How each lesson works

Reading & Writing follows the Core Knowledge Language Arts units: each unit reads one book — history, science, poetry or a classic story — and builds writing, grammar, morphology (word parts) and spelling around it.

1. Teacher’s lesson plan — read it first. It has the steps, timing and what to say, straight from the Teacher Guide.
2. Words to know — go over the new words before reading.
3. Read — the chapter’s Reader pages are right in the lesson, with a text version too. A few units read a book that is not openly licensed; the lesson tells you what to read and where to find it.
4. Talk it over — questions to ask, with answers for the teacher hidden under each one.
5. Activity Book pages — print and complete them.
6. Each unit ends with a Pausing Point (review pages and answer keys) and a words quiz.

Plan on one lesson a school day — about 60 to 90 minutes — and split long lessons over two days. This course has 92 lessons in 6 units, which fills a school year at that pace.

The units

• Unit 1: They Call Me Güero — 16 lessons and a quiz
  For parents: This unit reads They Call Me Güero. The book is not included here: borrow it from your library or buy a copy before you start (Core Knowledge lists it on the unit page).
• Unit 2: Early American Civilizations — 16 lessons and a quiz
• Unit 4: The Renaissance — 20 lessons and a quiz
• Unit 5: A Midsummer Night’s Dream — 16 lessons and a quiz
• Unit 6: The Reformation — 11 lessons and a quiz
• Unit 7: Poetry — 13 lessons and a quiz
  For parents: Some poems and stories in this unit belong to other publishers and are printed in the Teacher Guide by their permission, so the guide is not copied here. Each lesson links to the free Teacher Guide on the Core Knowledge site.

Not included: Unit 3 (Adventures of Don Quixote), Unit 8 (Native Americans), Unit 9 (The Science of Breakable Things). Core Knowledge shares these units free, but their Teacher Guides are not openly licensed, so they cannot be copied here. Unit numbers follow Core Knowledge, so you can match them to the Core Knowledge site.