Working with middle school struggling readers – fluency

What are the components of fluency for middle school students? While the term fluency in elementary years often focuses on the rapid decoding of words in and out of context, the component is more complicated in older students. When we speak about fluency in the upper grades, we mean: How do you know what older […]

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS)

And its role in secondary literacy education In education, we are used to “the next new thing.” MTSS is not that, though. It’s actually another iteration of 1965’s Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The past five and a half centuries have provided a few major revisions of that law: Kindergarten through eighth grade tended […]

So you wanted to be a literacy coach?

3 Actions to Start Your Year Hooray! You have been hired as a literacy leader! Perhaps that means your job title is literacy coach, reading coach, instructional coach, or even curriculum coordinator. No matter the title, though, your job is to move teachers forward in knowledge and practice. How do you do that without any […]

Is Reading Motivation Really the Issue?

Facing the CAN’Ts and the WON’Ts There are so many ways we say it: She would be fine if she would just read… I’m sure he can read, he just doesn’t want to… We can’t make them read… Kids just hate to read… These would make more sense if we inserted the phrase “string beads” […]

Great Word Games for Middle School Reading Classrooms

No matter the topic or age, research proves that having FUN improves the engagement and learning for students. This article suggests such things as rooftop meetings and even visiting a ball pit! While that’s a bit extreme, finding ways to incorporate laughter and fun is necessary in a secondary reading classroom, where student buy-in is […]

Five Ways to Help Middle School Readers

Follow this path to move students forward! This phrase has been used for decades: K-3, Learn to read; 4-12, Read to learn. It is meant to imply that decoding skills happen in elementary grades, and content-heavy comprehension happens in the older grades. However, this mistruth has grossly simplified the reading process and instruction. Young children […]

Working with Middle School Struggling Readers – Decoding Words

How do you know what older struggling readers need? When I started my work with middle school struggling readers, I assumed I would be working with students who had trouble implementing comprehension strategies. That part was true enough, but I discovered many of these students needed more than that – they needed word solving strategies. […]