Teaching Reading in the Middle Grades: Understanding and Supporting Literacy Development

Unlike any other text, Teaching Reading in the Middle Grades provides a balanced readable analysis of recent documents developed by professional organizations, researchers, and government agencies, including the National Council of Teachers of English, the International Reading Association, and the National Reading Panel. With its careful balance of the different dimensions presented in current research outlining that the teacher, not only the method, is a crucial factor in student achievement, this text helps students grasp the scope and complexity of student achievement in Literacy.

This thought-provoking text supports the efforts of teachers and students working to achieve new and higher standards of reading proficiency in grades 4 to 8.

Unlike any other text, Teaching Reading in the Middle Grades provides a balanced, readable analysis of recent documents developed by professional organizations, researchers, and government agencies including the National Council of Teachers of English, the International Reading Association, and the National Reading Panel, The text articulates standards for proficient reading performance and for effective instruction and reflects on how these standards provide a useful synthesis of current research and practice about teaching methods. With its careful balance of the different dimensions presented in current research outlining that the teacher, not only the method, is a crucial factor in student achievement, this text helps students grasp the scope and complexity of student achievement in literacy. Teaching Reading in the Middle Grades is organized in two parts—understanding literacy development (Part I) and supporting literacy development (Part II)—and incorporates various classroom routines throughout the book. Ideal as a main text or a reference guide for teachers, this flexible textbook is intended for reading and language arts teachers in middle school settings who are trying to help their students become better readers and writers. It also teaches both pre-service and practicing teachers how to meet the specific needs of all the teachers who have been given responsibility for developing the proficiency of readers in the middle grades.

Praise for Teaching Reading in the Middle Grades:

“The major strength of this manuscript is the readable nature of the material. It is cutting-edge, essentially accurate, and easy to read at the same time. This text is readable and very practical. Most concepts that are introduced are thoroughly developed and the writer also provides many suitable examples of how to apply the material. It's refreshing to read a text that explicitly mentions English Language Learners (ELL) as opposed to mentioning the obvious fact that reading texts should reflect a diversity of cultural experiences or some other such generic admonition.”
—Paul L. Markham, University of Kansas

“The discussion of scaffolding is among the best I have read. It's clear and comprehensible. Few authors directly address the confusion between teaching strategies and reader strategies. I love the transition between read-alouds and oral reading by students…I look forward to quoting the authors in the future when I do presentations on oral reading strategies. Hats off to the authors for modeling the pattern guide with a primary source! This is the first textbook in which I have seen the pattern guide used with this type of reading/listening material.”
—Lois E. Huffman, North Carolina State University