Opinion: 4 Ways to Help Middle Schoolers Recover from COVID Learning Losses in Reading

Imagine waking up for the first day of middle school and discovering you’ve already missed class — for more than half the year.

According to new research , that’s the reality facing millions of middle-schoolers in reading. Confounding hopes for a quick recovery from COVID’s disruptions to learning, sixth- through eighth-graders are projected to need from five to nine additional months of school to catch up to pre-pandemic achievement levels. Many middle-schoolers were struggling to read even before COVID, and because most foundational reading instruction takes place in elementary school, if a student is not a proficient reader by the end of fifth grade, catching up becomes nearly impossible. Now, the larger-than-usual number of students struggling to read effectively is placing an immense strain on middle schools.

But there is hope and a path forward. Reading science points to several solutions, and it’s imperative that education leaders and policymakers make them a priority to help middle schools support students who are struggling to read. This must happen in and beyond the language arts classroom, specifically in terms of data, vocabulary and writing.

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First, schools and districts must ensure that teachers have access to individualized, reliable and timely data on their students’ reading skills, especially from assessments that screen all students for potential difficulties. This key data, alongside consistent monitoring of academic growth to track student progress during the school year and frequent checks inside the classroom, provide teachers with vital information as they plan their next instructional steps.

Second, there must be an emphasis on vocabulary. Words do not exist in a vacuum; vocabulary is part of a complex system that includes words’ explicit and figurative meanings and their relationship to other words. Middle school teachers — and not just English teachers — can elevate their vocabulary instruction by including morphology instruction, in which students learn to dissect words into their prefixes and suffixes to help get at the word’s meaning, and multisyllabic word decoding — using phonics to break apart long words. Middle school texts are longer and have more complex vocabulary than what elementary school students encounter. Understanding how to break down a word into its key parts helps middle schoolers navigate new words they encounter in science, social studies, even math.

Third, students must be given dedicated instructional time set aside to practice reading out loud, so they can strengthen their reading fluency skills. Fluency is the ability to read with accuracy, speed and expression, and is tied to comprehension. Students who have a large vocabulary can read without conscious effort or attention, which frees up working memory to focus on comprehension instead of word recognition or definition. A 2023 NWEA study found that sixth-graders who were below grade level in reading showed significant improvements in literacy after receiving targeted fluency intervention.

Lastly, writing is the unsung hero of reading development. When students write about what they have read , they deepen their comprehension of the text and illuminate areas they are still wrestling through. Writing provides important, real-time data for teachers, offering insight into students’ thoughts, highlighting areas that require additional instruction and showcasing new, fresh ways of thinking about content. Middle school teachers can rethink their instructional approach by considering that writing is both a process and a product. Daily practices like quick writes are good for capturing students’ initial grasp of a text, while complex writing assignments developed over time lean into the most challenging parts of a text , allowing students to wrestle with ideas and gain a deeper, more nuanced understanding. In addition, an assignment may ask students to pay attention to the specific purpose for writing and the audience they are writing for.

Longer writing tasks can also give teachers an opportunity to model the writing and revision process, for example, explaining out loud how to edit a section of text for word choice, tone or grammar. And they allow teachers to give detailed feedback, so students learn how to revise their own writing when the teacher is not around.

The data make it clear: Middle school students need ongoing literacy instruction throughout the school day if they are going to overcome COVID’s lingering effects and meet the reading and writing demands of science, social studies and other interdisciplinary subjects. It must be rooted in useful assessment data, so educators have a clear and ongoing understanding of student strengths and areas of growth. It must provide many opportunities for students to practice reading fluently, so their working memory frees up space for deeper comprehension and thinking. And a new vision for literacy must rethink writing, too, as a tool to teach reading.