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.