Incorporating evidence-based reading strategies into the middle school classroom can be transformative for both new and advanced readers.
Evidence-based reading strategies are often associated with early literacy; however, these techniques can also be incredibly valuable for middle school students. The strategies, such as morphology, grammar, decoding, and summarization, can help students succeed in reading and understanding what they read.
Since so much of our knowledge and learning comes from reading, it’s a skill that needs to be a central focus in all grades in all sorts of ways – many of which are easy to incorporate in the middle school classroom.
How essential reading is and strategy for maintaining momentum in the middle school classroom has been explored on this blog in numerous posts:
- How To Make Reading Fun
- 10 Ways to Cultivate a Love of Reading
- 10 Ways To Create a Culture of Reading
- The Importance of Reading Engagement
- 5 Ways Independent Reading Boosts ELA Students
- 10 Creative Reading Response Activity Ideas to Ignite Classroom Engagement
By now, you might have heard of evidence-based reading strategies, but you might have thought it didn’t apply to you as a middle school teacher. And in a way, you’re right; the main focus of evidence-based reading strategies is for students just learning to read.
However, ask yourself if you have:
- emergent readers in your classroom, readers who are interested in reading but may have difficulty understanding what they read or making meaning from the text.
- students who are strong in some subjects and not so strong in others.
Most likely, you do.
For the most part, evidence-based reading strategies can be most helpful for these two types of students. However, middle school activities incorporating aspects of evidence-based reading strategies can help ALL students.
What are evidence-based reading strategies?
Evidence-based reading strategies are a structured approach to literacy based on comprehensive research. It explains how individuals learn to read and how best to teach people to read.
The research indicates that best practices for teaching reading are phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, fluency, vocabulary and oral language comprehension, and text comprehension.
While this is most often used in early literacy instruction, all of these elements can – and should – be used in middle school ELA programs.
How To Use Evidence-Based Reading Strategies In Middle School
Incorporating evidence-based reading strategies into your middle school classroom does not have to be a challenge.
Below are four aspects of evidence-based reading strategies and ways that they can easily be integrated into middle school ELA lessons.
Morphology
To begin using evidence-based reading strategies in your classroom, you can equip your middle school students with essential morphological skills by focusing on Greek roots and the etymology of words.
Recognizing and understanding various prefixes and suffixes will support your students’ reading development. This knowledge encourages better reading comprehension, which then leads to stronger analysis of any text.
This Middle School Greek Roots Morphology Unit provides the lessons and worksheets you need to teach Greek roots effectively. It includes more than 350 pages of comprehensive and easy-to-follow lesson plans for 16 different Greek roots. This resource also includes pre-made poster anchor charts to reinforce learning with visual reminders.
Learn more about the Middle School Greek Roots Morphology Unit on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
The Middle School Greek Prefixes Morphology Unit provides the lessons and worksheets you need to teach Greek prefixes in your classroom, including more than 400 pages of comprehensive and easy-to-follow lesson plans for 20 different Greek prefixes. Like the Greek roots unit, this resource also provides pre-made poster anchor charts that can be used as visual reminders in your classroom.
Learn more about the Middle School Greek Prefixes Morphology Unit on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
Grammar
Understanding the ‘rules’ of language is tangential to evidence-based reading strategies but can be addressed in middle school ELA. By teaching grammar, middle school teachers can help students make sense of complex ideas and understand why sentences are arranged the way they are.
This Parts of Speech Grammar Unit will help you engage students in learning the intricacies of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections. Each lesson is thoughtfully crafted, offering a teacher-directed session through Google Slides, Anchor Charts, and Student Practice Sheets. Following each lesson, students dive into hands-on practice activities such as fill-in-the-blanks, colouring, or matching to reinforce their understanding.
Learn more about the Parts of Speech Grammar Unit on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
Punctuation is another crucial skill in working with evidence-based reading strategies. This Middle School Punctuation Unit has 16 lessons designed to provide you with everything you need to teach punctuation effectively, ensuring that your students become confident writers with a strong grasp of punctuation rules.
Learn more about the Middle School Punctuation Unit on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
Once students understand the parts of speech, they can practice this skill further with some of these evidence-based reading strategies:
- Choose sentences from a reading passage and help students break down the components (e.g., subject, verb, object, modifiers). This helps them see how the parts work together.
- Choose a grammar focus that aligns with the sentence structures in a specific text. For example, if a passage uses a lot of passive voice, explain the purpose of passive voice and how it affects tone or perspective.
- Have students practice inserting punctuation in unpunctuated sentences or paragraphs to enhance clarity and flow.
If you’re just starting with grammar, the Grade 6 Grammar Unit has 15 grammar lessons about verb tenses, sentence types, punctuation use, and more, including differentiated and engaging activities for student practice.
Learn more about the Grade 6 Grammar Unit on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
For more great reasons to teach grammar in middle school, as well as strategies to implement, check out these posts:
- Effective and Engaging Ways to Teach Grammar
- 10 Important Reasons to Teach Grammar in Middle School
- Effective Ideas for Teaching Grammar and Vocabulary
Decoding
One of the most important evidence-based reading strategies students need to know is decoding a text. In middle school, most of your students might be able to read, but some students may need more direct instruction on how to decode a word. These students might require explicit instruction in phonemic awareness and/or phonics. For more support in this area, check out the book Letter Lessons and First Words Phonics Foundations That Work By Heidi Anne Mesmer and Nell K Duke.
As students encounter more advanced vocabulary and multi-syllabic words, strong decoding skills help them confidently approach unfamiliar terms. Students with a strong foundation in Greek and Latin prefixes, roots and suffixes can help them understand these unfamiliar words. For example, understanding that “pod-” means “foot” can help decode words like “anthropod” or “podium.”
Vocabulary
Students with a strong vocabulary can better understand what they read. Building this vocabulary is something that can be done through reading by using specific strategies. When students encounter an unfamiliar word, knowing how to break down the parts of the word to generalize its meaning can be beneficial.
Through word analysis and morphology, students can expand their vocabulary, helping them recognize words more easily and understand their meanings. Having these strategies in their back pockets will also help students become more independent readers.
For ways to incorporate vocabulary lessons into your teaching, check out these posts: Effective Ideas for Teaching Grammar and Vocabulary, Meaningful and Engaging Ideas for Teaching Vocabulary, and Creative Ways To Teach Vocabulary.
Comprehension
As students work through the basics of evidence-based reading strategies they can move on to focusing on reading comprehension of the texts they read. Reading comprehension can occur with fiction or non-fiction texts.
Short stories are a great way to help students work on their reading skills. Here are two lists of short stories 6th Grade Short Stories and 14 Best Short Stories for Middle School to help you find interesting stories to share with your students.
Short Story Resources
- Grade 6 Short Story Unit – Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD
- Grade 7 Short Story Unit – Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD
- Grade 8 Short Story Unit – Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD
For more reasons why teaching short stories is essential in middle school, check out these posts:
- 4 Reasons to Teach Short Stories
- Four Easy Approaches to Using Short Stories in Groups in Middle School
Using non-fiction texts about topics that are relevant to students is a fantastic way to increase engagement and reading comprehension. This Article of the Week Mega Bundle gives you a year’s plan with 44 captivating high-interest non-fiction articles and 41 graphic organizers. It offers rich educational content to keep your students excited and motivated to learn. Each article has three post-reading activities, carefully crafted to reinforce comprehension and encourage critical thinking.
You can find the Article of the Week Mega Bundle on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.
As you can see, using evidence-based reading strategies in middle school is extremely beneficial for students and can be incorporated in various ways. The foundational aspects of evidence-based reading strategies are helpful, regardless of grade and subject. It’s just a matter of finding a way to integrate these strategies into your teaching in a way that best supports your students.
Check out this blog post, Here’s What the Science of Reading Looks Like in My High School Classroom, for more insight into this topic.
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