CCSS: SL.6.1)
- 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. (CCSS: SL.6.1a)
- Follow rules for collegial discussions, set specific goals and deadlines, and define individual roles as needed. (CCSS: SL.6.1b)
- Pose and respond to specific questions with elaboration and detail by making comments that contribute to the topic, text, or issue under discussion. (CCSS: SL.6.1c)
- Review the key ideas expressed and demonstrate understanding of multiple perspectives through reflection and paraphrasing. (CCSS: SL.6.1d)
- Interpret information presented in diverse media and formats (for example: visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how it contributes to a topic, text, or issue under study. (CCSS: SL.6.2)
- Delineate a speaker's argument and specific claims, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not. (CCSS: SL.6.3)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Follow a process identified by others to help generate ideas, negotiate roles and responsibilities, and respect consensus in decision making. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills, Collaboration/Teamwork)
- Establish goals for communication and plan out steps accordingly. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills, Communication (using information and communications technologies))
- Demonstrate task management attributes associated with producing high quality products including the abilities to: work positively and ethically, manage time and projects effectively, multi-task, clearly communicating with others. (Professional Skills, Task/Time Management)
Essential Questions:
- What active listening strategies can we use while working in a group?
- Why is it important for people to wait their turn before providing an opinion or giving feedback?
- Why is it important to understand what others may be thinking?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Clarify the purpose and intended outcomes of collaboration.
- Expand thinking and understanding by integrating others’ ideas and perspectives.
- Identify potential bias or faulty assumptions in personal thinking.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 2. Deliver effective oral presentations for varied audiences and varied purposes.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. Develop, organize, and present ideas and opinions effectively.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- 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: SL.6.4)
- Include multimedia components (for example: graphics, images, music, sound) and visual displays in presentations to clarify information. (CCSS: SL.6.5)
- Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate. (CCSS: SL.6.6)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Focus on learning goals by employing motivation and familiar strategies for engagement and evaluate progress, making necessary changes to stay the course. (Personal Skills, Perseverance/Resilience)
- Establish goals for communication and plan out steps accordingly. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills, Communication (using information and communications technologies))
- Demonstrate confidence in sharing ideas/feelings. (Professional Skills, Self-Advocacy)
Essential Questions:
- What do effective speakers sound like?
- How is spoken language different from written language?
- What makes a speaker easy to follow?
- How are nonverbal elements used to communicate?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Ask critical questions to improve thinking.
- Draw from multiple perspectives and points of view to expand thinking.
- Recognize new ideas presented by others, adjusting their own views as needed.
Reading, Writing and Communicating
Sixth Grade, Standard 2. Reading for All Purposes
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Prepared Graduates:
- 3. Read a wide range of literary texts to build knowledge and to better understand the human experience.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Analyze literary elements within different types of literature to make meaning.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Use Key Ideas and Details to:
- Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. (CCSS: RL.6.1)
- 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: RL.6.2)
- 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. (CCSS: RL.6.3)
- Use Craft and Structure to:
- 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: RL.6.4)
- 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: RL.6.5)
- Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text. (CCSS: RL.6.6)
- Use Integration of Knowledge and Ideas to:
- 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. (CCSS: RL.6.7)
- Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres (for example: stories and poems; historical novels and fantasy stories) in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics. (CCSS: RL.6.9)
- Use Range of Reading and Complexity of Text to:
- 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. (CCSS: RL.6.10)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Apply knowledge to set goals, make informed decisions and transfer to new contexts. (Personal Skills, Initiative/Self-Direction)
- Focus on learning goals by employing motivation and familiar strategies for engagement and evaluate progress, making necessary changes to stay the course. (Personal Skills, Perseverance/Resilience)
- Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors. (Professional Skills, Information Literacy)
Essential Questions:
- How does structure impact meaning?
- How do authors use different elements to develop a story?
- How do different genres affect audiences differently?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Categorize/compare literary elements and terms.
- Identify use of literary devices.
- Identify characteristic text features; distinguish between texts, genres.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 4. Read a wide range of informational texts to build knowledge and to better understand the human experience.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. Analyze organization and structure of informational text to make meaning.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Use Key Ideas and Details to:
- Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. (CCSS: RI.6.1)
- Determine a 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: RI.6.2)
- Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated on in a text (for example: through examples or anecdotes). (CCSS: RI.6.3)
- Use Craft and Structure to:
- Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings. (CCSS: RI.6.4)
- Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas. (CCSS: RI.6.5)
- Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text. (CCSS: RI.6.6)
- Use Integration of Knowledge and Ideas to:
- Integrate information presented in different media or formats (for example: visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding of a topic or issue. (CCSS: RI.6.7)
- Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not. (CCSS: RI.6.8)
- Compare and contrast one author’s presentation of events with that of another (for example: a memoir written by and a biography on the same person). (CCSS: RI.6.9)
- Use Range of Reading and Complexity of Text to:
- By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6-8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. (CCSS: RI.6.10)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Make connections between information gathered and personal experiences to apply and/or test solutions. (Entrepreneurial Skills, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving)
- Apply knowledge to set goals, make informed decisions and transfer to new contexts. (Personal Skills, Initiative/Self-Direction)
- Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors. (Professional Skills, Information Literacy)
Essential Questions:
- What are the characteristics of nonfiction?
- How do text structures affect our understanding?
- How do authors use text features to highlight information?
- How can an author's perspective inform readers or persuade them to change their thinking?
- How does the author’s language match his or her purpose in writing?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Explain relationships such as cause/effect, problem/solution.
- Make basic inferences or logical predictions from data or texts.
- Recognize and describe patterns in syntax and/or organization.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 5. Understand how language functions in different contexts, command a variety of word-learning strategies to assist comprehension, and make effective choices for meaning or style when writing and speaking.
Grade Level Expectation:
3. Apply knowledge of word relationships, word structures, and sentence structures to determine the meaning of new words in context.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 6 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies. (CCSS: L.6.4)
- Use context (for example: the overall meaning of a sentence or paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase. (CCSS: L.6.4a)
- Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (for example: audience, auditory, audible). (CCSS: L.6.4b)
- Consult reference materials (for example: dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses), both print and digital, to find the pronunciation of a word or determine or clarify its precise meaning or its part of speech. (CCSS: L.6.4c)
- Verify the preliminary determination of the meaning of a word or phrase (for example: by checking the inferred meaning in context or in a dictionary). (CCSS: L.6.4d)
- Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings. (CCSS: L.6.5)
- Interpret figures of speech (for example: personification) in context. (CCSS: L.6.5a)
- Use the relationship between particular words (for example: cause/effect, part/whole, item/category) to better understand each of the words. (CCSS: L.6.5b)
- Distinguish among the connotations (associations) of words with similar denotations (definitions) (for example: stingy, scrimping, economical, unwasteful, and thrifty). (CCSS: L.6.5c)
- Acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression. (CCSS: L.6.6)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Test hypotheses/prototype with planned process for getting feedback. (Entrepreneurial Skills, Inquiry/Analysis)
- Apply knowledge to set goals, make informed decisions and transfer to new contexts. (Personal Skills, Initiative/Self-Direction)
- Focus on learning goals by employing motivation and familiar strategies for engagement and evaluate progress, making necessary changes to stay the course. (Personal Skills, Perseverance/Resilience)
Essential Questions:
- What do proficient readers do when they encounter unfamiliar words?
- What strategies and resources can we use to learn new words?
- How does knowledge of roots and affixes help determine the meaning of unknown words?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Use explicit context clues to infer the meaning of words and/or phrases.
- Create examples/non examples of definitions.
- Employ synonyms or antonyms gleaned from a passage to provide an approximate meaning of a word.
Reading, Writing and Communicating
Sixth Grade, Standard 3. Writing and Composition
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Prepared Graduates:
- 6. Craft arguments using techniques specific to the genre.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Write arguments that support claim(s) using clear reasons, relevant evidence, credible sources, and a formal style.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence. (CCSS: W.6.1)
- Introduce claim(s) and organize the reasons and evidence clearly. (CCSS: W.6.1a)
- Support claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text. (CCSS: W.6.1b)
- Use words, phrases, and clauses to clarify the relationships among claim(s) and reasons. (CCSS: W.6.1c)
- Establish and maintain a formal style. (CCSS: W.6.1d)
- Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the argument presented. (CCSS: W.6.1e)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Look for and value in different perspectives expressed by others. (Personal Skills, Adaptability/Flexibility)
- Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors. (Professional Skills, Information Literacy)
- Demonstrate confidence in sharing ideas/feelings. (Professional Skills, Self-Advocacy)
Essential Questions:
- How do writers determine a point of view?
- How do writers know if they have convinced others that their opinions are valid?
- How do writers select evidence to best support their claims?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Inform thinking and writing by following the writings of professionals in areas of personal interest.
- Consider others' perspectives to expand thinking and persuasiveness.
- Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information, fact and opinion.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 7. Craft informational/explanatory texts using techniques specific to the genre.
Grade Level Expectation:
2. Write informative/explanatory texts characterized by appropriate organization, ample development, precise language and formal style.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content. (CCSS: W.6.2)
- Introduce a topic; organize ideas, concepts, and information, using strategies such as definition, classification, comparison/contrast, and cause/effect; include formatting (for example: headings), graphics (for example: charts, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension. (CCSS: W.6.2a)
- Develop the topic with relevant facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples. (CCSS: W.6.2b)
- Use appropriate transitions to clarify the relationships among ideas and concepts. (CCSS: W.6.2c)
- Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. (CCSS: W.6.2d)
- Establish and maintain a formal style. (CCSS: W.6.2e)
- Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from the information or explanation presented. (CCSS: W.6.2f)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Make connections between information gathered and personal experiences to apply and/or test solutions. (Entrepreneurial Skills, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving)
- Test hypotheses/prototype with planned process for getting feedback. (Entrepreneurial Skills, Inquiry/Analysis)
- Evaluate information through the use of technologies. (Professional Skills, Use Information and Communications Technologies)
Essential Questions:
- How do we organize texts to help readers understand?
- How do writers monitor their work to include information that is relevant to the topic?
- How is word selection important to a piece of writing?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Understand that personal assumptions can affect how a reader understands and interprets a text.
- Ask critical questions to improve thinking.
- Present information in a clear manner so others can understand the conveyed information.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 8. Craft narratives using techniques specific to the genre.
Grade Level Expectation:
3. Write engaging real or imagined narratives using techniques such as sensory language, dialogue, description and sequencing to convey experiences and events.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences. (CCSS: W.6.3)
- Engage and orient the reader by establishing a context and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally and logically. (CCSS: W.6.3a)
- Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, and description, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters. (CCSS: W.6.3b)
- Use a variety of transition words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence and signal shifts from one time frame or setting to another. (CCSS: W.6.3c)
- Use precise words and phrases, relevant descriptive details, and sensory language to convey experiences and events. (CCSS: W.6.3d)
- Provide a conclusion that follows from the narrated experiences or events. (CCSS: W.6.3e)
- Use stylistic techniques (for example: alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhyme scheme); figurative language (for example: simile, metaphor, personification); and graphic elements (for example: capital letters, line length, word position) to express personal or narrative voice.
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Engage in novel approaches, moves, directions, ideas, and/or perspectives. (Entrepreneurial Skills, Creativity/Innovation)
- Assess personal strengths and limitations, with a well-grounded sense of confidence, optimism, and a "growth mind-set." (Personal Skills, Self-Awareness)
- Establish goals for communication and plan out steps accordingly. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills, Communication)
Essential Questions:
- How do we help our readers visualize the character, setting, and plot in a text?
- How is word selection important to a piece of writing?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Generate a variety of ideas, responses, solutions, or questions.
- Add details in order to modify or expand upon an idea.
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Prepared Graduates:
- 9. Demonstrate mastery of their own writing process with clear, coherent, and error-free polished products.
Grade Level Expectation:
4. Plan, draft, edit, and revise as needed to craft clear and coherent writing that demonstrates a grasp of standard conventions for grammar, usage, and mechanics as well as a style appropriate for purpose and audience.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking. (CCSS: L.6.1)
- Ensure that pronouns are in the proper case (subjective, objective, and possessive). (CCSS: L.6.1a)
- Use intensive pronouns (e.g., myself, ourselves). (CCSS: L.6.1b)
- Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in pronoun number and person. (CCSS: L.6.1c)
- Recognize and correct vague pronouns (i.e., ones with unclear or ambiguous antecedents). (CCSS: L.6.1d)
- Recognize variations from Standard English in their own and others' writing and speaking, and identify and use strategies to improve expression in conventional language. (CCSS: L.6.1e)
- Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing. (CCSS: L.6.2)
- Use punctuation (commas, parentheses, dashes) to set off nonrestrictive/parenthetical elements. (CCSS: L.6.2a)
- Correctly spell frequently used words and consult reference materials (for example: dictionaries, both print and digital, spell check, and/or trusted peers and/or adults) to determine the spelling of less frequent vocabulary. (adapted from CCSS: L.6.2b)
- Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening. (CCSS: L.6.3)
- Vary sentence patterns for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style. (CCSS: L.6.3a)
- Maintain consistency in style and tone. (CCSS: L.6.3b)
- Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in grade level expectations 1 and 2 above.) (CCSS: W.6.4)
- With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach. (CCSS: W.6.5)
- Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others. (adapted from CCSS: W.6.6)
- Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences. (CCSS W.6.10)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Apply knowledge to set goals, make informed decisions and transfer to new contexts. (Personal Skills, initiative/self-direction)
- Focus on learning goals by employing motivation and familiar strategies for engagement and evaluate progress, making necessary changes to stay the course. (Personal Skills, Perseverance/Resilience)
- Demonstrate task management attributes associated with producing high quality products including the abilities to: work positively and ethically, manage time and projects effectively, multi-task, and clearly communicate with others. (Professional Skills, Task/Time Management)
Essential Questions:
- Why is proofreading important?
- How can writers create strong sentence fluency in their work?
- How can resources be used to edit and critique a work in progress?
- How do we collaborate to improve reading?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Explain the rationales for conventional rules for grammar, punctuation, usage, spelling, and presentation.
- Explain how intentional violations of the conventional rules impact a reader's perceptions.
Reading, Writing and Communicating
Sixth Grade, Standard 4. Research Inquiry and Design
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Prepared Graduates:
- 10. Gather information from a variety of sources; analyze and evaluate its quality and relevance; and use it ethically to answer complex questions.
Grade Level Expectation:
1. Pose research question(s), gather, synthesize, and credit relevant and credible resources, and present findings.
Evidence Outcomes:
Students Can:
- Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate. (CCSS: W.6.7)
- Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources. (CCSS: W.6.8)
- Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research. (CCSS: W.6.9)
- Apply grade 6 Reading standards to literature (for example: “Compare and contrast texts in different forms or genres [for example: stories and poems; historical novels and fantasy stories] in terms of their approaches to similar themes and topics”). (CCSS: W.6.9a)
- Apply grade 6 Reading standards to literary nonfiction (for example: “Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, distinguishing claims that are supported by reasons and evidence from claims that are not”). (CCSS: W.6.9b)
Academic Contexts and Connections:
Colorado Essential Skills:
- Make connections between information gathered and personal experiences to apply and/or test solutions. (Entrepreneurial Skills, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving)
- Test hypotheses/prototype with planned process for getting feedback. (Entrepreneurial Skills, Inquiry/Analysis)
- Evaluate information through the use of technologies. (Professional Skills, Use Information and Communications Technologies)
Essential Questions:
- How do we research effectively?
- How do biases interfere with critical thinking?
- How do we cite our research?
Essential Reasoning Skills:
- Use divergent and convergent thinking to generate and prioritize research questions.
- Identify the best words to use in academic searching.
- Consider tone, style, logic, audience, and purpose to determine the credibility of a source.
- Synthesize information by grouping and sequencing.
- Communicate information in a format appropriate to the research questions and the audience.
Need Help? Submit questions or requests for assistance to bruno_j@cde.state.co.us