Connecticut State Department of Education

Teacher of the Year Ceremony
Due to inclement weather, the Teacher of the Year Ceremony has been postponed to December 16, 2025 from 5-7pm. Doors will open at 4pm. The Ceremony will take place at the Bushnell Theater in Hartford, and the order of events will remain the same.

Connecticut Core Standards

Connecticut Dream Team created English Language Arts & Content Literacy Close Reading Plans

Materials for Grades K-5

Grade Title
K-1 Frogs!
K-1 Acorn to Oak Tree
1 Fireflies
1 Peter's Chair
2 Owl Moon
2 The Raft
2 How a Seed Grows
2 A Bad Kangaroo
2 One Tiny Turtle
2 Who Would Win? Whale vs. Giant Squid
2 The Empty Pot
2-3 Autumn
3 Ruby's Shoes
3 Super Smog in China
3 Owl Moon
3-4 Stuart Little
4 Stray
4 A Sudden Slice of Summer
4 When Marian Sang
4 The Cloud: A Folktale
5 On the Deporting of her friend, Marta, from Hungary
5 Paul Revere's Ride
5 Tuck Everlasting
5 Eleven
5 Hatchet
5 Queen of the Falls
5 Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death
5 Richard Wright and the Library Card
5 Spaghetti
5 George vs. George

Materials for Grades 6-8

Grade Title
6 On Indian Removal
6 The Ideal Physician
6 Thank You, Ma'am
6 Not-So-Loony Toons
6 Black Frontiers: A History of African American Heroes in the Old West
6 The Unsinkable Wreck of the R.M.S. Titanic
6-8 Earth's Composition
7 A Jury of Her Peers
8 The Lottery
8 Do Cell Phones Belong in the Classroom?
8 Farewell to Manzanar
8 Identical Twins' Genes Are Not Identical

Materials for Grades 9-12

Grade Title
9-10 The Bet
9-10 Lord of the Flies
9-10 The Stone Boy
9-10 Cold House, Hot House, Green House
9-10 The Scarlet Ibis
9-10 Searching for Summer
9-10 Lessons of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
9-10 Lizards Undergo Rapid Evolution After Introduction to a New Home
9-10 The Man in the Water
11-12 3-D Printing Spurs a Manufacturing Revolution
11-12 Self-Reliance