Great Source Professional Development: Teaching Reading in Middle School Grades K - 12

I teach sixth grade and after spending quite a bit of money on Nancy Atwell's books, I found this to be the best product for the money. Robb's ideas are easy to implement and she backs up her ideas with data. I finally feel like I have a handle on differentiated reading thanks to this book.

Laura Robb's book saved me as I went from teaching second grade to sixth grade. Filled with strategy lessons to use before, during, and after reading, journal writing, assessment suggestions, this book has been my beacon, my resource. Equally important, my students are developing the tools they need to improve their comprehension, and their ability to think and connect with information. Robb's voice is honest and represents the best in her years of teaching.

This books has a lot of good ideas and activities for teaching reading in middle school. It has practical advice and sound methods for supporting literacy in the classroom. This book should be in every teacher's reference library.

The very best thing about Laura Robb's newest book is that after you read it, you don't feel you need to meet her. As I read, whenever I had a question,want to see an example, or wish that a checklist might be on the next page, there it was! After reading it you will have post-its on specific pages, feel organized and know that you have to have two copies, one for home and one for school. The book is perfectly organized. A short chapter on the research that shapes a middle school reading program, is followed by strategy lessons that go through the process of reading almost anything: before,during, and after reading. These chapters are prefaced by a most helpful chapter on what strategic reading looks like in middle school. The chapters after are on ways to connect students to books, cross grade projects and a wonderful chapter on assessment. The appendices are perfect! They hit the nail on the head from reading surveys to open ended discussion questions (by genre). This book is truly the answer to a middle school reading teachers prayers!

Robb does a great job of taking balanced reading strategies that work great at lower levels and adapting them to middle school reading. This book would be very helpful for anyone wanting new reading ideas. The title is a bit misleading--I can see upper elementary teachers as well as high school teachers finding something useful!