Learning Through Performance - 6th Grade Curriculum
NGSS-designed, project-based curriculum for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.
Funded by George Lucas Educational Foundation, SCALE developed the Learning Through Performance curriculum as a way to help 6th, 7th, and 8th grade teachers envision what year-long, NGSS-designed/aligned curriculum might look like. Our curricular design embraces the strengths of project-based learning as an effective instructional model, and incorporates rigorous curriculum-embedded performance assessments to provide students with metacognitive access to their own learning.
Each unit in this curriculum has a unit essential question closely aligned to the larger course essential question stated above, and the content standards. This enables students to see the connections between each unit and overall focus of the course, and to understand that math and science are an integral part of everyday life.
All the units:
- are project-based
- include instructionally embedded assessments
In addition to our four instructional units, there is a unit devoted to groupwork to help teachers establish classroom norms and expectations around effective collaborative work.
The individual 6th grade curriculum files are provided below for your access. You can also access the full curriculum for the 6th, 7th, and 8th grade on Sprocket, a free online portal hosted by Lucas Education Research.
Unit 0 - Orientation to Groupwork
How do we work productively in group?
Unit 1 - Energy
How do we use and control thermal energy in a system?
Unit 2 - Cells & Body Systems
How do body systems interact with each other to communicate and collaborate?
Unit 3 - Variation & Heredity
How do the environment and genetics affect who we are and how we are similar or different?
Unit 4 - Climate Change
How do we know human activity is influencing climate, and what can we do about it?