Educating Teachers to Teach Middle-Grades Reading: A Review of the Literature

• In Event: Roundtable Session 49
  In Roundtable Session: Middle School Literacy and Language

Abstract

Echoing This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents (NMSA, 2010), middle grades researchers have found that effective middle grades teaching requires a particular skill set grounded in a deep understanding of content and adolescent development. Recently, researchers have focused much attention on adolescent literacy, often concluding that adolescents continue to require targeted instruction to improve as readers (e.g., Pitcher et al, 2010; Snow & Moje, 2010). As teacher candidates learn to teach middle grades reading, these fields intersect, leading to an important question: What does research say about learning to teach middle grades reading? To answer this question, the purpose of this study was to examine and review extant research on learning to teach middle grades reading.

Author

• Katie Wester-Neal, University of Georgia