Take a look at what our Common Core 10th graders are reading.
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For the last few years, forty-four states and the District of Columbia have been adhering to standards developed by the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
Controversy has surrounded the adoption, from the process used to create the standards, to the rigor of the standards, to the strategy to gauge results. We’re not going to touch any of that.
Instead, we’re using this set of standards to ask, are adults today smarter than our 10th graders?
For English Language arts, the Common Core standards suggest a reading list. These are "sample texts that demonstrate the level of text complexity appropriate for the grade level and compatible with the learning demands set out in the standards."
We’re looking at it as a reading list. Have you read these? I haven't even heard of some of them. Any 10th grader in 45 states today will read these (or an equivalent):
Homer. The Odyssey
Ovid. Metamorphoses
Gogol, Nikolai. “The Nose.”
De Voltaire, F. A. M. Candide, Or The Optimist
Turgenev, Ivan. Fathers and Sons
Henry, O. “The Gift of the Magi.”
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath
Bradbury, Ray. Fahrenheit 451
Olsen, Tillie. “I Stand Here Ironing.”
Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart
Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird
Shaara, Michael. The Killer Angels
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club
Álvarez, Julia. In the Time of the Butterflies
Zusak, Marcus. The Book Thief
Sophocles. Oedipus Rex
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth
Ibsen, Henrik. A Doll’s House
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie
Ionesco, Eugene. Rhinoceros
Fugard, Athol. “Master Harold”…and the boys
Shakespeare, William. “Sonnet 73.”
Donne, John. “Song.”
Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Ozymandias.”
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Raven.”
Dickinson, Emily. “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark.”
Houseman, A. E. “Loveliest of Trees.”
Johnson, James Weldon. “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
Cullen, Countee. “Yet Do I Marvel.”
Auden, Wystan Hugh. ”Musée des Beaux Arts.”
Walker, Alice. “Women.”
Baca, Jimmy Santiago. “I Am Offering This Poem to You.”
Henry, Patrick. “Speech to the Second Virginia Convention.”
Washington, George. “Farewell Address.”
Lincoln, Abraham. “Gettysburg Address.”
Lincoln, Abraham. “Second Inaugural Address.”
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. “State of the Union Address.”
Hand, Learned. “I Am an American Day Address.”
Smith, Margaret Chase. “Remarks to the Senate in Support of a Declaration of Conscience.”
King, Jr., Martin Luther. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
King, Jr., Martin Luther. “I Have a Dream: Address Delivered at the
March on Washington, D.C., for Civil Rights on August 28, 1963.”
Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Wiesel, Elie. “Hope, Despair and Memory.”
Reagan, Ronald. “Address to Students at Moscow State University.”
Quindlen, Anna. “A Quilt of a Country.”
To “get up to speed” so to speak, Sneaky Smart is tailoring lessons throughout the next 12 weeks on the Common Core English and Math standards. These will be mixed in with the usual science, geography, and history lessons.
Enjoy!
-Paul, from SneakySmart
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