Middle Level Reading Curriculum Resources: Home

The definitive reference for reading and literacy from kindergarten through college This comprehensive fifth edition of a bestselling classic offers an unparalleled source of timely, practical information on all aspects of reading instruction. Ready for immediate use, it offers over 190 up-to-date lists for developing instructional materials and lesson planning. The book is organized into 15 convenient sections full of practical examples, key words, teaching ideas, and activities that can be used as is or adapted to meet students' diverse needs. New topical areas include: ideas for non-narrative reading; word walls; graphic organizer and concept development software; new literacies, such as 'zines, Internet terms, emoticons, e-mail, and chat; as well as weekly writing prompts. Edward Bernard Fry, PhD (Laguna Beach, CA), is Professor Emeritus of Education at Rutgers University and internationally renowned inventor of his eponymous Readability Graph. Jacqueline E. Kress, EdD (Elizabeth, NJ), is Dean of Education at New York Institute of Technology.

Teachers can build word power with these 24 ready-to-reproduce, 3-page lessons. Each lesson is packed with fun, research-based activities that help students to explore roots, prefixes, and suffixes; use students' prior knowledge for greater understanding; and give students multiple encounters with new words so they really remember them. Watch reading skills and test scores soar! For use with Grade 5.

Teachers can build word power with these 24 ready-to-reproduce, 3-page lessons. Each lesson is packed with fun, research-based activities that help students to explore roots, prefixes, and suffixes; use students' prior knowledge for greater understanding; and give students multiple encounters with new words so they really remember them. Watch reading skills and test scores soar! For use with Grade 3.

For children with poor vocabulary development, reading is intimidating rather than exciting. That's why elementary and middle school teachers need this activity-filled guidebook -- to improve students' independent word learning skills and strengthen their comprehension so they'll tackle their schoolwork with confidence. Teachers will start by learning about the model developed by the author, who believes that good vocabulary skills come from knowing important words and knowing how and when to use word acquisition strategies. Then teachers will motivate their students with a wide range of fun, engaging worksheets that go beyond traditional methods like memorizing word lists. Photocopiable worksheets for students includeClarifying Cue Card (using independent word learning strategies) Word Trees (manipulating roots and affixes) Context Cue Cards (inferring word meaning) Stoplight Vocabulary Sheets (monitoring word knowledge) Word Study Journals (recording word learning) Word Scales (coming up with lively synonyms for dull words) Educators will find guidelines on teaching vocabulary to younger children and English language learners and helping students implement vocabulary strategies spontaneously. They'll also benefit from sample student--teacher interactions, answer keys to the student worksheets, and guidance on managing a schoolwide vocabulary development program. This practical, easy-to-use book -- built around research-based principles -- really helps children "get into words" so they'll be confident, motivated readers ready for school success.

Research shows that some of the most effective words students can learn are academic vocabulary. Knowing these words boosts students' ability to understand and complete classroom work, homework assignments, standardized tests, and more. Each of these 18 ready-to-reproduce, 4-page lessons gives students multiple encounters with the new words to help kids really remember them. Also includes writing prompts and engaging activities. For use with Grade 3.

Weaving together the latest knowledge and best practices for teaching children to read, this indispensable text and professional resource provides a complete guide to differentiated instruction for diverse learners. Uniquely integrative, the book places the needs of English language learners and students with disabilities front and center instead of treating them as special topics. Accessible chapters on each of the core components of literacy clearly demonstrate how to link formal and informal assessment to evidence-based instruction. Special features include Research Briefs, Tech Tips, Internet Resources, Reflection and Action Questions, and dozens of reproducible student activities and assessment tools.

Implementing differentiated small-group instruction in K-6 classrooms — where students' abilities, needs, and interests vary widely — is challenging yet extremely important. This research-based guide is packed with ideas about how to structure literacy lessons that incorporate both collaborative and needs-based small-group instruction in order to help all students succeed. The authors explain how to use assessment to group students appropriately and how to develop whole-class instruction that leads to productive work in groups. Each chapter details engaging activities that will improve speaking, listening, writing, reading, and technology skills for diverse students, including English language learners. In a large-size format for ease of photocopying, the book includes more than two dozen reproducible planning, assessment, and teaching tools.

It's simple: If children don't understand what they read, they will never embrace reading. And that limits what they can learn while in school. This fact frightens parents, worries teachers, and ultimately hurts children. 7 Keys to Comprehension is the result of cutting-edge research. It gives parents and teachers—those who aren't already using this valuable program—practical, thoughtful advice about the seven simple thinking strategies that proficient readers use: • Connecting reading to their background knowledge • Creating sensory images • Asking questions • Drawing inferences • Determining what's important • Synthesizing ideas • Solving problems Easily understood, easily applied, and proven successful, this essential educational tool helps parents and teachers to turn reading into a fun and rewarding adventure.

According to the latest breakthroughs in cognitive theory and brain research, excellent reading ability involves a complex process that is "figured out" by every reader. Preschool-age children with a wide range of IQs are capable of figuring out the complex process for themselves, which is the basis of Dr. Dee Tadlock's innovative Read Right system. Read Right! provides simple techniques to help parents guide young children into their own reading excellence, with fun, easy activities designed to be integrated into everyday life. Based on nearly 25 years of research, the Read Right system is a proven alternative to phonics-based or whole-language methods. Most important, this interactive system can teach anyone, even adults, how to "figure out" the process of reading. Book jacket.

Written by authors well known for their expertise in the field, the second edition of this complete resource offers a wide-ranging compendium of research-validated assessment tools and reading practices—all based on the most recent trend in reading education,comprehensive reading instruction. Coverage encompasses the issues involved in reading instruction, past and present, and relates these issues to current best practices in such areas as phonological awareness (phonemic awareness, phonics, the alphabetic principle), comprehension, fluency, and others. The book's easy-to-use format invites involvement, and rewards the reader with concrete answers to the question of how to teach reading and writing effectively and interestingly. For practicing and future teachers preparing themselves for the diversity of today's classrooms—especially ELL, ESL, and bilingual students.

Differentiated instruction--matching just-right instruction to the needs of each learner--is a powerful and effective way to help all students be successful. In this resource, reading expert, Laura Robb, invites you into her classroom so you can see differentiated reading instruction in action. She shows you how to teach and manage whole-class reading where each student reads a different book, provide targeted support while working with small-groups, build comprehension through student-centered journal writing, and tier assignments to maximize the learning potential of each student. Includes lessons, strategies, assessment ideas, management tips, and samples of student work. SALES POINTS Laura Robb is a best-selling author of Teaching Reading in Middle School and is a sought-after speaker. School districts throughout the country are embracing differentiated instruction Includes practical, ready-to-use strategies

In this fully revised and expanded edition of a classic, Isabel L. Beck and Margaret G. McKeown share their new findings on Questioning the Author, the approach that galvanized the research field to look at comprehension instruction in a new way. What's the big idea? What is the author telling us now? That's what the author says, but what does the author mean? By using queries such as these during reading, at strategic points in a text, students learn how to build meaning and consider and converse with an author's ideas. These queries help focus discussions on important understandings. They also embolden struggling readers to work through the ideas in a text rather than skim over them. The book includes how-to's on planning and orchestrating the Questioning the Author approach as well as a practical trouble-shooting guide based on classroom transcripts of 25 common challenges to discussion. For use with Grades 3-8.

I Read It, but I Don't Get It is a practical, engaging account of how teachers can help adolescents develop new reading comprehension skills. Cris Tovani is an accomplished teacher and staff developer who writes with verve and humor about the challenges of working with students at all levels of achievement#151;from those who have mastered the art of "fake reading" to college-bound juniors and seniors who struggle with the different demands of content-area textbooks and novels. Enter Cris' classroom, a place where students are continually learning new strategies for tackling difficult text. You will be taken step-by-step through practical, theory-based reading instruction that can be adapted for use in any subject area. The book features: anecdotes in each chapter about real kids with real universal problems. You will identify with these adolescents and will see how these problems can be solved; a thoughtful explanation of current theories of comprehension instruction and how they might be adapted for use with adolescents; a What Works section in each of the last seven chapters that offers simple ideas you can immediately employ in your classroom. The suggestions can be used in a variety of content areas and grade levels(6-12); teaching tips and ideas that benefit struggling readers as well as proficient and advanced readers; appendixes with reproducible materials that you can use in your classroom, including coding sheets, double entry diaries, and comprehension constructors. In a time when students need increasingly sophisticated reading skills, this book will provide support for teachers who want to incorporate comprehension instruction into their daily lesson plans without sacrificing content knowledge.

Authored by field expert and vocabulary specialist Dr. Robert J. Marzano, Teaching Basic and Advanced Vocabulary provides strategies to help build general background knowledge of instrumental vocabulary by introducing terms in semantic clusters. This innovative approach is designed to maximize students' understanding of new words by creating a framework of meaning through context.

Research shows that some of the most effective words students can learn are academic vocabulary. Knowing these words boosts students' ability to understand and complete classroom work, homework assignments, standardized tests, and more. Each of these 18 ready-to-reproduce, 4-page lessons gives students multiple encounters with the new words to help kids really remember them. Also includes writing prompts and engaging activities. For use with Grade 5.

Teachers can build word power with these 24 ready-to-reproduce, 3-page lessons. Each lesson is packed with fun, research-based activities that help students to explore roots, prefixes, and suffixes; use students' prior knowledge for greater understanding; and give students multiple encounters with new words so they really remember them. Watch reading skills and test scores soar! For use with Grade 6.

Teachers can build word power with these 24 ready-to-reproduce, 3-page lessons. Each lesson is packed with fun, research-based activities that help students to explore roots, prefixes, and suffixes; use students' prior knowledge for greater understanding; and give students multiple encounters with new words so they really remember them. Watch reading skills and test scores soar! For use with Grade 4.

Research shows that some of the most effective words students can learn are academic vocabulary. Knowing these words boosts students' ability to understand and complete classroom work, homework assignments, standardized tests, and more. Each of these 18 ready-to-reproduce, 4-page lessons gives students multiple encounters with the new words to help kids really remember them. Also includes writing prompts and engaging activities

Strong vocabulary is a vital foundation needed all academic subject areas. Unfortunately, learning vocabulary is not always enjoyable or easy for students. With Vocabulary Games for the Classroom, however, Lindsay Carleton and Robert J. Marzano have devised a way to make this important instruction something both students and teachers look forward to. Vocabulary Games for the Classroom provides K¿12 teachers with thirteen games designed to build academic vocabulary. While these games are certainly fun, and teachers should capitalize on the energy and excitement they generate, they should also be seen as one part of a systematic approach to direct vocabulary instruction.
This resource includes hundreds of hand-picked vocabulary terms compiled from Marzano¿s work with schools, districts, and states. These vocabulary lists include terms for four different content areas¿language arts, math, science, and social studies¿across all grade levels. If a teacher¿s school or district has already established lists of academic terms for core content areas at each grade level, they can use the lists provided here as a supplement. Teachers should also feel free to make adaptations and additions to both the games and the provided vocabulary lists in order to enhance students¿ knowledge of new terminology.

A research-based approach for improving comprehension, Question Answer Relationships (QAR) has been helping students achieve in reading for more than 20 years. This unique book of lessons for teaching QAR in grades 6-8 introduces students to the QAR language and shows them how to answer questions in key comprehension areas#151;from determining importance to monitoring understanding. Each lesson includes a step-by-step teaching guide, an engaging nonfiction article, poem, or story to model the target QAR strategy, and an assessment activity. Includes a CD with strategy mini-posters, assessment tools, and whiteboard-ready passages for every lesson. For use with Grades 6-8.

Since its publication in 2000, Strategies That Work has become an indispensable resource for teachers who want to explicitly teach thinking strategies so that students become engaged, thoughtful, independent readers. In this revised and expanded edition, Stephanie and Anne have added twenty completely new comprehension lessons, extending the scope of the book and exploring the central role that activating background knowledge plays in understanding. Another major addition is the inclusion of a section on content literacy which describes how to apply comprehension strategies flexibly across the curriculum. The new edition is organized around four sections: Part I highlights what comprehension is and how to teach it, including the principles that guide practice, a review of recent research, and a new section on assessment. A new chapter, Tools for Active Literacy: The Nuts and Bolts of Comprehension Instruction, describes ways to engage students in purposeful talk through interactive read alouds, guided discussion and written response. Part II contains lessons and practices for teaching comprehension. A new first chapter emphasizes the importance of teaching students to monitor their understanding before focusing on specific strategies. Five lessons on monitoring provide a sound basis for launching comprehension instruction. At the end of each strategy chapter, the authors outline learning goals and ways to assess students' thinking, sharing examples of student work, and offering suggestions for differentiating instruction. Part III, Comprehension Across the Curriculum is new. Comprehension strategies are essential for content-area reading, where information can be challenging, and presented in unfamiliar formats. This section includes chapters on social studies and science reading, topic study research, textbook reading and the genre of test reading. Part IV shows that kids need books they can sink their teeth into and the updated appendix section recommends a rich diet of fiction and nonfiction, short text, kid's magazines, websites and journals that will assist teachers as they plan and design comprehension instruction Through its focus on instruction that is responsive to kids' interests and learning needs, the first edition of Strategies That Work helped transform comprehension instruction for teachers across the country. For them, this new edition will be a welcome extension of that work. Those coming to it for the first time will find a current and essential resource. When readers use these strategies, they enjoy a more complete, thoughtful reading experience. Engagement is the goal. When kids are engaged in their reading they enhance their understanding, acquire knowledge, and learn from and remember what they read. And best yet, they will want to read more!

Book study groups and professional learning communities, click here to save 15% when you order 15 copies of Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, K-8. Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, K-8 is the next new breakthrough from Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell. Offering a complete picture of how to skillfully teach meaning making and fluency within any instructional context, Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, K-8, supports you with frameworks for high-quality instruction that describe appropriate expectations for comprehending, fluency, and vocabulary development. Fountas and Pinnell's teaching and assessment frames will give you a firm understanding of your students' reading levels: where they are, where they should be, and what they need to do to get there-for any reader, in any grade, at any moment. You'll also gain insight about the specific demands that fiction and nonfiction texts place on readers and about how effective readers think within a text, beyond a text, and about a text to gain rich understandings. As you learn about how the characteristics of texts help or hinder a reader's improvement, you'll find effective teaching strategies for: comprehending, word solving, fluency, and vocabulary writing about reading in a variety of genres and using writing as a tool for thinking using guided reading with fiction and nonfiction books discussing books during interactive read-aloud and literature study taking part in shared and performance reading. Fountas and Pinnell's teaching tips, smart strategies, proven classroom ideas, and professional-learning opportunities will lead the way as you discover how to help readers develop effective systems of strategic actions over time. You'll also learn how to take running records of reading behavior to assess comprehension and fluency then use those assessments to inform and differentiate your teaching. In addition, Fountas and Pinnell have also added a dynamic companion resource to Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, K-8: a DVD containing short, focused video segments that illustrate concepts from the book and demonstrate exemplar teaching in real classroom settings. The DVD is also a repository of useful materials to support your work-including blackline masters, forms, checklists, and numerous other classroom tools. Fountas and Pinnell have developed detailed teaching guides for Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency. Perfect for staff development leaders or teacher educators, these guides offer all the specifics on leading a professional development program or preservice course on comphrension instruction with Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency as the core text. Each of the guides is written to address a specific course of study and is available for free download along with its accompanying course syllabus: Professional Development Program: Individual Study/Group Study (20 sessions) Preservice Teachers: One Semester Course (14-week college/university course) Preservice Teachers: One Quarter Course (11-week college/university course) Graduate Students: One Semester Course (14-week college/university course) Graduate Students: One Quarter Course (11-week college/university course) Click on the "Companion Resources" tab to download each of the guides. Discover powerful ways to help your students read with deep understanding and fluency. Read Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency, K-8 and be part of the big breakthrough in literacy instruction.

In this resource, you'll get the big picture of teaching reading in the middle school, including research, as well as the practical details you need to help every student become a better reader. Veteran teacher Laura Robb shares how to: teach reading strategies across the curriculum; present mini-lessons that deepen students' knowledge of how specific reading strategies work; help kids apply the strategies through guided practice; support struggling readers with a plan of action that improves their reading motivation; helps kids choose books that are at their instructional level; organize a reading-writing workshop, and much more. For use with Grades 5 & Up.

Learn to assess and enhance your vocabulary skills!   Finally teachers have access to a professional development series, Evidence-Based Instruction in Reading, written specifically to guide them in sharpening their understanding of the five key components to Reading First--phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. This book focuses on vocabulary, but each volume in the five-part series addresses one key component and presents friendly tips and strategies that teachers can take right into the classroom.   How to make Vocabulary work for you! Each chapter offers recommendations for incorporating appropriate reading materials, fostering productive home-school connections, and promoting students' desire to learn to read and write. Read current key research studies and findings and learn about their implications for classroom practice. Discover how to evaluate your current practices and create concrete plans for change. Start a learning community or book club and share your knowledge with colleagues. Access useful resources and links to extend and enrich your own learning beyond the classroom.   Teachers rave about A Professional Development Guide to Vocabulary! "This book is one that will be used from cover to cover.  [T]he book is a wealth of actual activities to use for vocabulary growth.  What teacher or staff development instructor wouldn't want all this information at their fingertips?"  --Cathy Taylor, Reading First literacy coach, Stewart County Elementary School, Lumpkin, GA     Also available in the Evidence-Based Instruction in Reading Series: A Professional Development Guide to Phonemic Awareness ©2008 ISBN: 0-205-45628-6 A Professional Development Guide to Phonics ©2008 ISBN: 0-205-45630-8 A Professional Development Guide to Fluency ©2008 ISBN: 0-205-45629-4 A Professional Development Guide to Comprehension ©2008 ISBN: 0-205-45627-8

Now in a revised and updated second edition, this practical resource and widely used text presents a wealth of research-based approaches to comprehension instruction. The authors offer specific classroom practices that help K-9 students compare and evaluate print and online sources, develop vocabulary, build study and test-taking skills, and become motivated readers. The second edition reflects new research on informational literacy and academic and content-specific vocabulary development, and also discusses the impact of recent federal initiatives. Newly updated sample activities, classroom- and text-based examples, resource lists, and reproducible classroom tools enhance the utility of this indispensable work.