Grow confident, curious readers
Rooted in Reading is built around high-quality picture books. Each week, one carefully chosen read-aloud anchors your comprehension, vocabulary, grammar, and writing lessons, so students go deeper with every reading.
Loved by teachers across the country
Based on Teachers Pay Teachers sales and ratings and a summer 2025 survey of 545 teachers who use Rooted in Reading.
What is Rooted in Reading?
Rooted in Reading is a complete reading curriculum for Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade classrooms. You read a purposefully selected picture book aloud, and your students engage in rich discussion before, during, and after the reading with thoughtful book questions.
The learning continues all week. Every lesson connects back to the same mentor text, so students analyze it, make connections, and respond in meaningful ways. Comprehension skills spiral throughout the year, which gives students plenty of exposure and practice. Skills are never taught in isolation.
Every day also includes a short Daily Deep Dive with a mentor sentence from the book.
The research behind it
Scarborough's Reading Rope shows that skilled reading weaves together word recognition and language comprehension. Rooted in Reading is designed to strengthen every strand of language comprehension.
Paired nonfiction readers and a wide range of picture books build knowledge about science, history, people, and places.
Rich, carefully chosen words each week with vocabulary cards, picture supports, journal prompts, and games.
Weekly grammar lessons and the Daily Deep Dive mentor sentence teach sentence structure in context.
Book question cards and guided discussions ask students to infer, predict, and explain their thinking.
Students explore genres, story elements, text features, and author's craft across many types of texts.
Rooted in Reading is designed to work alongside a systematic phonics program. Kindergarten, 1st grade, and the 2nd Grade 2nd Edition also include supplemental phonics activities.
“Research has demonstrated that the most effective read-alouds are those in which children are actively involved in asking and answering questions and making predictions rather than passively listening.”
“Written context lacks many of the features of oral language that support learning new word meanings.”
“Children are provided a shared frame of reference, a path for taking their understanding forward in company with each other.”
Results teachers see
Shop Rooted in Reading
Each yearlong bundle includes every monthly unit with lesson plans, book question cards, vocabulary, grammar, nonfiction readers, and writing activities.
In teachers' own words
“One student went from being scared of participating, to really wanting to share connections to other texts, to actively trying out answers in discussions.”
“Our students were locked in to the read-aloud like nothing we had seen before. We loved it so much, we shared it with our K and 2nd grade teams, who also began using the lessons.”
“One of my lowest readers set a goal to raise her reading level every two weeks, and she did. She started 2nd grade on level A and was at grade level by the end of the year.”
“Now we use it for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades. The 4th and 5th grade teachers love how prepared our incoming students are.”
Free download
Sharing Rooted in Reading with your principal or grade-level team? This free 20-page guide gathers everything in one place.
Meet the authors
Amy is an educator who is passionate about providing students with engaging and effective standards-based lessons. During her years in the classroom, she taught fourth, first, and second grade and served as an ELA intervention teacher for fourth and fifth grade students.
Katie has 13 years of experience teaching first and second grade and is currently a first grade teacher. She is passionate about helping children of all ages fall in love with reading through engaging texts and authentic reading opportunities.
Questions teachers ask
Rooted in Reading is a reading program that can be used as a supplement or as your main reading curriculum. It is always best to look at the requirements of your state, district, and school when selecting lessons for your classroom.
Rooted in Reading focuses on one read-aloud each week so students can deepen their understanding, focus on the structure of the story, and use the reading strategies and skills we match with that story.
Yes. Rooted in Reading focuses on the language comprehension strands of Scarborough's Reading Rope: background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures, verbal reasoning, and literacy knowledge. In our 2025 survey, 75% of teachers said it mostly or fully supports the comprehension strand of the Science of Reading.
Rooted in Reading is designed to work alongside a systematic phonics program. Kindergarten, 1st grade, and the 2nd Grade 2nd Edition also include supplemental phonics activities.
Just one. Rooted in Reading is built around a read-aloud, where the teacher reads the book to the students. As you read, you model fluency, expression, thinking aloud, and understanding a text. Students then carry those best practices into their own independent reading.
Most reading standards are not meant to be tackled only during independent reading. In fact, we can't accurately assess students' independent comprehension based on one story, because they are all reading at different levels.
Students should also read books on their own level so they can apply what they learn through Rooted in Reading. This can happen during guided reading with leveled readers. Rooted in Reading also includes reading passages and nonfiction readers that work well for independent or partner reading.
Grades can be taken on the comprehension quizzes, reading passages, vocabulary activities and assessments, grammar activities, and interactive notebook components.
You are welcome to send the book list home with families, but providing a copy of each book for every student isn't realistic and would be very expensive. Many of the books can be found as read-aloud videos on YouTube by searching the title.
One of the most important parts of Rooted in Reading is diving deep into the story with students during class. The book is read more than once each week, and students focus on it every day, so they get plenty of exposure to the story with their teacher.
Look through the lesson plans and activities each week, pull out what matches your standards and classroom needs, and focus on those first. Use the other activities during ELA centers or when you have extra time. We include a lot so you have everything you need, and there is always more than enough.
Most teachers in our survey use Rooted in Reading for 30 minutes or more each day. The weekly routine stays predictable, so students know what to expect while each new book keeps the activities fresh.
No. You can switch books around to match your scope and sequence. Some books are seasonal or holiday related, but the others can be taught at any time of year.
There are 40 weeks of lesson plans in Rooted in Reading, and most schools are in session for 36 to 38 weeks. We suggest outlining when you want to teach each story. You'll have a few extra books that can be moved into December or wherever you need them.
Both editions are complete yearlong bundles. The 2nd Edition includes supplemental phonics activities. The 1st Edition is the original 2nd grade bundle with 40 weeks of read-aloud lessons.
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