Teaching Scholars to Think, Read, and Write with Purpose

Teaching Scholars to Think, Read, and Write with Purpose

Strong literacy skills empower students to think critically, express ideas clearly, and engage deeply with texts. As a middle school literature teacher, your role is to guide scholars in developing essential reading and writing habits that will serve them throughout their academic journey. This guide outlines five key strategies for effective reading and writing, emphasizing visualization, comprehension, analysis, organization, and revision. It also highlights the importance of intellectual preparation, goal-setting, coaching, and feedback—ensuring that students receive the support they need to grow. By applying these best practices consistently, teachers can create a structured yet dynamic learning environment that fosters confident, thoughtful readers and writers.

Your Role: You Are a Literature Teacher

Top 5 Key Reading Tactics

Great readers, and teachers of reading, focus on five key tactics every time they read:

1. Great readers always make mind movies. In other words, readers always create pictures in their minds, envisioning the story happening as they read.
2. Great readers always notice vocabulary words whose meaning they don’t know. They use the context of the word in the sentence or the page to figure it out.
3. Great readers always read the title and think about the title as they read. They think about how the events or information in the text connects back to the title.
4. Great readers always look for the big idea and the evidence to support it. They think about what is happening or what they learned, and what this makes them think about the main point of the book or text, and they think about the details the author employs to support the big idea.
5. Great readers always notice interesting language and structures that support the big idea. Authors make purposeful choices when crafting their pieces. An author’s use of imagery, word choice, conventions, text features, or the way they structure the text ALL work to develop the big idea the author is conveying.

Top 5 Key Writing Tactics

Great writers, and teachers of writing, focus on five key tactics every time they write:

1. Great writers always have a strong, key idea. They always have an idea they want to convey before putting pencil to paper.
2. Great writers always include evidence that develops, supports, or proves their idea. They know an idea isn’t enough—they must convince their readers.
3. Great writers always organize their writing so that it’s simple and clear and avoids redundancy. They understand that to make a point, quality is better than quantity.
4. Great writers always reread their writing and make it better by revising. They get rid of everything that isn’t doing something useful.
5. Great writers always check that their grammar, punctuation, and spelling are correct. They know that great writing will be ignored if it is riddled with errors.

Goal-Setting and Coaching

Intellectual Preparation

To effectively support your scholars, you must be deeply prepared. This means thoroughly understanding the text, anticipating student misconceptions, and planning strong responses for every discussion. Regularly reviewing student work is essential—it reveals what’s working, what needs improvement, and how to adjust your instruction. If scholars struggle, clarify expectations, ask better questions, and refine interventions. Scholar work is a direct reflection of teaching practice and an opportunity for growth.

When to Coach

Coaching should happen whenever scholars work independently. Once a calm, focused environment is established, work with 2–3 students per class for 3–5 minutes each. Beyond class time, use Wednesday conferences and intervention blocks to provide targeted support. Intervention is critical for struggling students, offering guided reading sessions to build grade-level skills.

Scoring Feedback

Regular, meaningful feedback keeps scholars engaged and helps them grow as readers and writers. To ensure consistency, evaluate short responses using a clear and simple rubric that prioritizes idea development, clarity, and evidence. Scholars should receive feedback on their Response to Literature Essays and Exit Tickets each week.

When giving feedback, great teachers…

• Knowledgeably diagnose what is holding the scholar back
• Prioritize what is most important (IDEAS front and center!)
• Are assertive and directive about what needs to change and how to approach changing it (feedback is actionable)
• Contextualize their feedback
• Give praise only when it is earned

Without regular scoring and feedback, scholars lose motivation. Prioritize timely, constructive responses to reinforce learning and accountability.