Common Core Canon vs Literary Canon: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What Teachers Can Do About It

Abstract

The Common Core Canon is both a blessing and a curse to teachers across the nation, who are adapting to the new curriculum that the Common Core has brought to the forefront. These teachers are dealing with multiple moving pieces that are not easy to cope with, including novels that do not fit the classes to which they are assigned, skills that are challenging to teach without student engagement, and new standards to keep track of. As such, teachers have formed strong opinions about these new challenges and successes, but there are not many venues for teachers to get to express their opinions. For this thesis, I took the opportunity to go to these teachers and ask for their opinions. These teachers chose to remain anonymous to avoid any issues that may arise from their opinions, but they gave unguarded answers which helps the reader to understand how teachers truly feel about the Common Core. I chose to connect my opinions and experiences to their quotes, so that I could further understand the challenges that teachers faced. It allowed me to see how teachers look at these challenges, and how I will be able to rise to meet them in my future as a teacher. Creating the unit plan also allowed me to take these opinions and create an example that proves that teacher choice can work.