9th ELA

Canyons School District

Instructional Supports Department

Novel Approval Tools & Resources

Novels should be used as needed to teach the ELA reading standards. To ensure mastery of the standards, text-complexity should be the basis for novel choice. Each feeder system will determine which materials best support the teaching of the ELA core and the curriculum maps for their system. To ensure local control, texts will be placed on the approved list at the decision of the feeder system’s representatives.

Critical Actions for Educators ---------------------------- ● Determine need for use of novel to support mastery of the standards ● Read and evaluate entirety of novel for appropriate use ● Access approved novel database at https://novels.canyo nsdistrict.org/#/logi n ● If novel already appears on school’s approved list, proceed planning novel use in alignment with the standards for novel use ● If novel does not appear on list, submit comprehensive rationale and await approval ● Rationale examples and other resources

Criteria for novel approval:

● Quantitative text complexity ● Qualitative text complexity ● Task and reader complexity ● Curriculum map and standards alignment ● Community appropriateness

Process for novel approval:

1. Teacher submits rationale ensuring that novel meets the requirements for approval based on text complexity rubrics (qualitative, quantitative, task and reader), map alignment, support of the standards, and community appropriateness 2. School representative (Lead) will approve or deny submission 3. Teacher representatives from other school(s) in the feeder system will approve or deny submission 4. Feeder system administrator will approve or deny submission 5. Novel will be added to approved list Before approving a text, the feeder system’s representatives should be familiar with the text, the text complexity requirements of the core, and the perspectives of their community. Once approved, a novel will be made public on the database with the supporting rationales and electronic approvals.In the case of a denial, the system will inform the submitter of denial and rationale for denial. A novel may be re-submitted after consideration of use and change to the original submission. To add a novel that has been approved for another grade or system, parts of previously approved novel rationales may be used. For example, the text complexity rationales for placement of a novel at ninth grade in the Alta system may be used to place the same novel in ninth grade in the Brighton system. Rationales would not be the same for placing one novel at a different grade level, as there would be different considerations for complexity, task, curriculum map alignment, and support of the standards, though community appropriateness may be similar. Concerns about materials should be communicated to the feeder system’s administrator. Questions about the approval process should be directed to the Instructional Supports Department.

*All novels used for instruction should have a rationale attached in the database. Beginning in the 2021-2022 school year, novels without an attached rationale will be dropped from the approved list.

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