Volume 1
A History of the United States: Precolonial to the 1800s
Volume 2
Modern Times–Late 1800s to the 2000s
Engaging, Challenging, and Thought-Provoking New Features!
The Student Volumes provide traditional narrative text and high-quality images. Interspersed with the text and images are three new features:
- Think Twice boxes pose questions for students to answer, either in writing or in oral discussion. These questions prompt a deeper analysis of the text.
- Find Out the Facts boxes prompt students to conduct research on a specified topic.
- Writers’ Corner boxes present students with writing tasks, such as essays, reports, and creative compositions.
The Teacher Guide, contains the already established elements, such as the Daily Check For Understanding and Additional Activities. In addition there are also new features.
- The Learning Lab provides additional time for students to complete the new Student Volume features, before the chapter is wrapped up.
- A Talk it Over opportunity encourages discussion or debate, either in the Guided Reading Support, or in the Additional Activities.
- When Primary Source documents are used within a lesson, the importance of such resources is highlighted.
- Finally, select American History chapters offer opportunities for Civic Action and involvement. This part of the CKHG series feature, “The Pathway to Citizenship,” focuses on the foundational knowledge students need in order to become literate citizens.
These materials are designed for a full year use in Middle School. The complete U.S. History text can be used in either 7th or 8th grade for schools following the Core Knowledge Sequence.
[button]Volume 1 Table of Contents[/button]
[button]Volume 2 Table of Contents[/button]
Meet the Authors
Dr. Andrea Oliver
Dr. Oliver was awarded a Doctorate in History, with a concentration on 20th Century Intellectual and African American History, at Florida State. Dr. Oliver is an award-winning educator, with over twenty-five years of experience. For five years, Dr. Oliver was the Coordinator of Teacher Education at Tallahassee Community College. Dr. Oliver was recognized as one of sixty community college professors nationwide with the Excellence in Teaching Award at the National Institute for Organizational and Staff Development (NISOD). Dr. Oliver is currently working on a book about the first Black valedictorians and salutatorians of formerly segregated Southern schools.
Dr. John Recchiuti
Dr. Recchiuti studied at Wesleyan University and at Warwick University, U.K., before earning a Doctorate in History at Columbia University. He has taught at the University of Michigan, Columbia University, and New York University. He is the Saffell Endowed Chair in Humanities at the University of Mount Union, and a member of the National Council for Education. His 2007 book, Civic Engagement, was nominated for the Bancroft and Parkman prizes.
This year, as schools are tasked with changing their modes of instruction delivery from face to face to a virtual or hybrid model, electronic books (“e-books”) can offer students unique experiences with texts. In some cases the e-book simply serves as a digital version of a curriculum text or trade book that students can access on a tablet at school or at home. In other situations, the e-books afford interactivity, such as links to vetted websites. Some e-books even have the ability to provide students with access to a text that otherwise would be beyond their grasp due to a language barrier or disability. The Core Knowledge Foundation accepted the challenge to create the option of an e-book format for our Core Knowledge History and Geography (CKHG) and Core Knowledge Science (CKSci) Student Readers, as well as Core Classics for our schools. When designing the Core Knowledge Library of Student Reader e-books in Partnership with Fathom Reads, we set out to offer students all of the options listed above and much more.
For children who struggle with reading grade-level texts, or for those with visual impairments, e-books with audio supports can provide access to text content. The e-books in the Core Knowledge Library e-booknot only offer students the ability to listen to the pronunciation of select words, they also provide students the option of hearing the entire story read aloud. Students can also prompt the e-books to read aloud the vocabulary and questions in the callouts.
The Core Knowledge Library e-books provide students the option of reading (or listening) to the text in either English or Spanish. Offering Spanish-speaking students the opportunity to access the history and geography content through their native language serves as a crucial step in building their knowledge base around a topic.
Adding interactivity to e-books transforms the experience with the text from passive to active. This can include embedded interactive content or links to outside sites that provide students with a closer look at a particular event or concept. The Core Knowledge Library of e-books are filled with interactive opportunities for the reader. Whether its third graders exploring a photo gallery of Native American pottery, fourth graders listening to the poem “The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, or fifth graders “experiencing” the start of the Civil War at Fort Sumter via video simulation, the supplemental activities made available through the e-books deepen students’ engagement with text content.
While e-books can be used as part of the core instruction, if they incorporate a wide range of functionality they can serve as effective independent instructional tools. Since our initial release of ten CKHG American History titles in October of 2019, teachers and parents report that some of the ways they use the Core Knowledge interactive e-books include: as part of listening centers for students to review a previously taught chapter, for struggling readers as added support, as homework for additional exposures to the text and content, and even used in Zoom whole class discussions.
Core Knowledge Mathematics™ is the newest subject-area to be added to the Core Knowledge Curriculum Series™, with our immediate focus on the middle grades in 6–8. Based upon the highly-rated Illustrative Math and Open Up Resources OER curriculum, CKMath offers students the opportunity to develop conceptual understanding and procedural fluency while they work with an adult to apply math in the real world. Comprehensive Teacher Guides support educators in orchestrating productive mathematical discussions and ensuring mathematical success for all students. Available now: 
Core Knowledge History and Geography
Core Knowledge Language Arts
Over 100 Core Knowledge Language Arts™ units for 
Core Knowledge Science