What Do We Know About Middle School Reading

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What Do We Know About Middle School Reading?

• Gains in reading performance slow at the same
  time that content area reading demands increase.
• Interest in books decline as students advance
  through school.
• For these reasons, adolescent literacy requires
  as much attention as beginning reading!

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What Happens in Middle School? 1. Much more
expository reading 2. Expectations for more
reading 3. Much less control of vocabulary
(concepts) 4. Assessments emphasize thinking 5.
Constructed responses
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How Are We Doing Meeting the Demands of Middle
School Readers?

• We could be doing better! According to NAEP, at
  Grade 8,
• 74 read at the Basic level
• 33 read at the Proficient level
• 3 read at the Advanced level
• This means that 1 out of 4 cant read at the
  Basic level!

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Who Are These Struggling Readers?

• The answers probably wont surprise you.
• More boys than girls
• From families with lower educational levels
• From poorer families
• From urban and rural areas

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How Can You Spot These Readers in Your Classroom?

• Hint It is harder than you think!
• They are the students who are
• Avoiding eye contact
• Disrupting the class
• Listening attentively
• Relying on their friends and classmates
• Forgetting their books
• Being especially friendly to you!

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What Are the Good Readers Doing That the Poor
Readers Arent?

• Good readers are reading.
• Good readers are thinking about what they read.
• Good readers are talking about what they read.
• Good readers are writing about what they read.

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What Else Do We Know?
The majority of middle school and high school
teachers do not see themselves as reading
teachers even when they teach subjects with
high reading demands! So, we need instructional
strategies that can be incorporated and adapted
across content areas.
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One Teachers Experience Using Think-Alongs
with Struggling Adolescent Readers With
apologies to my 8 a.m guinea pigs!
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• Where Were the Students When I Started?
• They were at risk of not graduating because of
  ISTEP
• They were bored and frustrated and trying to hide
  out in the classroom.
• They didnt know what good readers do while they
  read.

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• They Needed to Learn What Good Readers Do While
  Reading
• Good Readers
• Visualize
• Make and Revise Predictions
• Re-read to comprehend
• Question
• Summarize
• Make connections with personal experience
• Notice organizational patterns of text

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Does MCR Work With These Students?

• Modeling allows them to see that good readers use
  different strategies to comprehend
• Coached practice allows them to share their ideas
  in a nonthreatening way
• Reflection develops metacognitive awareness
• But dont be afraid to adapt this instructional
  strategy to your students needs

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What Did I Learn About Modeling?

• Model often
• Model varied strategies
• Demonstrate your enthusiasm
• Start with low readability-level texts with
  more action than description
• Start with short texts
• Ask directive questions (not What was I doing?
  but What was I thinking about while I read?)

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What Did I Learn About Coached Practice?

• Ask questions often
• Use summarizing frequently to start.
• Use structured questions (not just What are you
  thinking about now?)
• Start as a group (round robin reading)
• Move to pairs (one high/one low reader)
• Let students know you will call on them

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What Did I Learn About Reflection?

• Save individual written work for later
• Use structured questions (not just What are you
  thinking about now?)
• Right/wrong questions are okay as long as they
  are not being used for a grade!
• Ask literal and inferential questions

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What Did I Learn About Discussing Students
Answers?

• Continually go back to the text (What in the
  text made you think that?)
• Emphasize different ideas (That is interesting.
  I didnt even think of that idea when I read! I
  was thinking)
• Have students explain their answers to other
  students.

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What Else Worked?

• Activities with structure and purpose, that
  followed the MCR model!
• A lot of discussion (writing students ideas on
  the board) before and after reading
• Reading and writing with students
• Structured writing (instead of just practice or
  process writing!)

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Writing BEFORE
Over my winter break, I hanged out with my
friends. On Christmas I got lots of money cause I
didnt asked for nothing. I went snow plowing
with my dad a lot. He was teaching me how to do
it cause when I get my liesense this year Im
taking his spot over. He is going to put his plow
on my truck so I can take over. We help out John
Naylor who owns a trucking business.
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One Example of Structured Writing
How I Learned to_______________ One thing that
I am good at is __________________________________
_ In this paper, I am going to discuss the way I
learned to do this thing. I first did this
when I was ___________    
Topic Sentence Introduce the main idea of your
paper. Tell what the paper will be about.
Body Paragraph 1Tell when you started doing this
thing.
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  When I first started, I was not as good at
this thing as I am now. The way that I got better
was by ________________________   It took some
time, but I learned to be good at
____________________________. I hope this essay
helped you see how I learned to do this! 
Body Paragraph 2 Describe how you got better
here.
Closing Paragraph Your conclusion should repeat
the main ideas of your paper.
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Writing MODEL
One thing I am good at is changing diapers. In
this paper, I am going to discuss the way I
learned to do this thing. I first did this when
I was in a class for future parents. The teacher
was a nurse. She showed us how to change a
diaper. Then she had us practice on a doll. I
felt a little silly but because I was pregnant, I
knew this was something I was going to have to
learn.   When I first started, I was not very
good. The way that I got better was by
practicing.
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Writing AFTER
One thing I am good at is farming. In this
paper, I am going to discuss how I learned to
farm. I first did this when I was a little kid.
When I was little, my dad had some pigs, and I
always got up early to feed them. Ever since
then, I have lived in the country and loved doing
farm work. Now I get jobs helping other
farmers.   When I first started, I was not very
good. The way that I got better was by watching.
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What Gains Did I See?
I dont have numbers to report, but I liked the
way we did our writing because it made it easier
for me. It was actually fun! I liked those
reading and essay format things. They got me
thinking. You took a little stress off because
reading and essay writing werent my favorite
things to do. I could tell I just need to have
confidence in myself to do better in English.