6th grade

BE Smart: Bicultural Bimester 3 Unit 5 Teacher's Answer Sheet

BE a Speaker (5 points)
Directions: Listen to an article about animals’ homes. You will only hear it twice! Before
listening, read the questions below so that you know what to listen for. Listen to
the article and then circle the correct answers.

Teacher's Instructions: Tell your students that you will read them an article about animals’ homes.
Before you read the article, let the students read the questions. Then read the article. Ask your
students to circle the correct answer to the questions. Give the students time to answer the questions
and then read it again.
Animal Habitats do not need too much water. Animals that live in
In an ecosystem, living and non-living things cold places have fur. Some animals migrate in the
depend on each other. It can be small or big. Living spring and again in the fall to warmer habitats
organisms need homes to live. These homes are where they can find more food.
called habitats. A swamp is an ecosystem of a lowland area
Animals have some basic needs like air and covered in water where organisms seek shelter,
sunlight. They need shelter for protection, food and food and water. The habitats of the organisms in
water to grow. They can find all these things in this ecosystem are in the water, on the surface,
their habitats. and above the water. Fish and tadpoles live in the
As there are many kinds of animals, there are water. Alligators and frogs live on the surface, and
many kinds of habitats, too. Most animals can live birds and insects live above the water.
in more than one. A rattlesnake can live in the desert All animals depend on their habitat. When
and in the forest. There are other animals that can something affects an ecosystem, the habitats
only live in one habitat: a whale can only live in salty are also affected. Some animals move to better
water and a penguin cannot live in the desert. habitats. Others adapt to the new conditions
Animals adapt to their habitats in order to but many die. That is why it is very important to
survive. For example, animals that live in the desert protect the ecosystems.

1. A habitat is an animal’s…
a. characteristic. b. home. c. meal.
(Skill tested: Listening comprehension using the key vocabulary in Unit 4 BE a Speaker)
2. Which is another word for ecosystem?
a. land b. community c. house
(Skill tested: Listening comprehension using the key vocabulary in Unit 4 BE a Speaker)
3. Most animals can live in habitat(s).
a. five or six b. more than one c. more than ten
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(Skill tested: Listening comprehension using the key vocabulary in Unit 4 BE a Speaker)
4. Which of these animals live in the water?
a. insects b. birds c. fish
(Skill tested: Listening comprehension using the key vocabulary in Unit 4 BE a Speaker)
5. What happens if something affects the ecosystem?
a. All organisms are b. All organisms get c. All organisms go to
affected. angry. the zoo.
(Skill tested: Listening comprehension using the key vocabulary in Unit 4 BE a Speaker)

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 BE a Reader (5 points)
Directions: Read the story and then circle the correct answer.

Teacher's Instructions: Ask students to read the story below. You cannot help them. They have to
read and circle the correct answer on their own.

The Field Trip

Mr. Lopez was Jane’s favorite Science teacher. Unlike other Science teachers, his lessons almost
always took place outside the classroom and were really interesting and unique. Last week he
announced the class was going to go on a field trip to Jane’s favorite place on earth, Lake St. John.
Jane goes skiing and swimming there with her friends every weekend. She was wondering what
they were going to do there.
The day finally arrived. Mr. Lopez said they were going to study ecosystems and identify
organisms that live in the region. When they got there, Mr. Lopez explained that the lake was a
freshwater habitat and many different organisms inhabit it. The class was divided into teams. Mr.
Lopez handed out some cups, tweezers and magnifiers. Each team had to look for and collect as
many different species as they could. Then, they had to prepare a presentation in order to share
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their findings with the rest of the class. Jane and her team found different types of fish, frogs and
plants. They made a poster with drawings and pasted leaves of different plants.
It was so much fun! Jane had not realized how many animals lived in her favorite spot. She had
never paid attention to all the different species that live there! When the day was over, they had a
picnic by the lake and went back to school.
The next morning every team had a chance to give their oral presentations. Jane and her friends
learned a lot. They were able to share what they observed and learned with their classmates. They
understood the importance of protecting ecosystems. Now, every time she goes to the lake, she sees
this habitat in a different way and enjoys it even more.

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 6th grade
1. Why was Mr. Lopez Jane’s favorite teacher?

a. His classes were fun b. His classes were at c. They always had
and took place outside. the lake. a picnic.
(Skill tested: Drawing conclusions in Unit 4 BE a Reader)
2. Which is the main idea in the 2nd paragraph?

a. The class was divided b. When they finished, they c. Mr. Lopez told them
into teams and they had a picnic and then this lake was home
had to look for different went back to school. to many different
species. organisms.
(Skill tested: Drawing conclusions in Unit 4 BE a Reader)

3. The students went to the lake so…

a. they would learn about b. they could go c. they could have a

ecosystems. swimming. picnic.

(Skill tested: Cause and Effect in Unit 4 BE a Reader)

4. Which word gives us a clue that two things are being compared?

a. since b. when c. unlike

(Skill tested: Compare and Contrast in Unit 4 BE a Reader)

5. The effect of going on a field trip to study a habitat was…

a. that they could have a b. that they could learn c. that they could go
picnic. better by observing. swimming.

(Skill tested: Cause and Effect in Unit 4 BE a Reader)

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 BE a Mathematician (5 points)
Directions: Use the words below to complete the sentences.

Teacher's Instructions: Give 1/2 point for each answer.

average median data set mode middle mean

1. Measures of central tendency provide information about a data set .

2. The mean of a data set is the mathematical average sides.

3. The median of a data set is the value that is in the middle when the values
are arranged from least to greatest.

4. The mode of a data set is the value that appears most often in a data set.

(Skill tested: Measures of Central Tendency, Unit 4, BE a Mathematician)

Directions: Solve the problems without using paper or a calculator. Write the answers in
complete sentences.

Teacher's Instructions: Give two points for the answers. 1/2 point for the first two problems and 1
point for the third problem.

1. If milk costs 12.50 per liter, how much do 5 liters cost?

5 liters of milk cost $62.50.

2. A recipe needs 1 cup of chocolate chips to make 10 muffins. How many chocolate chips

would you need to make 24 muffins?

You would need 2.4 cups of chocolate chips to make 24 muffins.

3. My high school sister has 4 hours to get her homework done and she has 8 classes to do
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work for. How can she figure out how much time she should spend working for each class?
She should multiply 60 x 4 and then divide the answer by 8.

Accept any reasonable answer.

(Skill tested: Ratio and proportion, Unit 5, Unit 4, BE a Mathematician)

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 6th grade
BE Literate, BE a Writer, BE a Scientist, BE Global (24 points)
Directions: Write a how-to article. Tell people how they can survive if the moon leaves Earth's
orbit. Make sure you tell them what steps they need to take. Use as many words
as you can from the box below. Use the graphic organizer to help you write your
how-to article.

BE BE a BE
Be Literate BE a Scientist BE Global
Literate Scientist Global

humid reflex believed mass planets remote images

topographical
shelter limb prayed map constellations
maps

adapt joints celebrations mountainous the Moon globes

allergies muscles holidays Earth Spring represent

First

Second

Next
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Last

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 BE Literate, BE a Writer, BE Global, BE a Scientist (24 points)

6-5 points 4-3 points 2-3 points

- Correct use of: - Most of the time uses - There are too many
homophones, homophones, homonyms, mistakes using:
homonyms, contractions, compound homophones,
BE Literate contractions, words, prepositions, homonyms, contractions,
compound words, nouns, articles, and compound words,
prepositions, nouns, adjectives. prepositions, nouns,
articles, and adjectives. articles, and adjectives.
Skill tested Use of homophones, homonyms, contractions and compound words, Unit 4.
Use of nouns, articles, and adjectives, Unit 5.
- The purpose of the - The purpose of the article - The article does not have
how-to article is clear. can be guessed. a purpose.
- Information is in logical - Information is somehow - The article is disjointed.
order. logical but is not - Does not use the words
- Uses the words first, consistent. first, second, next and
second, next and last - Does not use the words last.
correctly. first, second, next and last - Overcoming a natural
- It includes cautions, consistently. disaster is not handled
BE a Writer
warnings or dangers - Most of the time effectively.
that the reader should punctuation and capital - There are too many
be aware of. letters are used correctly. mistakes using
- Punctuation and - Most commonly used punctuation and capital
capital letters are used words are spelled letters.
correctly. correctly. - There are many
- Most words are spelled misspelled words.
correctly.
Skill tested Writing a how-to article about surviving if one of the systems on Earth stops
working, Unit 4.
- Uses correctly the - Most of the time uses the - Does not use the
BE a Scientist
vocabulary. vocabulary correctly. vocabulary.
Skill tested Uses words from the Skeletal-Muscular system, Unit 4.
Uses universe related words, Unit 5.
- Uses correctly the - Most of the time uses the - Does not use the
BE Global vocabulary. vocabulary. vocabulary.
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Skill tested Uses religion related vocabulary words, Unit 4.

Uses universe related vocabulary words, Unit 5.

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 6th grade
General Grading Criteria
There are two ways to grade this assessment:

a) If your school only gives one grade for English, you can grade this assessment by adding up
all the points. Then look at the box and see the scale for the corresponding grade. The scale is
based on a curve and not percentages.

Number of points student has received Grade

35-39 10
30-34 9
25-29 8
20-24 7
0-19 6

b) If you give grades by subject: Oral language, Reading, Word Analysis, Writing, Mathematics,
Science, and Social Studies you can give the grade in the following manner.

Grade 10 9 8 7 6
BE a Speaker 5 points 4 points 3 points 3 points 3 point
BE a Reader 5 points 5-4 points 4 points 3-2 points 3 point
BE Literate 6 points 5-4 points 5–4 points 4-3 points 3 point
BE a Writer 6 points 5-4 points 5–4 points 4-3 points 3 point
BE a Mathematician 5 points 5-4 points 3 points 3-2 points 3 point
BE a Scientist 6 points 5 points 5–4 points 4 points 2 point
BE Global 6 points 5 points 4–3 points 3 points 2 point
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8 Teacher's notes

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