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North Carolina Standards

North Carolina 6th Grade ELA Standards

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

36 standards

Reading Literature

9 standards
RL.6.1
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.
Common Core RL.6.1
RL.6.2
Find the theme of a story and the details that reveal it, then sum up the story without mixing in your own opinions, like whether you liked the ending.
RL.6.3
Trace how a plot unfolds episode by episode and how the characters respond or change on the way to the ending.
Common Core RL.6.3
RL.6.4
Work out what words and phrases mean in a story or poem and explain how a single word choice affects its meaning and tone, like crept instead of walked.
RL.6.5
Explain how one sentence, chapter, scene or stanza fits into the whole work and helps build its theme, setting or plot.
Common Core RL.6.5
RL.6.6
Explain how an author builds the narrator's or speaker's point of view through what they notice, say and leave out.
Common Core RL.6.6
RL.6.7
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.
Common Core RL.6.7
RL.6.9
Compare how texts in different forms or genres, like a poem and a novel, handle the same theme or topic, noting where their approaches match and differ.
RL.6.10
By year's end, read stories, plays and poems at the grades 6 to 8 level on your own for long stretches, linking them to what you already know and have lived.

Reading Informational

10 standards
RI.6.1
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.
Common Core RL.6.1
RI.6.2
Name the central idea of a nonfiction text, show how the details build it, and summarize it without mixing in your own judgments.
Common Core RI.6.2
RI.6.3
Trace in detail how a nonfiction text brings in a key person, event or idea and then develops it with examples and stories, like anecdotes in a biography.
RI.6.4
Figure out what words and phrases mean in a nonfiction text and explain how one word choice changes the meaning, like calling a plan reckless instead of bold.
RI.6.5
Explain what job a given sentence, paragraph or section does in a nonfiction text and how it moves the ideas forward.
Common Core RI.6.5
RI.6.6
Figure out an author's purpose or stance in a nonfiction text and point to the places where it shows.
Common Core RI.6.6
RI.6.7
Combine what you learn from charts, graphs, videos and written text to build one clear understanding of a topic or issue, like a report on water use.
RI.6.8
Follow an author's argument claim by claim and sort the claims backed by reasons and evidence from the ones that are not.
Common Core RI.6.8
RI.6.9
Compare how two authors tell about the same events, like a memoir and a biography of the same person, noting what each includes and how they present it.
RI.6.10
By year's end, read nonfiction like articles, histories and science texts at the grades 6 to 8 level on your own for long stretches, tying it to what you know.

Writing

6 standards
W.6.1
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.
Common Core W.6.1
W.6.2
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.
Common Core W.6.2
W.6.3
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.
Common Core W.6.3
W.6.4
Write, publish and collaborate on writing with digital tools, like a shared online document, and show solid typing and word processing skills.
W.6.5
Carry out short research projects that answer a question using several sources, narrowing or shifting the question as you learn more.
W.6.6
Gather information from print and online sources, judge whether each source is trustworthy, quote or paraphrase without plagiarizing and list where it came from.
Common Core W.6.8

Speaking and Listening

5 standards
SL.6.1
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.
Common Core SL.6.1
SL.6.2
Make sense of information from videos, graphics, speeches and other media, and explain what it adds to the topic, text or issue the class is studying.
SL.6.3
Lay out a speaker's argument claim by claim and tell which claims are backed by reasons and evidence and which are not.
Common Core SL.6.3
SL.6.4
Give a talk that presents claims or findings in a logical order, using relevant facts and details to highlight main ideas, and fit your speaking to each setting and task.
SL.6.5
Add images, sound, video or graphics to a presentation to make the information clearer, like a map that shows where events happened.

Language

6 standards
L.6.1
Write and speak with correct grammar from the grades 6 to 8 list, like active and passive voice, verb moods, pronoun case, and fixing fragments and run-ons.
L.6.2
Capitalize, punctuate and spell correctly by the grades 6 to 8 rules, like the comma in a long, dull movie and a colon before a list, checking a dictionary as needed.
L.6.3
Notice the difference between formal and casual English, like Good morning, Mrs. Lee versus Hey, and choose which fits the moment.
Common Core L.2.3
L.6.4
Work out unfamiliar or multiple-meaning words in grade 6 reading by picking from context, word parts, related words or a dictionary, like the root aud in audible.
L.6.5
Interpret figures of speech in grade 6 reading, like personification, and tell apart the feelings carried by words with similar meanings, like curious and nosy.
L.6.6
Learn and correctly use grade 6 academic and subject words, like analyze or ratio, building vocabulary whenever a word is key to understanding or expressing an idea.

The official North Carolina documents

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