Chapter 3: Locating Coyote: Reorienting the Literacy Curriculum to Empower Indigenous Students and Educators

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS, 2010) provides a renewed emphasis on exposing students to a variety of genres and writing for authentic purposes. For example, the range of texts with which students in grades K–5 are required to engage include informational texts, literary, nonfiction, historical, scientific, technical texts, realistic fiction, fables, and poetry. For writing, students are expected to write in a variety of genres from informative/explanatory texts, narratives to folktales and opinions while writing for an appropriate purpose and audience. Additionally, the Speaking and Listening CCSS standards require students to engage in a range of collaborative discussions to support comprehension and collaboration (See CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.K.1.b; 1.1.b; .2.2, 3.3, 4.1, 5.1). Because a narrow view of literacy as solely determined by a series of basic skills has dominated educational discourse across the nation since the passing of No Child Left Behind (2002), scholars highlight the ways in which the CCSS provides space in the literacy curriculum to engage students in higher order thinking skills and motivating literacy experiences (Billings & Roberts, 2013; Hiebert & Pearson, 2013).