Kentucky Reading and Writing C.6.5

ELA6th GradeComposition

The Standard

Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources.

Kentucky Academic Standards for Reading and Writing (2025) · Research to Build and Present Knowledge

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students turn a broad topic into a question they can answer in a short project. They gather useful details from several sources and use them to write a clear answer.
What Mastery Looks Like: A student can take brief notes from three sources and pick facts that answer the question. Their final paragraph uses their own words and names where the facts came from.
Common Misconceptions: Students may stop at the first source they find or copy sentences without explaining them. They may list facts from several sources without using those facts to answer the question.
How to Assess It: Give students three short source cards about city trees: a heat map, a paragraph about rain runoff, and a photo caption about shade. Ask, "How do trees help a neighborhood?" Have them write four sentences using one fact from each card.

Lesson moves

Give groups three printed articles about city trees; have them highlight one fact in each that answers, "How do trees cool a neighborhood?"
Ask partners, "Which fact appears in two articles, and what does each article add?" Have them write a two-sentence answer.
Read six claims about city trees aloud; have pairs match each claim to one of three numbered source cards.
Print three local grocery ads; have students find which store has the cheapest apples and record the price from each ad.

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