Knowledge, Literacy, and the Common Core

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represent a fundamental shift toward the inclusion of more informational texts and related instruction, beginning in kindergarten. It would be possible to respond to the call for more attention to informational texts in the CCSS by simply changing the balance of different text types used for instructional purposes. In this article, we discuss why we should instead focus on using the opportunity of reading more informational texts to build students' disciplinary and world knowledge. We suggest that the critical message of the CCSS is the need to support students in developing knowledge for and through reading. We describe themes from the existing research about the relationship between knowledge and reading comprehension and describe critical dimensions of knowledge-enhancing English Language Arts Instruction.