Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome to a new school year! Last year was the first year that I used the Daily
Five method to facilitate literacy in my classroom and it was a success. I am EXCITED
to announce that we will continue embracing The Daily Five approach in my classroom!
Daily 5 is an organizational structure for literacy blocks to ensure that every
student is independently engaged in meaningful literacy tasks. These research-based tasks
will impact student reading and writing achievement, as well as help foster a love for
reading and writing. Students receive explicit whole group instruction and then are given
practice time to read and write independently while I provide focused, intense instruction
to individuals and small groups of students.
Currently, I am launching parts of the program one at a time, but when it is up and
running smoothly, students will:

Read to Self
Work on Writing
Read to Someone
Listen to Reading
Word Work

There are very specific behavior expectations that go along with each the Daily 5
program. We will spend our first weeks of school working intensely on building our
reading and writing stamina, practicing the behaviors of the Daily 5 and fostering our
classroom community. I will also spend time learning about your childs strengths and
greatest needs as a reader in order to best plan for each students instruction.
Your child will be taught many things such as how to select Good Fit Books or
books he or she can read, understand and is interested in. Most importantly, children will
spend most of their time actually reading with the Daily 5 program, which is best way to
improve literacy.
As you can see, I am excited about giving your child the opportunity to be
involved in a program that will have a positive effect on his or her learning. Please think
of our classroom as you visit garage sales or clean out your own childs bookcase. It is
my goal to make our classroom library as appealing as your favorite bookstore.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me. Thank you for being a
part of something powerful.
Sincerely,

Ms. Graham
cgraham@communitycharter.org

Information About Core Knowledge

Our Philosophy
Every Child Deserves Equal Access to Common Knowledge
The Core Knowledge Foundation is dedicated to the mission expressed in our mottoeducational excellence
and equity for all children. To make that mission a reality we offer detailed help and materials to schools,
teachers and parents; and effective advocacy grounded in scientific research to citizens and policy makers.
We believe that every person in a diverse democratic society deserves equal access to the common
knowledge base that draws together its people, while recognizing our differing traditions and contributions.
We believe that offering universal access to this shared knowledge is a primary duty of schooling, critical to
literacy, and to the closing of the achievement gap between ethnic and racial groups. Most important of all,
we believe that shared knowledge, a shared narrative, and shared ideals of liberty and tolerance are
indispensable ingredients for effective citizenship and for the perpetuation of our democratic institutions.

The Ideas that Drive Our Work

In all of its publishing, support and advocacy work, the Core Knowledge Foundation is guided by the
following principles:

Our work is not driven by ideology, but logically by science, history, and research.

For the sake of academic excellence, greater equity, and higher literacy, elementary and middle
schools need to teach a coherent, cumulative, and content-specific core curriculum.

The persistent gap in reading achievement in U.S. schools can never be reduced until the
knowledge gap is reduced. And the knowledge gap will not be reduced unless broad, rich content
knowledge is integrated into the many hours devoted to language arts instruction.

We recognize that every school and community is different, and each student and teacher has
individual interests and strengths. Schools teaching the Core Knowledge curriculum should still
have ample time over the course of the school year to address any additional state or local
requirements not reflected in the Core Knowledge Sequence.

An effective curriculum must be coupled with effective teaching. We believe teaching excellence
requires a mastery of subject matter, as well as the ability to engage students, build language
competency, use assessment to drive instruction, scaffold instruction to meet individual needs, and
provide targeted feedback to students to further shape their learning.

We need to see the reading comprehension problem for what it primarily isa knowledge problem. There is
no way around the need for children to gain broad general knowledge in order to gain broad general
proficiency in reading.
E. D. Hirsch, Jr.

http://www.coreknowledge.org/mimik/mimik_live_data/view.php?id=1833&record_id=16