February 2025

Building Background Knowledge, Celebrating Black History Month, Writing for Valentine’s Day and More!

In this issue: Background Knowledge / Children’s Books & Authors / Literacy at Home / In the Classroom / Sister Site Spotlight / Events & News

Building Background Knowledge

Background knowledge is essential for reading comprehension — the more you know about a topic, the easier it is to make sense of a text. Kids with less knowledge about the world will struggle more with reading comprehension than their peers, who can call on a deeper bank of information and vocabulary as they read. Dig into the resources below to find out how we can help our kids build knowledge during their elementary years.

Building Background Knowledge: A Primer

“Knowledge is not only cumulative, it grows exponentially. Those with a rich base of factual knowledge find it easier to learn more — the rich get richer.” — Dan Willingham, University of Virginia

Get the basics on why background knowledge is key to comprehension, and how we can support children’s acquisition of knowledge (and vocabulary) about the world.

Related resources:

• How Knowledge Helps (Dan Willingham)


• Reading Comprehension Requires Knowledge — of Words and the World (E.D. Hirsch, Jr.)

Classroom Strategy: Jigsaw 

With this cooperative learning strategy, each student has a chance to become the expert in a topic and share their knowledge. Go inside Cathy Doyle's second grade classroom in Evanston, Illinois to observe her students use the jigsaw strategy to understand the topic of gardening more deeply and share what they have learned.

Multimedia Text Sets: A How-To Guide

Text sets allow students to explore a common theme or subject as they build background knowledge and develop vocabulary related to the topic. Learn how to create engaging text sets for your classroom.

Sample text set: Take a look at this text set on friendship from our sister site, AdLit. It includes conversation starters, quotes to prompt discussions and writing, anchor texts, music and videos, additional texts and resources, supports for recording and developing students’ ideas, writing prompts, and wrap-ups. 

Integrating Literacy Instruction with Science and Social Studies

In this blog post, literacy expert Tim Shanahan shares recent research showing that teaching social studies and science units within the literacy block in grades K-4 can increase content knowledge and reading ability (including informational text reading skills and reading comprehension). Shanahan summarizes 7 insights and cautions to be drawn from these studies. For example: integrated instruction should do more than help students understand and remember facts — it should also teach kids to read more critically and build a deeper understanding of scientific and historical knowledge.

Expert Voices: Building Background Knowledge in the Classroom 

Literacy professor Dr. Nancy Frey talks about assessing background knowledge, the value of reading (independent and shared), how guest speakers in the classroom can help, and a warning about a “core set of knowledge.”

Watch our full interview with Nancy Frey ›

Children’s Books & Authors

Celebrating and Learning About Black History and Culture 

Nationwide, we celebrate Black History Month in February. But the history of Black people in the U.S. is woven throughout the fabric of our country — in our history, communities, science, literature, music, sports, and broader culture. Look for opportunities to include these rich histories, achievements, and stories throughout the year and across the curriculum!

Browse our themed booklists, video interviews, classroom activities, online history resources, and powerful documentaries. In our video interviews, you’ll meet Kwame Alexander, Kekla Magoon, Rita Williams-Garcia, Kadir Nelson, Jacqueline Woodson, and many other brilliant book creators. And don’t miss our interview with Rudine Sims Bishop, author of the seminal essay, Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors.

Our Video Interviews with Newbery Medal Winners

Over the years, we’ve had the incredible opportunity to interview many winners of the prestigious Newbery Medal and Honor Award.

In this video collection, you’ll meet some of your favorite authors, including Erin Entrada Kelly (Hello, Universe), Meg Medina (Merci Suárez Changes Gears), Matt de la Peña (Last Stop on Market Street), Christopher Paul Curtis (Bud, Not Buddy), and Kate DiCamillo (Flora & Ulysses).

See all of our author and illustrator interviews ›

Kid Lit Alert! Winners of the 2025 Newbery, Caldecott, Pura Belpré Awards, Coretta Scott King, and all of the other ALA Youth Media Awards will be announced on Monday, January 27 at 8:00 a.m. MT (10:00 a.m. ET) during ALA’s conference, LibLearnX. Watch the live webcast!

We ❤️ Writing 

Valentine’s Day is a perfect opportunity to practice creative writing skills — and take a fresh look at poetry, figurative language, and word play! Browse our themed booklists and learn how to make different kinds of valentines (with children’s author Laura Elliott as our guide).

Selected booklists for Valentine’s Day:

• Love Is in the Air
• Ten Books That Say ‘I Love You’
• Expressions of Love

New Blog Series! Learning to Read Around the World

Writer and former elementary school teacher Launa Hall has been traveling full time, visiting teachers and their classrooms globally. She’s writing a book about how children are taught to read around the world — and we’re thrilled she will be sharing her experiences with us here at Reading Rockets, on our Book Life blog.

Every month, we’ll get to travel with Launa to a new location — Bulgaria, Greece, Morocco, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and more — and she’ll offer up what she’s learned from schools she’s visited in these places and fellow teachers she’s met. Get ready for an eye-opening, fascinating, and heartening adventure!
First stop, Bulgaria.

Literacy and Learning at Home

Calling All Detectives and Explorers!  

Do you know any young sleuths, adventurers, or explorers? We’ve gathered up a great collection of books, activities, plus kid-friendly apps, podcasts, and websites for learning all about detectives and explorers. Make a spy periscope, create a cipher wheel, learn about geocaching, and more.

Discover these resources, plus lots more active literacy and learning ideas at our sister site Start with a Book!

Think Alouds to Build Comprehension

Children learn when they make connections between what they hear and what they know. One way that parents can help make these connections is called a think aloud, where you talk through your thoughts as you read. Here are three ways to use think alouds, with examples from some of our favorite kids’ books. (In English and Spanish, from our Growing Readers series)

Q&A: How can I help my third grader with comprehension?  

Third grade teacher Chelsey Short shares three simple ideas to help your child understand what they read — break down the story into smaller pieces, give a reason or purpose for reading, and encourage your child to look back in the text for answers. She also has some suggestions for making this practice more fun!

See more Q&As about reading in our video series Reading SOS.

My third grader reads accurately but very slowly. Should I be concerned?

In this brief video Q&A, literacy expert Kegi Wells explains that while reading pace matters, it is more important that your child understands what they are reading. Kegi offers simple ways to check for understanding and how to model expressive reading.

Get more expert answers to parent questions about reading and writing in this special Reading Rockets video series, Reading SOS.

Sister Site Spotlight: Colorín Colorado

How to Support Immigrant Students and Families: Strategies for Schools and Early Childhood Programs

This updated guide includes more than 50 strategies that educators, staff, and administrators can use to ensure that schools and early childhood settings remain welcoming places for immigrant students and their families. It also highlights some of the partnerships and collaborative efforts that can best support families facing or navigating uncertainty.

How Schools Can Partner with Immigrant Families: Tip Sheet

Learn more about four key steps that schools can take to partner with immigrant families. Print and share the tip sheet (PDF)

In the Classroom

Featured Strategy: Anticipation Guides

This comprehension strategy activates students’ prior knowledge, builds curiosity about a new topic before learning about it, and then checks for understanding after reading. Go inside Cathy Doyle’s second grade classroom in Evanston, Illinois to observe how Cathy uses the anticipation guide strategy to pique her students’ interest in the book they are about to read together, Jin Woo by Eve Bunting.

Related strategies:

• Concept Sort
• First Lines

Eight Ways to Help Kids Read Complex Text

“Could you give some specific examples of how to scaffold, when students are unable to read half the words on a page?”

Classroom Observations: We Should Do Them, So Why Don’t We?

“I realized that the biggest barrier was in my own head. I actually felt shy about going into classrooms for an in-depth look. It was as if there was a force field around each room ...”

As school leaders, we need to ensure that classrooms are running well, instruction is strong across classrooms, and grade levels are building upon each other’s work. That means being present where the learning happens — in our classrooms during daily instruction. Read our latest blog post from Margaret Goldberg, co-founder of the Right to Read Project and a literacy coach in a large urban district in California.

News & Events

60th Annual International Learning Disabilities Association Conference
February 27–March 1, 2025 | Orlando, FL

Plain Talk About Literacy and Learning
The Center for Literacy and Learning
February 12-14, 2025 | New Orleans, LA

The Reading League Summit
English Learners and Emergent Bilingual Students: What Do We Know and What Can We Learn?
April 22-23 | Chicago, IL

Want Better Teaching? Get Better Curricula.
Education Next

Top scholar says evidence for special education inclusion is ‘fundamentally flawed’
Hechinger Report

Does Teaching ‘Sight Words’ Contradict the Science of Reading?
Education Week (subscription)

Cultivating Writing Skills in Young Learners
Edutopia

Third grade is too late to assess student literacy
Fordham Institute Flypaper

3 myths about rural education that are holding students back
The Conversation

Iowa Gives Every G1 Student Decodable Books
Language Magazine

Is there a ‘right’ way to read?
National Geographic

Learners with disabilities benefit from more complex reading instruction, Stanford researchers say
Stanford Report