Info Texts on Display

In my inspection of the Common Core Standards, I'm totally stuck on the Appendix B exemplars and the emphasis on informational texts. As a result, I'm ignoring all the wonderful ways in which the Common Core align with AASL's Standards for the 21st Century Learner. Check out a standards crosswalk here. Common Core IS good news for librarians!!

My initial reason for delving into the Common Core is really silly -- I just wanted to create a book display. I was hoping to give teachers examples and ideas of great high-interest non-fiction. Our English teachers were depressed by the idea of "informational texts," so I wanted to display some of the MANY great titles that I thought fell into the category in an attempt to cheer them up. Here's a little peak at my display:
Above: Informational texts display with "Common Core" Apples
Above: Informational texts display with high interest non-fiction

Now that I've spent loads of time with the Standards, do I still think these books are what the Common Core had in mind? Hummm...not so sure. Though, if I had my way, teachers and students would be selecting from these examples, rather than primary source documents written by dead, white men (minus the token Harriet Tubman biography) as suggested in the text exemplars.

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