The 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that 69 percent of eighth graders don't have the skills necessary to understand grade-level text, reported the "Journal of Educational Research." The problems associated with expository reading at this age can include difficulty recognizing the words, difficulty comprehending the meaning of the words, difficulty integrating the information into their daily lives, or difficulty drawing conclusions from what they read. Some have poor motivation due to past reading failures. Since expository text makes up so much of the material a child needs to master in middle school, problems with reading or comprehension can lead to school failure.
Middle-school teachers may assume their students can already read well on their own without assistance, although this may not be true. Most aren't prepared to teach literacy in middle school due to time constraints. A child who can't read much of the text will not be able to comprehend it. Setting a goal to bring a child's reading ability up to grade-level may be the necessary first step to ensuring a student's comprehension of expository text in middle school.
Some middle-school students may have the ability to decode the words but lack the ability to interpret what they read. To gauge a student's comprehension and set learning goals, a teacher may ask the student to scan the story and describe the topic of the story or to retell the story or subject in her own words. Identifying the main points of the story and summarizing the story helps students learn to break down an article or story and to recognize that the story follows a logical pattern that builds to an identifiable conclusion.
During the first few years of school, children learn to read. They spend the next few years learning from text. Starting in middle school, they must read and comprehend large amounts of expository text, but many don't know how to tackle textbooks. Give students background information before they read expository text to give them a context to put the information into. Establishing objectives before reading gives students cues of what to look for in expository writing. Reviewing the text after reading and asking questions tests a student's ability to digest and assimilate the text.