META24 CORE · PROJECT-BASED · ENGLISH · MIDDLE SCHOOL · GRADE 6 · 1 CREDIT · CCSS ELA
English 6 · The Reader’s Floor
Read at your level with the supports that get you through — read-aloud with the words lit, the eight parts every story is built from, the devices hunted at your rung — and make something from every story: a film, a manga, a scene.
THE MIX · HOW MUCH OF EACH CORE SUBJECT THIS COURSE CARRIES · IN ORDER
READING & WRITINGHISTORY, GEOGRAPHY & HUMANITIESART & DESIGNTECHNOLOGY & TRADES
The squares are a picture of a course — how much of each core subject its own rooms carry, read from the rooms’ text — never a score of a student. Every course in a lab is graded to the core across the board; the squares say which columns it feeds most.
WHAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO
- Read a story aloud and at your rung with fluency supports, and say what the words do not say
- Take any story apart into its eight parts and name the device that is doing the work
- Predict from evidence, then write the scene that proves or breaks the prediction
- Make from a story — a film, a manga, a reading — and defend one choice
AT A GLANCE · 36 WEEKS
Q1 The Hook · how a story grabs you — A hook of your own
Q2 MZUZI · a graphic novel you read and make from — Scene 1 of Story 2
Q3 The device hunt · Ship-Trap — The film
Q4 Your own manga · and the first argument — A manga, start to finish
Semester 1
WEEKS 1–18 · QUARTERS 1 AND 2The Hook · how a story grabs you
WEEKS 1–9THE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 1–3Five openings on a clock
Predict, infer, hear the tone, sum it up — then say why it worked.
WK 4–6The eight parts
Any story taken apart: hook, want, obstacle, turn, cost, climax, change, close.
WK 7–9A short mystery
The Monkey’s Paw read aloud first, the tricks underlined for you.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A hook of your own
The question. What makes a stranger keep reading past the first line?
The make. Three openings written in three tones for one story, read aloud, the room votes on which one hooks
The evidence. The three openings and the vote, handed in through The Hook
RL.6.1RL.6.4RL.6.5W.6.3SL.6.6
MZUZI · a graphic novel you read and make from
WEEKS 10–18THE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 10–13MZUZI & The Box
Dr. Prince’s origin story — Austin, Chicago — read panel by panel.
WK 14–15Between the lines
Three moves of thinking, then write what the words don’t say.
WK 16–18Story 2 · the writers’ room
Story 1 ends on a cliff. Predict from the evidence, cast, seven beats, Scene 1.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
Scene 1 of Story 2
The question. What has to happen next — and what in Story 1 proves it?
The make. Seven beats and a written Scene 1 in Mzuzi’s voice, with the evidence lines cited
The evidence. The beats and the scene, handed in through the writers’ room
RL.6.1RL.6.3RL.6.6W.6.3W.6.9
Semester 2
WEEKS 19–36 · QUARTERS 3 AND 4The device hunt · Ship-Trap
WEEKS 19–27THE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 19–22The Most Dangerous Game
Hunt the devices at your rung — foreshadowing, irony, the turn.
WK 23–24The Lyric Lab
The same devices in a song about not quitting — then in the song that gets you through.
WK 25–27Readers’ theater
The story on its feet: parts, voices, the room as the audience.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
The film
The question. Which three devices carry the story — and how do you show them with a camera?
The make. A short film of one scene from Ship-Trap, shot in the Studio, the three devices named in the credits
The evidence. The film (link) and the device sheet, handed in through Ship-Trap
RL.6.2RL.6.4RL.6.5SL.6.5W.6.3
Your own manga · and the first argument
WEEKS 28–36 · IN THIS OFFERINGTHE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 28–31Story Forge
Spark → co-write with METTIE → the art prompt for every panel.
WK 32–33The Record · a first source
A history unit read as a reader: who wrote it, when, and what they wanted.
WK 34–36Sparks · a position
A question with two honest sides; take one, hold it, hear the other.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A manga, start to finish
The question. What does your story want — and does every panel earn its place?
The make. A finished manga: spark, script, panel prompts, and a one-page defense of the ending
The evidence. The manga and the defense, handed in through Story Forge and kept in My Work
W.6.3W.6.4W.6.5RI.6.6SL.6.1
A course is a quarter, a semester or a year — nine, eighteen or thirty-six weeks — a project a quarter. Offered as the year, a semester or a quarter, it is the same course seen through a window. A lab is a family: its year, each of its tracks as a course, and its rooms. The evidence is what a student hands in through the room; the Report reads it from there. Nothing in the catalog is a grade.
THE PASS · THIS COURSE AND EVERY OTHER ONE
One pass includes English 6 · The Reader’s Floor and every course in the catalog. Pick a pass, or enter a school code; checkout stays on this page.