Reading & Literacy
 

Grades 6-8

Young teenagers are trying to figure out who they are and how they relate to other people. They go back and forth — sometimes on a minute-to-minute basis — between being tough and insecure, confident and doubting, outgoing and shy. Families and schools can support their development by letting adolescents try on different identities in environments that are safe, challenging and fair.

Young teens hunger for new ideas. They learn by relating new ideas to themselves: “What does this mean to me?” and “Why does this matter to me?” Most young people this age start to think about abstract ideas like justice and independence. They begin to draw conclusions and make predictions based on the information they find. This does not happen in a nice, neat pattern: They might campaign to save the environment one day and refuse to recycle the next.

These years are very important to the development of literacy. Adolescents spend much of their time outside school communicating with their friends and using various technologies to connect to the world. They may send instant messages, listen to music, chat on the phone, cruise through Web sites and work on homework all at the same time. All of this communication helps adolescents discover their own strengths, express themselves in various ways, connect reading and writing to their own lives, and use language to make sense of their world.

 

What you can do at home

Speaking and Listening

  • Talk with your adolescents about things they are interested in, from music and video games to clothes. Don’t talk down or try to sound overly “cool” — just talk.
  • Ask what they think about an issue and listen to the answer. Respect their voice, but expect reasons for the opinions.

Reading

  • Encourage your young teenagers to read and tell stories to younger siblings or grandparents.
  • Encourage them to read for many purposes, like finding out about a popular music star or about a sports event.
  • Encourage them to think about the meaning of what they are reading and writing.
  • Talk with them about what they are reading. Ask questions and relate your own experiences that connect to the reading.
  • Visit the library often together. Help select materials that they can read independently.
  • Encourage and help them to read at least 25 books each year in a variety of genres, both fiction and nonfiction.
  • Save favorite children’s books, and don’t be surprised if your middle-grade student enjoys rereading them.
  • Create a reading space in the home with comfortable seating and interesting materials to read, like novels, information books, comic books, magazines and newspapers.

Writing

  • Encourage your adolescents to express personal thoughts and feelings in a journal, and respect their privacy.
  • Provide whatever inspires them to write — a quiet place, a new pad of colored paper, colored ink, writing tools (computer, dictionary, quotation book) or background music.
  • Encourage them to share writing publicly by posting it on the refrigerator, sending copies to relatives or friends or reading/performing it in youth groups or at family gatherings.
  • Encourage them to participate safely in the online environment. Help them find safe blogging sites, create a personal space page or family Web site that reveals interests without personal identifiers, share creative writing with online teen magazines and access appropriate interactive online sites.

 

What your student may be experiencing at school

Speaking and Listening

  • Learning to listen carefully and respond respectfully to others.
  • Engaging in conversations with peers and teachers throughout the school day.
  • Recognizing that the way words are spoken persuades and conveys meaning (for example, sarcasm, enthusiasm, humor).
  • Gathering information with different points of view from multiple sources. Using those ideas to persuade a listener about an issue based on accurate evidence.
  • Presenting information in a variety of formats (five- to seven-minute oral reports, speeches, debates, panel discussions).

Reading

  • Reading a variety of materials in every class, including literature, information books, biographies and magazine articles.
  • Using knowledge of root words (words that originated in Latin, for example) and cognates (words that are similar in two languages) to figure out the meaning of new words.
  • Learning the vocabulary of academic subjects.
  • Using reading comprehension strategies, such as asking questions, re-reading, comparing new ideas with what they already know, summarizing ideas, visualizing or figuring out the author’s point of view.
  • Recognizing how characters in a story or novel change over time.
  • Reading and understanding at least 25 books for enjoyment.
  • Evaluating what they read: Is it well written? Is it accurate? Has the author provided enough evidence to back up the main points?
  • Connecting their reading with what they already know and to their own experiences.
  • Participating in book clubs and other opportunities to share their thoughts about books with other students.

Writing

  • Writing in every class.
  • Taking notes from books and from what the teacher says.
  • Writing for a variety of reasons and audiences to respond to literature, compare and contrast elements in literature, share information, tell an original story, create a poem or play or persuade someone. 
  • Putting together ideas, information and points of view from several sources to produce essays, reports and other products.
  • Using different methods to plan and organize their writing (for example, a writer’s notebook, outline or graphic organizer).
  • Revising writing to produce polished work.
  • Publishing or performing writing through displays, school newspapers, writing contests, plays or oral reports.