Promoting Reading and Writing in the Middle-Grade Content-Area Classroom

American middle graders are sorely lacking in reading and writing skills. According to the 1988 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading, only 11 percent of thirteen-year-old boys and girls are able to comprehend complicated written information (Mullis and Jenkins 1988). Results of the NAEP writing assessment indicate that fewer than one eighth grader in five is able to write an adequate essay (Applebee, Langer, and Mullis 1986). In Turning Points, the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development (1989) concluded that "the critical reasoning skills of many American young adolescents are extremely deficient . . . and the pervasiveness of intellectual underdevelopment strikes at the heart of our nation's future prosperity" (27). Why do middle graders have such poorly developed reading and writing skills? One reason must be that the typical American middle-grade student spends very little time reading or writing, whether in or out of school. According to the report of the Commission on Reading, Becoming a Nation of Readers (Dishaw 1977 as cited in Anderson et al. 1984), a typical middle grader spends only fifteen minutes of class time daily engaged in silent reading. A recent study of fifth graders' reading habits indicated that they spent less than 1 percent of their free time reading books. Fifty percent of the children read four minutes each day or less. In contrast, an average of 130 minutes per day were spent watching television (Fielding, Wilson, and Anderson 1984). Recent studies of writing instruction have provided similar information; results of the most recent NAEP writing assessment (Applebee et al. 1990) suggested that middle-grade students do not write very much in school or on their own. Sixty-one percent of eighth graders reported that they never or rarely were required to complete writing assignments of three or more pages. In a study examining writing instruction in a fifth-grade classroom, only 13.9 percent of class time daily was spent on any kind of writing activity (Bridge and Hiebert 1985). When asked about their writing habits outside of school, 48.2 percent of fourth graders indicated that they wrote, whereas only 35.4 percent of eighth graders did (Applebee, Langer, and Mullis 1986). Fortunately, research suggests that simply providing more opportunities for reading and writing may improve student literacy. According to Becoming a Nation of Readers, "The amount of independent, silent reading children do in school is significantly related to gains in reading achievement" (Anderson et al. 1984, 76). Time spent on out-of-class reading has been similarly correlated to reading achievement (Fielding, Wilson, and Anderson 1984). Studies tell us that writing experiences "[contribute] substantially to improved concept development, word recognition, and vocabulary and comprehension development as well as heighten the students' awareness of the author's role and craft" (Tierney and Leys 1986, 18). According to the NAEP, students who reported writing three or more reports and essays during a sixweek period had higher achievement levels than students who reported no writing during that time period (Applebee et al. 1990). The messages of the research are clear-teachers must provide more in-class opportunities for silent reading and writing experiences in all classes. Teachers of all subjects must join forces to ensure that students spend a substantial amount of time each day involved in meaningful reading and writing tasks. Content-area teachers may protest that they lack specific expertise in reading and writing instruction; however, there are many simple strategies they can use to Barbara Moss is an assistant professor in the Department of Elementary Education, College of Education, The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio.