Humanities 6 Home

Class Description

The Humanities curriculum in the sixth grade will integrate literature, grammar, and writing with World History during the Medieval Period. In addition to Medieval Europe, we will focus on the non-western cultures of Japan and Africa as well as the Middle East and Islamic culture.

Expectations

The most effective way for students to learn and succeed is to come to class with a positive attitude, their materials organized, and their homework thoughtfully completed.  By the sixth grade, we encourage students to work increasingly independently with support from parents and teachers.

Assessment

Organization: 5%

With so much going on at school, it can be really tough to remember everything for class. However, being organized is a great skill to have in life and you’ll get plenty of chances to practice in sixth grade humanities. CEO’s, pro football coaches, Disc Jockeys, astronauts, and many other successful people have to be organized. Turns out a successful sixth grade student does as well. We’ll go over some ways to get organized and methods for remembering to bring everything to class to help you out so you can do the best you can!

Participation: 5%

We know you’ve got great thoughts, so get that hand up! We’re waiting with baited breath to hear your latest insightful observation on the crisis in Darfur, how Bugs Bunny is related to West Africa, or your opinion on which character in “Crash” you liked best. Do it enough, and you’ve earned our admiration plus an A+.

Citizenship: 5%

Humanities six has a zero tolerance policy for bullying, put downs, insults, cheating, personal attacks, and any other lack of good citizenship. We expect your full effort in acting kindly, bravely, honorably, and treating others as you want to be treated. This grade acknowledges your efforts in good citizenship. In return, we as teachers will do our best to hold ourselves to the same standard.

Projects: 37%

We know you’ve been itching to build a catapult and get that brilliant documentary out of your head and onto the silver screen, and we teachers are here to help you do an even better job. Each project has a rubric, which is a road map to success. You’ll be graded on how well you complete the requirements. Follow the directions, check the rubric, work well with your teammates, put your back into it and you’ll have something pretty cool to be proud of at the end of the day.

Writing- Ideas: 8%

The ideas are the heart of the message, the content of the piece, the main theme, together with the details that enrich and develop that theme.

Writing- Organization: 8%

Organization is the internal structure of a piece of writing, the thread of central meaning, the logical and sometimes intriguing pattern of the ideas.

Writing- Voice: 8%

The voice is the heart and soul, the magic, the will, along with the feeling and conviction of the individual writer coming out through the words.

Writing- Word Choice: 8%

Word choice is the use of rich, colorful, precise language that moves and enlightens the reader.

Writing- Fluency: 8%

Sentence fluency is the rhythm and flow of the language, the sound of work patterns, the way in which the writing plays to the ear - not just to the eye.

Writing- Convention: 8%

Whuts! the pblm, this: sentince"? Conventions are the mechanical correctness of the piece - spelling, grammar and usage, paragraphing, use of capitals, and punctuation. Do this wrong and your writing is simply hard to understand.