The most effective use of middle grades reading teacher time is to assign them to reading classes for specific grade levels.  Materials can then be used by class after class, so the investment in materials can be used as efficiently as possible.  Even with this efficient use of materials, schools will need to provide the funds necessary to ensure that teachers and students have all the tools needed to build strong readers.

      A typical middle grades school that provides reading classes for all students has one reading teacher with all sixth grade reading classes, one reading teacher with all seventh grade reading classes, and one reading teacher with all eighth grade reading classes.  Larger schools may need two reading teachers at each grade level.  Some teachers may need to teach more than one grade level, but as much as possible, teachers should be responsible for reading at one grade level.

      Some materials, because they are changed annually, can be used by all grade levels.  For example, each classroom should have copies of Young Hoosier Book Award charts for all classes as well as copies of the books, because books and charts are changed each year.  Accelerated Reader or Reading Counts programs serve all students, but access to computers in each reading room is helpful.  Newspapers obviously can be used by all grade levels because content changes daily. 

      Standardized reading tests are valuable in all reading classrooms.  One set of tests can be used by all sections of a grade level, since students do not need to write in the test booklets but rather on sheets scored by hand.  An example is the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, available from Riverside Publishing.  Level 5/6 can be used with sixth graders, and Level 7/9 can be used with seventh and eighth graders.

      Other materials should be reserved for a particular grade level.  Sixth graders could use the sixth grade level of the same basal reading program used in the fourth and fifth grades.  Seventh and eighth graders could use a literature anthology as their basic textbook.  Beyond those books usually provided through the book rental program, supplementary materials with a wide range of reading levels are needed.  There are so many good materials available that it is possible to reserve materials for particular grade levels.

      An example is the Be a Better Reader series from Globe Fearon.  It consists of seven leveled booklets with reading levels from fourth grade to tenth grade.  Teachers need enough copies to cover all reading levels present in their various classes and a manual for each booklet level.  Students do not have to write in the booklets, so the same booklets can be used for all sections year after year.  (For similar leveled programs, see page 7.)

      Students in the seventh and eighth grades should not have to use the same materials they used in the previous grade, even though they did not use the highest level in the series.  For example, some students use lower levels in a series in the sixth grade and none of the higher levels.  When they arrive at the seventh grade, even though they may use the lowest level of the reading materials reserved for that grade, they do not use materials from the series that they used in the sixth grade.  Struggling readers need all the positive support that they can find, and they need to know that they are using materials reserved for their grade level, not for students in previous grades.

      In order not to duplicate materials, reading teachers at each school need to select and reserve materials for each grade level.  Publishers send catalogs to all schools, and copies of the catalogs should be available in the school office.  Publishers also display materials at the Indiana State Reading Association annual conference.