Ohio Standards
Ohio 6th Grade ELA Standards
All 45 Ohio English language arts standards for 6th grade, each explained in plain English. The official wording is in Ohio Department of Education and Workforce's document, linked at the end of this page.
45 standards
Reading Literature
9 standardsRL.6.1
Back up both what a story says outright and what you infer from it with evidence you quote or put in your own words.
RL.6.2
Work out a theme of a story or poem, show how specific details build it, and write a neutral summary that covers the theme and key events.
RL.6.3
Trace how a story or play's plot unfolds chapter by chapter or scene by scene, and how characters react or change as it heads toward its ending.
RL.6.4
Figure out what words and phrases mean in a story or poem, including figurative and connotative senses, and how choices like sensory language set meaning and tone.
RL.6.5
Explain what a single line, paragraph, chapter, scene, or stanza adds to the setting, plot, or theme of the whole work.
RL.6.6
Explain how the author's choice of point of view shapes the way the narrator, speaker, or a character sees events in a story or poem.
RL.6.7
Compare reading a story or poem with hearing it on audio or watching it on video or stage, and how each version changes its tone, mood, or appeal.
RL.6.9
Compare texts in different genres, like a poem and a fantasy story, naming each one's stated or implied theme and how a shared theme develops in each.
RL.6.10
Read and understand sixth grade stories, poems, and plays, with support as needed, linking them to your own life, other texts, and the wider world.
Reading Informational
10 standardsRI.6.1
Use cited evidence from history, science, or technical texts to show what the text says directly and to support the inferences you draw from it.
RI.6.2
Find a central idea in a nonfiction text, explain how particular details convey it, and write a neutral summary with that idea and its key details.
RI.6.3
Analyze how a text introduces a key person, event, or idea and then builds it up with examples, facts, or anecdotes.
RI.6.4
Work out what subject-specific words and phrases mean in a nonfiction text, including their figurative, connotative, and technical senses.
RI.6.5
Analyze how one sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits the structure of a nonfiction text and helps develop its ideas.
RI.6.6
Figure out an author's viewpoint or purpose in a nonfiction text and explain how the writing reveals it.
RI.6.7
Combine information from several print and digital sources to build a clear, connected understanding of a topic or issue.
RI.6.8
Trace an author's argument by naming its specific claims and sorting the ones backed by evidence from the ones that are not.
RI.6.9
Compare how two authors tell about the same events, like a person's own memoir set beside a biography of that person.
RI.6.10
Read and understand sixth grade nonfiction, with support as needed, connecting it to your own life, other texts, and the world around you.
Reading Foundations
2 standardsRF.6.3
Decode unfamiliar words using roots, prefixes, suffixes, and word origins, learn common Latin and Greek word parts, and read frequent words like believe and verify on sight.
RF.6.4
Read sixth grade texts aloud with at least 95 percent accuracy and good expression at about 146 words correct per minute, rereading when needed to understand.
Writing Foundations
2 standardsWF.6.1
Handwrite in print or cursive neatly and quickly enough to keep up when writing at length or taking notes.
WF.6.2
Spell multisyllabic words correctly using syllable types, syllable division, spelling rules, roots, prefixes, and suffixes, and spell grade-level irregular words.
Writing
10 standardsW.6.1
Write an argument that opens with a thesis, backs claims with organized reasons and credible evidence, links ideas clearly, suits the audience, and ends with a conclusion.
W.6.2
Write an informative piece with a thesis, facts and quotations from credible sources, a clear structure like cause and effect, transitions, and a fitting conclusion.
W.6.3
Write a real or imagined story that sets up the narrator and situation, uses dialogue, pacing, sensory detail, and time transitions, and ends with a fitting conclusion.
W.6.4
Write clear, well-organized pieces whose ideas and structure fit the task, the purpose, and the readers.
W.6.5
Plan, revise, and edit drafts using feedback from adults and classmates, with less and less adult help, to improve clarity, organization, and conventions like spelling.
W.6.6
Use digital skills and tools, like keyboarding and multimedia platforms, to write and publish your work.
W.6.7
Carry out independent research to answer a question, using several sources, recording evidence, and judging which evidence is relevant.
W.6.8
Gather information from print and digital sources, judge each source's credibility, quote or paraphrase without plagiarizing, and list basic source details.
W.6.9
Use evidence from sixth grade stories and nonfiction when writing to analyze, elaborate, reflect, or report research.
W.6.10
Write often, both in one sitting and over several days, planning, drafting, and revising for different subjects, purposes, and readers.
Speaking and Listening
6 standardsSL.6.1
Come prepared to group and class discussions, follow agreed rules and roles, build on others' comments, ask clarifying questions, and paraphrase other viewpoints.
SL.6.2
Interpret information from videos, audio, primary sources, charts, and infographics and explain how it adds to a text, topic, or issue being studied.
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.
SL.6.4
Present claims and findings in a logical order with relevant facts and details, keeping eye contact and speaking clearly at an easy pace.
SL.6.5
Add multimedia and visual displays to presentations when they help make information clearer.
SL.6.6
Adjust your speaking to different situations and tasks, using formal language when the setting calls for it.
Language
6 standardsL.6.1
Use correct pronoun case and intensive pronouns like myself, fix pronoun shifts and vague pronouns, and adjust informal English like slang to suit formal settings.
L.6.2
Use correct capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, setting off extra information with commas, parentheses, or dashes and spelling with phonics and word parts.
L.6.3
Notice the difference between formal and casual English, like Good morning, Mrs. Lee versus Hey, and choose which fits the moment.
L.6.4
Work out unknown or multiple-meaning words using context, Greek and Latin roots and affixes like audi, and dictionaries or glossaries to confirm meaning and pronunciation.
L.6.5
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.
L.6.6
Use everyday, academic, and subject-specific words and phrases learned through reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
The official Ohio documents
- Ohio's Learning Standards: English Language Arts, revised 2026 · adopted 2026 for K-8, 2017 for 9-12 · published July 2026
- Ohio's Learning Standards: English Language Arts, 2017 · replaced · adopted February 2017 · K-8 replaced in 2026, 9-12 carried forward
The plain-English lines on this page are EMStudio's own explanations of Ohio's standards, not the official wording, which Ohio Department of Education and Workforce publishes in the documents above. Codes and strand names identify each standard.