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Alabama Standards

Alabama 6th Grade ELA Standards

All 36 Alabama English language arts standards for 6th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Alabama State Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.

36 standards

Recurring Standards for Grades 6-8

6 standards
6.R1
Listen closely in partner, small-group, and whole-class talks while following the class rules for discussion, like waiting for a classmate to finish before replying.
6.R2
Work out what a new word means, whether heard or read, from the words and sentences around it, like a nearby synonym or example.
6.R3
Research and write with digital tools in safe, responsible, and honest ways, alone or with classmates, like crediting a photo found online.
6.R4
Take writing in many genres through planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing, like turning a brainstorm list into a finished personal narrative.
6.R5
Judge how formal a situation is, then pick fitting words and tone for speaking or writing, like a class presentation versus a note to a friend.
6.R6
Adjust speaking style to the setting and task, switching to formal English when the moment calls for it, like presenting a book report to the class.

Critical Literacy

9 standards
6.1
Identify and explain how an author's purpose, viewpoint, anecdotes, and figurative, connotative, or technical words build a text's central and supporting ideas.
6.2
Infer and draw sound conclusions from an informational text's ideas and structure, like compare and contrast, cause and effect, problem and solution, or sequence.
6.3
Explain, with evidence from the text, how setting, plot, characters, conflict, dialogue, theme, and point of view shape the meaning of a story or poem.
6.4
Describe how devices like simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony, imagery, symbolism, and mood work in stories and poems and support a reading of them.
6.5
Evaluate how a speaker in a live or recorded talk builds central ideas through purpose, point of view, anecdotes, and figurative, emotional, or technical word choices.
6.6
Back up an interpretation of a live or recorded talk by looking at the speaker's use of tone, mood, imagery, symbolism, irony, hyperbole, and sound words.
6.7
Write stories with characters, conflict, and dialogue, formal informational pieces built on credible evidence, and arguments backing a claim, each suited to its audience.
6.8
Join group discussions by drawing on facts and ideas from a source, like an article the whole group has read.
6.9
Discuss with classmates the literary devices and elements in stories and poems, like how a metaphor reveals a character's feelings.

Digital Literacy

5 standards
6.10
Size up a website, video, or other digital source by naming its topic, audience, purpose, tone, and occasion, and judging whether it can be trusted.
6.11
Use print, visual, digital, and interactive texts to ask and answer questions, from literal facts to interpretations to real-world applications.
6.12
With guidance, study the word choices in a digital source, like a blog post, to work out its topic, occasion, audience, purpose, and how trustworthy it is.
6.13
Create and edit digital products, like a slideshow or class web page, whose topic and purpose suit a specific audience or occasion.
6.14
Strengthen oral presentations by sharing ideas in digital formats, like slides or short video clips, chosen to fit the topic, occasion, audience, and purpose.

Language Literacy

6 standards
6.15
Identify grammar rules at work in published texts, like verb agreement with subjects such as each of the boys, and evaluate pronoun number, case, and common errors.
6.16
Identify correct capitalization, punctuation, and spelling in published writing, including commas, parentheses, and dashes that set off extra information.
6.17
Judge how a speaker organizes a talk to figure out the speaker's point of view and purpose and how well the talk works.
6.18
Listen for correct grammar in a speaker's words, identifying proper subject-verb agreement and pronoun use.
6.19
Use correct grammar and mechanics in writing, like setting off extra details with commas or dashes, fixing apostrophes and colons, and matching pronouns to antecedents.
6.20
Pick words that keep style and tone steady, whether the setting is formal or informal, like a lab report versus a friendly email.

Research Literacy

6 standards
6.21
With guidance, summarize the ethical rules for gathering and recording information from primary, secondary, and online sources and explain why they matter.
6.22
Assess whether information from print or digital texts is relevant, reliable, and valid for the question at hand.
6.23
Find the answer to a question using an audio or video source, like a podcast episode or a recorded interview.
6.24
Write independently about research findings, both in quick single-sitting pieces and in longer projects.
6.25
With support, quote, paraphrase, and summarize source material, then share findings with citations in a set style, like MLA.
6.26
Share relevant details, opinions, and ideas from research in an oral presentation, then answer classmates' questions about the findings.

Vocabulary Literacy

4 standards
6.27
Figure out word meanings by breaking words into parts, comparing a word's dictionary meaning with the feelings it carries, or checking print or online references.
6.28
Work out word meanings by listening carefully in different settings, like a class discussion, a podcast, or a guest speaker.
6.29
Use academic words in writing to get ideas across clearly, like analyze, evidence, or contrast in a response essay.
6.30
Choose words to create a specific reaction or effect when speaking in class or online, like vivid verbs that build suspense in a story retelling.

The official Alabama documents

The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Alabama's standards, not the official wording, which Alabama State Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.