English Language Arts

English Language Arts (ELA)

The CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy are organized around a number of key design considerations. The College and Career Readiness anchor standards constitute the backbone of the standards and define the general, cross-disciplinary literacy expectations for students in preparation for college and the workforce. The standards are divided into strands: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language. Connected to these design considerations is the interdisciplinary expectation that the development of each student’s literacy skills is a shared responsibility—English language arts teachers collaborating with teachers of other academic content subjects for an integrated model of literacy across the curriculum.

The standards establish what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century. Students learn to closely read and analyze critical works of literature and an array of nonfiction text in an exploding print and digital world. They use research and technology to sift through the staggering amount of information available and engage in collaborative conversations, sharing and reforming viewpoints through a variety of written and speaking applications. Teachers, schools, districts, and county offices of education are encouraged to use these standards to design specific curricular and instructional strategies that best deliver the content to their students.

The CA CCSS for ELA/Literacy help build creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, collaboration, and communication. They set another bold precedent to improve the academic achievement of California’s students. The standards develop the foundation for creative and purposeful expression in language-fulfilling California’s vision that all students graduate from our public school system as lifelong learners and have the skills and knowledge necessary to be ready to assume their position in our global economy (CDE, 2013).

English Language Arts (ELA) and Literacy Standards

https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1593066229/losalorg/btb1kxjqf2qhlxf1yfvh/finalelaccssstandards.pdf

Textbook Adoptions

Elementary: Grades TK-5

In the Spring of 2018, the Board of Education approved the selection of McGraw Hill Education’s “Wonders” for the TK-5 English Language Arts and English Language Development textbook adoption.

Intermediate: Grades 6-8

In the 2017-18 school year, the District implemented McGraw Hill Education's Study Sync for the English Language Arts curriculum in grades 6-8.

Supplemental Texts by Grade

Teachers have some choice in selecting supplemental books to read with their classes and taking into account what is outlined in our Supplemental Materials Policy when making selections. These books are used to aid in instruction of grade-level English Language Arts standards. The lists below contain the titles of many of the supplemental texts that are commonly read by classes in PVPUSD. This is not an all-inclusive list so additional titles may be read.

Elementary

3^rd grade	4^th grade	5^th grade
Peter Pan	Island of the Blue Dolphins	Blood on the River
Charlotte’s Web	Esperanza Rising	Number the Stars
Mr. Popper’s Penguins	By the Great Horn Spoon	Sign of the Beaver
The One and Only Ivan	The Tale of Desperaux	Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Fourth Grade Rats	My Side of the Mountain
The Hundred Dresses	Fish	In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson
James and the Giant Peach	Two Years Before the Mast	Night of the Twisters
Little House in the Big Woods	Flora and Ulysses	Pedro’s Journal
Sarah, Plain and Tall	The Cricket in Time Square	Ben and Me
The Courage of Sarah Noble	Love that Dog	Gathering of Days
Who Am I? (series of biography books)	Hate that Cat	Wood Runner
Time for Kids (series of inventor biography books)		The Witch of Blackbird Pond
		Out of My Mind
		Wonder
		Tuck Everlasting
		Holes
		Maniac Magee
		The Wild Robot

Intermediate –

6^th grade	7^th grade	8^th grade
Hatchet	Hobbit	Monster
Freedom Walkers	The Giver	The Book Thief
Wednesday Wars	Outsiders	Anne Frank
When You Reach Me	Call of the Wild	Frederick Douglas
Lightening Thief	Hunger Games	Tom Sawyer
Roll of Thunder	Harriet Tubman	A Night to Remember
Wrinkle in Time		Across Five Aprils
Rosa Parks		A Midsummer Night’s Dream

High School –

Romeo and Juliet	Julius Ceaser	Hamlet
Animal Farm	Life of Pi	Much Ado
House on Mango Street	One Day in the Life of Ivan D	Taming of the Shrew
Martian Chronicles	The Importance of Being Earnest	The Kite Runner
Odyssey or Mythology	Twelfth Night	Shadow of the Wind
Of Mice and Men	Women of the Silk	Ordinary People
White Fang	The Great Gatsby	Slaughterhouse Five
Maus I, II	Billy Budd	Dear and Loathing
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime	Caine Mutiny	All the Pretty Horses
Speak	The Crucible	Beowulf
Fahrenheit 451	Fences	Boys in the Boat
To Kill a Mockingbird	Grapes of Wrath	Black Boy
All Quiet on the Western Front	Huckleberry Finn	Catch-22
Iliad	Into the Wild	Cyrano de Bergerac
House on Mango	The Old Man and the Sea	Kitchen God’s Wide
MacBeth	Scarlet Letter	Lords of Discipline
Just Mercy	A Street Car Named Desire	Metamorphosis
Lord of the Flies	Death of a Salesman	Rhinoceros
The Glass Castle	Unbroken	Nickeled and Dimed
1984	Tortilla Curtain	ThebanPlays
A Man for all Seasons	Where you Go in Not Who You Will Be	The Color Purple
A Separate Peace	Their Eyes Were Watching	The Stranger
Brave New World	God	The Road
Catcher in the Rye	The Awakening	The Good Thief
Frankenstein	The Bell Jar	The Art of Fielding
I am the Clay	La Vida Loca	The Color of Water
Jane Eyre	On the Road	Outliers
	Short Stories by Twain