Unit Plan 13 (Grade 6 ELA): Informational Structures Across Articles
Grade 6 informational text unit: students analyze sequence, cause/effect, and comparison structures, explaining how sections develop ideas. They read across texts on the same topic to compare how structure shapes understanding.
Focus: Sequence, cause/effect, comparison; reading across texts in a set
Grade Level: 6
Subject Area: English Language Arts (Reading Informational)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 45–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
Readers don’t just gather facts—they recognize how an author structures information to build understanding. This week students analyze sequence, cause/effect, and comparison structures inside articles, then read across a text set on the same topic to see how structure changes emphasis and clarity. By Friday, they’ll explain how specific sentences/paragraphs/sections fit into an article’s overall structure and how key ideas are introduced, illustrated, and elaborated.
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to…
- Identify an article’s overall structure (sequence, cause/effect, comparison) and explain how sections contribute to idea development (RI.6.5).
- Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated (e.g., examples, anecdotes, data) (RI.6.3).
- Read and comprehend literary nonfiction at grade-level complexity with appropriate scaffolds (RI.6.10).
- Synthesize across two articles on the same topic, noting how differing structures shape readers’ understanding (RI.6.5, RI.6.10).
Standards Alignment — CCSS Grade 6
- Reading Informational 6.5 (RI.6.5): Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas.
- Reading Informational 6.3 (RI.6.3): Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdotes).
- Reading Informational 6.10 (RI.6.10): By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
Success Criteria — student language
- I can name the text’s structure and point to signal words/sections that prove it.
- I can explain how a section fits the structure and advances key ideas.
- I can show how a key idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated with examples or data.
- I can read two articles on the same topic and explain how their different structures change what readers notice or understand.