Literature and informational text—both literary nonfiction and nonfiction—comprise the content of
what students in grades six through eight 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 curriculum 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 carefully plan 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 2010a: Appendix B). Listed below are examples of literary texts to illustrate the
complexity, quality, and range of literature in grades six through eight:
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- “I, Too [, Sing America]” by Langston Hughes
- Sorry, Wrong Number by Louise Fletcher
- “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll
- Dragonwings by Laurence Yep
- The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
- “Eleven” by Sandra Cisneros
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- “Oranges” by Gary Soto
Although the following reading standards have been discussed in the section on meaning making,
the standards represent content unique to literature new to grades six through eight:
- Describing how a plot unfolds (RL.6.3), analyzing how particular elements of a story interact,
(RL.7.3) and analyzing how specific lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the
action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision (RL.8.3) - Determining the connotative meanings of words and phrases (RL.6–8.4); analyzing the impact
of rhymes and other repetitions of sounds (e.g., alliteration) on a specific verse or stanza of a
poem or section of a story or drama (RL.7.4); and analyzing the impact of specific word choice
on meaning and tone (including analogies or allusions to other texts) (RL.8.4) - Analyzing how a drama’s or poem’s form of structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its
meaning (RL.7.5); comparing and contrasting the structure of two or more texts (RL.8.5) - Comparing and contrasting the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or
viewing its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version (RL.6–7.7) - Comparing and contrasting a fictional portrayal of a time, place, or character and a historical
account of the same period (RL.7.9) and analyzing how a modern work of fiction draws on
themes, patterns of events, or character types from myths, traditional stories, or religious works
such as the Bible (RL.8.9)
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.534 | Chapter 6 Grades 6 to 8