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One of the most controversial aspects of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/ Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects is its Appendix ? (www.core standards. org/assets/Appendix_B .pdf), which contains the Common Core text exemplars.
According to Publishers Weekly, Appendix ? has been a "magnet for criticism" (Springen, 2012, p. 1). The exemplars represent a list of books (and other materials) arranged in grade-level bands for classroom use. According to Appendix ?, "The text samples primarily serve to exemplify the level of complexity and quality that the Stan- dards require all students in a given grade band to engage with. Additionally, they are suggestive of the breadth of texts that students should encoun- ter in the text types required by the Standards. The choices should serve as useful guideposts in helping educators select texts of similar complex- ity, quality, and range for their own classrooms. They expressly do not represent a partial or com- plete reading list" (p. 2).
Despite the clear wording that these books are not a recommended reading list, specula- tion abounds about the role the text exemplars will play in schools and classrooms. While the Standards mention a variety of text types in the grade-specific standards for K-12, they specify only a few required texts, including a Shakespear- ean play, a play by an American dramatist, and several historical founding documents. In spite of this, many librarians, teachers, and literacy experts fear that the text exemplars will become a new canon for literacy instruction, a kind of national reading list. As librarian Lindsay Cesari (2011) expressed in her blog: "How many schools will ignore that statement and use the exemplars (maybe due to lack of time?) as a foundation for their curriculum. It's scary."
Many districts have rushed to buy these ti- tles, sometimes assuming these books may form the basis for test items that will ultimately appear on national assessments. According to Neumann (2012), "Given the way illustrative examples in Standards easily become part of the canon, it seems likely that the exemplars in the Com- mon Core will quickly become fundamental to instruction, because teachers will expect them to appear on the exam" (p. 8). Publishers are already using the books as...