Literature and informational text—both literary nonfiction
and nonfiction—comprise the content of what students in
grades nine through twelve read, analyze, and talk and write
about. Teacher teams, in collaboration with their schools and
districts, need to identify the literature and informational
texts for the curricula at each grade, as well as the
opportunities for writing, discussing, presenting, researching,
and language development based on the CA CCSS for ELA
and the CA ELD Standards. Maintaining the breadth and
variety of literary and informational texts within and across
grades is key; finding ways to incorporate nonfiction texts
in units of study, including the creative pairing of literary
and informational texts, is also important. Teachers and
curriculum planners need to plan carefully and select instructional materials to meet the needs of all
students and achieve the CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy.
Several text exemplars, organized by grade-level spans, can be found in Appendix B of the CCSS
for ELA/Literacy (NGA/CCSSO 2010b). The following examples of literary texts that illustrate the
complexity, quality, and range of literature in grades nine through twelve:
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
- A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
- The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare
- The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
- The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
- Death and the King’s Horseman: A Play by Soyinka Wole
- “On Being Brought From Africa to America” by Phyllis Wheatley
Although the following reading standards have been discussed in the section on meaning making,
the standards represent content unique to literature new to grades nine through twelve: - Analyzing how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop
over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the
theme (RL.9–10.3); analyzing the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and
relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how
the characters/archetypes are introduced and developed) (RL.11–12.3) - Analyzing the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the
language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone) (RL.9–10.4);
analyzing words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or
beautiful (including Shakespeare as well as other authors) (RL.11–12.4) - Analyzing how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within
it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as
mystery, tension, or surprise (RL.9–10.5); analyzing how an author’s choices concerning how
to structure a text (e.g., where to begin or end a story, whether to provide comedic or tragic
resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning and aesthetic impact (RL.11–12.5)
Maintaining the breadth
and variety of literary and
informational texts within and
across grades is key; finding
ways to incorporate nonfiction
texts in units of study, including
the creative pairing of literary
and informational texts, is also
important.Grades 9 to 12 Chapter 7 | 703