I love connecting with teachers and coaching teachers through the issues and pain points that come with serving students in middle school English / Language Arts.
I’ve had a couple of questions recently about what to do with students reading below grade level in middle school. It’s an issue that permeates many classrooms throughout the country, so here are some ideas I’ve been testing, implementing, and sharing.
I’m sharing this with you here because it’s a universal problem and I know many teachers can relate to it and hopefully learn a few strategies related to how to teach an on grade-level novel and other types of reading materials, too.
How to Teach a Grade-Level Novel to Below-Level Readers in Middle School English / Language Arts class
Here’s my advice that will help with any novel as well as with many other types of things you’ll read in class with your students:
So first of all, let the kids guide the learning that happens in your classroom rather than stressing too much about the standards. Choose one main standard each day and write it on your board in case someone “important” walks in and wants to see your standard 🙂
* Otherwise, here’s what I mean by “let the kids guide the learning” and this is what you can do with the book or reading passage / selection you’re teaching:
– Talk to your kids about how good readers look at the pages first before just reading (How many pages? How long? Is there a lot of dialogue or not a lot of dialogue? Are the paragraphs long or short?) Let them notice those things and tell YOU about what they notice. Let them talk about it!
– Tell the students to look over the words (not read—just look through) the first 2-3 pages. Have them call out words they aren’t sure about, like what they’re not sure how to pronounce or what they’re not sure of the meaning on. You can write these on the board and once you have a few up there, read the sentence aloud that has the word and then talk right then and there about the meaning. This will prepare them to be able to handle the meaning once they get to it again when they read. Plus, this creates a level of “safety” in the classroom so your students know that it’s ok to not know everything.
– Let them know that you’ll read it with them and that you won’t just leave them alone with it. Play up the “we’re doing this as a team” concept.
– Then begin reading. Make it interesting and dramatic as you read. Model what good readers do (stop and think aloud, wonder about things out loud, etc.)
Every so often, pose a question or a “think aloud moment” and tell them that you’re going to ask a question about what you just read and that they have 20 seconds (or however long) to discuss the answer with a partner.
Then you can talk about the answers as a class. Make sure the questions you ask ARE tied to your standards. For instance, you might ask a question about the setting or about how the setting sets the mood or “feeling” of that particular part of the book.
– You can get the kids more involved at this point by telling them that you need help reading. No, you DON’T have to listen to them try to read aloud!!
What you’ll do is you will keep reading aloud, but tell them that every time you stop, THEY all have to read the word aloud that is there on the page right where you stopped.
Kids love this! I’ve done this exact same activity with ELL/ESL kids who struggle with English and this boosted their confidence (I stopped on “easy” words and then threw in harder ones every so often).
It keeps them totally engaged because they don’t know when or how often you’ll stop as you read. You can even have them read the last little part at the end of the page or section or chapter where they get with a partner and “whisper” read that last section to each other by taking turns with each paragraph and stopping randomly so the other kid they’re partnered with has to read the word (or at least try). Then bring the class back together as a whole to discuss, check for understanding, and debrief.
– So after all that, THEN move into an activity that makes the kids have to go back into the text and read or re-read portions you’ve already read. They need to see it again, and good readers do read things more than once.
This activity could be a couple of open-ended questions where your students can answer it but they have to show where in the text they got their answer or what part of the text made them think of that answer at least!
Another activity could be based on the vocabulary you started with, where students have to use those same words to write a summary of what they just read that day. You could have them write or tell a prediction for tomorrow’s reading based on what was read today (and discuss the difference between a logical prediction and one that is not logical at all).
You could also have them do a “picture annotation” where they draw or sketch a picture (yes, stick figures are fine!) of the main idea of the scene and then they have to label all the parts and people, etc. with actual words from the story (so they have to go back to the book and find descriptions to copy that show what they drew).
– Think about those activities I just mentioned: First of all, they all require students to practice skills that are expected of them no matter what US state you teach in. We’re talking about using vocabulary in context, writing about literature, using text evidence, drawing logical conclusions, making predictions, etc. You could list those various activities I just mentioned on the board and either let students choose which one they complete that day, or assign a different one each day, etc. Plus, look at how those ideas allow you to differentiate for your students. . . And that would cover you for a whole week right there!
Join hundreds of us from around the country in the Middle School ELA Teachers Lesson Plan Membership so you can jump off the struggle bus 🚌 and find confidence, clarity, and creativity again in teaching!
