Rationale
As our school and district align with the latest Common Core State Standards each year, we seem to be moving away from what was once our mandatory literature and reading curriculum. We have more freedom to build our curriculum with teaching strategies such as Project Based Learning units, using our district’s reading curriculum as a resource, and Daily 5™ strategies with our Guided Reading (See Teaching Strategies section below).
I have noticed over the past two years to now of this new shift in our district to Common Core standards, we are in the midst of a slow transition allowing more teacher input in the selection of literature in the primary grades, rather than a strict directive to “be faithful to the curriculum.” And now that we have this opportunity, I want to consider ensuring best choices regarding literature. The difficulty with this freedom to choose is the time it takes a teacher to research best choices. The Yale National Initiative has allowed me the time to research this subject, and I hope the resources shared in this unit save time and direct teachers to valuable information of appropriate literature for primary grades.
Some ideas in this unit that may also help guide primary grade teachers on this literary journey, include research and information on subjects such as examining and discussing gender bias, inclusive and correct cultural representations of role models, and heroes and heroines promoting peace and justice. It can be challenging to teach young children about conflicts of inequalities and the abstract, higher-level issues regarding gender, ethnicity, class, and race. Even though these types of ideas are not usually directly addressed in detail during class, I think they could indeed be expanded upon and could invite colorful discussions and even reflections with our young scholars, especially if they are more advanced. Encouraging this higher-level thinking is an exciting prospect to bring to our young students, in turn exciting and empowering them as learners.
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