Core Values Literature Connection
Middle School
Quarter 2
The Core Values Literature Connection Guide will assist teachers in infusing Miami-Dade County Public
Schools’ Core Values throughout the ELA curriculum. The document is aligned to the District Pacing
Guides for the 2015-2016 school year. It is designed to help teachers make connections between literature
and the District’s Core Values.
Grade 6
Week/Dates
11
12-13
14
15-16
17-18
Text
Woodsong” (Gary
Paulsen) , p. 110
(memoir);
“The Chenoo”
(Joseph and Jane
Bruchac), p. 676
(Native American
legend); “
. “The First
Emperor” (Daniel
Cohen) , p. 864
(book excerpt);
. “The Red
Guards” from Red
Scarf Girl (Ji-li
Jiang), p. 266
(memoir);
Reader’s
Workshop:
Core Value
Kindness/Responsibility
Kindness
Connection
In this story, Gary Paulsen is given his first dog pack,
except he doesn't know how to lead them. But the
dogs need to go out. In the end, he takes them out.
The dogs need to be took out every day, and Gary
Paulsen isn't that familiar with the woods. He has
been there before, but the only thing he did was hunt.
The dogs teach him about the woods, and he ends up
knowing more about them than ever. His actions are
responsible and his kindness is evident with how he
treats the dogs and respects the forest.
This is a story about a girl and her brothers encounter
a mean and heartless Chenoo. It is the story of how
the kindness of the girl melted the heart of the savage
Chenoo.
Ch’in Shih Huang Ti was the first emperor of China.
He had a great fear of his own death. He kept
searching for a secret that would let him live forever.
Even though this story has a morose tone, the
Pursuit of Excellence
Emperor continued a pursuit of excellence in that he
created a tomb that was nothing anyone had ever
seen!
Red Scarf Girl is an astounding memoir of a girl, Ji-Li
Jiang, and her life during the Cultural Revolution in
China. Throughout this book, it reveals her struggles
to find her identity, and her dilemmas that help her
grow as a person. This book helps grasp some of the
Citizenship/Fairness/Respect cultural differences that are found between China and
America. Respect is shown throughout in regards to
the treatment of cultural differences along with
fairness and respect for those differences.
Honesty
This myth is about the power of love and how it
shaped the characters in the story. Throughout the
“Myths, Legends,
and Tales”, p.
640; “The Story of
Ceres and
Proserpina” (Mary
Osborne), p. 646
(Roman myth)
19-20
Novel Study Code
Talker: A Novel
About the Navajo
Marines in World
War II (Joseph
Bruchac)
story the mother’s honesty provokes change
throughout.
Integrity
In this novel, a man is telling his grandchildren how
he came to receive several medals for his service in
World War II. The grandfather, Ned Begay, was born
on Navajo land, but attended a boarding school in
order to learn English. Throughout his childhood Ned
was told by the white man that using his sacred
language was wrong. However, when World War II
broke out, Ned learned that the government was
recruiting Navajo men to use their language as a
code the enemy could not decipher. Ned quickly
chose to join up and play his part. Ned’s integrity is
demonstrated throughout.
Grade 7
Week/Dates
Text
11
“Annabel Lee”
(Edgar Allan Poe)
p. 567 (poetry)
12-13
“The Delight Song
of TsoaiTalee” (M.
ScottMomaday),
p.600 (poetry)
“Four Skinny
Trees” (Sandra
Cisneros), p.604
(vignette)
14
“It Was a Long
Time Before”
(Leslie Marmon
Silko) & “Abuelito
Who” (Sandra
Core Value
Respect
Citizenship/Respect
Respect/Integrity/Kindness
Connection
This story is a love story. Our speaker wants us to
know that his love for Annabel Lee wasn't just a
teenage crush. A little thing like death isn't going to
separate him from Annabel Lee. Not even angels or
devils could do that. He still sees her everywhere, in
his dreams and in the stars. In fact he still loves her
so much (here's where it gets really weird) that he
goes and lies down with her in her tomb every night.
This the speaker demonstrates great respect for
Annabel Lee’s tomb.
This is a poem about traditions. The poem expresses
the Indian spirit and its spiritual connection to the
natural world. The speaker demonstrates the respect
for their culture and way of life and the “citizenship”
and devotion to that culture.
Between you, your parents, and your grandparents,
the generations of your family may span a hundred
years or more. As you move into the future, what will
you take with you from the past? What will you take
with you from the present? In the poems “It Was a
Long
15-16
17-18
19-20
Cisneros), p.280
(poetry)
. “The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer”
(Mark Twain)supplemental text
EXEMPLAR
LESSON (Novel
Excerpt)
“Rikki-tikki-tavi”
(Rudyard Kipling),
p.74 (short story)
Mixed Media:
Integrating 21st
Century Literacies
NBC Learn
Resources for
Native American
Heritage Month
Time Before” and “Abuelito Who,” memories and
more connect the generations
Fairness
Fairness/Respect
Teacher Choice Based on
Content Selected
One of the overarching themes of this excerpt is
about Tom’s hopes and dreams. Sometimes his
mischievous approach helps him seek those dreams
but in the end he gets punished. Fairness is the
appropriate value.
This story is about good vs. evil, how the mongoose
beat out the Cobra to save his family.
NBC Learns American Indian Heritage Collection
contains more than 400 video and multimedia
resources on a full range of Native American cultural,
political and economic history and influence, from the
Pre-Columbian era to the 21st Century.
Grade 8
Week/Dates
11-12
13
14-15
Text
. “The Tell-Tale
Heart”
(Edgar Allan Poe),
p. 76- (short
story)
Song of Hiawatha
(Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow) p. 640
(poetry)
“Educating Sons”
p.982
(speech),(Chief
Canasatego), &
“The First
Americans” (Letter
by the Grand
Council Fire of
American Indians),
p. 982
Core Value
Lack of Kindness/Lack of
Integrity
Respect
Connection
A nameless person explains that he is and was
extremely nervous, but is not and was not insane.
Rather, the narrator has a "disease" which makes all
his senses, especially his hearing, very sensitive. To
prove that he isn't insane, the narrator shares an
event from his past. This story is about the cover up
of a death.
This is a poem that is a sympathetic portrait of many
Native American tribes, and especially to disclose
their profound relationship with the natural world.
This is a speech about the importance of the Native
Americans’ culture and history and way of life and
how it is useful knowledge and this emphasized the
importance of deciding what should be taught.
Respect/Fairness/Integrity
16-18
19-20
“Flowers for
Algernon”
(Daniel Keyes), p.
188 (short story)
& from Charly
(screenplay by
Stirling Silliphant),
p. 216
“The Lady, or the
Tiger”
(Frank R.
Stockton), p. 682
(short story)
Integrity/Honesty
Lack of
Respect/Integrity/Fairness
Charlie is a 32-year-old developmentally disabled
man who has the opportunity to undergo a surgical
procedure that will dramatically increase his mental
capabilities. This procedure had already been
performed on a laboratory mouse, Algernon, with
remarkable results. Charlie will be the first human
subject. Due to the surgery he becomes a genius and
struggles with his past and his present.
In “the very olden time,” a half-barbaric king, who was
also half-civilized, because of the influence of his
distant Latin neighbors, conceived a way of exercising
justice on offenders against his rule. He placed his
suspect in a Roman-like arena and had him choose to
open one of either of two doors that would open into
the arena. Behind one of the identical doors lurked a
ferocious tiger that would leap out and devour the
accused; behind the other door awaited a lovely maid
who would, if her door was the one opened, come
forth and be married at once to the opener. (It
mattered not that the man may be married or
otherwise committed, for the whimsical king would
have his justice.) The fate was to be decided by
chance alone, and no one who knew of the placement
behind the doors was allowed to inform him which to
elect.