reflections on teaching struggling middle school readers ivey

Reflections on Teaching Struggling Middle School ReadersAuthor(s): Gay IveySource: Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Vol. 42, No. 5 (Feb., 1999), pp. 372-381Published by: International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40017023 .

Accessed: 18/06/2013 12:42

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

International Reading Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toJournal of Adolescent &Adult Literacy.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 134.84.217.38 on Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:42:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ira

http://www.jstor.org/stable/40017023?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Reflections on teaching struggling

middle school readers

Gay Ivey

Here are four working

generalizations about teaching that should be helpful to both

experienced middle school teachers and preservice teachers in

university classrooms. Each generalization is supported by

research, firsthand experience, and suggested strategies and materials.

Clark [all names are pseudonyms] told me he is interested in historical fiction. He said he guessed that The Highwayman (Noyes, 1981), which I read to the class today, was set during the American Revolution because Redcoats were mentioned. During free reading time we explored the classroom library for more historical fiction. I suggested that he take a look at My Brother Sam Is Dead (Collier & Collier, 1974).

This afternoon I read The Little Match Girl (Andersen, 1975) with Katie and Robin. There was a huge difference in the way these two girls read the story. Robin read very fluently, with no problems. Katie, on the other hand, stumbled through the story. Robin helped her out with every few words. I noticed that, in some instances, Katie was not using beginning consonant sounds to help her figure out words.

At the end of class today, Sarah Ann asked me if I planned to be in their classroom tomorrow. I assured her that I would. She said she likes it when I'm there because the students in the class get to do "fun things." Then she said she really doesn't like reading, though. But she pulled out a picture book, The Wolfs Chicken Stew (Kasza, 1987), and asked, "Do we get to read tomorrow? I want to read this book." I wonder how she really feels about reading.

excerpts from my research journal were recorded during

These the first several weeks of a 5-month naturalistic investigation on sixth-grade readers (Ivey, in press). These three separate inci-

dents exemplify the interesting and complex nature of what I dis- ©1999 International Reading Association

(pp. 372-381)

372 H Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 42:5 February 1999



covered about sixth-grade readers. Clark shows that middle school students can have specific reading preferences. Katie and Robin demonstrate the wide range of abilities among middle school readers. Sarah Ann reveals that some middle school students have mixed attitudes toward reading. As demonstrated by these children and their sixth-grade classmates, middle school students exhibit great range and diversity in their reading behaviors.

What my study revealed, that middle school students as readers are complex, was not surprising to me given my previous experiences with young adolescent readers and their teachers. During my training as a reading specialist, I had the opportunity to work with scores of elementary and middle school students in a university reading clinic. I learned some particularly important lessons about literacy development from tutoring for an entire academic year a fourth-grade student who enrolled in the clinic as an emergent reader. As a middle school Title I (then Chapter 1) reading/language arts teacher, I worked primarily with struggling readers, and I discovered some of the obstacles to learning for students who have not learned to read strategically and purposefully by sixth grade. However, I also saw many students learn to love reading. Now, as a university instruc- tor, I am developing a sense of what concerns preservice and inservice teachers about teaching reading to middle school students.

Through all these experiences, along with my recent research, I have reflected on what it takes for middle school students with persistent reading difficulties to become successful, engaged readers. Throughout these reflections are recurring themes that have led me to form some working generalizations about teaching struggling middle school readers.

My purpose here is to share these working generalizations. In the remainder of this article, I will elaborate on these themes, not because I think they are unique, but because I think they will be recognizable to other middle grades educators who have reflected on how to help young adolescents become readers. Although young adolescent readers do represent a wide range of abilities and habits, those of us who work closely with them are beginning to solve the puzzle of who they are as a group by identifying some important com-

monalties across students. The ones I mention in this article are from a variety of U.S. classrooms in three different states, and I have known them at different points in my 10 years as a reading educator, but their experiences and voices reveal what they have in common.

Recurring themei Struggling middle school readers like to read when they

have access to materials that span the gamut of interests and difficulty levels. Numerous studies have reported that by the time students reach the middle grades, they have become uninterested in reading (Ley, Schaer, & Dismukes, 1994; McKenna, Kear, & Ellsworth, 1995). However, I agree with Bintz (1993), who suggested that many secondary students "do not lose interest in reading per se" (p. 613), but instead they lose interest in the kinds of reading they are typically required to do in school, such as reading textbooks and certain teacher- selected texts. Worthy (1996) discussed the importance of making available interesting materials that "hook" reluctant readers, and in my experience, getting the right books into middle school students' hands has made a world of difference in their inclination to read.

One of the first books to convince me that interesting materials can inspire otherwise reluctant readers was Walter Dean Myers's Scorpions (1988). During my first year of teaching Title I classes I bought six copies of this book at a local book- store. Several of the seventh-grade boys were drawn to it because of its interesting cover, which portrayed two African American teenagers at the front steps of an urban apartment building. My students were fascinated by the story, which is about a boy their own age who reluctantly joins a gang. However, they liked the book mostly because it struck a chord of familiarity with them. Students could relate, for example, to the follow- ing excerpt in which Jamal, the main character, is being harassed by Dwayne, his nemesis at school:

"Yo, Jamal, what kind of sneakers you wearin?" ... "Why don't you shut your mouth?" Jamal said.

There were only fifteen minutes of school left, and he didn't want any garbage out of Dwayne.

Reflections on teaching struggling middle school readers |f 373



"All I did was ask a question," Dwayne said, looking in the direction of Billy Ware. "What kind of sneakers you wearing?"

"None of your business," Jamal said. "They look like Brand X sneakers to me,"

Dwayne said. "I think you got a Brand X face," Jamal said. "Hey, Billy, I think he got them sneakers from

the Salvation Army." Billy giggled and looked down at Jamal's sneak-

ers. (Myers, 1988, p. 21)

The boys continue to taunt Jamal, and at the end of the scene, Myers writes that "Dwayne made Jamal feel small inside" (p. 22). This scenario was not new to my seventh-grade students who, like many other young adolescents, witnessed and experienced many similar real-life situations daily in school. Real-life language and incidents like these kept my students reading Scorpions, which was, for some, the first chapter book they had ever read from cover to cover. Humorous books, such as Roald Dahl's The Twits (1980) and Jon Scieszka's Time Warp Trio series (e.g., Knights of the Kitchen Table, 1991), have also been popular choices for students who have not previously read an entire chapter book.

Often picture books are the key to motivating middle school students to read. Charlie, a sixth- grade struggling reader, proclaimed Willy the Wimp (Browne, 1984) the "book of the year," and his sentiments were shared not only by the other students in Title I, but also by some of my home- room students identified as gifted who chose to read the book during Sustained Silent Reading (SSR). While spending time in a sixth-grade classroom during a recent study (Ivey, in press), I read aloud to the class Officer Buckle and Gloria (Rathmann, 1995). After the reading many students elected to read that book during independent free reading time, and others subsequently checked it out from the school library. Other middle school favorites have been Buz (Egielski, 1995), The Great White Man-Eating Shark (Mahy, 1989), The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales (Scieszka, 1992), Meanwhile Back at the Ranch (Noble, 1987), and Prince Cinders (Cole, 1987), to name a few.

The matter of interest pertains not only to reluctant readers, but also to avid and successful middle school readers. Casey, a sixth-grade student

who is a capable and highly motivated reader, wrote this note to her teacher:

I used to love to read. But this year it's not as en- joyable. I don't know why but I plainly don't like it anymore. I guess it is because I have better things to do. Another reason may be that I can't find a book in the library that interests me. I mean the school library would be the only place I could get books right now. I have already read my books at home.

I can relate to those people who say reading is boring now. I guess after you read so much you just get tired of it.

Reading is kind of like a boy. You like (him) or reading for a long while. Then after so long you just don't like (him) or reading any longer.

I thought you were suppose to enjoy reading as you got older. But it's just the opposite for me. As I get older reading is starting to interest me the least little bit.

A few weeks later, Casey found a new series of books to read, and she reported that she liked

reading again. Thus, regardless of ability or general inclination to read, interesting materials are needed to develop and sustain engaged middle school readers.

Instructional-level materials have similar importance. In order for students to get better at reading, they need many opportunities to read materials they can read with 95% accuracy in word recogni- tion (e.g., Betts, 1954). For middle school students who may be 3 to 4 or more years behind their peers in terms of reading ability, this may present a problem given the difficult materials typically found in their classrooms, but this need not be the case. Fielding and Roller's (1992) making difficult books accessible and easy books acceptable princi- ple should apply beyond the early grades and into the upper elementary and middle grades in order to give all students what they need.

Lori Ann, a sixth-grade student who scored a first-grade instructional level on an informal reading inventory, had experienced only embarrass- ment, frustration, and failure with the grade-level texts she was asked to read year after year in school. When she discovered The Magic Fish (Littledale, 1986), an easy-to-read, predictable picture book in her sixth-grade classroom, she experienced fluent reading for the first time, and she

374 ( Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 42:5 February 1999



asked if she could take the book home to read. Lawrence, a seventh grader whose instructional reading level was second grade, moved from frustration to success when he completed all the books in Marshall's easy-to-read Fox series (e.g., Fox and His Friends, 1982; Fox on Wheels, 1983).

Preservice teachers often ask, "Aren't middle school students embarrassed to read easy books in front of their peers?" My typical response is consis- tent with what Worthy, Patterson, Turner, Prater, and Salas (1997) reported about struggling readers in their after-school tutoring program. Like the middle school students I have known, these readers "approached the reading of easy texts with pleasure and a sense of relief," and they read easy books "with gusto and not a hint of embarrass- ment" (p. 5).

Still, some struggling middle school readers want to read texts that are difficult far beyond their comfort levels. Brock, for instance, my for- mer sixth-grade student who read most comfort- ably in third-grade materials, wanted to read more challenging and sophisticated books such as Carolyn Reeder's (1989) Shades of Gray. Because high interest in a book's topic can often help students transcend their reading level (Hunt, 1971), students like Brock can access the things they want to read, especially with some support from a teacher or a peer.

Transitional chapter books are appropriate for middle students who are just slightly below their grade level in reading and for those who are quite capable of reading, but who are inexperienced or reluctant to read. Books such as Patricia Reilly Giff's The Kids of the Polk Street School series (e.g., The Secret at the Polk Street School, 1987), Betsy Byars's Beans on the Roof (1988), and Clyde R. Bulla's Shoeshine Girl (1975) are particularly appealing because they are fairly short and easy to read so that they do not overwhelm inexperienced readers, and they also bridge the gap between picture books and chapter books. Elizabeth, a seventh-grade student in a learning disabilities resource class, read Roald Dahl's The Magic Finger (1993) within a 24-hour period, and when she re- turned the book to me, she reported proudly that it was the first book she had read.

Allington (1994) discussed how limited experience in reading is commonly misperceived as limited ability. It may seem shocking that students

who have been in school for 6, 7, or 8 years could be inexperienced with print, but they cannot become experienced until they actually engage in sustained periods of reading. This can be facilitat- ed only when students are provided time to read and access to books they really can read.

Struggling middle school readers want opportunities to share reading experiences with their teachers and their classmates. If you imagined a classroom scene in which the teacher is sitting on a stool or in a rock- ing chair reading aloud a story or picture book, with students sitting all around on a rug or on big, comfortable pillows or beanbag chairs, you might assume it must be an early elementary classroom. I have come to believe that this is a perfectly appropriate and desirable scene for middle school classrooms.

Successful environments for struggling middle school readers involve interaction among students and interaction between students and teachers during literacy activities. One of these activities, al- luded to previously, is the teacher read-aloud. There is no doubt that reading aloud to students is a powerful practice for promoting literacy appreci- ation and development, but I have found that read-alouds have specific benefits for struggling middle school readers.

Introducing books and reading aloud to the class gives teachers a chance to show students that teachers themselves value the books they bring to the classroom, thus giving students the impression that reading is pleasurable and worth- while. Far too often, teachers reveal a lack of enthusiasm for school reading materials, as Casey, a sixth-grade student, aptly observed: "I've had teachers before that just, like, hated to read. It's like 'Uhhh, here's the new book we're going to read today, class.' And that made it even boring-er because you can tell that they're not interested, so you're not going to be interested" (Ivey, in press).

When teachers read aloud interesting books and demonstrate their own enthusiasm for reading, however, their zeal may become contagious. The preservice teachers in my literacy development methods course are becoming convinced of this phenomenon, as one student, Jamie, wrote after reading a story aloud to a group of fourth- grade students for the first time: "I began telling the class that this book was one of my favorites,

Reflections on teaching struggling middle school readers jj 375



and as soon as I said that some of the girls were like, If it's your favorite, then it's my favorite, too.' It was really funny, but I told them to wait and discover if they like the book themselves." Later, she added, "It really made me smile inside when the story was over and students asked to borrow the book."

I have also observed that when middle school teachers share books regularly, students become inspired to do the same. Dora, a sixth-grade teacher, found that soon after she honored one or two students' requests to share books from home and the school library, she had to create a waiting list for students to read aloud to their classmates. The books they shared ranged from childhood favorites, such as The Giving Tree (Silverstein, 1994) and The Jolly Postman (Ahlberg & Ahlberg, 1986) to all-time middle school favorites, such as Scary Stones to Tell in the Dark (Schwartz, 1981). Still some students introduced their classmates to less familiar genres, such as collections of Greek mythology.

Sharing favorite books with peers is especially appealing to less successful and reluctant readers whose prior experiences with public reading con- sisted mainly of whole-class, round-robin readings of texts that were either too difficult, uninteresting, or both. When students have a chance to choose the books they will share and to rehearse before they read aloud, they can feel like competent, valued members of their classroom literacy commu- nities. For instance, Joshua, a frustrated seventh- grade student in a learning disabilities resource class, had severely limited word knowledge and had never read a book on his own. Needless to say, his oral reading experiences in school had been torturous. What he desperately needed was plenty of supported reading in simple texts, since there was probably no book he could pick up and read on his own.

What worked for Joshua was echo and choral reading. For example, in an echo reading of the predictable pattern book Hattie and the Fox (Fox, 1986), the teacher started by reading a short section of the text, and then Joshua read the same lines, and they continued in this manner until the end of the book. After Joshua gained some confidence through echo reading the book in its entire- ty several times, they tried choral reading, in which Joshua and his teacher read in unison, with

the teacher taking the lead until Joshua felt comfortable enough to do so. After a couple of choral readings, Joshua requested to read it aloud to his class, an incident that ignited a pattern book read- aloud frenzy among his classmates who were also extremely inexperienced as readers in the seventh grade.

A sixth-grade student, Ronnie, who I had as- sumed was uninterested in all the reading and writing activities in his class, asked me to listen to him read Private I. Guana: The Case of the Missing Chameleon (Laden, 1995) in the hallway before he read it to the class. I jumped to the conclusion that this often mischievous student was using this opportunity to get out of the classroom, but he proved me wrong when after practicing his reading on several pages he announced that he felt he was ready to share. He went back into the classroom, took a seat on the stool at the front of the class, and read the story to his classmates, cover to cover.

Shared reading times are also good opportunities for students to learn from their teachers and classmates about how to season their oral reading. I have often noticed students trying to mimic the way the teacher reads, using different voices for different characters. A sixth-grade boy once told me as I read aloud Johnny Appleseed (Kellogg, 1988), "When you read, it's like a story." After hearing her sixth-grade teacher read aloud Elbert's Bad Word (Wood, 1988), Allison decided to read the book on her own, and she announced, "I'm going to try to read this with expression." One of my preservice teachers reflected on how her reading style affected the fifth-grade students who lis- tened to her: "As I read the book, I noticed that the kids really liked to hear different voices and characters throughout the story, which I thought was fun to do and also seemed to help link the characters with a persona."

Equally important to struggling middle school readers are opportunities to read one-on-one with a peer or a teacher. For many students who struggle with reading, individualization has meant going to a remedial reading class and working alone to complete skill sheets, with the teacher rarely in- tervening with explanations or instructional support (McGill-Franzen & Allington, 1990). There are obvious instructional benefits to one-on-one reading times, such as impromptu lessons on word

376 gj Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 42:5 February 1999



identification and comprehension strategies, but perhaps their fundamental value is that they are shared literacy experiences that are both personal- ized and individualized. If students who struggle with reading are to become better and more en- thusiastic, they need many opportunities just to enjoy the literate experience with peers and teachers when they are not also being monitored, cor- rected, or tested.

Struggling middle school readers need real purposes for reading. When surveyed about their most memo- rable school assignments, one group of middle school students rated hands-on science and independent research projects as their favorites (Wasserstein, 1995). Although reading and writing were scarcely mentioned as favorites, students did not complain about reading and writing when they were used to accomplish some meaningful task. It is not surprising that middle school readers need real purposes for reading, given that motivation is highest when students engage in tasks for their own intrinsic reasons (Deci & Ryan, 1985).

For middle school students who struggle with reading, having authentic purposes is especially crucial. Unfortunately, the remediation programs provided to struggling readers when they were in the elementary grades may have focused on specific skills and other nonacademic activities rather than on reading for meaning (Johnston & Allington, 1991), and students are likely to en- counter a similar skill-and-drill approach in the middle grades (Becker, 1990).

Round-robin reading, a practice that persists in schools despite uncertainty about the origin of its popularity (Hoffman & Segel, 1982), is especially problematic for struggling middle school readers. Many students may share the sentiments of Allison, a sixth-grade student who avoids oral reading because of her limited word identification skills: "I think [other students] be staring at me and stuff" (Ivey, in press). Ryan, a fairly fluent sixth- grade reader, senses the frustration of less able readers in his class during round-robin reading, and he explained why he volunteers to read: "I raise my hand 'cause I want to read and get it done with 'cause the slow people read, and it takes them forever to get it done" (Ivey, in press). If struggling readers' agenda is to avoid being called on to read during round-robin readings,

Children'* bo oki Ahlberg, J., & Ahlberg, A. (1986). The jolly postman (ill.

A. Ahlberg). New York: Little, Brown. Andersen, H.C. (1975). The little match girl "(ill. B. Lent).

Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Browne, A. (1984). Willy the wimp. New York: Knopf. Bulla, R.C. (1975). Shoeshine girl. New York:

HarperCollins. Byars, B. (1979). Goodbye, Chicken Little. New York:

Harper & Row. Byars, B. (1988). Beans on the roof. New York: Dell. Cole, B. (1987). Prince Cinders. New York: G.P. Putnam's

Sons. Collier, J.L., & Collier, C. (1974). My brother Sam is

dead. New York: Macmillan. Dahl, R. (1980). The Twits (ill. Q. Blake). New York:

Bantam-Skylark. Dahl, R. (1983). Revolting rhymes (ill. Q. Blake). New

York: Bantam. Dahl, R. (1993). The magic finger (\\\. I Ross). New York:

Puffin. Egielski, R. (1995). Buz. New York: HarperCollins. Fleischman, P. (1988). Joyful noise: Poems for two voic-

es. New York: HarperCollins. Fox, M. (1986). Hattieandthefox{\\\. P. Mullins). New

York: Simon & Schuster. Giff, PR. (1987). The secrets at the Polk Street School '(ill.

B.Sims). New York: Dell. Kasza, K. (1987). The wolf's chicken stew. New York: G.P.

Putnam's Sons. Kellogg, S. (1988). Johnny Appleseed. New York:

Morrow. Laden, N. (1995). Private I. Guana: The case of the miss-

ing chameleon. San Francisco: Chronicle. Littledale, F. (1986). The magic fish (ill. W.P. Pels). New

York: Scholastic. Lobel, A. (1980). Fables. New York: Harper & Row. Mahy, M. (1989). The great white man-eating shark (ill. J.

Allen). New York: Dial. Marshall, E. (1982). Fox and his friends (ill. J. Marshall).

New York: Dial. Marshall, E. (1983). Fox on wheels (\\L J. Marshall). New

York: Dial. Myers, W.D. (1 988). Scorpions. New York: Harper & Row. Noble, T.H. (1987). Meanwhile back at the ranch (ill. T.

Ross). New York: Dial.

(continued)

Reflections on teaching struggling middle school readers §§ 377



Children'* book* (continued) Noyes, A. (1981). The highwayman (ill. C. Keeping).

Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Peterson, J. (1991). Mystery in the night woods (ill. C.

Szekeres). New York: Scholastic. Rathmann, P. (1995). Officer Buckle and Gloria. New York:

G.P. Putman's Sons. Reeder, C. (1989). Shades of gray New York: Avon. Rylant, C. (1987). Henry and Mudge in the green time

(ill. S. Stevenson). New York: Macmillan. Schwartz, A. (1 981 ). Scary stories to tell in the dark(\\\. S.

Gammell). New York: HarperCollins. Scieszka, J. (1991). Knights of the kitchen table (ill. L.

Smith). New York: Puffin. Scieszka, J, & Smith, L. (1992). The stinky cheese man

and other fairly stupid tales. New York: Viking. Silverstein, S. (1994). The giving tree. New York:

HarperCollins. Wood, A. (1988). Elbert's bad word{\\\. A. Wood & D.

Wood). New York: Harcourt Brace.

and fluent readers' agenda is to "get it done," the ultimate purpose for the reading, to actively con- struct meaning, must be lost to most of the class.

In my experience, struggling middle school readers enjoy oral reading activities that culminate with a performance. For instance, Allison, the sixth-grade student mentioned previously, vehe- mently disliked traditional oral reading activities such as round-robin reading. However, after collaborating with a classmate on an original poem patterned after selections from Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices (Fleischman, 1988), she voluntarily read it aloud to the class. What made the difference for Allison in this situation was the fact that she was able to rehearse the poem at least a dozen times before performing it, or, as she put it, "I got to practice" (Ivey, in press). Moreover, sharing something she had written gave her an authentic purpose for reading. Readers Theatre performances of a wide range of texts, including poetry (e.g., Revolting Rhymes, Dahl, 1983), excerpts from novels (e.g., Goodbye Chicken Little, Byars, 1979), and short stories (e.g., Fables, Lobel, 1980), provide opportunities for students to prac-

tice reading toward a goal. In this activity the text is read aloud as a script, with each student assum- ing the role of a character or some other part.

I have also come to believe that struggling middle school readers do find their own purposes for reading, but not necessarily for in-school, teacher- assigned reading. For example, Allison, who said she "hates to read," read Jet magazine regularly at home and often read aloud to her younger brother. Daisy, a sixth-grade struggling reader, checked out books on cooking from the school library and ex- perimented with brownie baking at home. Joey, a sixth-grade sports fanatic, counted on me to bring the morning newspaper to school each day so that he could borrow the sports section during SSR. Ricky and Tim read books on how to draw and make paper airplanes. Given the importance of students' personal preferences, out-of-school reading interests ought to be welcomed into the classroom and integrated into the reading curriculum.

The strong influence of self-selection on motivation to read makes a good case for free-choice reading, especially for struggling middle school readers. Still, for ease of dealing with comprehension instruction, promoting literary discussions, and developing content knowledge, teacher- selected, whole-class, common texts are some- times necessary in middle school classrooms, so a balance between teacher-selected and student- selected reading must be maintained. However, many struggling middle school readers may suc- ceed at reading teacher-assigned texts only when teachers help them set purposes for reading and support their reading by showing them ways to become active, strategic readers. I have found that Directed Reading-Thinking Activities (Stauffer, 1969) help less successful readers become engaged in reading texts they would not necessarily choose for themselves because predicting, based on clues from the book and their prior knowledge, along with monitoring their hypotheses, gives them the purpose they need to keep reading. Still, though, materials for guided reading and discussion must be on students' instructional reading levels.

Struggling middle school readers want to be and can become good readers. In general, students' attitudes toward reading may decline during the middle school years, and they may choose to read less

378 I Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 42:5 February 1999



than in previous years (Ley, Schaer, & Dismukes, 1994). For struggling middle school readers, increasingly negative attitudes toward reading are even more pronounced than for average and above-average readers (McKenna, Kear, & Ellsworth, 1995). However, their pessimism toward reading may be caused by feelings of helplessness and hopelessness (e.g., Johnston & Winograd, 1985) rather than by a general dislike of reading (Kos, 1991).

Conversely, I have some lasting recollections of sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students who, despite significant odds and low expectations, actually became willing, skilled readers during the middle grades. Antoine, a frustrated, reluctant seventh-grade reader, began the school year reading on the second-grade level, mainly due to his limited word knowledge. A spelling inventory revealed that Antoine was in the within-word- pattern stage of development (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 1996). His instructional program was multifaceted, but it included two main foci: word study and independent reading.

I taught Antoine within a small pull-out group for just 40 minutes each day, so roughly 30 minutes of that time was devoted to a combination of those two activities. Antoine's word study group, which included three or four other students, began the school year by examining long vowel pat- terns, one vowel at a time (e.g., vase, train, way), through conceptual word sorting activities and games (see Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton, & Johnston, 1996). The books Antoine chose for independent reading were mainly easy-to-read picture books, such as Henry andMudge in the Green Time (Rylant, 1987). As Antoine's word knowledge developed, he began to read more challenging titles, such as the short novel Mystery in the Night Woods (Peterson, 1991). The most convincing evidence of his growth, however, was his mother's happy and tearful report that she came home from work one day to find Antoine reading to his preschool-aged sister.

There were many students who blossomed as readers like Antoine did, but there were also those who did not. But even my failure to find what worked for these children did not destroy their desire to become more literate nor did it diminish the value they placed on what they could do as readers and writers. I remember vividly Darryl, who

was in my Title I class for sixth and seventh grades, but who was placed in a special education program for his eighth-grade year and could not receive both services. Although, despite our efforts, he had not made tremendous progress in reading and writing by eighth grade, he still had the desire to improve and the desire to read and write, which he demonstrated often by skipping lunch to read picture books and to write poems on the computer in my classroom. I am convinced that helping Darryl with his persistent reading problem was my responsibility, and that he was fully capable of becoming a skilled reader if he had been provided with appropriate instruction. I can only hope that now, 7 years later and much more knowledgeable and experienced as a reading educator, I would know how to help Darryl match his motivation to read with good reading skills.

Perhaps the most compelling story I have read with respect to struggling middle school readers chronicled one sixth-grade boy's growth from a second-grade instructional level to a fourth-grade instructional level during 2 years of tutoring (Morris, Ervin, & Conrad, 1996). Instruction for this student included comprehension practice, word study, fluency practice, and writing, but all were balanced within the context of interesting literature he could read and wanted to read. Morris et al. (1996) attributed this success story, in large part, to the fact that the tutor was well trained and knowledgeable about teaching reading. If we placed struggling middle school readers in classrooms where they could experience good teaching, I believe their potential to improve and their motivation to be literate would become increasingly apparent.

In my experiences, struggling middle school students do want to become better at reading, but this happens only when they experience instructional environments that foster optimism for im- provement. I believe the most beneficial learning contexts for struggling readers, whether they are regular classrooms, pull-out programs, or one-on- one tutoring sessions, are those that promote both skill and will (Paris, Lipson, & Wixson, 1983) and combine enablement and engagement (Roe, 1997) for reading and writing.

One barrier to providing struggling middle school readers with the instruction they need is the wide range of reading abilities in any one

Reflections on teaching struggling middle school readers jj 379



middle school classroom. In order for middle school teachers to see the potential of struggling readers to improve, they must reconceptualize how the reading/language arts class looks, both physically and instructionally. Roller (1996) de- scribed how a workshop concept can facilitate reading and writing growth for all students within the regular classroom. The organization of a workshop classroom is particularly appropriate for struggling readers because it is grounded in the notion that individual children within the same classroom can do a variety of literacy activities at once, thus accommodating variability between students. Reading and writing skills can be taught individually, in small groups, or in whole-class minilessons while students are reading and re- sponding to self-selected, personally interesting children's literature on their independent or instructional reading levels. From a teaching per- spective, I value the workshop design because it allows me to work in close proximity to small groups of students and, most importantly, to individual students.

A second organizational plan that allows for struggling readers' needs to be met in the regular classroom is the circle-seat-center format (Bear et al., 1996), with students placed in one of three ro- tating groups based on their instructional needs. During circle time, the teacher meets with a small group of students for instructional-level, guided reading and word study activities. At seat time, students practice what the teacher modeled or taught in a previous circle time. For instance, students might work independently on word study activities (e.g., word sorts, word hunts, writing sorts) dealing with whatever spelling pattern or concept they are studying, or they might read books on their independent reading level. Center time might consist of writing projects students can work on individually or with partners. Although developmental grouping should not be the only way of grouping students during the school day, struggling readers in particular benefit from developmentally appropriate instruction that is difficult to accomplish in a whole-class, heterogeneous format.

final thoughts My working generalizations on teaching struggling middle school readers are not intended to over-

simplify the very serious and complex problem of children reaching the middle grades lacking the basic skills, confidence, and motivation they need to learn from the increasingly difficult and diverse materials they are expected to read. Morris et al. (1996) called for improved and more intensive training for reading specialists and learning disabilities teachers who work with struggling readers. I would extend that recommendation to include regular classroom teachers in the middle school. I believe middle school language arts teachers ought to be knowledgeable about how literacy develops from the early years on, and only then will they understand struggling readers' histories and what they need to progress toward independence in reading.

Do current teacher education programs prepare new middle school teachers to be good teachers of struggling readers? Probably not. We still have a long way to go in offering adequate reading methods coursework in general for preservice middle school teachers (Romine, McKenna, & Robinson, 1996). What I hope my working generalizations of- fer to new and experienced middle school teachers is a place to start with students whose situations seem otherwise hopeless or, at best, extremely difficult. The more I learn about middle school readers the more I am convinced that all of them, even those who have struggled with reading since kindergarten, can become successful, engaged readers with the right kind of instruction and with teachers who are attuned to what they need.

teaches reading education courses at

Ilvey

Rutgers University (Graduate School of Education, 10 Seminary Place, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA).

REFERENCES Allington, R.L. (1994). The schools we have. The schools we

need. The Reading Teacher, 48, 14-29. Bear, D.R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (1996).

Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and

spelling instruction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Becker, HJ. (1990). Curriculum and instruction in middle-

grades schools. Phi Delta Kappan, 71, 450-457. Betts, E.A. (1954). Foundations of reading instruction. New

York: American Books. Bintz, W.P. (1993). Resistant readers in secondary education:

Some insights and implications. Journal of Reading, 36, 604-615.

380 Ij Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 42:5 February 1999



Deci, EX., & Ryan, R.M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-de- termination in human behavior. New York: Plenum Press.

Fielding, L, & Roller, C. (1992). Making difficult books accessible and easy books acceptable. The Reading Teacher, 46, 678-685.

Hoffman, J.V., & Segel, K.W. (1982). Oral reading instruction: A century of controversy. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 239 277)

Hunt, L.C. (1971). The effect of self-selection, interest, and motivation upon independent, instructional, and frustration levels. The Reading Teacher, 24, 146-151.

Ivey, G. (in press). A multicase study of middle school readers. Reading Research Quarterly.

Johnston, P., & Allington, R. (1991). Remediation. In R. Barr, MX. Kamil, P. Mosenthal, & P.D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research, Vol. 2 (pp. 984-1012). New York: Longman.

Johnston, P.H., & Winograd, P.N. (1985). Passive failure in reading. Journal of Reading Behavior, 1 7, 279-299.

Kos, R. (1991). Persistence of reading disabilities: The voices of four middle school students. American Educational Research Journal, 28, 875-895.

Ley, T.C., Schaer, B.B., & Dismukes, B.W. (1994). Longitudinal study of the reading attitudes and behaviors of middle school students. Reading Psychology, 15, 11-38.

McGill-Franzen, A., & Allington, RX. (1990). Comprehension and coherence: Neglected elements of literacy instruction in remedial and resource room services. Journal of Reading, Writing, and Learning Disabilities, 6, 149-180.

McKenna, M.C., Kear, D.J., & Ellsworth, R.A. (1995).

Children's attitudes toward reading: A national survey. Reading Research Quarterly, 30, 934-955.

Morris, D., Ervin, C, & Conrad, K. (1996). A case study of middle school reading disability. The Reading Teacher, 49,

Paris, S.G., Lipson, M.Y., & Wixson, K.K. (1983). Becoming a strategic reader. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8, 296-316.

Roe, M.F. (1997). Combining enablement and engagement to assist students who do not read and write well. Middle School Journal, 28(3), 35-41.

Roller, CM. (1996). Variability not disability: Struggling readers in a workshop classroom. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Romine, B.G.C., McKenna, M.C., & Robinson, R.D. (1996). Reading coursework requirements for middle and high school content area teachers: A U.S. survey. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 40, 194-198.

Stauffer, R.G. (1969). Directing the reading-thinking process. New York: Harper & Row.

Wasserstein, P. (1995). What middle schoolers say about their schoolwork. Educational Leadership, 53(1), 41-43.

Worthy, J. (1996). A matter of interest: Literature that hooks reluctant readers and keeps them reading. The Reading Teacher, 50, 204-212.

Worthy, J., Patterson, E., Turner, M., Prater, S., & Salas, R. (1997, December). Coming to love books: Reading preferences of struggling readers. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Reading Conference, Scottsdale, AZ.

Advertising in

THE READING TEACHER

and/or

JOURNAL OF ADOLESCENT

& ADULT LITERACY

(formerly JOURNAL OF READHG)

A very cost-effective way to reach top reading educators with news about

products and services. For further information, contact

Linda Hunter, Advertising Manager, 302-731-1600, ext. 261

302-369-8476, FAX. 98-27 A&M 8/98

44th Annual _

Write the Past C

f&^^p^p^n^Hh^RJHh^Hh^HH ft^ **j^>^*®:™ cv^flr ^4fllH^HHH^H^HH ^--^~~^~~~~~^ -w^*

Read the Future

I May 2-7 WW •; International Reading Association ^

Reflections on teaching struggling middle school readers m 381



reflections on teaching struggling middle school readers ivey

Education

jstor terms

terms conditions of

jstor archive

pmall use subject

reallydoesntlike reading

attheend of classtoday

february1999this content

information technology