April is a month of celebrations. Seeds, bunnies, and birds are on the move. Read about a bird that makes its new home in an unusual place and about animals as they splash in and around ponds and the farm. Join a fancy féte or two. And since April is also National Poetry Month, look for a favorite poem to read together from one of these collections. Whether you pick a poem or a poetically told tale, make the month special by sharing a book or two with someone.
Social awareness is the ability to empathize, understand, and engage with people from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. These books explore characters and stories about opening up your heart and mind to our diverse world. This booklist is part of our Social-Emotional Learning series.
Reading instruction should help kids to develop metacognition when they’re reading, and involving students in self-evaluation can be an important part of instruction towards that goal.
Teaching reading comprehension means improving students’ abilities to read other texts on their own with greater understanding. A 2025 report looks at 66 studies to better understand recent trends in reading comprehension instruction.
Texts that are challenging and that represent a wide range of genres and content areas need to play much bigger roles in comprehension instruction. These texts expose students to rich content and vocabulary and can help build knowledge.
