I don’t have to be forced to read. I don’t have to be told to read. I just go on my own and read ’cause I want to, not just ’cause I need to.
– Julianna, 8th grader
Reacting to data we know too well (two-thirds of eighth graders read below proficient levels (NAEP, 2022), more and more states now mandate a focus on the science of reading beyond elementary schools. As a result, middle school leaders are seeking interventions aligned to the science of reading. Unfortunately, many of these interventions for older struggling readers have one thing in common – they’re boring!
To achieve academic success, adolescent readers must develop fluent decoding and inferential comprehension, while navigating complex text structures and building the stamina required to complete fiction and nonfiction texts. Importantly, though, middle school students – especially those who struggle with reading – also deserve interventions that engage them and treat them with respect. The research base on how people learn affirms this focus on engagement, relevance, and motivation. Therefore, effective interventions must address both the science of reading and student engagement. Based on our research and experience, we’ve identified a few key strategies to accomplish this. Below we provide examples to illustrate these strategies using one secondary intervention program designed for students who read two or more years below grade level, with an ESSA Tier I evidence of effectiveness rating: the Strategic Adolescent Reading Intervention (STARI).
The Word Recognition Strand
Do middle grades students still need direct instruction and practice with word recognition and decoding? Well, yes – but this learning must be engaging and age appropriate. So what does engaging, research-based instruction in word recognition and decoding look like for middle grades students?
- Decoding instruction should take place in the context of engaging, age-appropriate text, and in service of meaning making. Are your 6th graders impacted by “frenemies”? Are your 8th graders interested in sports? These are some of the high-interest topics that we’ve found effective in teaching decoding in STARI. The program builds students’ decoding skills so they can read complex, multisyllable words (Vaughn et al, 2022) by teaching skills like syllable chunking, and pulling a base word out of a longer word. Students practice these skills using words from the novels and nonfiction texts they are reading. This helps forefront the purpose of decoding – not to practice an isolated skill, but to be able to read the words in an engaging text.
- Fluency-building activities should be purposeful and engaging (Vaughn et al, 2022). Repeated readings of leveled texts help to build students’ fluency. In STARI, students engage in a two-day fluency routine, reading nonfiction texts on topics aligned with unit themes. For example, in the unit on immigration, students read passages about green cards and undocumented college students. Therefore, reading these passages not only builds fluency skills, but also builds background knowledge to support comprehension of core unit texts.
The Language Comprehension Strand
The purpose of reading is to learn, to connect and explore the written word. It’s critically important, especially for middle grades students, not to neglect this bigger picture in favor of an excessive focus on decoding. Even when older students need instruction and practice in foundational skills, it must be balanced with a focus on grade-level skills and standards, in order to accelerate students’ progress toward grade-level proficiency. This can be accomplished in the following ways:
- Teach students to self-monitor as they read (Vaughn et al, 2022). Often, older students who read below grade level are used to “reading” texts they can’t comprehend, so they pass their eyes over words without expecting to understand This habit needs to be broken, and students need to be taught to engage in frequent self-checks for comprehension.
- Develop students’ toolbox of comprehension-building practices (Vaughn et al, 2022). When students notice their comprehension breaking down, they should have a small repertoire of “fix-up” strategies to draw on. STARI teaches students to use the four evidence-based Reciprocal Teaching strategies (Palincsar & Brown, 1984): summarizing, clarifying, predicting, and questioning.
- Support kids to build all the skills needed for grade-level In addition to decoding and fluency, students need to build background knowledge and stamina in order to comprehend grade-level texts. Often, teachers worry that students can’t or won’t read silently when directed to do so. It’s important to build students’ reading stamina incrementally, asking them to read for only a few minutes at first, then gradually increasing the amount of text they are expected to read.
- Address grade-level skills and standards, even in intervention For example, in STARI, students read texts with accessible Lexile levels, but those texts are used to address grade level standards, like understanding figurative language, or describing complex characters’ motivations.
The Missing Strand: Engagement!
Most importantly, make it engaging!
- Engaging interventions are built around age-appropriate, culturally responsive Older students hate to read “baby books!”
- The questions that students are asked about those texts should be meaningful and relevant. Yes, it is important to ask literal questions to ensure comprehension, but don’t stop there! Students, even those who struggle with reading, should be asked inferential questions to support deep comprehension of texts. They should also be asked to state their opinions, and back them up with evidence from the text.
- And finally, let them talk! In STARI we ask students to debate who has the power in a friendship, or whether a star basketball player needs to follow his coach’s plan in order to be successful. STARI is a discussion-based intervention, in which students can bring their own background knowledge and lived experiences to discussions of text. This makes comprehension richer… and more fun!
In sum, when selecting a science of reading aligned intervention for your middle school students, be sure to consider word recognition, language comprehension and student engagement.
Margaret Troyer, EdD, is the Director of Literacy Research and Development at SERP Institute, and a former middle school English teacher and literacy coach.
Emily Hayden, PhD, is a Literacy Specialist, teacher educator, and former K-12 literacy teacher and administrator.
Kala Jones, PhD, is a Literacy Specialist, curriculum expert, and former K-12 educator.
References:
- National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). (2022). The Nation’s Report Card: Results from the 2022 mathematics and reading assessments. National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Washington, D.C.
- Palincsar, A. S., & Brown, A. L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1(2), 117-175.
- Vaughn, S., Gersten, R., Dimino, J., Taylor, M. J., Newman-Gonchar, R., Krowka, S., Kieffer, M. J., McKeown, M., Reed, D., Sanchez, M., St. Martin, K., Wexler, J., Morgan, S., Yañez, A., & Jayanthi, M. (2022). Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4–9 (WWC 2022007). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from https://whatworks.ed.gov/.