English Language Arts, Grade 6 Module 4

Paths to College and Career is a new, comprehensive English Language Arts curriculum for grades 6 to 12 built from the ground up over a three-year period to address the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for English Language Arts and Literacy. It reflects a deep understanding of the standards and assessments, and is written with a focus on the shifts in instructional practice and student experiences the standards require. It includes daily lesson plans, guiding questions, recommended texts, scaffolding strategies, and other classroom resources. Paths to College and Career provides teachers, schools, and districts with a concrete and practical ELA instructional program that engages students with compelling and complex texts. At each grade level, Paths to College and Career delivers a yearlong curriculum that develops all students’ ability to • read closely and engage in text-based discussions, • build evidence-based claims and arguments, • conduct research and write from sources, and • expand their academic vocabulary. Paths to College and Career’s instructional resources address the needs of all learners, including students with disabilities, English language learners, and gifted and talented. The curriculum is flexible, user friendly, engaging, and purposefully built to prepare students for career, college, and life.In Module 4 of Grade 6, students explore the benefits and harmful consequences of the use of the controversial pesticide DDT. Students read the novel Frightful’s Mountain by Jean Craighead George, citing evidence and drawing inferences from this compelling text as they begin to think about the interactions between people and the natural world. They also will read informational texts and watch videos to gather evidence and trace arguments about the uses, benefits, and harmful consequences of DDT. Students also will engage in a research project, continuing to explore the central question of the module, synthesizing all their reading in order to make and present their own evidence-based claim about the use of DDT. As the final performance task, students share their findings by creating a scientific poster and presenting that poster to peers during a hosted gallery.