Teaching Reading in Middle School

Chapter 1 Response
Even though this chapter covered a lot of content, I feel like I came away will some very
important points from the author. I read with the point of view of two different instructors. I
wanted to apply the reading to the practicum I am starting, helping students who struggle in
reading, and as a middle school math or science teacher.
One thing I have always emphasized when working with students is confidence. I believe
that no student engages in learning unless they are confident they know what is being taught.
This is something that Robb covered extensively in Chapter One. I liked how he mentioned
Vygotskys work. I agreed with how there were different stages of learning. You definitely need
to move from dependent to independent with slow steps in between. This one point reminded me
a lot of a book I read last year called The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. In that book,
the author highlighted almost the same idea, that as people mature, they begin completely
dependent, then move to independence, and finally interdependence where you can work or exist
with another but independently. This is something I have always carried with me and will stress
the importance of confidence in learning when I am an educator.
The most important part of the chapter, to me, was when he talked about the ten
instructional approaches on page 19 in the book. These approaches apply not only to
strengthening a students reading ability but also to any other part of teaching. I want to be able
to utilize the 10 approaches when I start my practicum because they are very similar to the three
types of learning. One student may learn better doing group work and conversing with other
classmates to develop his own ideas. Another may excel when given the freedom of independent
reading and then transfer that motivation to in school readings. If the 10 approaches are used in
class, it will help students develop higher level reading and writing skills in a diversity of ways.
When applying the 10 approaches to being a middle school math or science teacher, I was able to
find a connection between the approaches, the student experiences and activities for class. I think
that the 10 approaches can be consulted when making lesson plans because they explain the
engagement with the students and specifically how to engage them in different goals
(collaboration, active learning, etc.)
Another part of the chapter that I found useful was the seven key reading strategies on
page 23 of the textbook. I thought it would be useful to ask questions to students about how they
read and if they use these techniques. I can also explain that I do almost all of these things when
I read. A point that I think they forgot to mention that I think is helpful with reading is taking
notes or even drawing pictures of what is happening in the book. This point really only applies to
school reading. But being able to look back at your own pictures and notes can allow for even
further critical thinking because it can spark memories of details earlier in the book.
Chapter 2 Response
While reading chapter 2 of Robbs textbook, I discovered some ideas that I would like to use in
my own classroom. Although I am going to be a math teacher, I still found parts of her teaching
style that I would like to incorporate into my own. One of the routines that I would like to use in
my classroom was responding to a cue to lower noise levels. When I was a student throughout
grade school, I always found my teachers had trouble with getting the class to quiet down. Some
teachers did try flickering the lights however, since this wasnt a set routine in the classroom, the
class usually didnt quiet down as they were supposed to. I think the biggest key to this routine is

for the cue to be established during the first weeks of school so that the classroom knows what to
do when the lights are flickered.
The second routine that I would like to apply to my own classroom is following
homework guidelines. I really liked how she had a policy where students could miss a
homework assignment with no questions asked but had to turn it in the next day. This doesnt
allow the students to miss the homework but rather get an extra day to complete it, thus not
really giving them the free pass they think it is. Early on in the school year I will establish my
own homework guidelines for my students. I think I will have the same kind of rules but also use
positive reinforcement to motivate students to complete their homework. Maybe I will give
students a special prize if they have no missing homework assignments at the end of the year.
The third routine that I really liked; actually I liked this one the best, was negotiating
behavior guidelines with students. The routine allowed students to feel in control and make their
own decisions which are important at the age during middle school. At the same time, though,
you are still giving your own input. Students know the appropriate behavior for a classroom so
allowing them to suggest those behaviors as well as adding some of your own makes it easier for
the students to follow those guidelines that they helped you make. It is almost a trick on the
students but they will never really realize. I really liked this routine because I think that it is
important to include the students in some parts of the classroom. Usually, I would walk into a
class and the teacher would already have the rules written out on a bulletin board. No one would
really look at them or even remember they were there. This routine allows students to establish
the rules themselves and they will always remember they are there because they made them
themselves.
Chapter 3 Response
Anastasia, the student I work with for my practicum placement is a struggling reader. Everything
that I read about struggling readers reminds me of how she reads. I think one of the most difficult
things to change is her frequency of reading. I can control when she reads with me but she
doesnt read enough on her own. I think ever since I started working with her she has started to
like reading a little more every day. She has started to come back to work with me with more and
more of her book read. I think she has started reading more than four pages a night at home. I
agree with the point under supporting struggling readers that you need to point out progress. I
found myself not doing it because it felt awkward to me but once I did mention that she was
improving quickly I think it made her even more eager to work on her reading skills.
I think I informally got to know Anastasia as a reader. I never really asked her why she
didnt read too much or why she didnt pass her reading SOLs. I did ask her what she liked to
read -- the genres and themesbut not really anything about why she wasnt reading at her grade
level. However, by reading with her I was able to make my own assessment as to why she didnt
pass her reading SOLs. She could read the words and correct herself if she pronounced them
wrong but I was finding that she didnt comprehend what was going on. When I would ask her
questions about the book she would pull out insignificant details or ideas that werent major
themes in the book. She didnt visualize what was happening but instead worked on reading the
words so she wouldnt seem like a bad reader. She was trying to impress me rather than
understand the book. I also learned more about her reading ability through her stories of her
home life. She had seven brothers and sisters and I dont think she was read to much as a child.
Her parents had other kids to give attention to and I think it reflected negatively on her reading
ability.

As I work with Anastasia, I notice small changes in her reading. I continue getting to
know students throughout the year. As she reads to me, I take note of what she still and newly
struggles on and how she has improved. She has improved greatly with her phonemics and is
able to read quotes almost perfectly. She still struggles a little with the characters and the overall
story of the book. One thing I think she really does need to work on is remembering what
happens in the book. Whenever I question what happened in her previous reading, she always
stays silent. I think she just struggles with remembering what happened in the previous sentence
or paragraph when reading. She needs to paint a picture in her head or stop and think every page
about what has happened so far in the reading.
I think this chapter really helped me learn what I should be doing with future students I
work with. In other subjects I teach, I should always get to know students individually for how
they read and how to improve their reading skills. I should look for ways to connect what we are
reading in class to something that interests them. I should allow freedom in some aspects during
classroom activities. I need to assess the students on the type of reader they are constantly so I
am always helping them improve their reading skills.
Chapter 5
I really liked the section titled Suggestions for Enlarging Students Prior Knowledge.
The part that really sparked my interest was when they said the choose books that would be
interesting to the student. If a book or topic is interesting to the student they will be able to draw
other things they have learned before and connect those things to what they are reading now. It is
easier to use picture books because now they have two things that can draw previous
information: a text and a picture. As it says in the textbook, picture books can build a students
knowledge of genre structure, narrative terms, nonfiction features, and information needed for a
unit. They also emphasize pausing to think aloud. I think this pausing will allow the teacher to
question the students on specific characters and what is happening in the story.
I also liked how they talked about during reading strategies for the student to discuss the
content with themselves. Specifically they mentioned that the teacher should identify a purpose
for reading. I think for the lower grades, reading must be supervised with a few pauses for class
discussion to re-identify the purpose of reading and to answer any before reading questions the
students or the class developed. But maybe for middle schoolers, we can trust that they will
question the purpose on their own and stop when they know they need to. I think that sometimes
the purpose of reading and the questions they are answer can get lost in the story as they are
reading and they could forget what they are specifically reading for.
I have always liked the idea of literature response journals but I think that usually
teachers approach the strategy in the wrong way. Journals often become boring tasks that
students are required to complete. I think if they were optional, kind of like a diary about their
reading, students would be more inclined to use it as a sort of note taking pad rather than a
required writing assignment. If I were given the decision to write in my journal or not, I think
that I would have enjoyed it more and actually used it to go back and remember parts of my
book.
The idea of the concept map is something I would definitely use as a vocabulary strategy.
I like how they write the words that they know in the before reading column. Obviously, before
they wont know many words. But the fact that they have an after reading column really helps. It
is almost a chart for synonyms for the words they already knew. This expands their vocabulary
because they are able to learn many more words for a common word in the English language.

Chapter 7 and 8
While reading, something that jumped out at me as being really productive and having positive
feedback was the Inference Game. This could be a very engaging activity for students because it
is active! It allows the students to get out of their seats and move around. It engages the audience
and gets their attention. Finally it requires the audience to think in the mind of the actors of the
skit. They are told to brainstorm on why the actor would have the behavior they have and make
the decisions they made in the mini-skit. This will draw a connection for the students between
what they do for this skit and what they should do while they are reading. The students should be
able to read a passage and understand the character and their motivations. I find that a lot of
students struggle with this. Not only do they struggle with motivation but also with retaining the
information as to why a character did what they did. I think this activity would help a lot with
reading comprehension and understanding a character inside and out and also relaying that
information to a third party later on.
I think another strength in this chapter is the part where they talk about drawing
conclusions from characters. In this section, the author has a picture of a paper written by a
student. She has the character listed, their character traits, and evidence from the text to argue in
support of those character traits. This is a great activity because it allows the reader to work on
reading comprehension and defending points of inference from a book. The student may think
that a character is mean but this activity forces them to explain why and give specific examples
from the book to support their inference. It also improves the students skills on looking back
through a text. Students need to remember the timeline of the story. If they remember a specific
instance at some point in the story but they dont remember if it was before or after the character
moved to Florida, they will have a hard time finding their example in the text.
Chapter 9 and 10
While reading Chapter 9 in Robbs book, I came across the fears of independent reading by
teachers. I agreed with what the teachers were concerned about. I have had experiences where I
had students read independently and all they did was talk to each other when my back was
turned. I think a way of changing this is to have students read books that they are interested in. I
know that teachers have their own small libraries in their classrooms but I think that students can
run through those books pretty fast. They should be allowed to go to the school library and check
out the books that they want to read. This will have the teachers stop having to be babysitters for
the students to read and be supplementary educators that help them with their reading strategies.
Right after the section that I read on the fears of independent reading, they discussed
classroom libraries. I think that they are a good tool for students who are working on their
reading skills. However, I have seen classroom libraries go wrong in my experiences working at
an elementary school. I have seen teachers not switch out their classroom library books often
enough and this causes students to get bored and even have to re-read books they have already
read. This is not fair to the students because they will be familiar with the book and not be able to
develop their reading skills as quickly.
I liked how, in chapter 10 of Robbs book, they had the assessment chart for different
kinds of reading experience. I think it allows teacher to utilize different ways to assess those
categories. I think that the best way to get to know readers is through the 10 questions and asking
whats easy? and whats hard? This allows students to directly tell the teacher what they
want to improve on as a reader. It also gives the teacher some understanding on what the students
likes to read. Guided reading groups helps students understand and think with content because it

allows students to work in groups. Working in groups applies the thoughts of group members to
provoke ideas in other members participating. There is a group conversation that discusses
thought processes and motivations of the characters in the texts. I think oral reading assessments
are one of the most important assessments given by educators. This assessment helps teachers
develop a plan to improve reading fluency and comprehension, which are two of the most
important aspects of reading.
The second and last thing I liked from chapter 10 was the ways to support struggling
readers. I think that it is important to be positive when it comes to improving reading skills.
Students need to feel that they are validated and that they are making progress. This to say, it
does not mean that you should sugar coat everything that you tell your students. You, as their
teacher, need to be clear about what they need to work on and specific in the reading goals that
you set for them.