Many Voices Literature Series
Pathways: Literature for Readers and Writers
Genre
Short Story
Poem
Autobiography
Short Story
Poem
Poem
Poem
Autobiography
Autobiographical
Narrative
Interview
Selections
Unit One: Rites of Passage
"The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant" by W.D. Wetherall (7 pages)
"Oranges" by Gary Soto (56 lines)
**from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (12 pages)
*"Through the Tunnel" by Doris Lessing (9 pages)
"First Lesson" by Phillip Booth (15 lines)
"On Turning 10" by Billy Collins (32 lines)
"Hanging Fire" by Audre Lorde (35 lines)
"Vegetarian Enough" by Annie Choi (9 pages)
from My Forbidden Face by Latifa (6 pages)
"Unfinished Business" by Elisabeth Kuibler-Ross (5 pages)
*"Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning" by Alice Walker (14
Poem
lines)
Book Preface
Introduction to Shelf Life by Gary Paulsen (4 pages)
Unit Two: Family Ties
Short Story
"The Scarlet Ibis" by James Hurst (13 pages)
Memoir
from Riding The Bus with My Sister by Rachel Simon (8 pages)
Short Story
*"A Christmas Memory" by Truman Capote (11 pages)
Poem
"Memory" by Lucille Clifton (15 lines)
Poem
"The Courage That My Mother Had" by Edna St. Vincent Millay (12 lines)
Poem
"Lineage" by Margaret Walker (12 lines)
Short Story
"My Brother's Keeper" by Jay Bennett (12 pages)
Letter
from Letters to a Young Brother by Hill Harper (4 pages)
Poem
"Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver (18 lines)
Autobiography
*"Grandfather's Blessing" by Julia Alvarez (6 pages)
Poem
"I Remember My Father's Hands" by Lisa Suhair Majaj (18 lines)
Unit Three: The Forces of Nature
Short Story
"The Interlopers" by Saki (5 pages)
Essay
from Of Wolves and Men by Barry Holstun Lopez (3 pages)
Poem
*"Birches" by Robert Frost (59 lines)
Poem
"Haiku" by Kaga no Chiyo (6 lines)
Poem
"Haiku" by Basho (6 lines)
Poem
"Spring is like a perhaps hand" by e.e. cummings (19 lines)
Nonfiction
from An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore (4 pages)
Informational Article "The Deadliest Tsunami in History?" by National Geographic (4 pages)
"Orphans Give Indian Couple Will to Live; 2004 Tsunami Killed Their Son,
Newspaper Article
Two Daughters" by Shaikh Azizur Rahman (3 pages)
Poem
"Wave" by Dale Wisely (4 lines)
Novella
The Birds by Daphne du Maurier (34 pages)
Poem
"'Hope' is a thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson (12 lines)
Essay
"Knee-Deep in Its Absence" by David Petersen (3 pages)
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Lexile
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560
1170
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Short Story
Article
Poem
Short Story
Short Story
Article
Short Story
Poem
Poem
Poem
Myth
Short Story
Biography
Poem
Poem
Poem
Poem
Article
Poem
Poem
Short Story
Short Story
Essay
Unit Four: Other Worlds
*"A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury (11 pages)
"Nolan Bushnell" by David E. Brown (4 pages)
"All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" by Richard Brautigan
(25 lines)
"Nethergrave" by Gloria Skurynski (10 pages)
"The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" by James Thurber (5 pages)
"The Mystery of China's Celtic Mummies" by Clifford Coonan (4 pages)
*"The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" by Gabriel Garcia
Marquez (6 pages)
"Beware: Do Not Read This Poem" by Ishmael Reed (48 lines)
"The Republic of Poetry" by Martin Espada (35 lines)
"The Secret" by Denise Levertov (36 lines)
Unit Five: Crossing Borders
"Bridge of the Gods" by Anonymous (4 pages)
"Borders" by Thomas King (11 pages)
"Delfino II: Diez in the Desert" by Sam Quinones (12 pages)
"Mexicans Begin Jogging" by Gary Soto (21 lines)
*"Mending Wall" by Robert Frost (45 lines)
"I Am the Land. I Wait" by Marina de Bellagente (18 lines)
"Your World" by Georgia Douglas Johnson (12 lines)
"Hip-Hop Planet" by James McBridge (7 pages)
"Ka'Ba" by Amira Baraka (22 lines)
*"Harlem II" by Langston Hughes (11 lines)
"Blues Ain't No Mockin Bird" by Toni Cade Bambera (7 pages)
*"Rules of the Game" by Amy Tan (12 pages)
"In the Canon, For All the Wrong Reasons" by Amy Tan (4 pages)
*Common Core Exemplar Author(s) **Common Core Exemplar Text and
Author
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Common Core Alignment Overview:
Variety of genres and levels, including poetry and drama; short, complex selections for Close Reading;
text dependent, higher level thinking and discussion; exemplar authors and texts
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