FAQ: Publications - Answers

May I link to a lesson plan on your website?

If you are hosting a site, please link to our Lesson Plans page, not to the PDF lesson plan. We are very proud of our lesson plans, and they take quite a lot of bandwidth to host, so we prefer to make clear to our users who in fact is hosting them.

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Are you planning on publishing What Your Seventh Grader Needs to Know and What Your Eighth Grader Needs to Know?

At the present time, we have no plans to publish 7th or 8th grade volumes of the Core Knowledge Series. There is a lot more content to cover in the middle school grades; we need additional funding to produce those books.

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I know you currently only have products that cover preschool through 8th grade. Do you have any plans to expand the curriculum into high school?

Please read Dr. Matthew Davis' excellent essay, "After Core Knowledge."

There are no plans to create a curriculum guideline through high school at this time. Core Knowledge was developed to provide a basis for higher education. A student who has completed kindergarten through grade eight in a Core Knowledge school should be ready for any good high school program.

We can provide you with a list of schools that implement Core Knowledge in kindergarten through grade eight and then also offer a curriculum that "builds on Core Knowledge" in the high school years. You might consider modeling your curricula after theirs, or at least consulting with them. Please realize that these schools' high school curriculum was not developed and has not been reviewed by the Core Knowledge Foundation, but rather is each school's interpretation of what an extension of the kindergarten through grade eight curriculum might look like. The Foundation's goal is to create opportunities for you to network and share ideas with other schools, but not to endorse any particular school's high school program as we have not reviewed their curriculum.

We recommend that schools interested in high school look into the International Baccalaureate or the Advanced Placement programs.

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I am confused about which Realms of Gold volume I should order for my child in middle school.

The Realms of Gold Series has three volumes. Volume I is for 6th grade, II is for 7th grade, and III is for 8th grade. All the shorter literary works — poems, stories, essays, speeches, and autobiographical excerpts — specified in the Core Knowledge Sequence for grades six through eight are conveniently anthologized in these three grade-level volumes. Each volume also includes additional classic works in each genre, offering students handy supplemental texts from the world's greatest writers. Key speeches from the 20th century make volumes II and III useful for history teachers, too. Visit our online bookstore for more information. 

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What are the current copyrights for the What Your __ Grader Needs to Know books?

The most recent publication dates for all of our What Your __ Grader Needs to Know books are listed below:

• Preschool, 2008
• Kindergarten, 1996
• First Grade, 1997 (Revised)
• Second Grade, 1998 (Revised)
• Third Grade, 2001 (Revised)
• Fourth Grade, 2004 (Revised)
• Fifth Grade, 2005 (Revised)
• Sixth Grade, 2006 (Revised)

What Your Preschooler Needs to Know was published as a paperback by Delta, a subsidiary of Random House, on March 25, 2008. There is no plan to revise the Kindergarten edition, since that was developed after the Sequence was revised. There are no plans for a 7th or 8th grade edition at this time, owing to the greater cost of content research and validation that would be required for these publications.  You can learn more about the Core Knowledge Series within our online bookstore. 

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What materials do you have available for English language learners?

Most of our materials are geared for English speakers; however, a grant from the Brown Foundation has enabled Core Knowledge to translate some of the books in the Grader series into Spanish. The aim is to provide supplements to the original books to help children read and learn from the corresponding English-language volume. You can download the translations in PDF format here, at no cost.

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What textbooks should we use to teach the Core Knowledge curriculum?

The following textbooks are currently available:

• Teacher Handbooks / Instructional Masters
• Text Resources / Art Resources
• Listen, My Children
• Core Classics Plus
• Core Classics
• Rats, Bulls, and Flying Machines
• Realms of Gold
• Pearson Learning-Core Knowledge History and Geography textbooks
• Grace Abounding, Anthology of African-American Literature, Music, and Art
• A Joyful Noise, The Core Knowledge American Songbook
• The series books (What Your __ Grader Needs to Know) are intended for parents, but many sections can be adapted for classroom use.

Many schools and parents also make use of trade books and other resources. Books to Build On is an annotated list of resources organized by topics from the Core Knowledge Sequence. Additionally, we can refer you to book vendors that can assist your school in developing its library.

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