Words That Empower: Boosting American Strength Through Vocabulary
Brooke Toussaint
Unlock the power of vocabulary to transform your lessons! In this engaging session, we’ll explore how rich terminology fosters critical thinking, deeper connections, and stronger comprehension for students. Learn strategies to integrate key vocabulary into exciting, hands-on activities—like life-size human body models and multimedia family interviews—while reinforcing concepts through meaningful formative assessments. Join us to discover innovative ways to boost student engagement, enhance learning retention, and bring fresh ideas back to your team.
Innovating K-2 Classrooms with CKLA
Camy Stirling and Michelle Peterson
Imagine a classroom where students actively engage, share ideas, and make meaningful connections through a rich vocabulary. This session will show you how to effectively use vocabulary to enhance comprehension, critical thinking, and student ownership of their learning, with exciting activities like creating healthy meals or building life-size human bodies. Join us to explore strategies for integrating vocabulary and formative assessments that will help your students make personal connections to the material and achieve lasting academic success.
Backward Blueprint: Aligning State Standards and Success Criteria with a Knowledge-Based Curriculum
Christie Olsen
Unlock the transformative power of backward planning to elevate your teaching and align state standards with a knowledge-based curriculum! In this session, you’ll discover how to design purposeful lessons, assessments, and strategically aligned activities that meet your educational goals. Walk away with practical strategies to create clear success criteria, align standards with content, and enhance both instruction and student outcomes.
Helping Students Become Deep, Critical Thinkers
Gretchen Holland and Katie Salinas
Discover how to help students think deeply and make meaningful connections with historical content using the Depth and Complexity Framework! In this session, you’ll explore a Problem-Solution-Effect model to enhance your Core Knowledge lessons, featuring a sample from the 5th-grade Civil War unit. Walk away with a fully-paced unit, slides, and resources to implement immediately, along with strategies to deepen students’ understanding through effective questioning and engaging discussion.
Core Knowledge Party: A Step-by-Step Guide to Planning Engaging Culminating Activities
Ivette Orama and Heather Daniels
Imagine 160 students in Asian costumes visiting 6 themed classrooms, guided by 40 parent volunteers, sharing their knowledge of ancient Asian civilizations for 2 hours. You, too, can plan and host such a memorable event! In this session, we’ll explore online tools to help you design a culminating activity that brings ancient Asia to life for elementary students and their parents. By the end, you’ll be able to plan the event, find funding sources, and prepare to host an unforgettable experience. Join us as we take you on a tour of our culminating activity.
The Knowledge Revival: Developing and Implementing Curriculum for Deeper Thinking
Dr. Dylan Wiliam
Join us for an enlightening session that explores why a knowledge-rich curriculum is key to bridging achievement gaps. Based on the groundbreaking research in Developing Curriculum for Deep Thinking, this session will provide evidence from psychology and education to demonstrate how Core Knowledge enhances reading comprehension, critical thinking, and creativity. Leave with actionable strategies to build a more coherent, knowledge-rich curriculum that empowers students to succeed in an information-rich world.
Introducing the CK Free Library—From the Bookshelf
Rosie McCormick and Sophie Nunnally
Join us for a session on the new, free CK initiative, From the Bookshelf, launched in March 2025 to enhance Core Knowledge curriculum materials. This online library features the Voices in History biography series, connecting directly to subjects like Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA), History and Geography (CKHG), and Science (CKSci), with diverse and engaging stories for independent readers aged 8 and up. The first book collection, Tales from Latin America and the Caribbean, introduces readers to folklore and culture, perfect for integrating into elementary language arts and social studies.
Core Knowledge Science K-5: Choices for a Varied Curriculum and for Scientific Literacy
Dr. Dan Franck
Join us for a deep dive into the Core Knowledge Science offerings for grades K-5. This session will explore the K-5 science units, including human biology, computer science, and Science Literacy, and how you can seamlessly integrate these into your existing curriculum. Attendees will also be introduced to CKSci new “Science in Action” series, featuring inspiring biographies of young, active scientists and their journeys from elementary school to their current work. Throughout the session, we’ll discuss the importance of early science education, the role of factual knowledge in building scientifically literate citizens, and the challenges schools face in prioritizing science education. Participants will engage in curriculum-based activities to bring back to the classroom.