Core Knowledge - free online curriculum

The curriculum provides strong support for direct instruction with detailed teacher guides, guided conversations with suggested questions and answers, and step-by-step procedures. Lessons are highly interactive and teacher-directed.

Plans include 'guided conversations with questions and suggested answers' and 'lessons need to be taught from the teacher's guides since they are very interactive with lots of discussion and activity'

The curriculum builds coherent, cumulative knowledge following Core Knowledge's systematic sequence of topics that students should learn at each grade level. The foundation emphasizes building the broad background knowledge essential for reading comprehension.

Lesson plans 'reflect Core Knowledge's recommendations of topics to be covered at each level' and students 'cover topics from both World and U.S. History as well as some geography' each year

The curriculum demonstrates strong integration through its domain-based approach, where reading comprehension and vocabulary are taught within topical areas from social studies, science, and literature. CKLA's domains like 'early world civilizations' and 'astronomy' provide coherent connections across subjects.

First grade domains include fables, human body, early civilizations, astronomy, earth history, and animals, providing 'complete coverage of history and some coverage of science at early grade levels'

The curriculum provides substantial teacher support through detailed lesson plans with background information, but formal teacher training or professional development materials are not mentioned. Teachers need to invest preparation time.

Lesson plans include 'background information, step-by-step procedures' and are 'laid out for you in detail,' but 'will certainly require quite a bit of preparation work'

CKLA maintains strong rigor in language arts with a complete phonics-based reading program, while CKLP history/geography lessons are 'top-notch' and 'thoroughly developed.' However, science and math appear less comprehensively covered.

CKLA includes 'phonics, reading, vocabulary, handwriting, spelling, and the writing process with a complete curriculum' and lesson plans are 'very thoroughly developed with instructions, background information, step-by-step procedures'

The curriculum includes assessments and some review components, but systematic retrieval practice and spaced review across subjects is not clearly evident in the review.

CKLA includes 'Assessment and Remediation Guides' and some lesson plans have 'printable worksheets,' but specific retrieval practice strategies are not detailed