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ELA 6: Once Upon a Genre—Semester B

Welcome to 6th grade—Shmoop promises not to shove you into your locker.

  • Credit Recovery Enabled
  • Course Length: 18 weeks
  • Course Type: Basic
  • Category:
    • English
    • Literature
    • Middle School

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So, completed Semester A and back for more?

Or are you just super-stoked on our Semester B offerings?

(If it's the latter, we don't blame you. The Giver and Greek mythology in the same course? We're all in.)

Semester B of ELA 6 further develops the skills learned in the first semester. We'll dive into digital media, strengthen our writing and language skills, and read some true genre classics. Want to know more? Semester B's topics include:

  • Theme, moral, and message, comparing a work to its source material, and etymology
  • Narrative and point of view, creative writing, context clues and reference material use
  • Central messages and themes, using digital media and research, creating online presentations
  • Citing textual evidence, cause and effect, and denotation, connotation, and nuance

ELA 6: Once Upon a Genre is a two-semester course. You're looking at Semester B. You can find Semester A here.

Unit Breakdown

4 ELA 6: Once Upon a Genre—Semester B - Myth Busters

In this unit, we'll learn all about myth, theme, and a story's moral through a slew of readings about heroes, quests, Greek and Roman mythology, and context-building nonfiction. We'll tackle comparing and contrasting in writing and how to use Greek and Latin affixes and roots like a pro. Pardon the played-out joke, but by the end of the unit, etymology won't "all be Greek" to you.

5 ELA 6: Once Upon a Genre—Semester B - Despicable Me

Grab a hankie, Shmoopers: this unit will use literature to open discussions about difference. We'll also bust out our creative writing hats and do some narrative writing about bullying and being unique. To work on verbal accuracy when discussing the hard stuff in life, this unit's language focus is on using context clues and reference materials to figure out the meaning of unknown words.

6 ELA 6: Once Upon a Genre—Semester B - What the Future Holds

Unit 6 focuses on the genre of science fiction and young adult dystopia, where we'll ponder things like memories, individuality, and the power of choice. (Deep, right?) Since we'll be thinking about the future, we'll also read non-fiction selections about technology and practice skills you'll need for your future, like how to use web technologies to put together a kick-butt digital presentation.

7 ELA 6: Once Upon a Genre—Semester B - Won't You Be My Neighbor?

To wrap up sixth grade, our final unit is about community. We'll cover activism, school culture, and the power of uniting for a cause. For even more community vibes, we'll practice interpreting and incorporating teacher and peer feedback in our writing. Throw in connotation and denotation, and we've got a feel-good ending to a feel-great course.

Recommended prerequisites:

  • ELA 6: Once Upon a Genre—Semester A

    • Sample Lesson - Introduction

    Lesson 4.04: You'd Better Behave

    Now that you've dunked your toes in the waters of mythology, we know you're itching for more.

    A delicious-looking plate of Buffalo wings.
    Totally Icarus' favorite food—you'll see why.
    (Source)

    Well, you've got it.

    Aside from writing myths to discuss the origins of things, ancient folks also wrote myths to serve as warnings or to teach lessons about the important things in life. You know: humility, love, betrayal, loyalty—that kind of thing. You could even say that mythology sometimes aided in behavior modification.

    Not that you need any modifying of your behavior—wink, wink.

    Since the people were so into reading back then, lesson-teaching myths stood in for scoldings or punishment on some occasions. Nowadays, a naughty child might have his/her video game rights revoked or may not be able to go out with friends. But in the olden days, what happens when you challenge a goddess to a duel? Can ambition get a person in trouble or even killed?

    In today's lesson, we'll check out two ambitious adolescents: Arachne and Icarus. Arachne has some killer weaving skills, so her head's gotten a bit bigger than it should. And Icarus' drive sends him on a hot trip way outta control.

    If there are lessons to be learned in these myths, these characters are sure going to teach us.

    Sample Lesson - Reading

    Reading 4.4.04a: Vocabulary Activity

    We've got just a few new vocab words for your sheets today that you'll encounter, so bust out those Vocabulary Sheets
    and let's get going. Make sure to keep your eye out for the following words when you read the stories; you need to copy them onto your sheet, and you're turning in your sheet in Lesson 5.

    • loom (noun): a contraption that's used for weaving cloth
      Example Sentence: Shmoop visited American Apparel's factory and saw a ton of modern looms making shirts.
    • labyrinth (noun): a crazy structure meant to keep people out or trapped within its maze
      Example Sentence: The new school building was a labyrinth—it was nearly impossible to find our locker.
    • premonition (noun): a suspicion or hunch
      Example Sentence: You may have a premonition about the plots of this lesson's stories, all based on your new vocab.

    Sample Lesson - Reading

    Reading 4.4.04b: Pre-Reading Activity

    We're going to get some Shoomp-takes on Arachne and Icarus before reading the actual myths, so here we go. Read the overviews and summaries for each myth.

    Grab those Pre-Reading Sheets (which you're also turning in tomorrow) and focus on the following questions, in at least two sentences each:

    • Who are the characters in this story? 
    • What is the lesson (or lessons) being taught in this story?

    Sample Lesson - Reading

    Reading 4.4.04c: Weave and Fly

    We're finally to the reading: "Arachne" and "Daedalus and Icarus." They're not in your Turnbull book, but they can be located in The McElderry Book of Greek Myths, or found in various formats online.

    Back? Shmoop really digs those myths. Arachne had it coming—areweright? There are certain things in life that just don't fly—like bragging about your skills in comparison to a goddess.

    While we're talking about flying, can you believe Icarus? We suppose it's safe to say that maybe we wouldn't have done what he did—but who knows? When was the last time you had wings—and we're not talking Redbull, here.

    Sample Lesson - Activity

    Activity 4.04: The Moody Blues' Tone

    Which one of the two myths did you like the best: the one about the spider-woman or the one about the melty wings?

    Step One

    Pick your favorite 'cause you're going to spend some time with it for the remainder of this lesson, breaking down its tone and mood.

    Step Two

    Watch this video, and it will become clearer.

    • Tone describe the author's attitude about the writing and characters. Anything that drops a hint about what the author thinks about characters in his story is a "tone" word.
    • Mood is the way an author uses words to make the reader feel a certain way.

    Step Three

    Go back through either "Arachne" and "Daedalus and Icarus" and find tone and mood words. Choose at least ten words from the story you chose.

    For example, here are a few that Shmoop found in today's myths:

    • "Arachne"
      • foolish, disrespectful, wrong, challenge, afraid, chained, war, slaughter, ugly, rage, rudeness, inexcusable
    • "Daedalus and Icarus"
      • died, refused, warned, frightened, foolish, dismissed, warning, gasped, screamed, cried, helplessly, broken

    Hmmm. Note how all types of words can set the tone and mood in a story: adjectives, verbs, and nouns. And consider this: how do all of these terms, combined into one short myth, make you feel? What are the tone and mood of this tale?

    Step Four

    Use the words you pulled from the myths to compose a two-paragraph (minimum) short story (four sentences per paragraph) that mimics the tone and mood of the myth you chose.

    What do we mean by mimic? Here's Shmoop's example using the "Arachne" myth and some mood and tone words we found during a re-reading of it. We think the story has an ominous, warning tone:


    Once upon a time, there was a foolish little boy who didn't ever listen to his parents and was most disrespectful. When asked to help out around the house, the boy would begin acting out, running away from his parents and pretending not to hear them. One day, the neighbor, fed up with the boy's rudeness, told him that his behavior was inexcusable. She told the boy that he would most likely be shipped off to war, where he would be challenged to witness the brutal slaughter of others.

    The boy, now in a rage, decided to take action to protect himself from being shipped off. He chained himself up in the basement of his parents' home and refused to leave. He knew that his actions were wrong, but he was so afraid that he did it anyway. When his parents found him, the boy had passed into the next realm. The naughty child's fear and panic caused him to perish.

    This story is pretty ghoulish, but hopefully, you get the drift. Take the words you found and write your own brief story—we bet that, like ours, the tone and mood will be pretty similar to the short stories we read today.

    Make sure to submit that story below so you can get credit for your writing work today.

    Creative Written Representation Rubric - 15 Points

    OutstandingProficientDevelopingNeeds Improvement
    Content Understanding

    All content is accurate and presentation reflects sophisticated understanding.

    (6)

    All content is accurate.

    (5)

    May contain minor errors.

    (5)

    Major errors.

    (4)
    Understanding of Genre

    Uses conventions of genre to enhance message.

    (3)

    Accurately follows conventions of genre.

    (3)

    Mostly follows conventions of genre.

    (2)

    Does not follow conventions of genre.

    (2)
    Creativity

    Presentation is very creative, bringing additional levels of interpretive depth, while remaining true to original text or topic.

    (4)

    Presentation is creative and goes beyond original meaning of text while remaining true to original text or topic.

    (3)

    Presentation shows minimal creativity or is very creative, but doesn’t retain all original characteristics of original.

    (2)

    Presentation is not creative or deviates greatly from characteristics of original.

    (2)
    Style

    Language is clear and interesting. Enhances presentation of information. No errors.

    (2)

    Language is clear and appropriate to topic. Minor spelling or grammatical errors.

    (1)

    Language is occasionally unclear, but meaning is generally understandable. Frequent spelling/grammar errors that do not impede comprehension.

    (1)

    Language use makes writing very difficult to understand. Frequent spelling or grammar errors that impede comprehension.

    (1)