What kinds of vocabulary words are specific to this area of study? For example a mathematician would say “numerator” for the top number of a fraction and “denominator” for the bottom number … a scientist may say “hypothesis” rather than prediction …or a writer may say “onomatopoeia” when talking about sound words. …This can also include knowing certain tools that are useful in certain areas of studies …such as a protractor for math, a thermometer in science, or a thesaurus in writing.

What are characteristics or attributes of the character or thing being studied? How would you define and give more information about the subject? What is the setting or time period that a story takes place? What makes this different from something else? What details help one understand the topic better …like clues in a mystery that help you solve a crime.

Reoccurring events that happen in stories, in math problems, historical events, or science experiments. What keeps happening over and over? Is there an order that you can use to predict what will come next?

Looking at factors that have influenced things over time …such as the stock market or trends in clothing. Looking at causes and effects that we may be able to predict over time.

Looking at how things are structured. Why does something work a certain way? Understanding the purpose and reason for different rules.…for example when adding and subtracting decimals you must line up the decimal point. –or in reading, a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. When writing a letter you should always begin with a greeting.

Problems, dilemmas, or controversies that may be involved with an area of study or a characters actions in a story. Do we see evidence of bias, prejudice, or discrimination? …for example, we fish in streams for fun –is this right? Or should we eat everything we catch? …or helping a friend on a homework assignment versus giving them the answers.

When you are left with questions after reading or studying about something. Asking: what is still puzzling? What is still not known or is incomplete? What kinds of things can we discuss further about this topic?

Figuring out what the main idea of something is. Asking yourself what is most important about the topic you’re reading or studying about? -or if there is a moral or theme that you can pull from the story? – like in Aesop’s Fables. Asking: why is this important or significant? –such as when doing math problems or science experiments.

Looking at how the past, present, and future are connected. Finding patterns that happen over time. How do things of a certain time period go together? Does time change things? How and why do things change or remain the same?

“Thinking outside of the box.” Looking at things from other peoples points of view. Pretending that you are a character in a story. Understanding that different people see things in different ways. …for example, when looking at homework –If a person works slowly, one person may view that person as being a “slow poke” who takes too long and is having trouble on the assignment, whereas another person might think the slower person is smart for taking the extra time to do the assignment correctly. …a math example might be knowing that repeated addition and multiplication are two different ways of doing the same problem.

Looking at how things are related across the different disciplines and subject areas. Knowing that Language Arts, math, science, and social studies are not always separate subjects. They often will go together in different ways. …for example you need to be able to read when you are comparing information on a graph –which we often consider math. In science we often do measurements. We read and write about history.

6th Grade - Power Power may be used, misused, or abused Power can be earned, taken, or given Power can be real or perceived Power is the ability to influence Power is always present in some form Power may take many forms (chemical, electrical, political, mechanical)