About Core Knowledge
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A School Reform Movement . . . taking shape in hundreds of schools
where educators have committed themselves to teaching important skills
and the Core Knowledge content they share within grade levels, across
districts, and with other Core Knowledge schools across the country. |
Core Knowledge Is:
Solid
Many people say that knowledge is changing so fast that what students learn
today will soon be outdated. While current events and technology are constantly
changing, there is nevertheless a body of lasting knowledge that should form the
core of a Preschool-Grade 8 curriculum. Such solid knowledge includes, for
example, the basic principles of constitutional government, important events of
world history, essential elements of mathematics and of oral and written
expression, widely acknowledged masterpieces of art and music, and stories and
poems passed down from generation to generation.
Sequenced
Knowledge builds on knowledge. Children learn new knowledge by building on what
they already know. Only a school system that clearly defines the knowledge and
skills required to participate in each successive grade can be excellent and
fair for all students. For this reason, the Core Knowledge Sequence provides a
clear outline of content to be learned grade by grade. This sequential building
of knowledge not only helps ensure that children enter each new grade ready to
learn, but also helps prevent the many repetitions and gaps that characterize
much current schooling (repeated units, for example, on pioneer days or the rain
forest, but little or no attention to the Bill of Rights, or to adding fractions
with unlike denominators).
Specific
A typical state or district curriculum says, "Students will demonstrate
knowledge of people, events, ideas, and movements that contributed to the
development of the United States." But which people and events? What ideas and
movements? In contrast, the Core Knowledge Sequence is distinguished by its
specificity. By clearly specifying important knowledge in language arts, history
and geography, math, science, and the fine arts, the Core Knowledge Sequence
presents a practical answer to the question, "What do our children need to
know?"
Shared
Literacy depends on shared knowledge. To be literate means, in part, to be
familiar with a broad range of knowledge taken for granted by speakers and
writers. For example, when sportscasters refer to an upset victory as "David
knocking off Goliath," or when reporters refer to a "threatened presidential
veto," they are assuming that their audience shares certain knowledge. One goal
of the Core Knowledge Foundation is to provide all children, regardless of
background, with the shared knowledge they need to be included in our national
literate culture.
A Sample of the Core Knowledge Sequence
These excerpts represent only a very small and selective sampling. Please see
the Core Knowledge Sequence for our complete curriculum in detail.
Kindergarten: Visual Arts
Painting:
line and color in such works as Matisse's The Purple Robe, Picasso's Le Gourmet,
Mary Cassatt's The Bath, Henry O. Tanner's The Banjo Lesson, and Diego Rivera's
Mother's Helper.
Sculpture: Statue of Liberty, mobiles of Alexander
Calder, Northwest American Indian totem pole
First Grade: World History Early
Civilizations: Ancient Egypt
Geography: Africa, Sahara Desert
Importance of the Nile River, floods and farming
Pharaohs:
Tutankhamen, Hatshepsut
Pyramids, and mummies, animal gods, Sphinx
Writing: hieroglyphics
Second Grade: American History
Civil Rights
Susan B. Anthony and the right to vote
Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights and
human rights
Mary McLeod Bethune and educational opportunity
Jackie
Robinson and the integration of major league baseball
Rosa Parks and the bus
boycott in Montgomery, Alabama
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the dream of equal
rights for all
Cesar Chavez and the rights of migrant workers
Third Grade: Math
Fractions
Recognize fractions to one-tenth
Identify numerator and denominator
Write
mixed numbers
Recognize equivalent fractions (for example, 1/2 = 3/6)
Compare fractions with like denominators using the signs <, >, and =
Geometry
Identify lines as horizontal, vertical, perpendicular, parallel
Polygons: recognize vertex; identify sides as line segments; identify pentagon,
hexagon, and octagon
Identify angles: right angle; four right angles in a
square or rectangle
Compute area in square inches and square centimeters
Fourth Grade: Science
Electricity
Electricity as the flow of electrons
Static electricity
Electric current
Electric circuits: closed, open, and short circuits
Simple circuit
(battery, wire, bulb, filament, switch)
Conductors and insulators
How
electromagnets work
Using electricity safely
Fifth Grade: American History and Geography
Westward Exploration and Expansion
Early exploration of the west: Daniel Boone, Cumberland Gap, Wilderness Trail
The Louisiana Purchase: Lewis and Clark, Sacagawea
Pioneer land
routes: Santa Fe Trail and Oregon Trail
Rivers: James, Hudson, St.
Lawrence, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Columbia, Rio Grande
American
Indian resistance: Tecumseh attempts to unite tribes to defend their land
"Manifest Destiny" and conflict with Mexico
The Mexican War
Sixth Grade: Language Arts
Fiction and Drama
The Iliad and The Odyssey
The Prince and the Pauper
Julius Caesar
Writing and Research
Write a research essay, with attention to
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asking open-ended questions
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gathering relevant data through library and field research
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summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting accurately when taking notes
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defining a thesis
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organizing with an outline
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integrating quotations from sources
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acknowledging sources and avoiding plagiarism
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preparing a bibliography
Seventh Grade: Music
Classical Music: Romantics and Nationalists
Music and National Identity
Antonin Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 ("From the New
World)
Edvard Grieg, Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 and 2
Peter Ilich
Tchaikovsky, 1812 Overture
American Musical Traditions
Blues: Twelve bar blues form
Jazz: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Miles
Davis
Eighth Grade: Physics
Motion, Forces, Density and Buoyancy, Work, Energy, Power
Velocity and speed
The concept of force
Unbalanced forces cause change in
velocity
When immersed in a fluid, all objects experience a buoyant force
In physics, work is a relation between force and distance: work is done when
force is exerted over a distance
In physics, energy is defined as the ability
to do work
In physics, power is a relation between work and time: a measure
of work done and the time it takes to do it
We learn new knowledge by building on what we already know. Students in Core
Knowledge schools know a lot, because they are offered a coherent sequence of
specific knowledge that builds year by year. For example, in sixth grade they
should be ready to grasp the law of the conservation of energy because
they have been building the knowledge that prepares them for it, as shown in
this selection from the physical science strand of the Core Knowledge
Sequence:
Kindergarten:
Magnetism, the idea of forces we cannot see. Classify materials according to
whether they are attracted to a magnet.
First Grade:
Basic concept of atoms. Names and common examples of the three states of matter.
Examine water as an example of changing states of matter in a single substance.
Properties of matter: measurement.
Second Grade:
Lodestones: naturally occurring magnets. Magnetic poles: north-seeking and
south-seeking poles. Magnetic fields (strongest at the poles). Law of
attraction: unlike poles attract, like poles repel.
Third Grade:
Introduction to light, optics, and sound. Sound waves are much slower than light
waves. Astronomy: orbit, rotation, gravity. Gravitational pull of the moon, and
to a lesser degree, the sun, causes ocean tides on earth.
Fourth Grade:
Atoms: all matter is made up of particles too small to see. Atoms are made up of
even smaller particles: protons, neutrons, electrons. Concept of electrical
charge: proton has positive charge; electron has negative charge; neutron has no
charge. "Unlike charges attract, like charges repel" (relate to magnetic
attraction). Properties of matter: mass, volume and density. The elements: basic
kinds of matter.
Fifth Grade:
Atoms are constantly in motion; electrons move around the nucleus in paths
called shells (or energy levels). Atoms form molecules and compounds. The
Periodic Table: organizes elements with common properties.
Sixth Grade:
Kinetic and potential energy: types of each. Energy is conserved in a system.
Heat and temperature. Three ways energy is transferred: conduction, convection,
and radiation. Energy transfer: matter changes phase by adding or removing
energy. Expansion and contraction.
Who Decided What's in the Sequence?
The Core Knowledge Sequence is the result of research into the content and
structure of the highest performing elementary school systems around the world,
as well as extensive consensus-building among diverse groups and interests,
including parents, teachers, scientists, professional curriculum organizations,
and experts from the Core Knowledge Foundation's advisory board on multicultural
traditions. Provisional versions of the Sequence were reviewed and revised by
panels of teachers, and in 1990 a national conference was convened at which
twenty-four working groups hammered out a draft sequence. This draft was
fine-tuned during a year of implementation at Three Oaks Elementary in Ft.
Myers, Florida. As more elementary schools adopt Core Knowledge, the Foundation
seeks their suggestions based on experience in order to update the Sequence.
For Students
Provides a broad base of knowledge and a rich vocabulary
Motivates students
to learn and creates a strong desire to learn more
Provides the knowledge
necessary for higher levels of learning and helps build confidence
For the School
Provides an academic focus and encourages consistency in instruction
Provides
a plan for coherent, sequenced learning from grade to grade
Promotes a
community of learners - adults and children
Becomes an effective tool for
lesson planning and communication among teachers and with parents
Guides
thoughtful purchases of school resources
For the School District
Provides a common focus to share knowledge and expertise
Decreases learning
gaps caused by mobility
Encourages cooperation among schools to provide
quality learning experiences for all students
Provides a strong foundation of
knowledge for success in high school and beyond
For Parents and the Community
Provides a clear outline of what children are expected to learn in school
Encourages parents to participate in their children's education both at home and
in school
Provides opportunities for community members to help obtain and
provide instructional resources