Reading Realities

Nobody Looks Silly in My Class: Teaching Literacy in Middle School feat. Kyair Butts

• Science of Reading Center at SUNY New Paltz

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What happens when students are expected to “read to learn” — but haven’t yet fully learned to read?

Kyair Butts, a middle school literacy teacher and instructional leader in Baltimore, Maryland, joins host Rose Else-Mitchell, to explore what it means to teach reading to middle school students — and why this work is so urgent.

Kyair's journey into teaching via coaching debate shaped his approach to literacy instruction and continues to influence his work. He loves supporting middle schoolers with diverse reading needs, balancing grade-level material with continued development of foundational skills like decoding, fluency, and lots of oral language practice and comprehension. 

They unpack the importance of knowledge-building curricula, the role of fluency in adolescent reading, and how creating a psychologically safe classroom allows students to take risks, self-correct, and grow into confident readers. Kyair also speaks candidly about his own growth as an educator, from early challenges integrating to his ongoing work refining small group instruction.

With the right support, strategies, and mindset, middle school classrooms can be places where students continue to build the skills and the identities they need as readers. You are never to old to learn to read.

References and Resources:

Credits:

  • Guest: Kyair Butts, Middle School Literacy Teacher, Instructional Leader, and Goyen Literacy Fellow based in Baltimore, MD. In 2019, he was named Teacher of the Year for Baltimore City Public Schools.
  • Host: Rose Else-Mitchell, Executive Director of the Science of Reading Center at SUNY New Paltz
  • Produced by the Science of Reading Center at SUNY New Paltz, Rose Else-Mitchell, and Onalee Smith
  • Original music and audio editing by Ross Gentry

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Keywords: middle school literacy, adolescent reading instruction, science of reading, fluency strategies, reading intervention, foundational skills in upper grades, literacy leadership, small group instruction, knowledge building curriculum, teaching older readers, reading confidence, literacy coaching, trauma-informed teaching, structured literacy, Baltimore City schools

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Rose Else-Mitchell

Welcome to Reading Realities, a podcast about what it really takes to change how we teach reading. Each episode, I talk candidly with an educator about the personal and instructional shifts they're making. Because the truth is, changing how you teach is not simple. It can feel really overwhelming, and we think no one should have to figure it out alone. I'm your host, Rose Els Mitchell. I'm the executive director of the Science of Reading Center at SUNY Newpolts. I've spent my career in education as a teacher, a learning and product designer, as a professional developer, and working with schools and districts around literacy all over the country. Today I'm joined by Kierr Butz, a middle school literacy teacher and an instructional leader in Baltimore, Maryland. In our conversation, Kier reflects on his journey into teaching through being mentored and becoming a mentor, and how that work has shaped his understanding of how to teach older students to read. He shares how he supports adolescents who come to school with a wide range of reading needs and reading experiences, and what it looks like to both build foundational skills and knowledge in a middle school classroom. We talk about the role of fluency, how comprehension and background knowledge are connected for kids, and how he creates space for students to take risks, to self-correct, and to grow and identify as readers. Importantly, we talk about what it takes for him to keep teaching reading in the middle grades. They still need continued skill development and meaningful access to complex texts and stories and content that motivates them. Let's get started. Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

Kyair Butts

Thanks for having me here.

Rose Else-Mitchell

So tell us a little bit about your current role. You're in Baltimore. You work with uh a range of older students, not our Little East.

Kyair Butts

Yeah, so I'm originally from Des Moines, Iowa, and uh I wasn't quite sure that I wanted to be a teacher, but um, had you asked my debate coach or one of my English teachers, I think they they always were making the bet. Yeah, I think here's gonna be a teacher. I I coached debate, I coached mock trial, and that continued in the college where I would work as a coach for my former debate coach, Miss Dickey, and she was amazing. And that's when I started to realize you really could turn this coaching thing into a full-time gig. You know, it's called teaching. Uh, I applied to a lot of different teacher preparation programs, ultimately applied for Urban Teacher Center, now City Teaching Alliance. And uh, that's what brought me to Baltimore. And I've been teaching here ever since 2012. And my students certainly have made me a much better person. Uh, I can get into any number of stories about them believing in me more than I believed in myself as an early teacher, because I did come in teaching fourth and fifth grade. Uh, the last couple of years I've been teaching sixth and seventh, but just a great group of kids in my career. Um, I had the fortune of representing uh Baltimore City in 2019 as its teacher of the year uh for the entire district, which was incredible. And I've really enjoyed my time being a teacher here in Baltimore City. And I've been a reading or literacy teacher ever since 2013. When I first came in, I was a resident teacher. So it wasn't my classroom. I was learning the ropes and it was a math classroom. I like to think that history is gonna say that I was placed in the right subject, uh teaching words.

Rose Else-Mitchell

So a resident teaches like a trainee. That it was sort of an appendix model, yeah.

Kyair Butts

Urban Teacher Center, then now City Teaching Alliance kind of followed that like medical model of being a teacher resident, sharing a classroom with a mentor or a master teacher, learning the craft from them. And then you have your your own classroom for second year in the program. That's the trajectory that that I followed. And I've had the fortune of being a host teacher and having some teachers train under me. And again, it's it's all part of the teaching wheelhouse. Like I can't get enough of it. There's something to be said, right, about the relationship that is cultivated within a cohort. You know, I I came in with my cohort in 2012. Take tonight, for instance, you know, we're going out for dinner and to do karaoke. And these are with members that I came in teaching. You know, it's really exciting that I still have these friendships that were cultivated, right, through the trials and all the highs of our teaching program and that they're still solid, even 12 plus years later. So, but but the mentorship aspect is incredible. It's what keeps teachers around. I don't know the national statistics, but a lot of teachers quit in that sort of year zero to year five because lack of mentorship, lack of training, lack of preparation.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Burnout.

Kyair Butts

Yeah, and and burnout, right? So if you were to qualify the the two buckets to be will and skill, a lot of times we're losing a lot of high will teachers who should be in classrooms, who should be with kids. The problem is that not all districts uh or organizations or schools are in a position to help support the skill part, which is, by the way, as important, obviously, as we're talking about something as important as reading, because being literate and being able to communicate with writing, the speaking and listening standards. I mean, these not to be too dramatic, uh, which I am known to be, but these could make or break what life looks like for you, right? The idea of being literate and having access to 100% or not being literate and your life looking incredibly different.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Yeah. And your family's life. One of one of the things I always think about learning to read and having seen, like you, older students be able to actually master the code. You just think about the potential for their life, their children's lives. Absolutely. Even their parents.

Kyair Butts

The role of the teacher, I think, is important. What's going on at home, what's going on at school. And I'm happy that you said something about families because it does rem. So I taught a student and I had her when she was in fourth grade. She came in as a new student around October. And I remember after school, her mom came up to me and was like, Hey, Mr. Kay, like, how is Chimera today? And I was like, Well, you know, she was very confident, I can tell you that. And she was a little chatty. And then I said, actually, she needs to join the debate team, which I coach. And it's so funny because I'm still connected to this student. I'm still connected to this mom. This mom actually transferred her son two different times to make sure that he was able to have me as a teacher. So I ultimately taught her son in sixth grade. And then I looped with that group of kids, and I actually had him twice, just like I had his sister twice. But when you're talking about families and what good teaching and what being literate can do for a family, you know, her mom has literally said, Mr. K, how we approach school, how we approach expectations and having high expectations of what we want. That really started with you when you showed Chimera that she should be on the debate team. She started winning awards. Then she moves on to a really prestigious middle school here in Baltimore City. Then she goes on to a prestigious high school here. And she's like cleaning up debate and mock trial awards. And again, I played a small role. There are a lot of people in that journey, but that just goes to show what good teaching, what the relationships, what the mentoring, what continued, sustained expectations for excellence can do. And literacy played a big part.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Yeah. Yeah. I love that story. It's not just schooling and it's not just literacy. I mean, it's also the it's being a learner, it's feeling confident. I mean, reading opens so many different kinds of doors. So can you talk a little bit about students in your class? I assume not every student is on a sixth grade level in terms of their comprehension or even their decoding. How do you think about and manage that? And whether it's within your classroom or within the system and process that the school or the district has put in place to make sure every child can learn to read.

Kyair Butts

Yeah. Well, first it starts with having a vision for literacy. We have some core beliefs at our school. And it's funny because when I first got there in 2021, we we didn't have core beliefs. And uh I remember at the end of that school year, I was told, hey, we're actually gonna make you the uh vertical content lead for grades three to eight literacy. So uh all that means is I'm just the ELA chair, the ELA lead for uh grades three to eight at my school. I've held that position since 22. And at the end of that school year, you know, my principal told me that, and I said, you know, that's that's great. But we have to come up with some key beliefs, some core beliefs that as a literacy team, this is what we believe. One of them is about having joy in reading, that we want students to find the joy in reading, not just because my teacher assigned me Bud Not Buddy or out of the dust, though they are great books, but we want to have a joy for reading. It's also that we believe in the science of reading and that we're gonna do whatever it takes to make sure that we've equipped kids, we've given them access to foundational reading skills, regardless of if you're in a grade that is no longer learning to read, but rather reading to learn. Important because we need to dispel and stamp out the mindset that I am basically any teacher that's not really third grade, you know, like the last time you see fluency in at least the Common Core State standards is fifth grade. Now, I'm a nerd, I've got the Common Core app, I've typed it in before, and literally that's the last time you see fluency. So you could make the argument that a fifth grade teacher maybe should be focused on foundational skills. I think that that's an abdication of all due DV when it comes to literacy, if we don't all focus on that. Now, like how do I do that? I definitely have a number of students who are not on grade level, and it's how do I give students that access? First thing is it's important to have a knowledge-building curriculum, whatever that is, so that students can build knowledge of a topic, right? In sixth grade, it's about the Great Depression. We're learning about enduring hardships and ultimately coming out through those hardships and showing some transformation and some growth. We anchor in that knowledge and that essential question with two amazing books, Bud Not Buddy and Out of the Dust. So, in giving students access to grade level material, but also being allowed to build their knowledge up a topic because we spend so much time on task, I can think of a number of students who whose independent level is not on grade level, but their instructional level is on grade level when you ask questions. They're responding orally, they have a chance to respond first, then write, or write their ideas first, then respond and also clarify. Now, at my school, we are also fortunate. We have a period called acceleration, which I some schools call it when, yeah, the what I need, or your intervention class period, something to that you know, extent.

Rose Else-Mitchell

In New York, we call it uh it's often AIS time. So academic intervention services. Okay.

Kyair Butts

Yep. So we and that class period is meant to help some students, right, who are struggling at below grade levels. So I was working with students, some of my not yet their students, on R-Control vowels and really just making sure that we understand how the R-Control vowel changes depending on what vowel it is. Uh, going through example words, we've been working on syllabication. We've been blending syllables and really literally going back to tapping out syllables, then blending, chunking. And you would see that in my sixth grade classroom. You would have seen that last year in my seventh grade classroom because it's that important to me. So those are just some of the small ways that I'm trying to address uh students being below grade level as far as foundational skills are concerned. The last thing I would say is that I've really been a big proponent of uh pushing fluency at my school to make sure that you can just do some low-level activities that have high yield long-term results, echo reading, choral reading, buddy reading, right? Repeated readings, the teacher reading out loud and students following along. I had the uh pleasure truly and the privilege of working with Meredith and David Liebend, um, you know, know better, do better, uh, and any number of other books, right? Like they're they're amazing. And being able to work with them personally on a couple of different projects through uh student achievement partners was incredible. But, you know, something that David said to me is, you know, doing a lot of these strategies and also what the research says can really improve reading by even a full year or more if students and the teacher are just dedicated to doing some low-level fluency strategies in the upper grades and including middle school. So as long as the teacher creates the buy-in, I just name for students, hey, you've probably done some of this finger tapping before. And it's still important for us to do that and to slow down. Nobody looks silly in my class, nobody's judging anybody. We we do it. And I'll even often hear kids say, you know, hey, did you tap it out first? Did you clap out the word? You know, and I I just really appreciate that there's a safe space that that's normalized, right?

Rose Else-Mitchell

Yeah, exactly. In a PD that I did recently, we called uh we talked about it as big word freak out. Yeah. You know, even kids that can read when they come across a word that, you know, and that they may have had a good decoding and phonics background, but if they haven't learned it not just as a set of patterns, but also as a set of strategies, especially using morphemes and syllables, right? They they don't have that that skill to either tap or put a line or whatever particular approach you've you've used. And I mean, let's face it, we read things that we're like, what is that word? And we're using it, we're using morphing clues and all of that ourselves. So yeah, it's uh it's it's great to be able to have that. And and just to build that awareness with students when they're reading a book that they might not know the meaning, or they might, it might have a second meaning. I read some data around how many multiple meaning words English has compared to other languages. And so when you think about students that have a first language, even the notion of one of my favorite words, multiple meaning words, it's just it might not be there because you know, a lot of Asian languages they will use tone to be able to make sure there's a difference. Whereas ours look the same, they sound the same.

Kyair Butts

Yes.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Or both of those.

Kyair Butts

Well, and and you need so much context, but you need so much context that I think that's where the rope really comes into play, right? That's where the knowledge building and the background knowledge comes in. It's also, you know, again, why I've talked to students about literally what the standard is. Like I've shown them the fluency standard. And anytime a student goes back, makes a mistake, and then goes back to reread, I say, hey, friend, like that's fluency in action. Because remember, the standard says you're allowed to self-correct. And I'm happy that the way that the standard is written, it literally says self-correct. Right. And that's important for students to understand that yes, accuracy and automaticity and prosody are the prongs of fluency. But the idea that you can still self-correct lead versus lead. Got it. You know, that's that's important because as we echo read our learning goal in the morning, I will see some students, you know, I'm thinking of one right now, and you know, he'll read and he had mispronounced the word novel, right? But he he's like, Well, no nouvel doesn't sound right. Literally said that doesn't sound right. Then went back, tried a different vowel sound. And I said, That's that's that's what your brain's supposed to do. Like, shout out to you, right? Uh so I think that teachers also understanding that that's a teachable moment right there, right? Praising a student who was taking that risk of reading out loud in class, also going back self-correcting.

Rose Else-Mitchell

So you didn't always know as much as you know, right? You weren't always as smart and wise as uh as you you're

Kyair Butts

and some would argue still not.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Well, we're all on a lifelong journey, right? Of being lifelong learners. So yeah. But maybe you could just share. I know when we were talking previously, you said, yeah, ooh, I've made my mistakes. You know, for people listening to you who are like, wow, he's what a cool reading teacher. I wish he worked in our school. Maybe you could just share a little bit about a stumble or a fall that you've had on this journey to, you know, really bring both knowledge and the underlying kind of evidence-based practice to your kids and to your school.

Kyair Butts

So those early stumbles definitely involved me not knowing how to always teach the foundational reading skills because the PD wasn't always there, how to appropriately mesh or marry the vocabulary curriculum with the writing curriculum and the reading curriculum. Because again, you triangulate all of that. Well, they should be integrated, but putting that cognitive load on me to have to make those through lines, that's a lot for any teacher, let alone a young teacher.

Rose Else-Mitchell

For sure. And just even the physical juggling as somebody who made, you know, curriculum programs. I mean, the physical juggling of the pieces, like looking something here and there, I mean, that's just it's not, it's not uh, as we say in the biz, it's not user-centered, that's for sure. And it's not, you know, it's not thoughtful about, you know, 45 minutes or 40 minutes, it's just not that long, right? Every second counts. And so how do we make sure that everything in front of us, not just through our own planning, but is easy to use. So it sounds like there's so many different things that you've you've learned and you're constantly learning. What's one thing that you feel like you're less good at right now, but you'd like to get better at as you as you keep doing this fantastic work with middle schoolers?

Kyair Butts

Yeah. So one of the things that I'm actively working on right now is um I'm just not good with small groups, right? And when I say small groups, it's how do I make sure that I'm getting the differentiation for this particular group? I'm still trying to get better in year 14, year 15 at the small group instruction, making it a seamless part of our day, our week, my instructional practice. So being intentional about the PD that I'm taking, literally going and visiting first and second grade classrooms where small group is actually written into their daily instructional time.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Right. Yeah.

Kyair Butts

Is really important to me. But I need to get better at small groups.

Rose Else-Mitchell

That's a great point. Um, I recommend a book um and the work of Julia Lindsay. Um, she's written a book on on, I think it's called Small Groups, Big Results. So yeah, but it takes, it takes planning. It's it's definitely I remember the first time when I was a young teacher and I did small group instruction. I was like, oh, it's like four times the work. Wow. It's uh multiply the four groups and yes, I'm still doing whole group, and now I'm doing four small groups. So yeah, that's right.

Kyair Butts

Yes.

Rose Else-Mitchell

That's five lessons, not one. So you're gonna do that.

Kyair Butts

Yeah, yeah, right, right. Still do we can do it,

Rose Else-Mitchell

yeah. Yeah. I'd love you to share just uh uh either a personal book or a video that you would love to share with uh with our listeners that's been important to you and your journey.

Kyair Butts

I've truly been inspired by, and I don't know that I'm gonna get the author's name right, so I'm just gonna give the book title. But I read The Body Keeps the Score.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Oh.

Kyair Butts

And that book, probably just because um I majored in psychology and that's one of my uh undergrad degrees is psych. But I'm so happy that I read it, especially as a teacher, because as we talk about psychologically safe classrooms, um, if we talk about the capital that students are bringing into our classrooms, um, I think that we also need to really have an understanding, not only of our own trauma, but the trauma and the differences that are coming into our classroom. And just understanding the book gives a really good example about an apple, the apple from the outside, skin still on. The apple maybe has taken a tumble and fallen off the kitchen counter, the table a couple of times. And you might not always see the physical bruising, but when you cut into the apple, you'll see that it could be deeply bruised. The book, it's really just about understanding and having a deep appreciation and respect for the fact that at an early age, trauma can literally rewire the brain, making a lot of life difficult, especially learning, especially trusting. There's just a lot that the book talks about that has really impacted me. And for the record, I read this book, you know, maybe two years ago, three years ago, Tops. And it's really just informed my teaching. And if we think about reading a little like Maslow's hierarchy, it really is hard to become literate and self-actualize if the love and belonging and the trauma and the feelings haven't been addressed, which are in the floor of his uh hierarchy. So I really take that to heart and teaching reading. Yes, it's about diphthongs and digraphs and you know, syntax and it is that. But I think we also know that we live in a world where two things can be true at once. And I think that in order to be a good reading teacher, you have to be a good person teacher first. Yeah.

Rose Else-Mitchell

I think that's a great point to uh leave our conversation today. Thank you so much, Kyair, for spending time with me and sharing your story. I am definitely coming to Baltimore.

Kyair Butts

Thank you so much for the conversation today. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Rose Else-Mitchell

Thank you for joining us for this episode of Reading Realities. And thank you again, Kyair, for such an honest, thoughtful, and fun conversation. What stays with me is the focus on older students, students who are on the verge of becoming adults, but are still building reading skills. Kier reminds us that this work does not end in third grade and that we have to continue doing work in fluency and developing language. There's something so powerful in how he normalizes that process. The idea that middle schoolers can and should be tapping out syllables and working through unfamiliar words, and that this can be done in a way that builds their confidence rather than undermines it. For many students, especially those who haven't experienced success in reading or in school, the classroom has become a place where effort is visible and it's valued by teachers like here. Where slowing down is part of the process, not something to avoid or push past. If you're listening and working with older students, This conversation is a reminder that it's never too late to build the foundations that reading depends on. If this episode resonated with you, please subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next and share it with a colleague or an educator in your life who's part of this work too. And if you've got a story to share about your shifts in the classroom, please reach out to us at scienceofreading [at] newpaltz.edu. As we continue to build this community, it'd mean a lot if you could take a moment to rate and review this show. It helps us reach many more educators and share the messages of change and the work that you're all doing every day. We'll be back soon with more conversations from educators who are learning, reflecting, and refining their practice in real classrooms. Thanks so much for listening.