Dsf consulting Contents Page Introduction 0

Core Knowledge Lessons

Core Knowledge Skills Routines

Overview

These routines include the most prominent skill routines introduced in kindergarten and first grade, but they also appear in second grade.
In the Core Knowledge Skills routines, the level of scaffolding is the same for ELLs at all four levels of proficiency because English has a deep orthography, making this level of scaffolding important for helping ELLs master code-related skills and thus avoid the necessity of subsequent Tier 2 intervention. However, as noted in the Introduction to this document, teachers should differentiate further to meet the specific needs of students in their classrooms. For example, ELLs with transitioning and expanding levels of proficiency probably do not need to learn the labels for the words they are learning to read or the names of body parts used for teaching orthography (e.g., touching their shoulder for a first sound) because they tend to be high-frequency words in English.
AIR suggests that teachers learn about the sounds in English do not appear in student’s home language because students might have trouble pronouncing these English sounds. The Core Knowledge Introducing the Sound technique will help students make and practice these sounds.
The scaffolding methods that follow include teachers defining target words in context, teachers modeling routines before students try them, students repeating target words and phrases, teachers providing pictures to accompany the target words, and teachers using gestures and visuals to help reinforce word meanings.
For ELLs, additional practice is very helpful. AIR suggests that all instructed words be put on a ring with pictures representing them so that students can practice reading them to build word-reading automaticity. The pictures help ensure students know the meanings of words they are reading. Teachers might mark in some way words that are not decodable.
In the routines that follow, the text in blue boxes is the text that appears in the original lessons. AIR Additional Supports describes the supports AIR recommends. The text in green is text that AIR has added to the Core Knowledge routines. AIR Routines for Teachers are presented as teacher talk to students. Text in brackets are instructions for teachers. Anticipated student responses are in brackets also but are italicized. For some routines, AIR Instructions for Students also are provided.