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Kylene Beers and Barbara Samuels               


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Table of Contents
    Preface Foreword Linda Rief
    SECTION I: A FOCUS ON MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS
    1: Understanding Middle School Students 3
    Linda Robinson
    Robinson sets the stage for the book by describing the interesting, exciting, and challenging nature of middle school students. Chapter 1 describes the physical, emotional, cognitive, and social development as well as the stages of reading development of teens in the context of a middle school classroom.
    2: Voices of Middle School Readers 23
    Hollis Lowery-Moore
    Reading instruction begins with the particular needs and interests of the students. Lowery-Moore records the voices of middle school students as they discuss their literacy in reading autobiographies. Readers tell why, when, and what they read.
    3: Choosing Not to Read: Understanding Why Some Middle Schoolers Just Say No 37
    Kylene Beers
    Do you find it difficult to connect students to texts? Beers explores the various reasons some teens choose I I not to read. Listening to the students themselves, she categorizes their responses and then develops activities that help aliterate teens make the connection with reading.
    4: Call Me Ishmael: A Look at Gifted Middle School Readers 65
    Barbara Baskin
    Gifted students present different challenges for reading teachers, although few programs seem to acknowledge it. This chapter suggests strategies and materials to meet the unique needs of gifted adolescents in both heterogeneous and homogeneous classrooms.
    5: Reaching Struggling Readers 81
    Margaret Hill
    Do you have students who have made it to middle -school without being able to read above a third-grade level? Chapter 5 describes strategies including independent practice, guided reading and shared reading, vocabulary instruction, retellings and think-alouds that provide a framework to help teachers enable emerging readers to develop literacy.
    6: Latino Students and Reading: Understanding These English Language Learners' Needs 105
    Yolanda Padron
    ELLs, or English Language Learners, constitute a growing portion of our school populations. By the year 2020 It is projected that 25.3 percent of our student population will be Latino. Padron suggests ways to create an 11 environment conducive to effective reading instruction in culturally diverse classrooms.
    SECTION II: A FOCUS ON RESPONSE
    7: Reader-Response Theory in the Middle School 125
    Robert Probst
    How do we make meaning in our minds when we read? Probst outlines the process we use to build response to a text. His chapter makes clear the nature of aesthetic response to literature and suggests ways classrooms can be structured to encourage transactions with text.
    8: Thematic Units and Readers' Workshop: How the Two Connect
    Mary Santerre
    Mary Santerre's classroom is a reading community centered around a reader's workshop based on a series of thematic units. Her chapter outlines a step-by-step process for organizing units, presents some sample reading units, and demonstrates how her students move from response letters to critical analyses and literary writing.
    9: Promoting Literature Discussions 163
    Elizabeth A. Poe
    At the heart of effective reading instruction is a stimulating, student-centered discussion. In this chapter Poe provides an overview of practices that promote book discussions, including how to prepare for a discussion and how to assess students' participation.
    10: Readers Take Responsibility: Literature Circles and the Growth of Critical Thinking 177
    Judith Scott and Jan Wells
    Scott and Wells assert the benefits of using literature circles as a way to facilitate critical response to litera ture, furnish the comments one group of middle school students made during a literature circle meeting, and offer suggestions/strategies for implementing this struc ture in middle school classrooms.
    11: Using Dialectical Journals to Build Beginning Literary Response
    Sandra L. Robertson
    In this chapter Robertson demonstrates how she uses dialectical journals with her middle schoolers to encourage them to form questions about what they are reading, make note of confusing pieces of text, recognize parts that strike them as significant, and move from initial response to critical analysis. A look at one student's journal provides insight into this process that moves students from response to analysis.
    SECTION Ill: A FOCUS ON IMPROVING AND ASSESSING COMPREHENSION
    12: Strategies: What Connects Readers to Meaning 225
    Judy Wallis
    Teachers with students who have difficulty comprehending texts will find this chapter valuable. Wallis not only explains the difference between reading skills and reading strategies, but she offers examples of many reading strategies as she explains when, how, and why students should use them.
    13: Reading Aloud to Build Success in Reading 245
    Teri S. Lesesne
    Lesesne reviews the benefits of reading aloud to middle school students and discusses the advantages of reading aloud short stories, of sharing picture story books with older readers, of offering a read and tease with specific parts of high interest novels, and of encouraging students to perform reader's theater. Lists of books and stories to read aloud help teachers plan their read aloud program. 14: Fostering Independent, Critical Content Reading in the Middle Grades 261
    Karen M. Feathers
    Many students have failed to develop strategies for reading informational texts. Feathers discusses the structural differences between narrative and informational texts and suggests strategies for engaging prior knowledge, note taking during reading, and organizing information after reading. Her "trouble slips" offer ways to build vocabulary .
    15: Authentic Reading Assessment in the Middle School 281
    Devon Brenner and P. David Pearson
    A strong authentic assessment program is built upon a teacher's goals for teaching and learning. Students' accomplishments are demonstrated by artifacts which document performance. Brenner and Pearson describe the process of establishing curricular goals, deciding what counts as evidence, and what the evidence means. Case studies provide specific examples.
    SECTION IV: A FOCUS ON MATERIALS-FROM BOOKS TO COMPUTERS
    16: Castles to Colin Powell: The Truth About Nonfiction 313
    Betty Carter and Richard F. Abrahamson
    Nonfiction reading is often a forgotten favorite of today's teenagers; it's also the type of reading found on i standardized tests. Carter and Abrahamson provide an I overview of the structure and patterns of nonfiction books and suggests materials that both teens and teachers will find outstanding. 17: Short Stories-Long Overdue 333
    Donald R. Gallo
    Don Gallo surveys the world of short stories for middle school students. Re suggests classroom contexts and teaching tips as well as categorized lists of short stories aimed at specific interests of young teens.
    18: Creating Lifetime Readers: A Novel Idea 347
    Barbara G. Samuels
    Young adult novels can unlock the door to a lifetime of reading. Samuels argues that these novels engage teens in reading about corning-of-age issues that are central to the lives of middle school students. She also suggests that well-written young adult novels serve as models for learning about the structure of the novel and therefore are a bridge to adult fiction and the classics.
    19: It Ain't Only in Books Any More 363
    Ted Hippie and Elizabeth Goza
    Although print has always dominated the school curriculum, technology offers new media for the classroom. IRipple and Goza suggest ways of using audiobooks, comic books and graphic novels, and CD-ROMs in the classroom. Their lists of each of these materials make it easy to incorporate a new kind of language in the curriculum.
    20: The Genie in the Computer 375
    Elizabeth Stephens
    A genie in one teacher's computer shows her how midddle school scholars can access and produce multimedia programs for information, reading materials, and communication with the world. She learns how the Internet can provide an audience for her students' writings as well as sources of information on her entire curriculum. SECTION V: A FOCUS ON TEACHERS
    21: Honoring Teacher Voices Through Professional Conversations 397
    Carol A. Pope and Karen S. Kutiper
    Pope and Kutiper share what teachers have told them about professional development: what makes in service effective, what encourages teachers to try new teaching techniques, and what districts should do to encourage true change in teachers' practice. Their chapter develops a model for effective continuing professional education. 22: Selection Aids: Places to Go When There's More You Need to Know 415
    Patricia Potter Wilson
    This chapter provides an overview of selection aids to help teachers connect students to trade books. Wilson lists the most popular and useful selection aids, defines their purposes, limitations, and benefits, and explains how these aids help teachers develop interdisciplinary or thematic units, encourage multicultural awareness, and broaden students' reading interests.
    Trade Books Cited 435
    Author Biographies Author Index 457
    Title Index 466
    Subject Index 481



INTO FOCUS:
Understanding and Creating Middle School Readers
Kylene Beers and Barbara Samuels, Editors

Help for understanding middle school readers: who they are; why they read; why they don’t; what they read; and much, much more.
1998 Paperbound 502pp ISBN 0-926842-64-1 (5-9) Order #435 $52.95

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