Literacy Intervention in the Middle Grades

Kevin Flanigan, PhD, is Professor in the Literacy Department at West Chester University (WCU) in Pennsylvania. He works in the WCU Reading Center along with master's students to assess and teach children and young adults who struggle to read and write. A former middle-grades classroom teacher and reading specialist/coach, Dr. Flanigan researches and writes about developmental word knowledge and interventions for students with reading difficulties and challenges. He is coauthor of several books, including Literacy Intervention in the Middle Grades; Assessment for Reading Instruction, Fourth Edition; and Developing Word Recognition. Latisha Hayes, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education at the University of Virginia (UVA), where she teaches courses focused on the language structures of English and data-based decisions to inform interventions for students with reading difficulties. She is also Director of UVA's McGuffey Reading Clinical Services, where she works with preservice and inservice teachers to provide students across the grades with diagnostic and tutoring services. As a special educator and reading specialist, Dr. Hayes has taught students with reading disabilities across the elementary and middle grades. She is coauthor of several books, including Literacy Intervention in the Middle Grades and Developing Word Recognition.

No two older struggling readers are identical, and many struggle with literacy for different reasons. Using a teacher-friendly, hands-on approach, this eminently practical book walks educators through the nuts and bolts of literacy intervention in the middle grades. Highlights include "North Star" principles to orient instruction, an assessment flowchart, extended case studies, sample lesson plans, and clear, engaging figures. The book offers evidence-based practices for targeting specific literacy components, including word recognition, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Teachers are guided to plan structured but flexible interventions that promote literacy growth and engagement.

Foreword, Katherine A. Dougherty Stahl 1. Middle-Grades Readers: Introducing Three Case Studies and Debunking Common Myths 2. Middle-Grades Literacy Intervention: "North Star" Principles 3. Start with Assessments 4. Building Automatic Word Recognition with Aliyah 5. Building Fluency with Aliyah 6. Building Vocabulary with Zach 7. Building Comprehension with Zach 8. Building Writing with Zach to Support His Comprehension 9. Building Engagement with Andres 10. Supporting Middle-Grades Students Across the Day Appendix. Differentiating During Interventions: Three Options for Organizing and Scheduling References Index