[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-592440-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-592440-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","more-than-words-an-early-grades-reading-program-builds-skills-and-knowledge","More Than Words - An early Grades reading Program Builds Skills and Knowledge","","More Than Words explains why one PreK–6 school in Queens struggled with shallow writing and weak science and social studies knowledge, then shows how Core Knowledge Language Arts for kindergarten through second grade addressed the root causes. It describes a two-strand program combining explicit decoding/encoding skills with listening-and-learning through rich fiction and nonfiction texts. Results from NYC pilots showed higher reading comprehension, science, and social studies performance without falling behind decoding, strengthening background knowledge and vocabulary.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/more-than-words-an-early-grades-reading-program-builds-skills-and-knowledge/592440/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/more-than-words-an-early-grades-reading-program-builds-skills-and-knowledge/592440.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"McGucket","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",5,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"Why did Joyce Barrett-Walker believe her students’ writing was not improving?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"She observed that students were not challenged with enough nonfiction or with writing topics rooted in informational texts, leaving them without the world knowledge needed for engaging writing.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What core problem did the curriculum fail to address?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The school’s programs relied heavily on comprehension strategies and emphasized the writing process more than the quality and content of texts, with too little time devoted to teaching broad knowledge and vocabulary.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"How does the Core Knowledge K–2 reading program structure learning?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"It uses two 60-minute strands: a Skills Strand focused on decoding, encoding, spelling, and grammar, and a listening-and-learning Strand where students engage with fiction and nonfiction texts to build oral language, knowledge, and vocabulary.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},592440,1792189509,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":106,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},1236954412713,"https://us-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_29158cc5080c5b710cf443261637dec0","More Than Words  \nAn early Grades reading Program Builds Skills and Knowledge  \nPHOTOGRAPHS BY BRUCE GILBERT  \nBy Jennifer Dubin  \nJoyce Barrett-Walker knew her students could do better. every  \nmonth, the principal, then in her second year at P.S. 96 in  \nQueens, a preK–6 neighborhood school, would review samples of their writing to gauge their academic progress.  \nThe first-person accounts, full of thoughts and feelings about mundane events, concerned her; the writing was shallow and vacuous. Today, nearly 10 years later, she still remembers one sample that epitomized just how little they were learning: a fourth-grader whose teacher had asked the class to write about a phenomenal experience in their lives wrote about a trip to a local shopping mall.  \nJennifer Dubin is the assistant editor of American educator. Previously, she was a journalist with the Chronicle of higher education. The photos above and on the following pages show students and teachers from P.S. 96 and Goldie Maple Academy in Queens, New York, using the Core Knowledge Language Arts Program.  \nThe school was not challenging students with enough nonfiction, nor was it asking them to write about the few informational texts they had read. As a result, a lack of science and social studies knowledge—which is really knowledge of the world—had left her students, many of whom were low-income, without anything really interesting to write.  \nBarrett-Walker did not blame her students, their parents, or her teachers. She knew they were not at fault. She blamed the curriculum. The school’s Balanced literacy and Writer’s Workshop programs had some fine components, but they did not pay enough attention to the quality and content of the texts children were reading, relied too heavily on reading comprehension strategies (such as finding the main idea and identifying the author’s audience), and put more emphasis on the process of writing than on what was being written. especially in the early grades, very little time was devoted to teaching the broad knowledge and vocabulary that make text understandable and give students engaging topics to write about.  \nAt Barrett-Walker’s previous school, where shewas an assistant principal, the administration had started to implement Core  \n34 AmEricAN EdUcATOr | FALL 2012  \nKnowledge, a content-rich curriculum for grades K–8 that outlines what to teach in language arts, geography, mathematics, science, and fine arts, but lets teachers decide how to teach these topics. She had also read The Knowledge Deficit: Closing the Shocking Education Gap for American Children, bye. D. hirsch, Jr., Core Knowledge’s  \nfounder, in which he explains how and why broad knowledge—not reading strategies—builds reading comprehension.  \nNot long after reading that shoppingmall story, Barrett-Walker sent four teachers at P.S. 96 to a Core Knowledge conference, and they returned excited by what they had learned.“The curriculum had so much substance,” she recalls them saying.  \nWhat it did not have was a component for explicitly teaching children how to  \nread. Although P.S. 96 adopted the Core Knowledge curriculum, that did not change how teachers taught reading and writing, particularly in the early grades. By third grade, most students had mastered decoding, but many students still struggled with reading comprehension. That all changed in 2008, when P.S. 96 decided to test out Core Knowledge’s new early reading program.  \nFive years ago, as a way to ensure that students not only learn to decode but also understand what they decode, the Core Knowledge Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes the Core Knowledge curriculum, created a language arts program for kindergarten through second grade. * The program includes two 60-minute  \nstrands: a “Skills Strand,” in which students learn decoding, encoding (writing), spelling, and grammar; and a “listening and learning Strand,” in which they engage with a wide variety offiction and nonfiction texts so as to build oral","cbCaiv7EXHGzxOTx","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiv7EXHGzxOTx","pdf",443106,"English","# Curriculum diagnosis and challenge\n## Writing quality and insufficient nonfiction\n# Core Knowledge approach\n## Balanced literacy and emphasis gaps\n## Knowledge building vs. reading strategies\n# The early reading program (K-2)\n## Skills Strand: decoding to grammar\n## Listening and learning Strand: texts for language and vocabulary\n# Pilot results and key findings\n## Higher test scores vs. comparison schools\n## Gains in background knowledge without decoding loss","[{\"question\":\"Why did Joyce Barrett-Walker believe her students’ writing was not improving?\",\"answer\":\"She observed that students were not challenged with enough nonfiction or with writing topics rooted in informational texts, leaving them without the world knowledge needed for engaging writing.\"},{\"question\":\"What core problem did the curriculum fail to address?\",\"answer\":\"The school’s programs relied heavily on comprehension strategies and emphasized the writing process more than the quality and content of texts, with too little time devoted to teaching broad knowledge and vocabulary.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the Core Knowledge K–2 reading program structure learning?\",\"answer\":\"It uses two 60-minute strands: a Skills Strand focused on decoding, encoding, spelling, and grammar, and a listening-and-learning Strand where students engage with fiction and nonfiction texts to build oral language, knowledge, and vocabulary.\"}]","More Than Words - An early Grades reading Program Builds Skills and Knowledge | PDF",1792074589,18]