NCTE Exemplar Texts for Secondary Reading

About Common Core State Standards (CCSS)

Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts and Literacy were released in 2010 and are formally adopted (in whole or in part) by 41 US states, the District of Columbia, four US territories, and the Department of Defense Education Activity. Each state's Department of Education ultimately controls how the standards translate into classroom practice — including specific text selections — so a Common Core-aligned reading list is best understood as a national framework adapted at the state, then district, then individual-school level.

The standards organize ELA expectations into ten anchor strands for Reading (Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, Range of Reading) and matching strands for Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language. Reading expectations grow in complexity grade by grade rather than swapping textbooks each year. The result: students re-encounter major themes — coming-of-age, social conflict, identity, civic responsibility — through increasingly demanding texts.

Common Core does not publish a single mandated book list. Instead, Appendix B of the standards provides 'text exemplars': sample titles illustrating the kind of complexity and theme appropriate at each grade band (K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-10, 11-CCR). Texts on this page that cite Common Core do so via Appendix B inclusion or via a state's CCSS implementation guide.

External references: Common Core ELA Standards (corestandards.org) · Appendix B — Text Exemplars

How to use this NCTE Exemplar Texts for Secondary Reading reading list

The book list above represents titles ReadingList has confirmed as referenced by NCTE Exemplar Texts for Secondary Reading— either through the framework’s own published documentation, through audited classroom syllabi citing the framework, or through US state and district curriculum guides that map their reading expectations to it. Each book’s detail page links the specific primary source so parents, teachers, and students can verify the citation and locate the official document.

Reading lists evolve. NCTE Exemplar Texts for Secondary Reading citations on ReadingList are reviewed on a rolling basis as primary sources publish updates. If you teach or learn under this framework and a title on this page is no longer used (or you know of one that should appear), the ReadingList methodology page explains how to submit a correction with a citation.