Core Knowledge Reading Room

The Case for a Content-rich Curriculum

Building Knowledge

Building Knowledge:  The Case for Bringing Content into the Language Arts Block and for a Knowledge-Rich Curriculum Core for All Children
By E. D. Hirsch, Jr.
American Educator, Spring 2006

Knowledge of content and the vocabulary acquired through learning about content are fundamental to successful reading comprehension; without broad knowledge, children’s reading comprehension will not improve and their test scores will not budge upwards either. Yet content is not adequately addressed in American schools, especially in the early grades. None of our current methods attempt to steadily build up children’s knowledge–not the empty state and district language arts standards, which rarely mention a specific text or piece of information; not the reading textbooks, which jump from one trivial piece to another; and not the comprehension drills conducted in schools in the long periods of 90-120 minutes devoted to language arts. These all promote the view that comprehension depends on having formal skills rather than broad knowledge.

How Knowledge Helps

How Knowledge Helps: It Speeds and Strengthens Reading Comprehension, Learning–and Thinking
By Daniel T. Willingham
American Educator, Spring 2006

Acquiring knowledge does for the brain what exercise does for the body: The more you learn, the better your brain functions. Knowledge is not only cumulative, it grows exponentially. So, the more you know, the more easily you learn new things. Knowledge improves your ability to remember new things, and it actually improves the quality and speed of your thinking.

Learning Essentials

Learning Essentials:  Core Knowledge Prizes Content Across the Disciplines, Bucking a Trend Toward a Narrower, Skills-based Approach to Learning.
By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
Education Week, May 21, 2008

While many schools have narrowed the curriculum since Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, doubling up on reading and math instruction to prepare students for crucial tests in those subjects, New Holland Core Knowledge Academy has embraced a far broader course of study. Each day, its students tackle a rich and rigorous sequence of lessons in history, science, and the arts, as well as mathematics and language arts.

Teaching Content Is Teaching Reading

In this YouTube video, University of Virginia cognitive scientist Dan Willingham describes why content knowledge is essential to reading with comprehension–and why teaching reading strategies alone is not sufficient.

There’s No Such Thing As a Reading Test
By E.D. Hirsch, Jr. and Robert Pondiscio
The American Prospect, June 13, 2010

Schools and teachers may be making a Herculean effort to raise reading scores, but their efforts can do little to improve reading achievement. This wasted effort is not because our teachers are lazy or of low quality. Rather, too many of our schools labor under fundamental misconceptions about reading comprehension -- how it works, how to improve it, and how to test it.