This is great to hear! By making the readings more realistic, students are able to more easily connect what they are reading to what is happening in their own life. I feel that this is especially useful to discuss issues that they may be unfamiliar with discussing.

I love this idea! Representation in literature is just as important as the content itself. Traditional fairy tales feature very few people of color, whether it be male or female. By updating these stories with more realistic fiction, people of all genders and ethnicities have the opportunity to be represented.

Even though fairy tales and other well-known stories have important themes and can aid in building the literacy skills of children, I don't think that there is anything wrong with updating stories so that they are more relevant to students lives today.

This is what I fear most when teaching in a classroom. It is important to teach content that is engaging and relevant to students.

I feel that historical fiction and biographies can be more beneficial in helping students remember information, since it is told more in the way of a story, rather than just a parade of facts.

Being able to distinguish fact from opinion is a great skill to learn though reading biographies, as this is a skill that is seen in the Common Core.

I think that this is an important thing to point out. In Social Studies readings are more often than not just composed of strings of facts. Because of this, some information gets lost. I feel that fictionalized readings and biographies can give students a deeper understanding because they provide details that students may not get from regular textbooks.

This is an issue that I would not have expected to come up a classroom, but I suppose it is a fair point. Even though I may not understand it, as a teacher it is important that I respect the views of my students, and try to take them into consideration when planning what to teach.

I think that it is really great that the students are able to draw parallels from their fantasy books to issues that they are facing in their own lives.

I think this just shows how imperative fantasy literature can be to a classroom-it can get students to learn and discuss issues without even knowing they're doing it.

This is a really interesting thought! I agree with this, some times it is easier to talk about difficult or uncomfortable topics when they are put in more abstract or unfamiliar territories.

I've never really considered this though before, but I believe that it is true. Science fiction and fantasy are for some reason thought of as genres more geared towards boys, but for what reason?

It never occurred to me before that stories like "Charlotte's Web" are technically fantasy books. I remember reading it as a class in first grade and really enjoying it. I feel like there is a certain stigma against teaching fantasy books, but if there was a more open mind about how students could benefit from these types of stories, they may be more likely to be included in classrooms.

Addressing the archetypes in the story will most likely be very helpful for students who are visiting this genre for the first time! And re-visiting it later will really help solidify the information.

I agree with this statement completely! To respect other cultures, and to become a globally aware citizen we must first educate ourselves. Learning about other cultures usually helps us learn about our own as well.

I like the idea of approaching mythology in the sense of relating it to other cultures, folktales, and legends. Teaching it in such a way could really change the stigma of mythology in schools.

I'm glad that this article points this out, because I do not know a lot about mythology, and would probably just think of it in relation to Greek tales, not knowing that it is such a vast and varied genre.

Fables can be a great genre to teach children because they all become involved in the development of the story, and it can be fun for them to try and guess the moral of the story.

I love the idea of reading both the original fable, and the modernized version. This will allow the students to see the similarities of the story, and possibly give students ideas on how to write their own fables.

I think it was interesting that the teacher began the lesson with explaining what fables were and how each story had a moral lesson. I think that it could also be interesting to begin this lesson without explaining this to the students, and see if they were able to identify that on their own.

These are all important skills for students to learn as they will all be relevant in other reading they do as they get older and move on to higher learning. I also think that having all of these topics in one big book is probably very helpful for teachers.

I like the idea that students will work together to understand poetry. As someone who did struggle with poetry, it can be frustrating to work on it by yourself, because it can be difficult to interpret and understand. By reading the poems together as a class, students will be more likely to share ideas with each other and perhaps understand it better and develop more of an interest in poetry.

I like the idea that teachers will be giving feedback to student's work. I feel that often times students are encouraged to write as much as they can, but I can understand that writing so much without receiving any feedback or validation can be a bit frusturating.

I agree with this statement. I think that the reason that so many students struggle and dislike poetry is because there is a certain neglect of it in the classroom. Personally, I feel like that is what happened to me.

I like how the teacher is presenting this phonics lesson in such a concrete way. I also like how not only is she showing that apple starts with A, but she is reenforcing the fact that it is a short A sound.

This is a great way to teach phonics. Not only is the teacher showing this in a visual way, but she is also explaining WHY she is teaching this.

Phonetics instruction is something that I think is very important for children to learn. Phonics are the building blocks of reading and should be taught and engrained in the minds of students so that they can master the art of reading.

This is a highly important skill that will be incredibly beneficial to students when reading, and will also help them become better writers. This will also be helpful for when they are taking standardized tests.

I think it is important that "prompting and support" is still recommended at this stage because poetry and prose is something that can be more complicated to children, and without prompting and support they may become discouraged and not want to continue working with poetry and prose.

I am glad that this is included in the common core standards because I think that this is a skill that will be very beneficial to students as they grow older. This skill allows them to find the similar aspects of a story, even though everything may not be the same. This is a skill that students could carry with them all the way up to adulthood, where they could use it to interpret the news and current events.

I think that it is important that the "key ideas and details" slowly build up as students get older. I think that the biggest thing here in this that students are able to ask and answer questions about the key details, because it shows that the students have full comprehension of the story. On the other hand, if students are not able to answer these questions, it is clear that they do not have full comprehension, and may need some scaffolding from the teacher to understand the story better.

This just shows how many distractions can arise when doing group work. In a situation like this, groups will have to be closely monitored and the teacher may need to explain to them that working in groups is a special treat, and if the children cannot show that they are able to handle working together in small groups, they will just have to sit at their desks with pencils and papers instead of doing the "fun" activity.

I agree with this idea, and hope that this is something I can implement in my classroom once I become a teacher. I feel as though the less traditional (traditional being strictly paper and pencil based learning) the activities are, the more excited the students get to participate, and the more effective the lessons are overall.

Group work can be a really effective way to get students to share ideas with each other, but the biggest problem is how quickly and easily students can get distracted. In this situation, not only were the students getting off task, but some of the boys were also bullying another boy. If this is something that occurs often in a classroom, the teacher may need to take a little extra time to set up the groups before the lesson starts, so they can make sure everyone in the group works well together.

I like this lesson because it really allows students to take a "deep dive" into their work and focusing on the details. I feel as if this lesson would appeal to a majority of students, because it is a creative lesson that lets students use a different part of their brain. This could also encourage them to think outside of the box for future projects and assignments.

Children listening to each other's work is a great tool to utilize, as it helps the reader with their public speaking, and with understanding their own work, and to the children who are listening, because it may give them ideas on how to improve or change their writing as well.

I like the idea that students can choose what they want to write about (within reason). For some students who struggle with finding a topic to write about, they may want to continue with the same topic over a span of a few lessons. This could allow students to stay motivated as well, especially if they were working on a narrative or story in which they could really see their progress over time.

A teacher providing some guidance to their student's while they're working on a task is important. Sometimes the students may not need a reiteration of what they are to be doing, but certain groups of kids may need a spring board of possible writing topics.

Representation is so important! Personally I think it is unrealistic and unfair that we expect children to read books and hold them to standards that do not reflect them in any way.

This brings up an excellent point. The Common Core Standards have to excuse as to why they are not including more multicultural titles, as based on CELL's findings, there are plenty of them that are appropriate for children in schools to read. It is disturbing to me that the Common Core has not yet responded to CELL's presentation, especially since this change could impact so many children in so many ways.

Because the Common Core Standards have been adapted (pretty much) nationwide, shouldn't the readings in them reflect our country as a whole nation, 50% of which is African American, Hispanic, American Indian, or Asian American? It simply is foolish that standards that are supposed to impact everyone do not reflect everyone. Also, not only does this hinder the minority students, but white students are not going to be able to receive a proper multi-cultural education if they are only told to read books by and about white people.

I do think that the Common Core places too much stress on non-fiction, and not enough on literature. I think that nourishing a child's love and exposure to literature is important, because that may cause them to harness a love for reading that they carry with them through the rest of their life. If they are forced to only read non-fiction books, it is possible that this might actually turn them away for reading for fun.

I like this point a lot, because I feel that often times children know exactly who they are, but are not taken seriously by their parents/community/society. It is important that we listen to children in many cases, but especially when it comes to their gender identity and how they see themselves.

I fully believe that appropriate cultural tools are important for children to be able to interrogate gender, but the key here is that there needs to be appropriate cultural tools at their disposal. If there is little to no LGBT or non-binary gender characters/narratives, how is anyone supposed to access them? Representation is incredibly important, especially for children.

I think that it is a good thing that society is beginning to discard this thinking, and (although it may be slow) become more progressive in the belief that gender is not just a two-category, assigned from birth system.

I think the idea about "opening up spaces" for children (and adults) to explore their gender and sexuality is important. I feel that there is a great disparity in the amount of LGBT narratives in literature, and it is important that people who identify as such are able to be represented in literature.

An example of this could be "A Series of Unfortunate Events" by Lemony Snicket. Not only is the story told in a slightly off-kilter way, but it has also been adapted into a stage version, maybe the class could read the book and then work on translating it into a drama that they could perform. The series also has aspects of poetry in it, which the 5th graders could work on analyzing and comprehending.

This is a skill because it shows that students are able to recognize similarities and differences in a work, and also are able to interpret different mediums for the same work.

This could be considered both a skill, and an exemplar. 5th grade students are now able to use direct quotes from texts to support their statements, which show that not only would they be able to present an abstract argument about a narrative piece, but also may be ready to move on to writing research pieces based on non-fiction texts.

I would consider this a skill. When students are able to read multiple versions of the same story and identify that although parts are different, the underlying plot and message is the same, it shows that they are ready to move on to more complex books. It also shows that they are able to use the text as evidence to an argument that they may have.

I would consider this knowledge because children are being asked to explore something that they don't know, and are reaching an answer by drawing conclusions and making educated guesses themselves (with assistance). I think that this is an important part of knowledge because not only will asking and answering questions about words they are unfamiliar with help them understand the text they are reading more, but it will also help improve their vocabulary overall.

This would be considered a skill because recounting and retelling a story is something that must be learned and crafted over time, mostly done through practice. I find it interesting that children make such a leap from going from "retelling familiar stories (with prompting" to mastering a far more abstract concept of retelling stories and fables from other cultures, while touching on their moral or message, just two years later.