Posted on: Thursday, September 30, 2004
What your sixth-grader is expected to learn
Advertiser Staff
Here's a brief description of what your sixth-grade child is being taught and is expected to know by the end of the year. The goals are intended to help assure that your child is at the appropriate development level and that Hawai'i's public schools are working toward meeting Hawai'i Content and Performance Standards.
Health
Marcy Ibara, sixth-grade counselor at Washington Middle School, offered these tips for helping your child succeed: • Have a study period every day for 30 to 60 minutes, even if the child doesn't have homework. Make sure the area is quiet, with no telephone or TV, and keep everything your child needs within arm's reach. The child could read a book or study current events by reading a newspaper article and identifying cause and effect or problem and solution, creating a solution to the problem or stating an opinion about the article with supporting reasons. Parents also can give their children a writing prompt and have their children spend time writing. • Have your child teach you what he or she is learning in school to increase retention. • Help your child with vocabulary from various subjects, discussing meanings and what words they may use at home to mean the same thing, i.e. "opinion" means "what do you think?" • Have your child explain his or her thinking or problem-solving strategies and serve as a model by explaining how you make your own decisions. • Help your child develop muscles by drinking lots of water and exercising. • Play games such as Scrabble, crosswords, Pictionary and trivia games. • Look in the newspaper for free family activities to expose your child to different experiences so they will have some context when they encounter the same things in class. • Compares health-risk information from a variety of sources and judges their validity.
• Applies a decision-making model to a personal health choice such as joining a club, seeking counseling, etc.
• Researches a health topic and takes a position.
• Conducts historical research.
• Studies the chronology, relationships and history of world cultures.
• Analyzes events and interactions involving the U.S. and other world entities or cultures.
• Uses tools and methods of geography and economics to understand and appreciate the relationships among people and places in the world, both past and present.
• Uses a process when reading to draw reasonable conclusions and make appropriate interpretations.
• Judges the adequacy and accuracy of information in text.
• Knows how fiction and non-fiction are alike and different; uses this knowledge to interpret and analyze text.
• Writes and revises a piece several times for clearer meaning, better organization, more convincing language, stronger voice, and accurate grammar and usage.
• Takes part in group discussions by listening carefully, answering questions, and adjusting ideas.
• Uses standard English.
• Maintains a short conversation on topics introduced in class.
• Gives detailed descriptions and is able to retell main parts of written materials.
• Gives a written and oral presentation about an event or topic introduced in class.
• Gives examples of contributions from own culture to culture being studied.
• Demonstrates appropriate skills and techniques in drawing and painting.
• Demonstrates appropriate skills and techniques in singing and/or playing an instrument.
• Demonstrates appropriate skills and techniques in acting, role-playing and performing scenes.
• Demonstrates appropriate skills and techniques in performing dance movements.
• Uses and justifies computation strategies.
• Estimates and measures fluently and accurately.
• Defines and applies geometric ideas.
• Generalizes and extends ideas about patterns.
• Draws conclusions by analyzing collected data and applies probability ideas.
• Understands and uses key features of word-processing software.
• Learns to use spreadsheet, database and multimedia presentation software in different subject areas and on various topics.
• Posts information about group projects on the Web.
• Uses skills and combinations of skills in the context of actual performance situations, such as applying accuracy, force and follow-through when projecting objects.
• Applies concepts from a variety of sources to enhance learning and performance.
• Chooses to follow safe practices in participating in moderate to vigorous physical activity in a variety of school and non-school settings.
• Uses scientific inquiry to study substances, solutions, states of matter, chemical reactions and motion.
• Uses scientific inquiry to study the relationships between wavelength, frequency, and energy.
• Gives examples of social needs that influence the development of technology.
• Lists the positive and negative effects of these technologies.
• Identifies common community sources of information about occupation groups.
• Identifies career goals based on personal interests and develops a tentative educational plan for middle and high school grades.
Source: Department of Education
• • • Next week: What your seventh-grader is expected to learn.
• Reports on general health concepts accurately in selected health-risk areas such as eating disorders, body images, adolescent feelings, etc.
How Parents Can Help
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