Supporting Middle School Readers: Tier Two Reading Interventions For Middle Grades

The research question guiding this project was: How can existing evidenced-based reading interventions be modified to be age appropriate for middle school students? There has been an increase in older students measuring below grade level in reading, but the materials for interventions teachers have access to are often geared toward young readers. The body of evidence that is called the science of reading has created a shift in understanding how best to teach reading and support struggling readers. Data reviewed supports there are some distinct differences in how to approach middle school students with reading interventions. These distinctions include such methods as connecting phonics interventions with vocabulary interventions and an overall approach of having phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension interventions merged to work on multiple types at once. These older readers also need to have opportunities to take ownership and learn by interacting with each other while still having access to age-appropriate material that is written at accessible text levels. This project includes six sets of reading interventions geared towards middle school students and includes components that address phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. This project was built as an intervention curriculum for a tier two reading classroom to support struggling readers in middle grades.