Interpretations Differ on Common Core's Nonfiction Rule

Kathy Powers discusses the book Assassin with her 5th graders at Carl Stuart Middle School in Conway, Ark. She uses the historical novel along with the nonfiction book Chasing Lincoln's Killer and a Walt Whitman poem in a unit about the president's assassination.

—Stephen B. Thornton for Education Week

As the common core is brought to life in classrooms this year, some English/language arts teachers are finding themselves caught in a swirl of debate about whether the new standards require them to cut back on prized pieces of the literary canon to make room for nonfiction.

A recent spate of news reports has ignited a new wave of anxiety about the Common Core State Standards' emphasis on "informational text." Prominent coverage has been given by mainstream news organizations to a handful of teachers' complaints that they have had to drop cherished works of literature from their curricula. "Common Core Sparks War of Words," proclaimed a front-page headline in The Washington Post. "Catcher in the Rye Dropped From US School Curriculum," said one in London's Telegraph.

Frustrated with what they consider distortions, the common core's staunchest advocates have tried to correct the re..., arguing that great works of fiction are a bulwark of the standards.

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