Teaching Middle School ELA
Welcome to the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast, where we are dedicated to helping English Language Arts teachers create dynamic and engaging lessons for their students, while also managing the day-to-day responsibilities that come with being a Middle School ELA teacher.
As educators ourselves, we understand the challenges of finding a work-life balance that allows us to pursue our passion for teaching while also enjoying our personal lives. That's why each Tuesday, hosts Caitlin Mitchell and Jessica Cannata share practical and innovative solutions for managing your workload and staying inspired in your teaching practice.
Whether you are looking for fresh ideas to inspire your students, strategies for improving your writing instruction, or tips for managing your time more effectively, this podcast is designed to provide you with the tools you need to thrive as a Middle School ELA teacher.
Join us each week for curriculum and lesson ideas, classroom stories, and interviews with fellow educators who are experts in the field. We believe that with the right support and resources, you can create a classroom environment that encourages students to become strong and passionate learners.
If you teach reading and writing to middle schoolers and want to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in ELA education, then this is the podcast for you! Tune in every week and let us help you make a difference in the lives of your students and in your own teaching career.
Teaching Middle School ELA
Episode 313: Say Goodbye to Popcorn Reading: 4 Engaging Read Aloud Strategies (You’ll Love the Last One!)
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In this episode, Jessica and Megan tackle the challenge of helping middle school students strengthen their reading fluency. Although students begin building these skills in elementary school, the complexity of middle school texts often requires extra support. Tune in as they share three powerful methods—choral reading, echo reading, and paired reading—plus a creative twist for making individual read-alouds engaging and low-pressure. It’s a must-listen for any teacher eager to enhance fluency, deepen comprehension, and boost student confidence in reading!
After listening, you'll have some simple, practical fluency practice strategies that you can start implementing today, with any classroom text your students are reading!
Well, hello, teachers. In today's episode, we are addressing a challenge that we know many of you face, and that is how to help your middle schoolers become more fluent readers. Join Jessica and Megan as they unpack practical, engaging strategies that will help your students improve their fluency without putting them on the spot during class read-alouds. Whether you're a fan of echo reading, paired reading, whole class reading, they've got tips and insights to keep your students involved and feeling confident. And wait until you hear their final trick for making individual read-alouds stress-free and fun. This might be an episode where you'll want to grab a pen, get comfy and take lots of good notes on taking fluency to the next level. Hi there, ela teachers.
Speaker 1:Caitlin here, ceo and co-founder of EB Academics, I'm so excited you're choosing to tune into the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast. Our mission here is simple to help middle school ELA teachers take back their time outside of the classroom by providing them with engaging lessons, planning frameworks and genuine support so that they can become the best version of themselves both inside and outside of the classroom. And we do this every single day inside the EB Teachers ELA portal. This is a special place we've developed uniquely for ELA teachers to access every single piece of our engaging, fun and rigorous curriculum, so that they have everything they need to batch plan their lessons using our EB Teacher Digital Planner that's built right into the app. Over the years, we've watched as thousands of teachers from around the world have found success in and out of the classroom after using EB Academics programs, and we're determined to help thousands more. If you're interested in learning more, simply click the link in the podcast description and in the meantime, we look forward to serving you right here on the podcast every single week.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome back to the Teaching Middle School ELA podcast. I'm Jessica and I'm here with Megan, and today we are actually tackling a topic that we've been hearing a lot of like buzz about from our teacher community, and that's helping our students improve their reading fluency.
Speaker 3:Yes, and so fluency really just refers to a reader's ability to read with proper accuracy rate and also expression. And while your students have been hopefully working on this skill since probably early elementary school, most readers still need help in middle school to fluently read on-level text, especially as their texts become more and more complex, and so fluency practice really helps students not only read more smoothly, but it also helps students understand and engage with the content that they're actually reading.
Speaker 2:So true and I feel like I'm I'm living this out right now. I've mentioned how Harper, our youngest daughter, is like learning to read, right With her sight words and everything, and she's got this project this week. It's an all saints day parade and she had to not memorize but she has to read like two sentences about a particular saint and as she practices it is like so choppy and that's fine, right, because she's learning to read. But I'm trying to explain to her like this is how we build fluency. So we're actually using some of the strategies that we're going to be sharing with you all today. I'm doing them with Harper, so it's really cool to see it like in action with a five-year-old and then also see how it can be adapted for middle school.
Speaker 2:So we're going to be sharing these strategies with you and just know that they're going to be based on the often debated practice of student read alouds. I feel like there's lots of like opinions about student read alouds. Would you agree?
Speaker 3:I totally agree, and there's probably some of our listeners that are thinking I really hope when Jessica says read aloud, she doesn't mean just like randomly calling on students to read aloud, because that can get really boring. I actually have trauma from that. In school I was a good reader, but like then you'd get to those students that really kind of struggled and you were just sitting there going like oh, when is this over?
Speaker 2:Yes, oh my gosh. But I have to admit, megan, like in my early years of teaching, I totally did the popcorn reading thing. Fair yeah, I didn't know better. I wasn't taught other ways. I was like, well, that's what I did in school, so I'm just going to do it. But no, that is not what we mean.
Speaker 2:We are not talking about random read alouds, popcorn reading, because that can involve a lot of stress, a lot of stigma for students, and so we really have to be careful about how we have students read aloud in class and, like Megan said, I'm sure there's lots of us who have bad memories of that experience, or even of listening to other students, so we don't want that in our classroom. So we are not talking about on-the-spot reading. Instead, we're going to be sharing three really time-tested methods, and that's choral reading, echo reading and paired reading, and then, at the end, we have one final fun idea that I truly think is going to be your favorite if you're listening to this episode. So hang on for that one. So the first method is called choral reading, and if you haven't done this before, you can probably guess what it is just by the name, and you can actually do this in ELA class or you can do it in other subjects as a way to help students build fluency. So I really like the idea of it being used in social studies or science, because there can be some tough vocabulary words in that subject matter, so it's a great way to help students tackle those.
Speaker 2:So what you're going to do is first select a text. So you want to choose a passage from a text that your class is currently reading, and it should be something appropriate for the reading level of the majority of your students. So typically it's a section that's not too long, but it does contain rich language. So it does take a little bit of, you know, effort on your part to find a good passage. But I want to point out, it's just a passage or a section of the reading, so it might just be a paragraph or two. And then the next step for choral reading is you're going to model the reading for your students. So you're going to read the passage aloud so that your students can hear the correct pacing, the pronunciation, the expression, the tone you're using like all the good things that we want from readers and you're going to really ask them to listen carefully for how and when you pause where you emphasize sounds etc. You want them to follow along with their finger or not as you're reading. So it's like really active listening on their part. Then you move into the group reading. So this is where you ask the entire class to read that same passage aloud with you. So you're doing it together at the exact same time and you're making sure everyone's following along, you're encouraging them to keep the pace steady with you and you're kind of guiding them as needed. So you're setting the pace and everything with them and then you can repeat it. So for more challenging sections you might want to read the passage multiple times to build confidence, to build fluency and each time focus on improving expression, clarity and pacing.
Speaker 2:And this is such a random example, but I distinctly remember being in elementary school and our school did this big event every December. It was for the holidays and each grade had to do a choral reading. So of course teachers would practice with students you know in advance and then you did it in front of, like, the entire school community, all the parents and everything. And in eighth grade this is so cheesy, but we practiced enough. And of course eighth graders had like the hardest passage, the longest, most complex, right, and we did ours.
Speaker 2:And I remember everyone just like stopping and clapping because it was like we nailed it, and our teacher was like so happy because it did not sound that way at first right, there was always someone coming in too early or like I don't know, it just didn't work. But I really did see the results and that always stuck with me, even as a student like whoa, okay, that was like an effective way to communicate with an audience and so it really is a great activity to do in class. And then, of course, you can discuss with your students like what were the difficult words, what were the places we needed to pause for emphasis, where should we slow down? Where should we speed up? And we can really improve it. And if you like the idea of like actually using it in front of an audience, do that right. Put a little stakes in the game for them where, after you've practiced enough, say like okay, we're going to show off how we we built our fluency.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love the idea of presenting it to somebody, because it's like it also creates an end goal for it too, right.
Speaker 2:And then there is such a feeling and you, you guys know I love music there is such a feeling of like collectively coming together as a group, rehearsing something and then presenting it and being like we did that, you know. So Totally Really cool, yeah. So what would you say? A teacher should, like I would not worry about that at first.
Speaker 2:If someone isn't participating, they might just be a little bit hesitant and they need to understand, like look, your voice is not going to stand out right With all the others doing it. And then, after hearing the discussion from their classmates, they might realize like okay, I wasn't alone, like that was hard for other people too, or they didn't know all the words either. So in those cases you might find like a hesitant student will come on board with the next attempt, cause you're not just doing this once, right, you want to do this over and over throughout the year. And then for students who, like routinely, are not participating, I would just have a private conversation with them, like maybe they just need a little encouragement. Maybe they'd rather do it in a small group setting, just with you, not in front of the class at first. So I'd give it a while before I even talk to a student, though.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that makes total sense. So let's move on to echo reading. This is extremely similar. So you're going to follow those same steps that Jessica just laid out, but you read a section and then the students read it back to you. So, as the students are reading, you are not reading with them Some. So, as the students are reading, you are not reading with them. Some teachers kind of prefer to do an echo reading sentence by sentence instead of paragraph by paragraph, but that's totally up to you as the teacher. A benefit of echo reading is that, since you're not reading with the students, you can actively listen for places in accuracy, rate and expression that students really need to work on. So, for example, you can say I don't think we're pausing long enough at that semi-colon. Listen to me read it one more time. Then let's try it again with a longer pause.
Speaker 2:That makes total sense and just hearing you describe it in my mind, this would work really well with poetry or like something really short, right, because echo reading could get a little long. Same with choral reading. So you really want to keep in mind like having a shorter passage, a shorter poem, to keep students engaged and interesting For sure. And it sounds like too, that choral reading, right, is more guided. The teacher is really there the whole time reading along with you, whereas echo reading, like you said, megan, is like the teacher stepping back a little bit. So I would think, like, start with guided reading if this is new to you, not guided reading, choral reading. Start with choral reading because it's guided, and then move into echo reading if this is all new to you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then, speaking of trying it on their own, let's talk about another great fluency activity, which is paired reading. So we actually mentioned this briefly in episode 310, which was about lesson planning for English language learners, but this method is truly great for all students. I used it with even my eighth graders. So, whether or not they're native English speakers or they are, this is a great method to use.
Speaker 2:I love that you used it with your eighth graders too, because there's something just fun about like, oh, you get to work with a partner today, right, and it just like already they're engaged. It's something different. So this one really does take the focus off you, the teacher. It puts it on the students, but it's really done in a supported way, without students reading aloud individually to the whole class. So very, very different than popcorn reading, even though they are taking turns with a partner. So what you'll want to do is pair students, and typically you'll place lower level readers with higher level readers. But you might'll want to do is pair students, and typically you'll place lower-level readers with higher-level readers. But you might also want to consider personalities, right. So students are paired with a peer who will best support them. So, even if students are at the same reading level, though, this activity will still help them. And then you just want to explain the procedure. So you explain to students that the first student, student A, will read, while the second student, student B, listens and follows the words on their page with their finger or just following along, and then they switch roles and you want to explain that after each section, or every few sections, they should ask each other questions about what they've read. I think this is really important. So, for example, student A could ask student B what was this part about? What did you think about blank? And then you also want to talk with how students can politely correct each other when they hear an error. So it really helps to have these procedures on an anchor chart or displayed on the board or your screen somewhere, so that you've gone over these procedures with your students before you just send them off to do a paired reading and, in fact, to take it a step further, I cannot underestimate enough yeah, I'm saying that right. Underestimate, yeah, yeah, okay, I always have that up in my head the importance of modeling for the class.
Speaker 2:So choose a student who's a strong reader who can help you model how paired reading works. So you want to first talk to that student about how you will ask each other questions, how you will correct each other politely, and then you want to do a quick enactment for the class. And students eat this stuff up, right, even in middle school. They love it when you're kind of being silly and you purposely mess up and then the other student gets to correct you. So make sure you put some mistakes into your reading, into that modeling, so that the class can see how they're corrected, and it's just going to save time in the long run.
Speaker 2:To that modeling so that the class can see how they're corrected, and it's just going to save time in the long run. Their paired reading will be so much more effective. And then as students go off in their pairs and read, of course, circulate, be supportive, offer, praise where needed, model again for students who might need that extra practice, and then give time for feedback at the end. Have students share like what worked with their partner. What would they continue to do next time and maybe what could be adjusted right so that peer reading is really beneficial for everyone.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I love that that approach uses peer support. If your students are truly well-paired, I bet they'll be more comfortable reading to each other than in front of the whole class and then being corrected politely just by one peer, versus by a teacher in front of everyone.
Speaker 2:So I love, love that idea 100%. And that would have been me as a student, like, oh gosh, if a teacher corrected me in front of everyone. I was more than that, right. It's like that type A personality and I had. I was trying to do everything perfectly and so to be in a much more like safe environment in the sense right.
Speaker 2:I like that. It really does require like a strong classroom community if you're going to do paired reading like that, because you want students to trust each other. So it really is a powerful method for improving fluency and for students to have a little bit of fun with each other. So I know Megan has one last idea to share with you, and this one actually is about students reading individually to the whole class. And again I'm going to reiterate this when I looked over the notes for this episode, like, I immediately was like boom, this is the strategy that teachers are going to be like I've got to try this in my classroom, like it's so, so good, so I'm really excited for you to share it, megan.
Speaker 3:Yes. So we want to be really careful about how we have students read aloud to the whole class by themselves. We've already mentioned that, but this method is great if you still want to do that but also offer support at the same time. So this method works best with articles and short stories, because you'll be physically highlighting on the paper. So let's say you're reading a short story. Make a copy for each student, then go through the story and highlight different sections. For example, on the first copy you can highlight just the first paragraph. On the second copy you can highlight the next two short paragraphs. On the third copy you can highlight the next part like a section of dialogue. Maybe you get the idea here. So no copy should have the same part highlighted. That's the key.
Speaker 3:On the day of the reading, pass these copies out to students and be really intentional to give lower level readers easier highlighted sections and then your higher level readers longer highlighted sections or highlighted sections with trickier words maybe. Of course, you don't tell students what you know. That's what you're doing For all they know. You're just passing them out totally randomly.
Speaker 3:So our curriculum writer, pat, actually used to use this method with her high school students and she also allowed students a minute to trade texts, with peers sitting nearby them if they wanted something longer or shorter, which I think is a really great idea. She also had unhighlighted copies of the text on hand and allowed students to discreetly let her know if they weren't up for reading that day, and she would just switch their copy for a blank copy, and she would read that section when it came or give it to another student. So next you're going to have students read over the highlighted text. They can ask a peer or look up a word if they need help pronouncing something, and, of course, they can ask for help from you as well, and so you can even have students turn to each other and practice reading their section, if they'd like, beforehand.
Speaker 2:Okay. So do you all see where this is going right? Students are becoming experts on their highlighted sections so that they're comfortable when it's time to actually do the read aloud in front of the whole class, and then, through this practice, they're also developing fluency a bit. It's so, so good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's exactly right. So they can read aloud without stress or stigma. And they will read aloud well, so the reading goes pretty smoothly. Plus, this sort of builds anticipation because students are reading just one section of the text as they practice and they're probably starting to wonder what that little highlighted section or how it will fit into the whole story. So now have the student with the first highlighted section begin reading. Students will have to follow along, well, to know when it's their turn to read their section, and the class just reads through their story, pausing whenever you want to pause to discuss along the way. Pat, again, our curriculum writer used to love when admin or maybe a guest would pop in during one of these read-alouds because the guest wouldn't understand how the class was reading a story so smoothly when all the readers seemed just randomly located around the room and no one was being called on, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 2:I love that, that's like one of those times where you kind of secretly hope the principal walks in. You're like, look at this classroom management and everyone's on task Engagement. I just love that idea and, like we all know, pat is brilliant. She's so good and I can just see this working so effectively in her classroom. She's one of those teachers again that I would have loved to have been in her class, like see all these little gems of an idea that work so well. So I hope that's one that you all try out with your students. So the students are practicing fluency in small chunks, they're building confidence and they're reading along and, honestly, I bet some of those students who ask for blank copies the first time that after you do this a few times, they get encouraged by just watching their classmates and maybe even down the line they're like you know what I could do? A highlighted section. Yeah, they're having FOMO. It's like yeah, yeah, yeah, like oh.
Speaker 3:I wanted a part two, totally. So that's cool. Once students see how low stakes this reading is, it can kind of feel like a game to read, and that's why I think they're probably just going to want to join in. So that is it for this episode. We hope you take some one of these methods to try in your classroom just to help your students improve in their fluency and really gain some confidence with read aloud and Jessica. Next week, the interview that is going to be coming out is with Dr Deanna Smith, who we love at EB yes, our good friends. She came and spoke at a batch planning Gosh, that was. Was that last winter? Maybe I think it was in summer, I don't know. Time flies, yes, but we had just a phenomenal conversation about culturally responsive and culturally relevant classrooms and also she's she's all about engagement and joy, just like we are, and so the conversation, of course, just went to wonderful places and I think our listeners are really going to enjoy it.
Speaker 2:I love it. So tune in next week to hear that interview and thank you, as always, for joining us and listening, whether you're on your way to work on a run, doing the dishes, whatever you're doing, we appreciate you being here, so have a great day everyone. Bye everybody.