Supporting Middle and High School Students with the Science of Reading

The science of reading is a term we hear all over the place. It’s in newspapers and podcasts, and our schools and teachers discuss it. But what does it mean for our middle and high school students? More importantly, what does this mean as the parents of middle and high school students? Education is continually changing, and sometimes, what they teach differs from what we learned in school. The reality is that it is true. Since most of us were in school, there has been research on how students learn to read, and brain imaging has been done to see what parts of the brain are activated when strong readers read. However, because there are new ways, or better yet, new understandings of how proficient readers read, it does not mean we have to be in the dark as parents.

I am not only a parent, but I’m also a literacy expert, training teachers and leaders on how to teach reading, and right now, I’m studying how teachers can support struggling readers in middle and high school classrooms. I’ve been in education for almost twenty years and worked primarily in middle and high school classrooms. I have seen teachers try their best with struggling readers but need to learn how to support them. I have seen parents frustrated with the system and spending money on tutors and programs that may or may not help. Sadly, I have seen students give up on themselves, believing they are stupid, inadequate, and a failure. However, teachers, parents, and students each can take an active role in helping the child become a reader.

So, let’s bring this back to the science of reading. If this is new to you, one great way to think about the science of reading is that all good readers are proficient at reading the words and understanding the language on the page. If your child is having difficulty with either area, I always recommend speaking to a professional, but you can do things at home to help. These strategies should not replace the instruction he or she needs, but these are ways to support their growth in reading.

However, before we develop some strategies, I also want to promise that your child is not lazy, is trying, and wants to be a good reader. Learning to read can be challenging and demoralizing for so many students if they learn it at a different pace than their peers. However, when learning to read, children are rewiring their brains. For some students, this rewiring takes 6 or 7 times per skill, but for other students, this takes up to 250 times per skill. Students in middle and high school who struggle to read are often also dealing with the emotional distress that comes with difficulty in school.

Our job as parents is to nurture, listen, and support, but not shame or make family time only about learning to read. Therefore, my first recommendation is the book “How Your Brain Learns to Read!” by Denise Eide. Read it together and have a conversation with your child about learning to read, why it is hard, and how to get them the help they need. In addition, it is important to state that you should call in a professional who is trained in Orton Gillingham or is a Structured Literacy Specialist from an accredited program, such as the Center for Effective Reading Instruction, as they can help your child learn to read, and that should not fall on you at home.

If you know or believe your child is having difficulty reading the words on the page, outside of working with a professional, one recommendation you can do at home is to let them listen to the audio version of the text or book. By providing this support, you are giving them access to the text to demonstrate their language comprehension skills and allowing them to listen to a fluent reader, someone who is modeling what good reading sounds like. In addition to audiobooks from the library or Audible, did you know that Mac computers have a read-aloud feature? On your Mac, go to System Settings and then click Accessibility. Then click Spoken Content and turn on Speak Selection. Click the info button to create a keyboard shortcut for this feature. This option is great for math word problems, articles, or eBooks.

Students who struggle with language comprehension, whether the words on the page or spoken language, have additional strategies that can be used at home. The number one thing to do is build knowledge. Too many friends and parents ask what program they should buy or what they can do to help, and my always answer is to build knowledge. Suppose your child is about to enter middle school and is studying New York City history but does not understand NYC geography. In that case, they will struggle with the reading.

If your child is reading about a specific lifecycle but all the animals are unfamiliar, they will struggle. To make the case, I always share the example that if someone gave me a book about running, I can understand it well. I’ve completed several marathons, I listen to podcasts on running, I love watching running on TV, and I read books written by professional runners. If you gave me the same difficulty level book but on investing my money, I would need help understanding what the text is saying. As readers, we need knowledge to understand language.

Helping to build knowledge may seem daunting, especially when so many topics are covered. Still, there are some ways to incorporate it into your family schedule.

Some general guidelines include not using just texts to build knowledge. You can create knowledge through movies, podcasts, pictures, and discussions.

Secondly, when building knowledge, go slow to go fast. Start with the most accessible text or straightforward idea, then continually add more complexity. For example, I now know what it means to surge in a race and who has a gear at the end to win, but I did not know those terms or how to do it when I ran my first marathon in 2016.

Third, there are many resources:

• Visit museums.
• Do virtual simulations or visitations on websites.
• Watch movies and discuss.
• Find great YouTube and even TikTok videos.
• Ask your local librarian for help.

Free websites like NewsELA and ReadWorks also offer text sets that offer texts of various complexity on different topics to build knowledge.

Lastly, to determine what knowledge to build, ask your child’s teacher what they will learn and read throughout the year. For example, this summer, I was working with a student who I knew would be reading The Inquisitors Tale by Adam Gidwitz, so we spent several sessions learning about medieval times from articles I found on NewsELA. 

In addition to building knowledge, vocabulary is another vital component in reading comprehension and something we can do with our children at home. Please do not use simple language with them. Talk to them like adults, use sophisticated language, and when you do, make sure they understand what you said. You can provide them with synonyms on the spot, such as, “The insidious, or harmful, spread of misinformation online can reduce trust in reliable sources over time.”

Another great way to build knowledge is to focus on prefixes, suffixes, or root words, which is called morphology. I was playing a game with my 5-year-old recently, and he used the word monocle to name a one-eye glass. I immediately asked him what mono meant, and he said one. My son is not a genius; a literacy expert just raised him, and we used this opportunity to build his vocabulary. While many words with the prefix mono are more critical for your students in middle and high school, such as monosaccharide, monarch, monotone, or monologue, my son said monorail. He immediately realized it was a train on one track. 

A famous image in the field of reading is The Reading Rope by Hollis Scarborough, an interwoven rope of the eight skills a skilled reader must possess. The more proficient a student becomes, the more integrated and tightly wound together these skills become. When supporting reading at home, we should strive to weave it into our daily interaction with our children so it does not feel like more work. It needs to be supported in a genuine way that promotes trust and a tighter relationship between us and our children.

The Science of Reading is a scientific body of research on how one learns to read. A family should never be the ones giving that instruction, as they do not have the scientific research, but they can be the ones that support it. Like a child who is sick, you let the trained professional do the procedure, but you take care of the patient before and after. There is so much out there for elementary school teachers and parents on the science of reading, but there is very little on what this means when our kids struggle in the older grades and how to help.

The strategies that work for elementary school students work for our older kids, but we must be sensitive to the unique social and emotional needs an adolescent faces. The strategies presented can be used for all students in middle and high school, not just those struggling, but if your child is struggling, make sure to form a strong support team for both you and your child, advocate for the appropriate services, and believe in them every step of the way.

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