In this paper we provide the rationale and foundation for the building and sharing knowledge key practice for the "CBAL"™ English language arts competency model. Building and sharing knowledge is a foundational literacy activity that enables students to learn and communicate what they read in texts. It is a strategic process that involves the integration of five key components or phases. Before reading, students "activate their relevant background knowledge" to help set learning goals, identify relevant information, and ask guiding questions that set the context for learning. During reading, students "understand the text" by using a host of strategies to construct a coherent mental model of the text content that is consistent with their background knowledge. Students "clarify meanings" of unknown words and concepts as they engage in metacognitive and self-regulated learning. After reading, students "consolidate" what they have read by using a variety of reading strategies that strengthen the representation in long-term memory. Finally, students "convey" what they have read in writing, speaking, or other representational formats to reflect communication goals and the intended audience. Collectively, the building and sharing knowledge key practice is intended to both model skilled performance and help identify component skill weakness. In this paper we outline the major features of the key practice as well as address potential advantages and challenges of the approach.