Core Knowledge Language Arts
Understanding the Design Principles
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
Two Keys to
Reading
R=DxC
Skills Strand
Listening & Learning
Decoding and Encoding:

Systematic Synthetic Phonics

Handwriting

Grammar

Spelling

Expressive Writing /The
Writing Process
Language Comprehension:

Oral Read-aloud

Text-based Discussion

Word Work

Extension Activities that
Provide Students with the
Opportunity to use New
Language and Concepts
Louisiana Tier 2
Louisiana Tier 1
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Overview of Skills Materials
Teacher Guides
Student Decodable
Readers
Student Workbooks
Big Books
Ancillary Materials
Assessment &
Remediation Guides
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
3
Skills Strand Instruction
• 10 – 12 Lesson Types Per Grade




Phonics & Reading
Grammar
Spelling
Writing
• Gradual Release Modeled Through Lessons






Warm-up
Explicit Instruction
Model
Group Practice
Independent Practice
Independent Application
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
CKLA Materials
Teacher Anthology
Image Cards
Supplemental
Guide
Flip Book
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
5
Listening & Learning
Instruction
• Stays on topic for 2 – 3 weeks
• Single Lesson Type Across Grades
• Each Lesson Includes

Read-aloud
• Introduction to the Read Aloud
• Presenting the Read Aloud

Discussion
• Comprehension Questions
• Word Work

Extension Activity
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Key Design Principles of
Listening and Learning
Building Knowledge and Language
Systematically
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
DESIGN PRINCIPLE
CKLA uses read-alouds to support
oral language skills that underlie
and parallel reading and writing
skills.
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Language Development
Oral
Written
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Listening versus Reading
Comprehension
T. G. Sticht, 1974, 1984
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
What is Text Complexity?
Appendix A
Page 6
1. Language Demands
2. Knowledge Demands
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
What Does It Mean to Build
Knowledge Systematically?
“Building knowledge systematically in English language arts
is like giving children various pieces of a puzzle in each
grade that, over time, will form one big picture. At a
curricular or instructional level, texts—within and across
grade levels—need to be selected around topics or themes
that systematically develop the knowledge base of
students.”
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
DESIGN PRINCIPLE
CKLA Systematically
Builds Knowledge
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
What We Know
• Knowledge builds on knowledge
• All of our most desirable goals for education are
all knowledge dependent:




Creativity
Problem solving
Reading comprehension
General achievement
• Knowing things allows us to expend the smallest
amount of cognitive capacity on processing lowerorder aspects of a problem so that more
cognitive capacity is available for higher levels
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Coherence
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Systematic Knowledge
Building
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
DESIGN PRINCIPLE
CKLA Stays on Topic to Foster the
Most Efficient Word Learning
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
excrescence
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
What We Know
• Most vocabulary is learned implicitly.
• Word learning is most efficient when the reader
(listener) already understands the context well.
• Tiny gains on a dozen words is more efficient
than large gains on just one word at a time.
• What makes vocabulary valuable and important
is not the words themselves so much as the
understandings they afford.
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
What are Kings and Queens?
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Sections 3 & 4
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Key Design Principles of the
Skills Strand
A Systematic Approach
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
What is the Significance of 270?
• 26 Letters
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
• 52 Total with Upper- and Lowercase
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
• 16 Distinctly Different Uppercase
ABDEFGHIJKLMNQRT
• 44 sounds
26 consonant, 18 vowel
• 150 spellings
/ie/ = ie | i_e | igh | y | ye | y_e
• Directionality & Punctuation   . ? , !
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
31
What We Know
• Early Systematic Instruction in phonics seems to
lead to better achievement in reading than later,
less systematic instruction
• Unless decoding is automatic, there is little
cognitive capacity to think about meaning.
• Reliable decoding is more efficient than context
cues.
• Specific objectives, rather than broad goals,
should inform both practice and assessment
• Practice leads to automaticity
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
DESIGN PRINCIPLE
CKLA teaches children the distinction
between sounds and spellings using
the most frequent or least ambiguous
sounds first.
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Sound:
/ae/
Spellings:
plane
baby
steak
paint
freight
hay
greyhound
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Basic Code: Vowels
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Most Frequent, Least Ambiguous
Consonant Spellings
K
1
2
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
The Value of Most Frequent,
Least Ambiguous Sound
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
DESIGN PRINCIPLE
CKLA gives intensive practice to build
reliability and automaticity.
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Intensive Practice through the
Day’s Lesson
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Practice in Making Distinctions
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
41
DESIGN PRINCIPLE
CKLA directly instructs in those oral
language skills (blending & segmenting)
that underlie and parallel reading and
writing skills.
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Blending and Segmenting
mat > met > pet > pit > it > hit > him > hem > them
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
A Strong Foundation
Road Signs &
Rules
Directions
Guided
Practice
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Care and Use
A Strong Foundation
Spelling &
Grammar
Content,
Listening &
Speaking
Phonics,
Handwriting,
& Reading
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Genre Writing &
Response to Text
Implementation
Traps
Lessons Learned for Administrators
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Technical vs. Adaptive
Problems
• Technical
There’s a concrete
answer.
• Adaptive
There are multifaceted situational
answers.
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Expecting Lessons to
Address Anchor Standards
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Kindergarten
Reading Standards
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
EngageNY.org
52
Grade 1
Reading Standards
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
EngageNY.org
53
Grade 2
Reading Standards
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
EngageNY.org
54
RI Standard K.10
K Actively engage in group reading activities with
purpose and understanding.
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
RI Standard 1.10
K With prompting and support, read informational texts
appropriately complex for grade 1.
1
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
RI Standard 2.10
K By the end of the year, read and comprehend
informational texts, including history/social studies,
1
science, and technical texts, in the grades 2–3 text
2 complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as
needed at the high end of the range.
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
RI Standard 3.10
K By the end of the year, read and comprehend
1
2
3
informational texts, including history/social
studies, science, and technical texts, at the high
end of the grades 2–3 text complexity band
independently and proficiently.
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
RI Standard 4.10
K By the end of the year, read and comprehend
1
2
3
informational texts, including history/social studies, science,
and technical texts, in the grades 4–5 text complexity
band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high
end of the range.
4
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
RI Standard 5.10
K By the end of the year, read and comprehend
1
2
informational texts, including history/social studies, science,
and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 4–5 text
complexity band independently and proficiently.
3
4
5
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
RI Standard 6.10
K By the end of the year, read and comprehend
literary nonfiction in the grades 6–8 text complexity
1
2
band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end
of the range.
3
4
5
6
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
RI Standard 7.10
K By the end of the year, read and comprehend
2
literary nonfiction in the grades 6–8 text complexity band
proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the
range.
3
No changes for RI.7.10
1
4
5
6
7
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
RI Standard 8.10
K
1
By the end of the year, read and comprehend
literary nonfiction at the high end of the grades 6–8 text
complexity band independently and proficiently.
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
RI Standard 3.10
K By the end of the year, read and comprehend
1
2
3
informational texts, including history/social
studies, science, and technical texts, at the high
end of the grades 2–3 text complexity band
independently and proficiently.
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Not Recognizing the
Skills Strand as a
K - 2 Continuum
• The Placement Assessments are
Critical
• Consider School, Grade, and
Classroom options
• Recognize Challenges in Year 1
• Recognize What the
Continuum Means for
Progress Data
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Trying to Do or Keep
Too Much
• Time is Most Precious
Classroom Resource
• Change is Hard
• Consider the Overlap

Intersection of Goals of
Instruction and ELA
components
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Not Taking Time to Learn
the Program
• How does it differ from what you
have been doing?
• What you should see in the
classroom?
• What are the most important
elements for fidelity?
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Thinking it's All on the
Page
• CKLA is Highly Structured
but Not Scripted
• Planning and Preparation
are Important
• There’s Plenty of Room
for Enhancement and
Differentiation
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Not Recognizing the
Transition in Progress
• Curriculum



New Materials
New Approaches
Time to Learn before
Adapting
• New Assessments
• New Basis for Teacher
Evaluation
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
Not Getting Support
ckla.amplify.com
www.coreknowledge.org/ckla-resources
Amplify Education
CKLA K-5 Sales, PD & Support
www.amplify.com/curriculum/core-knowledgelanguage-arts
(800) 823-1969
Core Knowledge Foundation
CKLA Preschool
www.coreknowledge.org/ckla
800-238-3233
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org
http://www.coreknowledge.org/ckla
©2013 Core Knowledge Foundation.
www.coreknowledge.org