Core Knowledge Home > About > Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ: Homeschool
If you have further questions after reading this list, please email:
Preschool Contact: |
K–8 Contact: |
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Director of Childhood Development |
Director of K–8 Professional Development |
- I really like the Core Knowledge curriculum. What do you have to offer to a homeschooling environment?
- What reading and mathematics programs do you recommend to homeschoolers?
- How can homeschoolers network?
- We do feel that Core Knowledge can be appropriate for the homeschooling environment. Core Knowledge offers suggested content to be taught at each grade level, but we go beyond that by offering materials around which you can build you own curriculum. Core Knowledge can work for you if you enjoy pulling materials together and being creative. If you want a “curriculum in a box”, then Core Knowledge may not be for you.
- First and foremost, we would recommend that you purchase the Core Knowledge Sequence and the series books (What Your _th Grader Needs to Know, etc.) books. The Sequence provides a detailed outline of what should be taught at each grade level, and the What Your _th Grader Needs to Know books provide you with reading material for you and your children to read together.
- The computer-based Day-by-Day Planner provides detailed curriculum planning support, organizing the topics covered in each grade on a yearly, quarterly, weekly, and daily basis. Click here to learn more about the Day-by-Day Planner. There is also a print version available.
- Further curriculum building materials include the lists of recommended books correlated to the Core Knowledge Sequence, which can be found in Books to Build On and Resources to Build On. Books to Build On provides an annotated listing of resources that can be used to teach each topic. This annotated resource guide provides grade-by-grade recommendations (K–6) for books and other materials, all organized to follow the Core Knowledge Sequence outline of topics in language arts, history and geography, visual arts, music, science, and math. Click here for more information.
- The Foundation also maintains an on-line database, Resources to Build On (RTBO). The resources listed on this database are independent products and publications that cover many of the topics within the Core Knowledge Sequence (Preschool – Grade 8). The Foundation screens a wide variety of publications to find resources that may be useful to Core Knowledge teachers, librarians, parents, and students. Although a listing in RTBO does not make a book an “official” Core Knowledge book, these books might be helpful to you in your lesson planning, and in teaching your children at home. We now have over 1,000 books reviewed and will be adding to our database often. The database is searchable — instead of having to scan the whole database, you may search for what you need by grade level, title, subject, author, or keyword. To begin exploring Resources to Build On, click here.
- Note that one single, printable list of all these resources is available on the Day-by-Day Planner, although you will still need to access Books to Build On and Resources to Build On for the descriptions of the books. You can take these printable lists to your local library or bookstore to find books needed to teach Core Knowledge.
- A variety of additional resources are currently available from the Foundation. Listen, My Children is a six-volume anthology of the poetry listed in the Core Knowledge® Sequence. The series features the recommended Core Knowledge poems grade by grade, from kindergarten to grade five.
- Stories loved for generations come to life for today's young readers in the Core Classics series. Faithful to the style, plot, and themes of the originals, Core Classics are designed for use as classroom editions of the literary works listed in the Core Knowledge Sequence. They include introductions by E. D. Hirsch Jr., editor of the Core Knowledge® Series (What Your Kindergartner – Sixth Grader Needs to Know). The texts are illustrated, annotated, and include a brief biography of the author. FREE Teacher's Guides are available for some of the Core Classics. Click here for more information.
- Now available are the Teacher Handbooks for K–5. The Teacher Handbooks will provide teachers with background information on all of the topics in the Sequence across subjects. The Handbooks identify what students should have learned in previous grades and what they will learn in future grades. They define crucial vocabulary words, point out cross-curricular connections, offer teaching ideas and assessment suggestions, and list titles of books and website addresses as resources for teachers and students. The Instructional Masters consist of student handouts and teacher materials intended to help introduce, teach, or reinforce topics to students. Click here for more details.
- The Text Resources for K–5, which act as supplements to the Teacher Handbooks, are already available and are sold separately from the Handbooks. Text Resources include reproducible versions of all of the stories and poems for the grade, plus selected non-fiction texts, song lyrics, and sheet music. The applicable Text Resources are listed in the front of each section of the handbook and are referenced by an icon in the main text. Click here for more details.
- The Art Resources for K–5 are also already available and consist of full-color art prints, including all of the artworks listed in the Visual Arts section of the Sequence for each grade. Suggested "looking questions" appear on the back of each art print. The Art Resources are listed under "Materials" in the handbook and are referenced by an icon in the main text. Click here for more details.
- As you may know already, the Core Knowledge Sequence goes through 8th grade. The only 7th and 8th grade Core Knowledge books currently available are those in the Realms of Gold Series. Volume I is for 6th grade, II is for 7th grade, and III is for 8th grade. In Realms of Gold, all the shorter literary works — poems, stories, essays, speeches and autobiographical excerpts — specified in the Core Knowledge Sequence for Grades 6–8 are conveniently anthologized in three grade-level volumes. Each includes additional classic works in each genre, offering students handy supplemental texts from the world's greatest writers. Key speeches from the 20th century make volumes 2 and 3 useful for history teachers. Click here for more information.
- Additional resources compatible with the Core Knowledge Sequence are available from other companies. Notably, the Pearson Learning-Core Knowledge History and Geography textbooks for grades K–6 can be purchased directly from them. Student editions have been printed and are available for purchase and shipping; you can buy a bundled book that contains all of the units for a given grade or choose among selected units that can be purchased as stand-alone modules. It is essential in K–2 to have the Teacher Guides; the student books don’t make sense as “stand alones.” Also, note that many homeschoolers find the teacher guides, particularly for grades 3–6, to be of tremendous help supplementing their language arts and other core subjects, thanks to the guide's regular cross-subject references, writing and research assignments, periodic worksheets, and chapter assessments. To order, get price information, or request samples, contact your local Pearson Learning sales representative or call 1-800-321-3106. To learn more about the Pearson series, click here.
- If you want actual lesson plans, please click here. Lesson plans also include source book recommendations as well as some occasional worksheets and assignment handouts. These collections contain free K–8 units and lesson plans developed by teachers in Core Knowledge schools. Some of the units and lessons were presented at recent national Core Knowledge conferences and are grouped by grade level. Others were written by the Baltimore Curriculum Project or by teachers in Colorado http://www.ckcolorado.org/units.asp Within these collections, you can find units that cover topics you plan to teach to your children. Again, the lessons for your grade level are already collected together on the Day-by-Day Planner CD-ROMs.
- In closing, note that not all of these materials are necessary to following the Core Knowledge Sequence, particularly if a good library is available. However, the Core Knowledge Sequence is essential to understanding and following the Core Knowledge approach to K–8 education. You decide how much or how little you wish to use and purchase.
- As far as instruction for reading, mathematics, spelling, language, and grammar: the Foundation suggests you follow structured and sequential programs (available from other companies.)
- The specific content outlined in the Core Knowledge Sequence constitutes a solid foundation of knowledge in each subject area. This knowledge greatly helps students with their reading, as shown by the fact that reading scores go up in Core Knowledge schools, because wide knowledge enhances students' ability to read diverse kinds of texts with understanding. Homeschoolers need to know that reading requires two abilities — the ability to turn print into language (decoding) and the ability to understand what the language says. Achieving the first ability — decoding — requires a sequential program, structured to provide guided practice in various formats and frequent review throughout the year. Decoding programs that are premised on scientifically-based research are: Open Court, Reading Mastery, Success for All, and the California version of Houghton Mifflin's basal.
- In addition to teaching decoding skills, a good language arts program will include coherent and interesting readings in the subject areas that enhance comprehension ability. No language arts program currently offers such coherent, substantive material. Therefore, in addition to teaching the language topics in the Core Knowledge Sequence, Core Knowledge teachers are encouraged to substitute solid, interesting non-fictional readings in history and science for many of the short, fragmented stories in the basals, which unfortunately do not effectively enhance reading comprehension.
- The specific content outlined in the Core Knowledge Sequence constitutes a solid foundation of knowledge in each subject area. It is also critically important to establish a similar sequential program in mathematics, structured to provide guided practice in various formats and frequent review throughout the year. Mathematics programs that follow sound cognitive principles and therefore lead to greater student mastery are: Singapore Math, Saxon Math, and Direct Instruction mathematics.
- You can see a list of vendors whose material supports the Core Knowledge curriculum. We do not provide guidance on specific language, grammar, spelling, or handwriting programs to follow.
- While we are very interested in helping homeschoolers network, we cannot list homeschoolers on our "schools" pages. However, you can communicate with other Core Knowledge homeschoolers through an online discussion list; click here for more information.
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Last updated: Fri, May 23 2008
