Arizona Standards
Arizona 6th Grade ELA Standards
All 41 Arizona English language arts standards for 6th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Arizona Department of Education's document, linked at the end of this page.
41 standards
Reading Standards for Literature
9 standards6.RL.1
Back up every claim about a story or poem with a quoted line or a specific detail, including claims about what the author only hints at.
6.RL.2
Figure out a story's theme, show which details carry it, and summarize the plot without adding your own opinions.
6.RL.3
Trace how a plot unfolds episode by episode and how the characters respond or change on the way to the ending.
6.RL.4
Work out what words and phrases mean in a story or poem, including figurative uses and the feelings a word carries, and explain how one word choice affects the tone.
6.RL.5
Explain how one sentence, chapter, scene or stanza fits into the whole work and helps build its theme, setting or plot.
6.RL.6
Explain how an author builds the narrator's or speaker's point of view through what they notice, say and leave out.
6.RL.7
Compare reading a story, play or poem with hearing or watching a performance of it, noting what you imagine on the page versus what you see and hear.
6.RL.9
Compare how texts in different forms or genres, like a poem and a story or a historical novel and a fantasy, handle a similar theme.
6.RL.10
By the end of sixth grade, read and understand grade-level stories, plays and poems skillfully and without support.
Reading Standards for Informational Text
10 standards6.RI.1
Back up every claim about a story or poem with a quoted line or a specific detail, including claims about what the author only hints at.
6.RI.2
Name the central idea of a nonfiction text, show how the details build it, and summarize it without mixing in your own judgments.
6.RI.3
Analyze closely how a text brings in a key person, event or idea and then builds on it with examples or stories.
6.RI.4
Work out the meaning of words in a nonfiction text, including figurative uses, the associations a word carries and technical terms like circuit.
6.RI.5
Explain what job a given sentence, paragraph or section does in a nonfiction text and how it moves the ideas forward.
6.RI.6
Figure out an author's purpose or stance in a nonfiction text and point to the places where it shows.
6.RI.7
Pull together information from words, pictures, charts and other formats to build one clear understanding of a topic.
6.RI.8
Follow an author's argument claim by claim and sort the claims backed by reasons and evidence from the ones that are not.
6.RI.9
Compare how two authors present the same events, like a memoir and a news account of the same day.
6.RI.10
By the end of sixth grade, read and understand grade-level informational texts and nonfiction skillfully and without support.
Writing Standards
10 standards6.W.1
Write an argument with a clear claim, reasons and evidence from credible sources, linking words, a formal style and a conclusion that follows from it.
6.W.2
Write an informative piece that introduces a topic, organizes facts, definitions and examples under headings or charts where they help, and ends with a conclusion.
6.W.3
Write a true or made-up story that sets the scene, uses dialogue, pacing and sensory detail, moves clearly through time and ends with a fitting conclusion.
6.W.4
Match how a piece of writing is developed, organized and styled to its task, its purpose and the people who will read it.
6.W.5
With some feedback from peers and adults, plan, revise, edit and rewrite their writing, or try a new approach when a draft is not working.
6.W.6
Use technology and the internet to type, publish and share writing with others, and type well enough to finish a writing task in one sitting.
6.W.7
Run a short research project that answers a question from several sources and narrows the question when the findings call for it.
6.W.8
Gather information from print and online sources, judge whether each source is trustworthy, quote or paraphrase without plagiarizing and list where it came from.
6.W.9
Use evidence from stories and informational texts in writing, like details that show a character in depth or the reasons an author gives for a point.
6.W.10
Write regularly, from a report built over several days to a journal entry finished in one class, for different subjects, purposes and readers.
Speaking and Listening Standards
6 standards6.SL.1
Come to a discussion having read the material, follow the group's rules and roles, ask and answer questions in detail, and restate others' points to show you listened.
6.SL.2
Make sense of information from videos, graphs, speeches and other formats, and explain how it adds to the topic or text being studied.
6.SL.3
Lay out a speaker's argument claim by claim and tell which claims are backed by reasons and evidence and which are not.
6.SL.4
Present claims and findings in a logical order with facts and details that spotlight the main ideas, making eye contact and speaking clearly and loudly enough.
6.SL.5
Add graphics, images, music, sound or other visuals to presentations to make the information clearer.
6.SL.6
Switch between casual and formal English to fit the setting, using formal English when a task calls for it.
Language Standards
6 standards6.L.1
Print many letters, use everyday nouns, verbs and little words like in and on, make plurals like dogs and wishes, ask with who and where, and speak in full sentences.
6.L.2
Capitalize the first word of a sentence and the word I, name the period and question mark, and spell simple words the way they sound, like kat for cat.
6.L.3
Notice the difference between formal and casual English, like Good morning, Mrs. Lee versus Hey, and choose which fits the moment.
6.L.4
Work out an unfamiliar word from context clues, Greek and Latin roots like aud in audience and audible, or a dictionary, then check the guess.
6.L.5
Explain a nonliteral phrase like take steps, name someone who is friendly to link a word to real life, and rank knew, believed and suspected by how sure they are.
6.L.6
Learn and use grade-level academic and subject words, and look up any word that matters to understanding or expressing an idea.
The official Arizona documents
- Arizona English Language Arts Standards: Sixth Grade · adopted December 2016 · since 2018-19
The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Arizona's standards, not the official wording, which Arizona Department of Education publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.