6th Grade ELA Targeted Standards

1. Instructional Designer: Mallorie Hyatt

2. Client Information
• Name: Kecia Thomas
• Title: Administrator
• Organization (school): General Ray Davis Middle School
• Email address: kthomas@rockdale.k12.ga.us
• Needs: This course focuses on target standards for remediation in 6th grade
English/Language Arts. Remediation prior to the administration of the Georgia
Milestones End of Grade Assessment in English/Language Arts is desired to fill
gaps in understanding that hinder mastery of these standards. The target
standards were identified using data from district-administered benchmark
assessments at the end of the first and second quarters. The three standards that
will be the focus of this self-paced instructional course will be:
• ELAGSE6RL1: Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text. (literary texts)
• ELAGSE6L1c: Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in pronoun
number and person and d. recognize and correct vague pronouns
• ELAGSE6L4a: Use context (e.g., the overall meaning of a sentence or
paragraph; a word’s position or function in a sentence) as a clue to the
meaning of a word or phrase.

3. Target Audience
• Target Audience: 6th grade students
• General characteristics: The 6th grade students at General Ray Davis Middle
School are typically between 11 and 12 years old. There are 374 students
enrolled in the sixth grade at General Ray Davis Middle School at this time.
According to the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (GOSA) Report
Card on General Ray Davis Middle School, the demographic breakdown of all
students enrolled at General Ray Davis Middle School in the 2016-17 (the
most recent data available from the GOSA) school year is as follows and is
reflective of the demographic composition of this year’s sixth grade class:
• Gender:
• Male: 46%
• Female: 54%
• Race and Ethnicity:
• Asian: 2.0%
• Black: 63.0%
• Hispanic: 6.0%
• White: 26.0%
• Multiracial: 3.0%
• Students with disabilities: 9.5%
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 • Gifted students: 24.4%
• Economically disadvantaged students: 57.1% (Governor's Office of
Student Achievement, n.d.)

• Relevant knowledge, skills, and experience: The sixth-grade students at

General Ray Davis Middle School have already received face-to-face academic
instruction on these three target standards over the course of the school year,
so none of the target concepts and/or skills are new to them. They are familiar
with the concepts outlined in the standards, though a large percentage of
students have not yet demonstrated mastery of these concepts.

Students are equipped to complete this online course with prerequisite

knowledge learned over the course of their education in grades K-5 in
English/Language Arts courses, as well as extensive and repeated exposure to
these specific skills and standards through regular classroom instruction over
the course of the in-progress sixth-grade year.

Students at General Ray Davis Middle School have deep experience in utilizing
technology in learning environments. Each student has been issued a district-
provided Dell Laptop as our school is a 1-to-1 technology environment, which
these students have at least two years of experience with. They have been
exposed to and are familiar with asynchronous instruction and online learning
environments in a variety of settings and methods of delivery.

4. Instructional Objectives
Upon completion of this course, the learners will be able to:

Module 1 Objectives:
• Students will use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar
words using:
• Text
• Context
• Greek and Latin Roots
• Interpret meaning of unfamiliar words by applying the above listed
resources
• Identify the correct definition of unfamiliar words by applying skill
knowledge

Module 2 Objectives:
• Students will:
• Differentiate between pronoun types
• Identify pronoun-antecedent relationships
• Identify errors in shifts between pronouns and antecedents
• Identify vague pronoun errors
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 • Correctly revise both vague pronoun errors and pronoun shift
errors

Module 3 Objectives:
• Pertaining to literary texts, students will:
• Differentiate between textual evidence that is explicit and textual
evidence that is inferred
• Identify examples of explicit textual evidence
• Identify examples of inferred textual evidence
• Cite explicit textual evidence from literary texts
• Make inferences from literary texts

5. Instructional Strategies and Tools

• Instructional approach and justification – Considering that this course will be self-
paced, allowing students to work at their own pace throughout the course of the
modules. Therefore, the mastery approach to instruction is the optimal
instructional approach for the self-paced asynchronous online learning design of
this course. Taking into consideration that the instruction in this course centers on
remediation, the proficiency aspect of this instructional approach also makes this
approach the best option because in this approach, because students move on
only when they have demonstrated competency in a skill before moving to the
next in the module.

In addition to the mastery approach to instruction, the principles for task-centered

instruction delineated in 2017 by Gregory M. Francom in Chapter 3 of
Instructional-Design Theories and Models, Volume IV: The Learner-Centered
Paradigm of Education have been applied in the design of this online course and its
modules. These universal principles have been applied as follows:

1. Learning Tasks- The learning tasks in each of the modules are based
on the skills derived from the targeted standards and will be the
primary focus of the modules. The skills will be translatable to real-
world applications as these skills are critical for comprehending,
analyzing and evaluating both literary and informational texts. The
task complexity is appropriate for the skill level of the sixth-grade
students who will be participating in this instruction, and these
learning tasks are sequenced “so that increasingly more knowledge of
course topics is required to complete additional learning tasks”
(Francom, 2017, p. 72)

2. Activation of Prior Knowledge- Because the nature of this course is

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 remedial, the students’ prior knowledge will be activated through a
repeated exposure to standards and skills they have interacted with
previously but have not yet mastered. The standards and skills are
therefore introduced briefly in short video segments and graphics to
activate prior knowledge (Francom, 2017)

3. Demonstration/modeling- The tasks in each of the modules are

modeled by narrated short videos, chunking the skills as needed in
each module. As stated by Francom, “Information related to learning
tasks is presented prior to or during an actual demonstration showing
how to perform the learning task” (Francom, 2017. P.75).

4. Application- Course participants will apply the knowledge throughout

the course modules in short formative performance tasks that provide
immediate feedback including “include corrections for task
performance, guidance on how to proceed, and feedback about how
well learners are performing” (Francom, 2017, p. 76

5. Integration/exploration- Course participants will apply their skill

knowledge in performance task style summative assessments at the
end of each course module that combine the previously chunked
content instruction to demonstrate mastery (Francom, 2017).

• Motivational strategies – Motivational strategies have been applied in the design of

this course and the modules contained within it according to Keller’s 1987 ARCS model
as follows:
• Attention- Strategies implemented to sustain attention of the course
participants considering the characteristics of sixth-grade students include
• Varying the medium and format of instruction “according to the
attention span of the audience” (Keller, 1987, p. 4) as well as
varying the presentation style (Keller, 1987).
• Utilizing visual representations to demonstrate connection
between task and concepts and providing ample examples
throughout the course of instruction (Keller, 1987).
• Relevance- Strategies implemented in the design of this course and its
modules pertaining to relevance include:
• Utilizing texts that are interesting and engaging to sixth grade
learners
• Explicitly stating:
• “How the instruction builds on the learner’s existing skills”
(Keller, 1987, p. 4)
• “the present intrinsic value of learning the content” (Keller,
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 1987, p. 4)
• “how the instruction relates to the future activities of the
learner” (Keller, 1987, p. 4)
• Confidence- Strategies implemented relevant to confidence include:
• Sequencing tasks based on difficulty level both within the course
modules and over the course as a whole as well as gradually
increasing students’ independence in skill practice (Keller, 1987)
• Attributing “student success to effort rather than luck or ease of
task…” (Keller, 1987, p. 5)
• Satisfaction- Satisfaction strategies that have been implemented include:
• Providing opportunities to apply skills in an ongoing manner
through informal and frequent part-task practice (Keller, 1987)
• Providing feedback that is both “informative and helpful”
throughout the course of instruction as well as “motivating
feedback (praise) immediately following task performance” (Keller,
1987, p. 6)

• Assessment strategies – Assessments will include informal part-task interactive

activities, formative mini-quizzes over throughout the progression of each
module, and summative assessments at the end of each module. These
assessments will each generate automatic feedback for participants and
require a minimum threshold

• Development tools – The developmental tools utilized in this course will be a variety of
narrated presentations, infographics, comic strips, and activities and assessments that
will be embedded in the course website and administered via WorldClass.io.

6. Course Outline

Content Description
Media objects (original)
Module 1:
Context Clues
This module covers concepts and skills aligned with
ELAGSE6L4a, which focuses on
1. Using text to determine meaning
2. Using the context in which the word is used to
determine meaning
3. Using Greek/Latin word roots to help determine
meaning
1. Narrated PowerPoint ScreenCastify videos
chunked by concept that includes part-task
practice
2. Piktochart Graphic on Greek and Latin Word
Roots
3. Designer created content on the Worldclass.io
platform
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Media objects (external) 1. Excerpts from the informational text “Out of Line
Online” from Readworks
2. Excerpts from the literary text “Believing in Horses”
from Commonlit.com
Practice or Assessment Assessment will include part-task practice over the
course of the module with feedback and a quiz at the
end of the module developed by the designer within
the Worldclass.io course platform
Module 2:
Pronouns
Content Description This module covers concepts and skills aligned with
ELAGSE6L1, focusing on
1. Pronoun case
a. Subjective
b. Objective
c. Possessive
2. Pronoun Antecedents
3. Errors in Shift between pronouns and their
antecedents
4. Vague pronoun errors
Media objects (original) 1. Powtoon Presentations of content- Pronoun Case and
Antecedents
2. Prezi- Errors in shift and vague pronouns
3. 3-4 MakeBeliefs Comix comic strips created by the
designer for use in skill practice
Media objects (external) 1. Excerpts from the informational text “Out of Line
Online” from Readworks
2. Excerpts from the literary text “Believing in Horses”
from CommonLit
Practice or Assessment Assessment will include part-task practice over the course
of the module with feedback and a quiz at the end of the
module developed by the designer within the
Worldclass.io course platform
Module 3:
Making
Inferences and
Text Evidence
Content Description This module covers concepts and skills aligned with
ELAGSE6RL1, focusing on differentiating between explicit
textual evidence and inferred textual evidence from
literary texts.
Media objects (original) 1. Embedded Nearpod presentation of content
2. Piktochart Infographic on making inferences vs.
explicit text evidence
Media objects (external) 1. The literary text “Believing in Horses” from
CommonLit
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 Practice or Assessment Assessment will include part-task practice over the
course of the module with feedback and a quiz at the
end of the module developed by the designer within
the Worldclass.io course platform

References

Francom, G. M. (2016). Principles for task-centered instruction. In Instructional-design theories and

models, volume iv: The learner-centered paradigm of education (pp. 65-91). New York, NY:

Taylor and Francis.

Georgia Department of Education. (2015, July 22). Teacher Guidance for Teaching the Georgia

Standards of Excellence (GSE): Grade Six (Georgia, Georgia Department of Education,

Curriculum and Instruction). Retrieved February 25, 2018, from

https://www.georgiastandards.org/Georgia-Standards/Frameworks/ELA-Grade%20Six-

Guidance.pdf

Governor's Office of Student Achievement. (n.d.). Georgia School Grades Report: General Ray Davis

Middle School (Georgia, Georgia Department of Education, Governor's Office of Student

Achievement). Retrieved February 25, 2018, from https://schoolgrades.georgia.gov/general-

ray-davis-middle-school

Keller, J. M. (1987). Development and use of the ARCS model of instructional design. Journal of

Instructional Development, 10(3), 2-10. doi:10.1007/bf02905780

Magid, J. (2012). Out of line online. Retrieved from https://www.readworks.org/article/Out-of-Line-

Online/d9a8308d-2d08-45c2-8673-11f024f526fe

Ormond, V. (2012). Believing in horses. Renton, WA: J.B. Max P