The History Matters Campaign is a project of the Knowledge Matters Campaign. Literacy and history go hand-in-glove. And when educators experience the multiplier effect of evidence-based, knowledge-building instruction in these subjects, they are moved to prioritize instructional time for both. In this episode, host Barbara Davidson speaks with a New Jersey educator whose district has experienced this firsthand: Anthony Fitzpatrick, Assistant Superintendent for the Delsea Regional and Elk Township School Districts.
Anthony argues that history is far more than a standalone subject—it is the foundation for literacy, critical thinking, and informed civic participation. Drawing on his district’s experience implementing a knowledge-rich literacy curriculum, he describes how educators saw how much reading comprehension depends on students’ background knowledge. The district established a dedicated daily history block where students engage with complex historical texts, primary sources, discussion, and content-rich writing. This “double dose” of literacy and social studies strengthens vocabulary, deepens comprehension, and helps students build lasting knowledge.
Throughout the conversation, Anthony challenges the misconception that children must first learn to read before they can read to learn. Instead, he explains that reading skills and knowledge-building develop together. By studying history through rich narratives and multiple perspectives, students become more engaged readers, ask better questions, and develop the background knowledge needed to tackle increasingly complex texts.
Barbara and Anthony also discuss the importance of high-quality curriculum, teacher preparation, and professional learning in supporting this work. The episode concludes with a call for educators to reject the false choice between literacy instruction and content knowledge, arguing that history provides the meaningful context that builds stronger readers, more thoughtful learners, and engaged citizens capable of participating in a healthy democracy.
This podcast is produced by Knowledge Matters on behalf of the History Matters Campaign. Follow Knowledge Matters on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter/X. Search #historymatters to join the conversation.
Production by Tressa Versteeg. Original music and sound engineering by Aidan Shea.
Resources:
By Anthony Fitzpatrick:
- The Evolving Science of Reading: Building a Continuum from Foundations to Fluent Thinking. Inedvation. 2026.
- “Finding Time for History: How Building Knowledge in ELA Fueled Our Passion for the Past,” Knowledge Matters. 2025.
- Text InSPECtion on the Core: Close Reading Strategies for Unlocking Informational Text. Inedvation. 2015.
Wolf, Maryanne. Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World. Harper, 2018.
Episode Transcript
Anthony Fitzpatrick
Yes, history is messy. That’s the best part about it. And if we want a citizenry that can debate, can work their way toward a better society that is not going to be easy, then we have to give our students the knowledge and the ability to deeply study that knowledge early. We have to respect their cognitive abilities to get there.
Kristen McQuillan
Welcome to Season 2 of the History Matters Podcast. I’m Dr. Kristen McQuillan, Executive Director of Knowledge Matters. This season our hosts, Kyair Butts, Barbara Davidson, and Ebony McKiver, along with their guests, will tell the story of how elementary history instruction serves both literacy and civic goals.
Barbara Davidson
Hi, I’m Barbara Davidson, one of the hosts of the History Matters Podcast. I’m also President of StandardsWork, the parent organization for Knowledge Matters.
Today, I’m sharing my conversation with Anthony Fitzpatrick. Anthony is a former history teacher who now serves as the Assistant Superintendent for the Delsea Regional and Elk Township School Districts in New Jersey.
As you’ll hear in our conversation, Anthony is working to connect social studies with the Science of Reading. He passionately argues that building deep background knowledge through rich historical content is essential for improving reading comprehension across the K-12 continuum. I think you’re going to really enjoy this discussion!
Barbara Davidson
Anthony, I’m noticing a lot of interest in civics education right now, probably inspired by the 250th anniversary. But your interest in promoting history and social studies, including at the elementary level in particular, predates all of this. So why has promoting history been so important to you?
Anthony Fitzpatrick
You’re exactly right. The 250th anniversary has definitely brought civics and history back into the national spotlight, which is fantastic. But for me, this has never been about a milestone year or a temporary trend. My advocacy for history education is in its 27th year from my start as a high school history teacher, through the Teaching American History Grant days, and my in-district administrative roles.
History is the foundation of an informed, empathetic, and engaged citizenry. When we treat history as an afterthought, especially in the elementary years, we aren’t just skipping a subject. We’re depriving kids of the foundational context they need to understand how our society functions. If we want students to grow into adults who can meaningfully participate in democracy, we can’t wait until high school to give them the tools. It has to start when they’re young, curious, and naturally eager to understand the stories of how we got here.
Barbara Davidson
Well, I know you’ve got a great story about your decision as a district leader to prioritize history and social studies. So I’m wondering if you could talk just a little bit about that.
Anthony Fitzpatrick
Sure. So the renewed urgency really hit me in around 2023. It was in this new role as an assistant superintendent. When we rolled out our new ELA curriculum, ARC Core, we locked in a mandatory 120 minute daily literacy block. Now, a lot of people do that, but when we cleaned that block up, it forced us to confront a really hard truth that our unstructured social studies and science time was essentially a ghost in the machine. It was constantly being cut for assemblies, extra test prep.
But the real philosophical light bulb went off when I watched our fourth graders spend weeks deeply immersed in our American historical fiction unit and our sixth graders were exploring Greek and Roman myths. They weren’t just practicing isolated reading skills like “find the main idea” on a random worksheet. They were becoming domain experts. The vocabulary skyrocketed, their excitement was palpable. It became crystal clear that background knowledge isn’t a luxury or a supplement to reading comprehension. It’s the absolute engine driving it.
So that’s when we made the shift from a nice to have to a non-negotiable. And I think it’s aligning really well with the conversations that are happening all around us, this convergence of science of reading, cognitive science, learning science, and the realization that knowledge is at the root, not just of why we learn things, but how we learn things too.
Barbara Davidson
So you know what I find really interesting about that, Anthony, is that a lot of folks having come to that conclusion, reached that epiphany, would adopt a knowledge-rich ELA curriculumーand good on them for that for sureーbut stop there. So I just have to hear you tell that story. And was there ever that moment where you were sort of patting yourselves on the back and saying, “You know, this is good enough”?
Anthony Fitzpatrick
No, no. I don’t think we did the pat ourselves on the back and it’s good enough. I think what we realized is that the double dose is really what supercharges the learning. We know this in implementation science. We know this when we’re giving interventions for students in reading and math.
We need to know this with knowledge building as well, that if you have a significant literacy block, that’s great. It’s a wonderful start. It’s more than nothing. But then if you have a dedicated social studies and science block as well, you’re getting the double dose you need to cement the knowledge.
Barbara Davidson
So I think what our listeners would really appreciate hearing now is knowing a little bit about what teachers are actually doing with that 40 minutes a day that you all have given them to teach social studies.
Anthony Fitzpatrick
Sure. This is exactly where the rubber meets the road. We didn’t just add 40 minutes to the clock to do more of the same. We transformed what happened inside those minutes. So instead of opening a dry textbook and have students answer low-level comprehension questions, our teachers utilize that block for deep, narrative-driven history instruction.
So for the first 15 minutes, the teacher might lead an interactive read aloud or a close reading of a complex historical text, grade level, or a primary source document. Breaking down heavy concepts and explicitly teaching domain-specific vocabulary.
The next 15 minutes, students are actively engaging in structured text-based discussions or debates, wrestling with cause and effect relationships. For instance, looking at why a historical figure made a choice, not just what the choice was. And then the final 10 minutes, students are processing that learning through a targeted content-rich writing exercise.
Because the text isn’t watered down, we are engaging with the primary source documents or a grade level historical text, the 40 minutes have to be highly active, collaborative, and entirely focused on building a coherent mental roadmap of the past.
Barbara Davidson
Are you using a curriculum that’s been written by somebody else or are you all putting this curriculum together yourselves?
Anthony Fitzpatrick
We have put most of the curriculum together ourselves. But we do use the DBQ project for our primary sources because that gives our students the opportunity not just to read a single text, but to compare and contrast opinions across a text set, which helps reinforce the notion that history is full of diverse perspectives.
And, you know, IーI’ve said this a million times to teachers. If there was only one version of history, we’d only need one book about George Washington. Well, I guarantee there’s more than one book about George Washington. So what do different authors who wrote at different times from different perspectives have to say about George Washington?
So by giving students breadth and depth of history through primary sources, we can enrich the conversation, I think, in better ways.
Barbara Davidson
So I’m going to follow up by referencing the wonderful blog that you wrote and that was published on the Knowledge Matters website.
And in it you said that your teachers were teaching students how to read about history, but weren’t really teaching them history itself. So drill down here a little bit and tell me about the difference between those and what you saw before and what you’re seeing now.
Anthony Fitzpatrick
Sure, so there is this oversimplified framing of reading, and not just reading history, that you first have to learn to read and then you can read to learn. Cognitive science has debunked that. That as we are learning to read, we are using that skill to read to learn. It’s the “what” we’re trying to learn that deepens and enriches over time.
So with specific regard to history, if a child doesn’t have a basket of knowledge and vocabulary about a topic, all of the decoding skills in the world are not going to help them comprehend a complex text about it. When we build the historical knowledge, we’re simultaneously building stronger readers. So instead of reading a historical text simply to build reading skill, we’re reading this particular text to learn more about a topic, so we become conversant, interested and invested in it.
So, simply put these acts are not separate silos. History gives literacy its substance. And literacy gives students the keys to unlock the past. They have to feed each other constantly. And the more we pull them apart, the more that we do a separate literacy skills block that is devoid of context, we’re not able to see students transfer those skills.
Barbara Davidson
How are the students reacting to theーthat history block in particular being so much more substantive?
Anthony Fitzpatrick
Well, I think the most visible shift is you can see the appetite for knowledge in a way that you couldn’t before. You can see students who want to read a second, a third, a fourth book about a topic. And I would compare this to when a student finds that first great series book that they fall in love with. But now they’re picking up books that are not so much a series of history, but connected topics in history. That’s an exciting moment.
And so we begin to run out of books in the book basket about the American Revolution. And so it’s the best problem to have where a teacher will ask me, “Well, I need more books about the American Revolution.” Okay. I canーI will absolutely find money to make that happen. So kids are moving beyond just a fictional series that they love and they’re moving into that nonfiction, historical depth and exploring topics with enthusiasm.
Barbara Davidson
I love that. What is that time, as an administrator, what is that time when you’re going into that classroom look like? Does it feel differently?
Anthony Fitzpatrick
It’s more abuzz. We see students actively, what we call book shopping. We see them deeply engaged with text. And, and that’s so neat to see. And I think it’s something that maybe we took for granted for a long time.
Thatーthere’s this researcher who I quote often now, Maryanne Wolf. And she talks about “cognitive patience.” And I adore that term. Watching kids be patient with a topic and with a book and with history is one of the most silently powerful things that I’ve seen.
Barbara Davidson
So as a part of the Knowledge Matters History Matters school tour, we’ve now been to two districts that have adopted really great history and social studies curriculum. One in Louisiana that is using the Louisianaーor the Bayou Bridges curriculum and another in Arizona using the Core Knowledge History and Geography curriculum. And we heard from teachers in both of those locations about how the curriculum that had been created for them or that they were using really did support their developing this content knowledge.
Are you all filling that in when you’re making it yourself or how have you sort of approached the supports for teachers in developing that content knowledge? Or is it really just a matter of them knowing well the texts that they’re being asked to teach?
Anthony Fitzpatrick
At this point, it’s really knowing well the texts that they’re tasked to teach. There has been this fascinating resurgence of a recognition that history professional development is important. And is itーis it there the way it should be yet? No.
My hope is that with all the buzz around the low reading scores in the country, that we don’t revert back to prioritizing literacy skills for literacy skills sake at the expense of content rich professional development because I think the conversation is just starting to get in the right place where people recognize that there’s connective tissue.
And the reason why so many of the states who are improving are improving is because they recognize that these things are indeed connected. So we talk about a Louisiana that’s having some success in their ELA scores. Well, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they have a high quality social studies curriculum that’s going into place. So the people at the table for the conversations cannot let this fall off again the way I believe it did in the late 2010s.
Barbara Davidson
Well, I couldn’t have said it better myself. This is a big part of the reason why the Knowledge Matters campaign made the decision to put a particular spotlight on history and social studies.
And as you’ve said so well throughout this conversation, history is particularlyーit’s particularly sticky, it’s particularly engaging, it’s particularly critical. So I do believe that we’re at a point where that message and that understanding is gaining traction.
Anthony Fitzpatrick
So again, we have to plant these seeds early. It’s a priority. And not just history for history’s sake, but history for a connected society’s sake.
And, yes, history’s messy. That’s the best part about it! And if we want a citizenry that can debate, can work their way toward a better society that is not going to be easy, then we have to give our students the knowledge and the ability to deeply study that knowledge early. We have to respect their cognitive abilities to get there.
Barbara Davidson
So this last question may be unnecessary given what you’ve just said, but think for a moment about what your biggest wish might be. Or one big idea about teaching, reading, and building knowledge that you wish all elementary educators understood.
Anthony Fitzpatrick
My biggest wish for the elementary education community is to abandon the myth that teaching reading skills and building world knowledge are in competition with each other. They should be coherent with each other. If you want to build fluent, capable readers who can critically think, we absolutely have to stop giving them more isolated worksheets. We have to fill their classrooms with history, with science, with the rich narratives of our past.
The stories of our history are not just content to practice on. In many ways, it’s the essential raw material that builds an articulate, literate, and engaged citizenry. Build the knowledge and the comprehension will follow. And I am thrilled that the cognitive science world is finally talking about this. We finally realized there’s something that you have to do after a kid can decode. And that is building knowledge for deeper comprehension.
Barbara Davidson
To learn more about Anthony’s work or to get a copy of his books, The Evolving Science of Reading and Text InSPECtion on the Core, you can visit the links in our show notes.
Kristen McQuillan
This podcast is produced by Knowledge Matters. You can learn more about our work at www.knowledgematters.org.
To catch all of the History Matters Podcast, make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening.