NORWALK, Conn. Changing the way students are taught to read is something the Norwalk Public Schools are considering in a possible curriculum change.
In a presentation made Wednesday night to the Board of Educations Curriculum Committee, the board and educators heard about a program called the Core Knowledge Sequence, which focuses on stressing context and background knowledge.
The district has been ordered by the state to adopt a comprehensive curriculum, said Mike Lyons, a Board of Education member. And it has to be done in the next three years.
The more you know, the more you are able to communicate and comprehend, Robert Pondiscio, communications director for Core Knowledge, said as a way to explain the basic principle of the program.
Children who come from wealthier backgrounds have more general knowledge of the world because they have more experiences, giving them the ability to understand what they are reading, he said. Whereas, children from lower income backgrounds dont have the same knowledge base to help them understand.
It is not enough to teach children what good readers do. We must also teach them what good readers know, Pondiscio said. It is not their fault it, is our fault because we insist on teaching reading as a transferable skill.
And Pondiscio said reading is not a transferable skill. To be considered a "good reader," a child must understand the context of what he or she is reading.
Alice Wiggins, executive vice president of the Core Knowledge Foundation, said the program is built in sequences. For example, she said a kindergarten class learns about Christopher Columbus. Before learning about Columbus, the students learn about Native Americans, plants and kings and queens, giving the students a base before learning about Columbus.
We assume our kids are getting all this content, but theyre not, Wiggins said.
Under the program, student would learn the same things at the same time, though Wiggins said each teacher may present it in his or her own way.
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