The Common Core State Standards (CCSS)(National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, 2010) require teachers to provide opportunities for students to be engaged in a range of reading experiences. Teachers will need to incorporate high quality literature as a part of their literacy instruction. There are various ways to identify exceptional texts, including examining Appendix B of the English/Language Arts CCSS document. However, this list has been criticized for its outdated and/or non-culturally diverse texts (Moss, 2013). Therefore, teachers may need to rely on other "lists" of recommended texts to use in their classrooms. While the Newbery Award and the Caldecott Award are two of the most recognized awards given in literature each year, three other lists offer teachers additional recommended texts that can be used in the classroom. Each year, the Teachers' Choices, Young Adults' Choices, and Children's Choices lists provide teachers with books recommended by classroom teachers and students across the United States. To provide teachers with additional information on some of the outstanding texts from these three lists, reading specialists, literacy coaches, and classroom teachers in Missouri and Kansas were selected to read and evaluate these texts and their connection to the CCSS.
Teachers' Choices
The Teachers' Choices list con-
tains recommendations of excep-
tional books for students who
are ages 5-15. This project, facil-
itated by the International Reading Associa-tion, has been an annual event since 1989. Teachers, reading specialists, literacy coaches, and librarians throughout the United States select books for inclusion on the annual
list of recommended new books.
In this study, the 2013 Teachers' Choices were examined by a group of Missouri and Kansas reading specialists, literacy coaches, and classroom teachers. This group explored the following titles from that list:
1. Wonder by R. J. Palacio
(Recommended grade level: 5-8)
Summary:
Auggie is not like most kids his
age, though he desperately
wants to be. A severe facial de-
formity has kept him out of pub-
lic school until fifth grade. A
shifting narrator helps readers
imagine what it is like to be
Auggie or one of his friends or
family members. This story takes the reader through Auggie's first year of public school and all of his challenges. It is about being the new kid, being different, and what it means to be a friend. The story is told through multiple points of view so that Auggie does not become a completely unreliable narrator. This also allows the reader to see all sides of the issue and what causes someone to act the way they do, rather than just vilify them.
Meeting the CCSS:
In addition to discussing the issues of bullying and differences among people, teachers can use this text to teach multiple other literacy skills that the CCSS requires. It can be used to teach the skills of theme (RL.5.2; RL.6.2) and summarizing (RL.5.2) by examining the overall message of the story. Due to its unique format, both structure (RL.5.5; RL.6.5) and point of view (RL.5.6; RL.6.6) can easily be taught using this text. The discussion of the topic of bullying can be integrated with lessons on point of view and theme in that each time the point of view changes, the reader can ee that character's motivation for his or her actions.
Using Recommended Literature to Meet the Common Core:
Examining the 2013 Teachers' Choices, Young Adults' Choices, and Children's Choices Books
Lit Look
by Carolyn Carlson
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