Appendix H: Changes to Required Texts

In ELA, we removed The Egg because it was no longer available for distribution and chose The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires to replace it. The book portrays a young girl who is interested in engineering machines, a break from the stereotypical portrayals of female identifying characters in traditional children’s literature. The book is also about overcoming frustration and is a good example of narrative elements, which aligns to learning goals of the Listening to Stories unit.

We removed Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation, Pocahontas, and Tikki Tikki Tembo because we realized they contained cultural stereotypes and replaced them with three more books that contributed to the Learning About America unit theme. The first book, Can We Ring the Liberty Bell?, by Martha E. H. Rustad, teaches students facts about the Liberty Bell’s symbolic importance and place in our nation’s history. It introduces students to new text structures and features characteristics of informative writing.

The second book, Fry Bread, by Kevin Noble Maillard, depicts fry bread as a symbol of post-colonial Native American history and modern Native American culture. It is a nonfiction book written in verse, and was awarded the Robert F. Sibert Medal for best information book in 2020. The book also provides opportunities to introduce figurative language and sensory details to students.

The third book, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, by former President Barack Obama is a tribute to thirteen Americans that he believes demonstrate our country’s best virtues. He explains how he sees those virtues reflected in his daughters and all of the nation’s children. The book ties closely to our Learning About America theme, reflects the diversity of the nation, and provides an opportunity to help students learn about informational text structures and writing in the informative genre.

We added two additional texts to ELA: Leo the Late Bloomer and Ada’s Violin. We added Leo the Late Bloomer, by Robert Kraus, to our Wonderful You! unit to provide students with an example of growth despite roadblocks. The book sets the stage for the Module 4 Culminating Task in which we ask students to describe how they have grown as a reader and writer over the school year.

Ada’s Violin, by Susan Hood, was moved from Dialogic Reading to the Wonderful You! unit in ELA to allow teachers to provide additional support for learning the vocabulary and content of the book. The book connects to the Wonderful You! unit because it demonstrates how students can use their talents and ingenuity to find beauty in their lives in spite of very difficult circumstances.

We also removed What Makes a Magnet? and Up in the Garden, Down in the Dirt from our Dialogic Reading lessons because they did not work with the new unit structure. We chose three new books that related to our unit themes and increased variety in the lived experiences students would encounter in texts. Good Night, Wind is a Yiddish folktale that personifies the winter wind, which connects nicely with our Fantasy Characters’ theme.

The World is Not a Rectangle is the story of Iranian born architect, Zaha Hadid. It is about imagination and perseverance in the face of criticism. The book builds world knowledge, particularly in the area of architecture, and connects well with our Making a Difference theme.

Finally, we added Dancing Hands, by Margarita Engle, a memoir about pianist Teresa Carreño, a Venezuelan refugee and child prodigy who used the gift of music to bring joy to President Lincoln during the Civil War. The book is the winner of the Pura Belpré Award for illustrations. The book builds knowledge of the world and our history, and it connects perfectly with our Making a Difference theme.

In ELA, we removed The Bald Eagle because it was no longer available. We chose Is a Bald Eagle Really Bald?, by Martha E. H. Rustad, as a replacement because the book addressed similar content and connected to the “United States Symbols” unit. The book is also written in an interesting format that facilitates learning about text features in informational text.

We removed The Pilgrims’ First Thanksgiving because it oversimplified the relationship between settlers and Native Americans. We removed A Picture Book of George Washington Carver because it reported Carver’s witness of a lynching without any explanation. We also removed The Dog Who Cried Wolf because it did not build knowledge in our new themes. 

We used the space to expand our attention to culture in our Stories from our Past unit. We replaced them with Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest, Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears, and Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra. All three books are Caldecott Award winners for illustrations that expand and enrich students’ understanding of the text.

The first two books are folktales that build knowledge of the rich history of different cultural groups and connect to the unit theme. Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest, by Gerald McDermott, is a Native American trickster tale that builds knowledge of Native American culture through an attention-grabbing story and rich illustrations. Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears, by Verna Aardema, is a pourquoi tale from West Africa that features onomatopoeia and striking illustrations that make the story come alive.

The third book, Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra, by Andrea Davis Pinkney, is a biography of famous jazz musician, Duke Ellington. The lyrical descriptive language and vibrant illustrations allow students to imagine what it feels like to listen to Ellington’s music without actually hearing it. The book also won the Coretta Scott King Award for Nonviolent Social Change.

We also added some texts to balance the total number of lesson days in ELA and Shared Reading across grade levels. We saw this as an opportunity to build on our unit themes and to expose students to a variety of books that expanded their literacy and world knowledge. We added My Brother Charlie by Holly Robinson Peete and Ryan Elizabeth Peete, a heartwarming book about a boy with autism, to the Telling Our Stories unit. The book provides opportunities for students to build literacy knowledge by examining story elements and the author’s point of view. It also helps students to better understand the social and behavioral differences associated with autism in the context of love and acceptance.

Additionally, we chose Wings, by Christopher Myers, to extend our Telling Stories unit. This compelling fantasy explores racial and individual differences and demonstrates the importance of showing empathy for others. Students build literacy knowledge by identifying the elements of fantasy writing and through comparing and contrasting the experiences of different characters.

We added two books to our Wonderful You! unit: The Rainbow Tulip and The Thing Lou Couldn’t Do. The Rainbow Tulip is a memoir written by Pat Mora about her mother’s experiences growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants. The book helps students explore the benefits of embracing your identity. The book also provides opportunities for learning key details, identifying a central theme, and discussing sensory language.

The Thing Lou Couldn’t Do demonstrates how Lou learns to persevere in the face of challenges with a little help from her friends and her imagination. The book provides an opportunity for students to think about what Lou learned about herself through her experiences in the book, which connects well to our Wonderful You! unit. It also sets the stage for the Module 3 CT, in which students examine what they have learned about themselves as readers and writers so far this year.