Overview of Kindergarten Program and Pilot

Laurel Swanson of Steed Elementary School
in Oklahoma City teaching a lesson
from the Seasons and Weather domain
of the Listening and Learning Strand

Version 1.0 of the Core Knowledge Reading Program is currently being piloted in ten schools in eight states. These ten schools were chosen from more than 100 schools that expressed an interest in the pilot.

About 40 teachers and 800 students are participating in the kindergarten pilot program, which will run during the 2007-2008 school year. We will revise the kindergarten materials based on feedback from the pilot.

The Core Knowledge Reading program consists of two strands of instruction. The Skills Strand teaches the mechanics of reading using a synthetic phonics approach. The Listening and Learning Strand aims to build background knowledge, vocabulary, and cultural literacy through teacher-presented read-alouds and discussions.

About the Skills Strand

“Mom and the frog did not get on.”
Illustration by Gail Macintosh for a Code Breakers! Easy Reader, Kindergarten skills strand

The Skills strand of CKR teaches beginning reading skills using a synthetic phonics approach of the sort described in Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can’t Read. This kind of phonics instruction is widely used in Europe but it is somewhat different from the approach that has traditionally been used in U.S. schools. It involves beginning with sounds and then introducing spellings for those sounds. The Skills Strand for Kindergarten is divided into 12 Units:

• Unit 1: auditory phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, penmanship, writing numbers and simple figures.
• Unit 2: phonemic awareness; the sounds /m/, /t/, /d/, /g/, /a/, /o/, and /i/, each with its most common spelling, plus the sound /k/ spelled with a ‘c’; blending and segmenting with VC and CVC words made up of spellings taught to this point.
• Unit 3: phonemic awareness; the sounds /n/, /h/, /s/, /f/, /v/, /z/, /p/, and /e/ each with its most common spelling; blending and segmenting VC and CVC words made up of spellings taught to this point.
• Unit 4: phonemic awareness; the sounds /b/, /l/, /r/, /u/, /w/, /j/, /y/, and /x/ each with its most common spelling, plus /k/ spelled with a ‘k’’ blending and segmenting VC and CVC words with short vowels and single-letter consonant spellings.  
• Unit 5: Initial and final consonant clusters. Blending and segmenting CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC words, up to a maximum of 5 letters, one syllable; first decodable stories.
• Unit 6: Consonant sounds /sh/, /th/ (unvoiced), /th/ (voiced) /ch/, /ng/, and /qu/, and their digraph spellings; blending and segmenting CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC words, up to a maximum of 7 letters, one syllable; more decodable stories.
• Unit 7: Letter names and alphabet song; first tricky words: the, a, of, etc.; double-letter consonant spellings, e.g. ‘ss’ for /s/, ‘ll’ for /l/, ‘ff’ for /f/, etc.; ‘s’ pronounced /z/ in as, has, is, and plurals; decodable stories featuring decodable words and instructed tricky words.
• Unit 8: Upper-case letters; more tricky words; more decodable stories using decodable words and instructed tricky words; story questions worksheets that ask students to give written answers to simple questions on the decodable stories. 
• Unit 9: The “long” vowel sounds: /ee/ spelled ‘ee’, /ae/ spelled ‘a_e’ as in name, /oe/ spelled ‘o_e’ as in note, /ie/ spelled ‘i_e’ as in time, /ue/ spelled ‘u_e’ as in cute; separated vowel graphemes; additional tricky words containing these sounds, e.g. me, she, he, we, no, so, you, etc.; more decodable stories and story questions worksheets.
• Unit 10: The sounds /oo/ as in book, /oo/ as in soon, /ou/ as in out and /oi/ as in oil, each with the spelling just given; tricky words containing these sounds, e.g. would, could, should; more decodable stories and story questions worksheets
• Unit 11: The r-controlled vowel sounds /er/, /ar/, and /or/, each with its most common spelling; a few tricky words containing these sounds; more decodable stories and story questions worksheets; free writing.
• Unit 12: two-syllable words; past tense endings in –ed (started, planned, marked), plurals with –es as in dresses; major spelling alternatives for vowel sounds:/ee/ spelled ‘ea’ and ‘y’, /ae/ spelled ‘ai and ‘ay’, /ie/ spelled ‘ie’ and ‘igh’, /oe/ spelled ‘oe, ‘ow’, and ‘oa’, /ou/ spelled ‘ow’, /oi/ spelled ‘oy’, /er/ spelled ‘ir’ and ‘ur’, /or/ spelled ‘ore’ and ‘our’; more decodable stories; story questions worksheets and free writing.

Sample pages from the Skills Strand

About the Listening and Learning Strand

“There Was a Crooked Man.”
Illustration by Carolyn Wouden for Nursery Rhymes and Fables, Listening and Learning Strand

The listening and learning strand involves teachers sharing read-alouds with students and leading discussions. The twelve domains treated in the read-alouds over the course of the kindergarten year are as follows:

• Nursery Rhymes & Fables
• Seasons & Weather
• Plants & Crops
• Farm Animals
• Columbus
• The Pilgrims
• Towns and Townspeople
• Winnie-the-Pooh
• Stories
• The Five Senses
• Kings & Queens
• Taking Care of the Earth

The longest domains include 30 read-alouds intended to be read over 15 days of instruction; the shortest domains include 20 read-alouds intended to be read over 10 days of instruction.

Sample pages from the Listening and Learning Strand

“Sharing the Crops.” Illustration by Charles Peale for Plants and Crops, Listening and Learning Strand

Last updated: Fri, May 23 2008