Grade 6 Curriculum - learning goals for this year
Today’s ever-changing technologies make it difficult for teachers trying to prepare their students for a future that is difficult to imagine. We simply do not know what our students will face. What we do know is that, as adults, our students will need to be team players, innovators, and problem solvers.
Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) represent disciplines and tools for helping our students develop the habits of mind necessary to solve complex real-world problems. High school is no longer the primary arena for this type of work. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) converge around the topic of problem solving as early as kindergarten and challenge teachers to lay the foundation for our students' futures. The International Primary School uses the above standards along with the organisational structure of the Australian Curriculum and personalises the learning content to suit the student's interests, possibilities and requirements.
Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) represent disciplines and tools for helping our students develop the habits of mind necessary to solve complex real-world problems. High school is no longer the primary arena for this type of work. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) converge around the topic of problem solving as early as kindergarten and challenge teachers to lay the foundation for our students' futures. The International Primary School uses the above standards along with the organisational structure of the Australian Curriculum and personalises the learning content to suit the student's interests, possibilities and requirements.
English
Receptive modes (listening, reading and viewing)
By the end of Year 6, students understand how the use of text structures can achieve particular effects. They analyse and explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used by different authors to represent ideas, characters and events. Students compare and analyse information in different texts, explaining literal and implied meaning. They select and use evidence from a text to explain their response to it. They listen to discussions, clarifying content and challenging others’ ideas.
Productive modes (speaking, writing and creating)
Students understand how language features and language patterns can be used for emphasis. They show how specific details can be used to support a point of view. They explain how their choices of language features and images are used. Students create detailed texts elaborating on key ideas for a range of purposes and audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, using a variety of strategies for effect. They demonstrate understanding of grammar, make considered choices from an expanding vocabulary, use accurate spelling and punctuation for clarity and make and explain editorial choices.
By the end of Year 6, students understand how the use of text structures can achieve particular effects. They analyse and explain how language features, images and vocabulary are used by different authors to represent ideas, characters and events. Students compare and analyse information in different texts, explaining literal and implied meaning. They select and use evidence from a text to explain their response to it. They listen to discussions, clarifying content and challenging others’ ideas.
Productive modes (speaking, writing and creating)
Students understand how language features and language patterns can be used for emphasis. They show how specific details can be used to support a point of view. They explain how their choices of language features and images are used. Students create detailed texts elaborating on key ideas for a range of purposes and audiences. They make presentations and contribute actively to class and group discussions, using a variety of strategies for effect. They demonstrate understanding of grammar, make considered choices from an expanding vocabulary, use accurate spelling and punctuation for clarity and make and explain editorial choices.
Mathematics
By the end of Year 6, students recognise the properties of prime, composite, square and triangular numbers. They describe the use of integers in everyday contexts. They solve problems involving all four operations with whole numbers. Students connect fractions, decimals and percentages as different representations of the same number. They solve problems involving the addition and subtraction of related fractions. Students make connections between the powers of 10 and the multiplication and division of decimals. They describe rules used in sequences involving whole numbers, fractions and decimals. Students connect decimal representations to the metric system and choose appropriate units of measurement to perform a calculation. They make connections between capacity and volume. They solve problems involving length and area. They interpret timetables. Students describe combinations of transformations. They solve problems using the properties of angles. Students compare observed and expected frequencies. They interpret and compare a variety of data displays including those displays for two categorical variables. They evaluate secondary data displayed in the media.
Students locate fractions and integers on a number line. They calculate a simple fraction of a quantity. They add, subtract and multiply decimals and divide decimals where the result is rational. Students calculate common percentage discounts on sale items. They write correct number sentences using brackets and order of operations. Students locate an ordered pair in any one of the four quadrants on the Cartesian plane. They construct simple prisms and pyramids. Students list and communicate probabilities using simple fractions, decimals and percentages.
Students locate fractions and integers on a number line. They calculate a simple fraction of a quantity. They add, subtract and multiply decimals and divide decimals where the result is rational. Students calculate common percentage discounts on sale items. They write correct number sentences using brackets and order of operations. Students locate an ordered pair in any one of the four quadrants on the Cartesian plane. They construct simple prisms and pyramids. Students list and communicate probabilities using simple fractions, decimals and percentages.
Science
By the end of Year 6, students compare and classify different types of observable changes to materials. They analyse requirements for the transfer of electricity and describe how energy can be transformed from one form to another to generate electricity. They explain how natural events cause rapid change to the Earth’s surface. They describe and predict the effect of environmental changes on individual living things. Students explain how scientific knowledge is used in decision making and identify contributions to the development of science by people from a range of cultures.
Students follow procedures to develop investigatable questions and design investigations into simple cause-and-effect relationships. They identify variables to be changed and measured and describe potential safety risks when planning methods. They collect, organise and interpret their data, identifying where improvements to their methods or research could improve the data. They describe and analyse relationships in data using graphic representations and construct multi-modal texts to communicate ideas, methods and findings.
Students follow procedures to develop investigatable questions and design investigations into simple cause-and-effect relationships. They identify variables to be changed and measured and describe potential safety risks when planning methods. They collect, organise and interpret their data, identifying where improvements to their methods or research could improve the data. They describe and analyse relationships in data using graphic representations and construct multi-modal texts to communicate ideas, methods and findings.
History
By the end of Year 6, students identify change and continuity and describe the causes and effects of change on society. They compare the different experiences of people in the past. They explain the significance of an individual and group. Students sequence events and people (their lifetime) in chronological order, and represent time by creating timelines. When researching, students develop questions to frame an historical inquiry. They identify a range of sources and locate and compare information to answer inquiry questions. They examine sources to identify and describe points of view. Students develop texts, particularly narratives and descriptions. In developing these texts and organising and presenting their information, they use historical terms and concepts and incorporate relevant sources.
Geography
By the end of Year 6, students explain the characteristics of diverse places in different locations at different scales from local to global. They describe the interconnections between people and places, identify factors that influence these interconnections and describe how they change places and affect people. They describe the location of selected countries in absolute and relative terms and identify and compare spatial distributions and patterns among phenomena. They identify and describe alternative views on how to respond to a geographical challenge and propose a response.
Students develop geographical questions to frame an inquiry. They locate relevant information from a range of sources to answer inquiry questions. They represent data and the location of places and their characteristics in different graphic forms, including large-scale and small-scale maps that use cartographic conventions of border, source, scale, legend, title and north point. Students interpret data and other information to identify and compare spatial distributions, patterns and trends, infer relationships and draw conclusions. They present findings and ideas using geographical terminology and graphic representations in a range of communication forms. They propose action in response to a geographical challenge and describe the expected effects of their proposal.
Students develop geographical questions to frame an inquiry. They locate relevant information from a range of sources to answer inquiry questions. They represent data and the location of places and their characteristics in different graphic forms, including large-scale and small-scale maps that use cartographic conventions of border, source, scale, legend, title and north point. Students interpret data and other information to identify and compare spatial distributions, patterns and trends, infer relationships and draw conclusions. They present findings and ideas using geographical terminology and graphic representations in a range of communication forms. They propose action in response to a geographical challenge and describe the expected effects of their proposal.
ICT
Digital Citizenship
Understands how people use tech- nology responsibly for research and
communication. |
Programming
Some understanding of how I can create an
interactive program that my peers would use. |
Digital Storytelling
Understands how to use technology to create stories or collaborate on stories that are part of a larger global conversation.
Familiar with several online story creation tools. Blogs, video & podcasts. |
Office Tools
Understands how to use Word Processing or Presentation tools to communicate ideas
and collaborate. Knows how to create a report, use templates to create a resume, cover letter or other documents. Uses data manipu-lation in Spreadsheet software to collect, organize and analyze data and report the results. |
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Arts
Through the primary years, students draw on their growing experience of family, school and the wider community to develop their understanding of the world and their relationships with others. In Years 3 to 6, learning in the Arts occurs both through integrated curriculum and The Arts subject-specific approaches. Some of the instinct to play evident in the early years becomes formalised into both experimentation and artistic practice. Students in these years recognise increasingly the connections between the Arts and other learning areas.
While arts in the local community is the initial focus for learning in the Arts, students are also aware of and interested in arts from more distant locations and the curriculum provides opportunities to build on this curiosity. Students learn that traditional people tell history through combinations of art forms. They learn about the native arts history, how their histories have been recorded and will explore the meanings of stories and styles in which they are told. Students also study works of art which represent their resident's connections with other places, the effects of these interconnections and the factors that affect people’s knowledge and opinions of other places.
During these years of schooling, students’ thought processes become more logical and consistent, and they gradually become more independent as learners. Students talk about changes in their own thinking, performance or creativity, giving reasons for their actions and explaining and demonstrating their organisation of ideas. They begin to recognise, appreciate and value the different ways in which others think, act and respond to works of art and consider how practices in the Arts may be enacted and sustained.
While arts in the local community is the initial focus for learning in the Arts, students are also aware of and interested in arts from more distant locations and the curriculum provides opportunities to build on this curiosity. Students learn that traditional people tell history through combinations of art forms. They learn about the native arts history, how their histories have been recorded and will explore the meanings of stories and styles in which they are told. Students also study works of art which represent their resident's connections with other places, the effects of these interconnections and the factors that affect people’s knowledge and opinions of other places.
During these years of schooling, students’ thought processes become more logical and consistent, and they gradually become more independent as learners. Students talk about changes in their own thinking, performance or creativity, giving reasons for their actions and explaining and demonstrating their organisation of ideas. They begin to recognise, appreciate and value the different ways in which others think, act and respond to works of art and consider how practices in the Arts may be enacted and sustained.
Grade 6: full curricular details for each subject
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