Teach the 6th Grade CCSS Reading Standards with Novels

Teach the Sixth Grade Reading Literature and Informational CCSS Standards with Actual Novels

I first wrote this blog post when I was heading into my second year of teaching fifth grade and so much has changed and been updated since then. I wanted to update to show you how this changed when I started teaching 6th grade reading and writing. This post will reflect all those changes.

How Do These Reading Units Stay True to My Values?

1. I believe in teaching kids, NOT BOOKS. When I taught 6th grade reading, I used the books to teach the kids. Always. That’s really important to note if you are going to teach with my reading units.  I am not creating novel studies. These are truly reading units.
2. My whole approach here is that I teach the standards, so I want to teach the standards with novels that I know my students will love. I want them to read as many books as humanly possible in the school year. They should go home and tell their parents about the books we are reading, and also about the books they are reading themselves.
3. I want them to love reading, and leave my classroom as readers, not as fifth graders who can read.
4. The goal is reading. I want students to have discussions and have excitement and have kids who can’t wait for the next book. The goal and the core values are helping kids become life long reader

What does it look like in the classroom?

• Daily 5: When I taught 6th grade reading, my students still did Daily 5 (kind of). We had two rounds that were 20-25 minutes each where they get their choice. The only thing they are allowed to do both rounds is read-to-self, because I believe it will never hurt them to read for 40-50 minutes a day.
  • I used Daily 5 because I wanted a system that allowed my readers to read, and then allowed me a structure to help “not-yet readers” find their love of reading.
  • During these rounds I am constantly giving stacks of books to my “not-yet readers” (inspired by Donalyn Miller), encouraging students to form their own book clubs (with whatever books they want), working to build my community of wild readers, and sometimes, just reading myself.
• For our lessons, we read the reading unit book together, have a discussion (much like a large book club), and write our reading responses.
• I felt my students were 100% ready for testing, but I never had to do test prep or stray away from what I believed in, because we were doing authentic reading, discussing, and writing every single day. And we still had 40-50 minutes of choice.
• More than anything, my readers and “not-yet readers” were all exposed, and fell in love with all the books we read together. I selected tried and true books from all different genres. I picked books I loved so they could see how excited I was to read each and every single book, because I actually was. It encouraged them to try different books, form new book clubs, and some of my “not-yet readers” became readers…Mission accomplished.

How are these units different?

• You and your students will read and discuss 6-10 different novels from all different genres in one school year.
• You will start the year wit the literature unit with interactive notebook lessons so students have a strong foundation of literature terms like: theme, character traits, mood, tone, inferences, figurative language, etc.
• Imagine how much this does for vocabulary, how much it develops a love of reading, and how much it can positively affect your classroom community. It also exposes them to books and genres that they might not have read on their own otherwise.
• Your entire 5th grade reading curriculum is done for you.
• You are digging deep into EVERY SINGLE reading and writing standard EVERY SINGLE week.
• The flexibility to choose the novels you want to teach with. You and your students will NEVER be bored with all the different novels choices
• You are teaching with ACTUAL NOVELS. Again though, the focus isn’t teaching the novels themselves. The focus is using the novels to teach the Kida.

What is the foundation of these units?

• During my second year of teaching 5th grade, I had an absolutely wonderful teaching partner who introduced me to The Literacy Studio, and I have created resources, not products, that I 100% believe in.
• I have never believed in anything more than I do using novels in the Literacy Studio with Socratic Seminars.

What is the Daily Class Schedule Like?

This is a common question because everyone has a different schedule and a different amount of time. This was my daily schedule and then my reading block broken down.

We did have a longer day, but we did not have school on Fridays.

What Does a Daily Lesson Plan Look Like?

Here is an example from my 6th grade reading lessons.

Are There Assessments?

Another thing I get a lot of questions about is how I assess my students. Some things to remember:

• We are NOT teaching the novels. We are teaching the students. There are ABSOLUTELY NO summative assessments on the novels. I am not testing them on their abilities to remember what happened on page 58.
• We are assessing students on their conceptual knowledge and understanding of the standards.
• The goal is to assess students on their growth as critical thinkers and writers.
• In order to do this, I use rubrics. Each unit contains 8 different rubrics, but in full disclosure here, I mostly use the first one which assesses them on a mix of literature or non-fiction, writing, and language standards.
• I collect their notebooks every week or every other week and then use the rubrics to assess all 5-8 responses they have done int that timeframe.

Reading Responses

Over the years, I have taught so many novels and have so many reading responses from students, but I have taken pictures over the years. I don’t have pictures for every novel, but I did take pictures of responses that students wrote that are good examples.

• Digital Interactive Google Slides Literature Notebooks Lessons
• Teacher suggested answers for comprehension questions
• Teacher suggested vocabulary words and definitions
• PowerPoint and PDF Display slides for all Guiding and Interpretive Questions (JPEG images included to upload to Google Slides as well)
• Digital Student Reading Response Notebooks
• Editable PowerPoint Reading Response Rubrics
• Editable Google Slides Reading Response Rubrics
• Small group and individual conference teacher forms for 6th grade reading conferences 
• Lesson plans and the Common Core standard alignments are their own file. This was done so that teachers can easily and quickly access the novel lessons.

What Are the Options for These Units?

You can always buy any of the reading units individually: 

1. Common Core Literature Interactive Notebook Unit (25 Lessons)
2. Common Core Literature Interactive Notebook Unit (15 Lessons)
3. Freak the Mighty (14 Lessons)
4. Al Capone Does My Shirts (16 Lessons)
5. The Maze Runner (26 Lessons)
6. The Crossover (14 Lessons)
7. The Giver by Lois Lowry (12 lessons) 
8. A Long Walk to Water (12 Lessons)
9. The Finest Hours (12 Lessons)
10. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (27 Lessons)
11. Fever 1793 (16 Lessons)
12. Ungifted (18 Lessons)
13. Wonder by R.J. Palacio (22 lessons)
14. Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (13 Lessons)

• Sixth Grade Reading Unit Growing Bundle
• Sixth Grade Reading Entire Year of Curriculum 
• Middle School Reading Units Growing Bundle
• Realistic Fiction Middle School Reading Units Growing Bundle
• Historical Fiction Middle School Reading Units Growing Bundle

Related blog posts:

Fifth Grade: Teaching with Novels all Year Long

Middle School: Teaching With Novels all Year Long