Rethinking Middle School Reading Instruction: A Basic Literacy Activity

Abstract

Research on subject matter instruction across the 20th century (e.g., Stevens, 1912 Stevens, R. 1912. The question as a measure of efficiency in instruction: A critical study of classroom practice, New York: Columbia University. [Google Scholar]; Bellack, 1966 Bellack, A. 1966. The language of the classroom, New York: Teachers College Press. [Google Scholar]; Hoetker & Ahlbrand; 1969 Hoetker, J. and Ahlbrand, W. P. Jr. 1969. The persistence of the recitation. American Education Research Journal., 6: 145–167. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Gall, 1970 Gall, M. 1970. The use of questions in teaching. Review of Educational Research, 40: 707–720. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Langer, 1999 Langer, J. A. 1999. Beating the odds: Teaching middle and high school students to read and write well, Albany, NY: National Research Center on English Learning & Achievement. (Research Rep. No. 12014) [Google Scholar]; Mehan, 1979 Mehan, H. 1979. Learning lessons: Social organization in the classroom, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Nystrand, 1997 Nystrand, M., Gamoran, A., Kachur, R. and Prendergast, C. 1997. Opening dialogue: Understanding the dynamics of language and learning in the English classroom, New York: Teachers College Press. [Google Scholar];) reveals a preponderance of teacher-directed lecture, recitation, and round-robin reading of text in place of instruction that focuses on reading-to-learn, thinking, and transforming information into meaning and understanding (Durkin, 1978–79 Durkin, D. 1978–79. What classroom observations reveal about reading comprehension instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 14: 481–533. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Langer, 1999 Langer, J. A. 1999. Beating the odds: Teaching middle and high school students to read and write well, Albany, NY: National Research Center on English Learning & Achievement. (Research Rep. No. 12014) [Google Scholar]; Blanton & Moorman, 1990 Blanton, W. and Moorman, G. 1990. The presentation of reading lessons. Reading Research and Instruction, 29: 35–55. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]; Wood & Muth, 1991 Wood, K. and Muth, D. 1991. The case for improved instruction in the middle grades. Journal of Reading, 35(2): 84–90. [Google Scholar]). This kind of instruction persists despite the fact that observations of higher performing schools indicated the tendency to organize instruction around meaningful learning communities with extensive interactive discussion of material read (Langer, 1999 Langer, J. A. 1999. Beating the odds: Teaching middle and high school students to read and write well, Albany, NY: National Research Center on English Learning & Achievement. (Research Rep. No. 12014) [Google Scholar]; Myers, 1996 Myers, M. 1996. Changing our minds: Negotiating English and literacy, Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. [Google Scholar]; Wenglinsky, 2000 Wenglinsky, H. 2000. How teaching matters: Bringing the classroom back into discussions of teacher quality, Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service. [Google Scholar]; 2004 Wenglinsky, H. 2004. Facts or thinking skills? What NAEP results say. Educational Leadership, 62(1): 32–35. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The purpose of this essay is twofold: (a) to argue that a great deal of reading instruction fails to meet the multiple and complex literacy needs of most middle school students, and (b) to propose a new orientation for thinking about middle school reading instruction. We begin with a discussion of research findings on classroom reading instruction, followed by an exploration of issues central to the problem. Then we propose what we have titled the basic literacy activity, a conceptual tool for thinking about and arranging middle school reading instruction. We end with an overview of selected instructional strategies that exemplify the characteristics of basic literacy activity.

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