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Happy Earth Day! Today—and every day—is the perfect time to spark curiosity and conversations about our incredible planet. Whether you’re in the classroom, learning at home, or exploring the outdoors, ReadWorks has free resources to help students build knowledge and vocabulary around Earth, the environment, and how we can take care of both.
🌿 Explore Earth Day Articles for Every Age From how trees communicate underground to the science of climate change, ReadWorks offers hundreds of engaging, high-quality nonfiction and fiction texts related to:
Browse K-12 Earth & Environment content on ReadWorks 🎨 Join Our Earth Day Illustration Contest! We’re celebrating Earth Day with our annual ReadWorks Illustration Contest! Invite your students to read any Earth-themed article on ReadWorks, then create an original illustration inspired by what they learned. ✅ Download your Earth Day Participation Certificate here: Earth Day Certificate 🖼️ Share your students’ reading or creating their illustrations on social media using: #EarthDayWithReadWorks We love to celebrate student work and the amazing ways you bring ReadWorks to life in your classroom!
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While debates swirl around the federal role in education, it is important to remember that we all have at least one shared goal: helping students learn to read at grade-level. Yet, bringing grade-level texts to all readers requires providing supportive instruction for those who are not yet confident grade-level readers, and this level of differentiated instruction is a very real challenge for teachers. ReadWorks has developed research-based resources to help teachers achieve our shared goal of grade-level reading for all. The Grade-level Gap First, let’s look at the research. The negative impact of working with only below-grade-level materials on students’ chances of becoming successful readers is clear. For example, when a fourth-grade student only reads second-grade texts, they have only practiced second-grade skills and, therefore, fall further behind their on-grade peers who are practicing fourth-grade skills (Shanahan, 2020). Researchers have labeled this the “Matthew effect:” the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer (Perc, 2020; Merton, 1968). Students need to work with grade-level texts to encounter the vocabulary, sentence structures, and genres that come with ever-increasing text complexity, even if they are not currently reading independently at that level. However, just because these findings are clear does not mean that it is clear to teachers how to support students in tackling grade-level work. In our 2022 research study with TNTP, we found that, in schools serving more students in poverty, students got less access to grade-level work. This builds on TNTP’s 2018 report The Opportunity Myth where researchers found that students—and especially students of color, those from low-income families, those with mild to moderate disabilities, and English language learners—spent the vast majority of their school days missing out on grade-appropriate assignments. Balancing Expectations and Support One of the key considerations is student motivation because tackling challenging reading is, well, challenging! And as humans, we are not naturally wired to want to do things that we think we might fail at. Motivation researchers have found that a sense of success can help us move past this fear of failure. A 2024 study, one of Edutopia’s top research studies of the year, found that “remembered success” can be a “straightforward, cost-effective way to increase the likelihood that students will choose to engage in and persist at [difficult] tasks” (Finn, Miele, & Wigfield, 2024). Providing easier material at the start or end of an assignment can give students the motivation to tackle more challenging material. How ReadWorks Promotes Grade-level Reading for All ReadWorks has distilled all of this critical research into two straightforward resources for teachers to use in their classrooms the very next day. First, our StepReads center grade-level texts for all readers alongside scaffolded texts as a tool for both accessing the grade-level text and developing a sense of success. When a teacher assigns StepReads, students receive both the grade-level texts and carefully written scaffold texts, the StepReads, that contain all of the content of the original text within less complex syntax and vocabulary. By reading the StepRead, students become familiar with the focus of the original text and more equipped, both with this background knowledge and with their feeling of success, to tackle the grade-level text, either through reading or listening (all ReadWorks texts come with audio). Our Article-A-Day routine also pairs easier texts on the same topic with grade-level texts to give students an on-ramp to tackling more challenging reading. With our simple filters, teachers can readily find the hundreds of Article-A-Day sets with these “boost” articles, and then with our digital classroom, they can assign them directly to the students who need the support. These resources are a win-win-win of research-based instruction:
Written by: Susanne Nobles Ph.D.Chief Academic Officer at ReadWorks  Kindergarten teacher Jenn faced a challenge familiar to many educators—a classroom full of little learners during a loud, stormy day. Teacher Jenn is located in western Pennsylvania, where weather can be wild and a common topic among her students. As thunder rumbled outside, one of her students, James, became especially frightened. Wanting to comfort and engage him, Jenn had an idea. She remembered that James was a strong reader for his age, so she logged onto ReadWorks and searched for Kindergarten level reading passages about thunder, lightning, and weather. Not only was James instantly engaged and distracted from his fears, but he also built his confidence and background knowledge on the very thing that had scared him. Learning about the science behind storms helped him feel more at ease—and he even got in some extra reading time! Moments like this remind us of the power of reading to transform emotions, spark curiosity, and provide comfort—all while building essential literacy skills. Click on the text or the images below to see the passages the teacher Jenn used to help James: Want to find the perfect ReadWorks passage for your students? Explore our free library today. For years, we've been hearing from teachers that they need quality resources to support their multilingual learners. After careful development, we've brought together teacher requests and the research to create Spanish-English Paired Texts for multilingual learners. Teachers have told us that in their classrooms, their multilingual learners come from a variety of different backgrounds. They come into the classroom with different language skills. And they're taught in a variety of different settings, from one-on-one, to small groups, to integrated classrooms. This is in line with the research as well. Additionally, reading comprehension research shows that students understand what they are reading better if they know more about the topic. Research also shows that any language is an asset when learning another, reading comprehension skills are transferable, and translation alone is not a strong support. We designed a product that capitalizes on students’ existing language skills by building background knowledge in the Spanish language first. This gained background knowledge can then bridge to English reading comprehension. ReadWorks Spanish-English Paired Texts consist of three components:
In line with the Science of Reading, students can read the Spanish text to build background knowledge and vocabulary in the student’s home language first. Both the Spanish and English passages use the same vocabulary words. Next, students read a text in the English language on a similar topic. Finally, they answer the Question Set for the English passage to deepen reading comprehension. ReadWorks Spanish-English Paired Texts are written by diverse Spanish speakers who are representative of students. They also offer differentiation features such as human audio by Spanish speakers. Spanish-English Paired Texts in the Classroom Prep
What’s on the Way for Fall 2025? ReadWorks is constantly working to improve our products, and SEPTs are no exception. Here's what's on the horizon for SEPTs:
Create your ReadWorks account or make sure you are signed up to received our emails to know when all these new features go live!
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 | We are thrilled to bring back the Earth Day Illustration Contest for another year! This Earth Day, April 22, 2025 we're inviting students in grades 2-5 to bring ReadWorks passages to life through art! The contest is hosted by our wonderful content partner The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to encourage young readers to reflect on what they read about animals, conservation and our planet! |
How to Participate
- Read and Reflect: Students will select and read an Earth Day-themed passage from ReadWorks, written by our NFWF experts. These texts are designed to spark curiosity and highlight environmental issues.
- Get Creative: After reading, students will create an original illustration inspired by the passage. Artwork can be in any medium—crayons, paint, markers, or digital designs—and should capture the essence of the text in a creative, meaningful way. (Sorry, we will not accept any AI generated images)
- Submit Your Entry: Teachers, parents, or guardians can submit student entries online by the contest deadline midnight on April 30, 2025.
There are some great prizes and our judging panel will award one winner per grade level!
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Important Dates to Remember
- Earth Day: April 22, 2025
- Submission Deadline: April 30, 2025
- Winners Notified: May 20, 2025
- Winners Announced: Late May 2025
For full contest details, submission guidelines, and to access the Earth Day passages, visit our Earth Day 2025 Contest Page.
We can’t wait to see the incredible artwork your students create!
