Core Knowledge Curriculum

To educate students in a way that fosters cultural literacy and an understanding of the world around them, Aspen Academy implements the Core Knowledge curriculum. Core Knowledge is:

• Based on work by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. and the series “What your 1st / 2nd /etc. Grader Should Know”
• Helps develop culturally-literate students through its many cross-curricular connections
• The content-based approach provides a strong academic foundation
• The coherent, sequential plan avoids curricular duplication and gaps

The Core Knowledge Sequence allows students to go beyond a basic awareness of people, places, and events in their community and into the global culture that surrounds them. The topics covered in the curriculum at each grade level promote a better understanding of the significance of these people and events, creating a larger, shared knowledge of a broad range of topics important to create a culturally literate individual.

Some of the topics covered in the Core Knowledge curriculum include:

• Phonics, Reading, Standards-Based writing curriculum using Writer’s Workshop, Spelling, Grammar, and Latin
• US and World History and Geography
• The Physical and Natural Sciences
• The Singapore Math curriculum
• Physical Education, Music, Art, and Spanish