A year of school visits highlights what makes curriculum work
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Knowledge Matters is a campaign to make building knowledge a priority for American education. Nearly every major educational goal — from improving reading comprehension and critical thinking to problem solving and creativity — is knowledge-based. Without a solid foundation of content knowledge built from the first days of school, students can’t achieve higher academic standards and better outcomes.
Knowledge-rich schools focus on imparting knowledge of the world. They seek to restore wonder and excitement in the classroom by deepening students’ understanding on a wide range of topics.
Our goal for the Knowledge Matters School Tour was to gather stories of schools that use the power of knowledge-rich schooling to promote excellence, provide equity, and inspire passion. We were particularly interested in drawing attention to schools that are closing the gap between students who grow up in poverty and their more privileged peers.
The role played by high-quality English language arts curriculum — and the professional learning educators experienced to make this possible in their school — was our focus. Given the paucity of time devoted to social studies, science, and the arts in elementary schools across the country, if children don’t encounter these topics in their reading and don’t engage with them at home, they likely won’t be learned.
The significant role that background knowledge and command of academic vocabulary plays in reading comprehension is not a new discovery, but curiosity has recently piqued about what “knowledge-rich schooling” really means and how it can be advanced through English language arts.
Schools included in the Knowledge Matters School Tour
Pondiscio, R. (2015, May 29). Common Core’s first breakout hit. U.S. News & World Report. Available at www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/2015/05/29/is-common-core-spurring-a-curriculum-renaissance.
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