4 Awesome Middle School Reading Resources

Most school districts that I am familiar with, do not have a reading curriculum to use with inclusion students in middle school that receiving pull out reading services.

At my school, there is a sub-separate curriculum for reading but this does not address the specific needs of my students because they are not far enough below grade level to qualify.

When I started working at my school, we did have a reading curriculum, although, no one was using it because it was stale, outdated, and the kids hated it!  Because of this, I have had to find my own tools and resources to use to teach my pull out of reading class.  In my class, I do have access to some Wilson resources, and I use these materials when I am working on decoding, but I am constantly looking for comprehension resources that are new and interesting.  I have compiled a list of some of my favorites to share with you:

* I am going to preface this by saying I have not had any contact with any of these companies and this is not a paid advertisement in any way* I’m sure there are excellent resources I am missing, these are just ones I’ve used and liked.

Reading A to Z
www.learningatoz.com

I put this one first because it is my favorite.  It is expensive, I paid a little over $100 for an annual subscription last year.  Although, I applied for a mini-grant from my PTO and they approved it and paid me back!  Which was awesome! (woo!)

Reading A to Z has a huge selection of guided reading passages that are easily printable.  They cover so many topics, I sought them out after I found that everything I was using was low-interest to my students.  The first reading passage I used from them was about the history of rap.  I used this passage when my reading class consisted of four 14-year-old boys.  They really got into the story because they were familiar with a lot of the people and songs that it referenced, I even played a few of the “cleaner” songs for them, (but I still kept my hand on the mute button in case my knowledge of 90s rap lyrics failed me!)

The website not only has a multitude of resources ranging from reading level A to Z2, it comes with teaching materials, worksheets, lesson plans, projectable versions of the book in case you need to save paper, and it probably has even more features I’m not familiar with.

I am not teaching a reading class this year so I didn’t renew my membership, but when I teach reading again I will definitely buy it again, it’s well worth the money!

Readworks.org

www.readworks.org

I use this website a lot for assessment purposes.  Most of my students have comprehension goals in their IEPs.  For these students, I need to be constantly taking data and assessing them.  Readworks.org requires you to have a login, but to my knowledge using their site is entirely free.

What I love about this website is that they have a variety of topics; fiction, and nonfiction.  When my ELA teacher decided that we should focus on nonfiction for a while, I had a multitude of resources available on this website so that my reading class could do the same.

Super Teacher Worksheets

https://www.superteacherworksheets.com/ms-comprehension.html

Super Teacher Worksheets has an assortment of reading passages for the middle grades. There are some that are free and to use the rest, you have to be a member.  The membership fee is just under $20 annually, but it allows you access to all of their resources for all subjects.  I have used these reading passages occasionally but I have only used the free version.  I once had a paid subscription that I used for math worksheets when I taught younger grades.  The resources are not as plentiful as Reading A to Z but it is considerably cheaper.

This site would be great if you were looking for access to resources for multiple subjects.

Teachers Pay Teachers

www.teacherspayteachers.com

I will disclose that I am a seller on TpT, but I am not going to reference any of my own products here and I do not have any relationship with the sellers that I have purchased off of.

When in doubt, my “go-to” for teaching resources is Teachers Pay Teachers.  I love this site because first of all, you’re supporting teachers, as most sellers also teach themselves.  Some have retired from teaching but there is a sort of camaraderie with TpT.  Also, most of the resources have been made by teachers that use the product themselves.  When I post something on TpT I am confident in the fact that it will help my students and I would love for it to help students in other schools.  On TpT you can find all sorts of leveled assessments and reading passages, some of my favorites are:

Reading Intervention Program-Reading Passages, Comprehension, Fluency, Word Work

Short Text for Teaching Text Structure {Vol.1} 21st Century Informational Text

Informational Text CLOSE READING Passage Pack for Interactive Notebooks 4-8

 

I hope you found this useful!  Please share with me any other great middle school reading resources that you’ve used.

More Resources

Also, for high-interest reading books, check out:

Books for Your Middle School Library!

Books for Middle Schoolers who Don’t Like to Read