• Skyview 6th grade will be using Collections by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt as our primary reading resource

    Students can access their textbook online by clicking this link: Collections 

     

    Collections Overview

    Grade 6 Skyview Upper Elementary

    Program Philosophy

    Collections © 2017 is a research-based comprehensive English Language Arts program designed to provide each student with a clear path to achieving the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts. Created in the exciting environment of 21st-century learning, Collections provides rigorous yet scaffolded and motivating digital and print resources. Collections successfully prepares students for college and career readiness and commitment as lifelong learners.

    Close Reading

    The instructional shifts in the Common Core State Standards demand more rigorous texts and new strategies for understanding and responding to those texts. Students must be actively involved in the meaning-making process. Close reading describes a comprehensive approach that applies protocols for reading, rereading, and analyzing complex texts for specific purposes. As they read, students ask questions about the texts: How does the author choose words, text structures, and figurative language? Why does the author make these choices? What effect or theme or meaning is the author trying to evoke? As students engage in close reading, they make notes to clarify their thinking and cite specific textual evidence to support their conclusions. This metacognitive process clarifies and extends their understanding. Students’ notes, collaborative discussions, and written responses make the invisible process of meaning making more visible.

    Close Reading support in Collections includes:

    • Multi-genre Table of Contents that include engaging and rigorous texts.
    • Anchor texts that require multiple readings and complex analysis
    • Text in Focus videos with each anchor text that identify and clarify language features in the text that may challenge students’ understanding
    • A digital and consumable Close Reader with additional selections
    • Multimedia Close Read Screencasts that model meaning-making conversations about text
    • Digital annotation tools that encourage personalized analysis, synthesis, and note-taking
    • Performance Tasks that provide practice in synthesis and response to rigorous texts
    • Stream to Start videos for each Collection Opener that clarify the collection topic
    • Text X-Ray and other integrated and differentiated instruction in the Teacher’s Edition that provide scaffolding for each student
    • Channel One News videos that supply current information on today’s headlines

    Academic Language

    The acquisition and control of academic language supports students’ ability to explore and convey meaning – whether in writing or oral expression. Collections develops academic language throughout each collection by introducing relevant academic language in the context of the written and spoken responses to the performance tasks and questions.


    Academic Vocabulary support includes:

    • Academic vocabulary used in performance tasks and collaborative discussions
    • A complete page of instruction in critical vocabulary and vocabulary-building skills and strategies following each selection
    • Integrated English Language Development instruction in the Teacher’s Edition
    • Language Workshop that provides 60 minutes of additional, daily instruction tied to Collections selections, focusing on enhancing the understanding and use of academic vocabulary for English learners
    • Word Sharp academic vocabulary online instruction

    Content Knowledge

    The development of content knowledge is supported by wide reading of print and media resources that expand information and experience, inspiring students to further research and learning.

    Content Knowledge support includes:

    • A Table of Contents that includes richly informative texts in a variety of genres and mediums
    • Text in Text in Focus videos that enhance understanding of each anchor text
    • Channel One news videos for current information
    • HISTORY, A&E, and Bio videos that provide context, sound, and images to support text
    • FYI website that links curated informational articles and media to every collection
    • Stream to Start videos that engage and inform students

    Key Components and Features

    • Student Edition
      • Coordinated collections of complex texts
      • Instruction and support for close reading
      • Additional Close Reader selections to reinforce key skills application
      • Online Interactive Lessons supporting writing, speaking, and listening
      • Print book, eBook, and Interactive eBook
    • Novels
      • Support for sustained close reading of long, complex works
      • Tied to collection topics
    • FYI Website
      • Additional nonfiction selections designed to extend students’ explorations of each collection’s key topics
      • Curated from safe online resources and updated regularly