BCALA NEWS Volume 41, Issue 3

Summer 2014

33

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.K.10

Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.

Similar skills are applied to informational text, except the emphasis is on the topic, supporting details, and other features specific to informational text.

In addition to the Common Core State Standards are three appendices. Appendix A focuses on research supporting the key elements of the standards and includes a glossary of key terms. Appendix B focuses on text exemplars and sample performance tasks. Appendix C focuses on sample student writing. All three documents are in PDF and can be downloaded from the Common Core State Standards website.

As both school and public libraries prepare for the beginning of the school year, previewing the Common Core State Standards (or your state standards if your state did not adopt the Common Core), and the appendices can guide instruction and collection development. The suggested list of text exemplars (literature and nonfiction that meets the criteria of complexity, quality, and range), is a guide for reading literature and information text. The criteria are discussed in detail in Appendix B. The African American literature and information text that met the criteria and were included in the exemplar are listed below:

K-1 Poetry:

Hughes, Langston. ‘‘Poem.” Wright, Richard. ‘‘Laughing Boy.” Greenfield, Eloise. ‘‘By Myself.” Giovanni, Nikki. ‘‘Covers.”

Informational Text: Crews, Donald. Truck

Grades 4-5 Stories:

Hamilton, Virginia. M. C. Higgins, the Great Curtis, Christopher Paul. Bud, Not Buddy

Informational Text Nelson, Kadir. We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball

Grades 6-8 Stories:

Taylor, Mildred D. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Hamilton, Virginia. ‘‘The People Could Fly”

Poetry:

Hughes, Langston. ‘‘I, Too, Sing America” Giovanni, Nikki. ‘‘A Poem for My Librarian, Mrs. Long”

Informational Text: English Language Arts Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Written by Himself

Petry, Ann. Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad

Grades 9-10 Stories:

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart