CBSE Class VI English

The students who are studying in Class 6 English should be able to perform the following activities:

1. become familiar with songs/poems/prose in English through input rich environment, interaction, classroom activities, discussion etc.
2. Listen to English news (TV, Radio) as a resource to develop listening comprehension.
3. Watch / listen to English movies, serials, educational channels with sub-titles, audio-video materials, talking books, teacher reading out from materials and to understand and respond.
4. Participate in individual talk viz. introducing oneself and other persons; participate in role play / make a speech, reproduce speeches of great speakers.
5. Summarise orally the stories, poems and events that he/she has read or heard.
6. Locate sequence of ideas, events and identify main idea of a story/poem through various types of comprehension questions.
7. Read different kinds of texts such as prose, poetry, play for understanding and appreciation and write answers for comprehension and inferential questions.
8. Raise questions based on their reading and solve some Worksheets for Class 6 English
9. Interpret tables, charts, diagrams and maps and write a short paragraph.
10. Think critically and try to provide suggestion/solutions to the problems raised.
11. Read/ discuss the ideas of the text for critical thinking.
12. Use dictionary as a reference book for finding multiple meanings of a word in a variety of contexts.
13. Take dictation of words, phrases, simple sentences and short paragraphs.
14. Understand the use of antonym (impolite/polite) synonym (big/large) and homonym (tail/tale)
15. Understand the grammatical forms in context/ through reading e.g. Noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, determiners, etc.
16. Understand the context for various types of writing such as messages, notices, letters, report, biography, diary entry, travelogue etc and solve some Question Papers for Class 5 English
17. Draft, revise and write in English / Braille with punctuation and with focus on appropriate beginning, middle and end.
18. Use ICT (Net, mobile, website, You tube, TED talks etc) to browse for information, for projects/PPT etc.
19. Look at cartoons/ pictures/comic strips with or without words, and talk/write about them.

Class 6 English syllabus CBSE and NCERT guidelines

There are two main textbooks for class 6 English. The details and important chapters have been given below. All schools follow the text books but apart from the prescribed textbooks, many CBSE affiliated schools are also recommending and teaching other books to students to improve students vocabulary

NCERT textbook A Pact with a Sun has the following chapters

1. A Tale of Two Birds
2. The Friendly Mongoose
3. The Shepherd’s Treasure
4. The Old-Clock Shop
5. Tansen
6. The Monkey and the Crocodile
7. The Wonder Called Sleep
8. A Pact with the Sun
9. What Happened to the Reptiles
10. A Strange Wrestling Match

NCERT textbook Honeysuckle has the following chapters

1. Who Did Patrick's Homework
2. How the Dog found himself new master
3. Taro's Reward
4. An Indian-American women in space
5. A Different Kind of School
6. Fair Play
7. Game of Chance
8. Desert Animals
9. The Banyan Tree

Background and explanation provided for teachers and students

Activities and materials that promote language growth in the early years have been described in some detail in the preceding section. Work at the upper primary level providing a basis for action and interventions in schools is described below. In general, vocabulary development through reading extensively with comprehension and interest and writing activities of a higher order than hitherto developed are the main goals of teaching/learning at this stage.

Objectives The general objectives at this stage are:

1. to negotiate their own learning goals and evaluate their own progress, edit, revise, review their own work
2. to understand, enjoy and appreciate a wide range of texts representing different cultures, ways of living
3. to be able to articulate individual/personal responses effectively
4. to use language and vocabulary appropriately in different contexts and social encounters
5. to be able to organise and structure thoughts in writing/speech
6. to develop production skills ( fluency and accuracy in speaking and writing)
7. to use dictionary suitable to their needs
8. to understand and enjoy jokes, skits, children’s films, anecdotes and riddles

At the end of this stage learners will be able to do the following:

1. understand the central idea and locate details in the text (prescribed and non-prescribed)
2. use his/her critical/thinking faculty to read between the lines and go beyond the text
3. narrate simple experiences, describe objects and people, report events to peers
4. speak accurately with appropriate pauses and clear word/sentence stress to be intelligible in familiar social contexts
5. write simple messages, invitations, short paragraphs, letters (formal and informal) applications, simple narrative and descriptive pieces, etc.
6. use his/ her proficiency in English to explore and study other areas of knowledge through print and non-print media
7. to undertake small projects on a regular basis

Language Items

At the upper primary level, knowledge of grammar remains a process of discovery combined with a conscious effort to explicitly understand and name grammatical items. However, these should not be taken out of contexts to be treated as discrete teaching items.

In addition to consolidating the items learnt earlier, the following will be introduced and recycled through the upper primary stage.

1. Determiners
2. Passivation
3. linking words
4. adjectives (comparative and superlative forms)
5. adverbs (place and types)
6. modal auxiliaries
7. tense forms
8. word order in sentence types
9. clauses
10. reported speech

Methods and Techniques

Classroom interaction would be such as to promote optimal learner participation leading to an urge to use language both in speech and writing. The selection of actual classroom procedures is left to the discretion of the teacher. However, the following are recommended:

1. Role play
2. Dramatization
3. Reading aloud
4. Recitation of rhymes, poems and making observations on a given topic/theme
5. Telling and retelling stories, anecdotes, and jokes
6. Discussion, debate
7. Simple projects
8. Interpreting pictures, sketches, cartoons
9. Activities, tasks, and language games
10. Pair work, group work, and short assignments both individual and group
11. Exploring the electronic media