In this page, you can find reading resources for our mid-level readers. Send an email to Erica Choi or Guadalupe Nufio if you are looking for additional resources!
Click here for techniques for improving children’s reading comprehension skills.
Click here to find out what resources we have
Click here to learn about children’s reading levels
Click here to find book recommendations for each reading level
Click here to find recommended discussion questions to ask before, during, and after you read together
What are some best practices for teaching mid-level reading?
2. What learning resources does Study Buddies Connect recommend for mid-level readers?
NewsELA contains a large collection of various types of texts that can challenge your students.
Username: studybuddies@a-b-c.org
Password: StudyBuddies
Readworks is great for finding different types of texts and resources to challenge your students.
Username: studybuddies@a-b-c.org Password: StudyBuddies
IXL contains a breakdown of each topic with a quiz and lessons to help teach content. This website is particularly good for teaching grammar skills, reading techniques, and writing styles.
Contact SBC’s staff directly to receive your student’s IXL account.
Workbooks
SBC has a great library of workbooks for each grade level. Please contact Erica at echoi@a-b-c.org for access!
3. How can I understand my buddy’s reading level and find appropriate texts?
3a. First things first - how do I know what reading level my buddy is at?
You can find out your buddy’s reading level by asking our staff members! Study Buddies Connect assesses all of our children’s skills upon intake to understand where our children stand, as well as at the end of each academic year to see the growth they have made.
Please note that many of our children are a couple of years behind their expected reading levels when they are first connected to Study Buddies Connect - this is totally fine, and we can help them grow their reading skills! You may find it helpful to use the reading resources we have compiled for late elementary school students with your buddy in that case.
3b. I have seen letters and numbers to represent reading levels - what are those about?
There are several different reading levels out there, including Fountas & Parnell, Lexile, and DRA. These reading levels are designed to help educators find appropriate-level texts for children as they are developing their reading skills. Many of these were developed with younger readers in mind, and they often go up to the sixth grade. On the Fountas & Parnell scale, sixth graders are recommended to read books that are between Levels W-Y, and seventh and eighth graders are recommended to read books that are Level Z.
Please refer to this chart to interpret different reading levels and convert between them.
3c. What skills are students expected to have by the end of each grade? (Expand by clicking on grade level)
Sixth Grade Standards
- Use evidence from text to support analysis of text (analysis can be inferences)
- Identify theme of text and how it is conveyed through details (a summary)
- Describe how plot unfolds through episodes and how character responds
- Determine meaning of words using text,including figurative meanings
- Analyze how a particular sentence/paragraph/ chapter fits into overall story
- Analyze point of view of the narrator
- Compare and contrast texts of different medias
- Read and comprehend texts that are grade level appropriate
- Click here to learn more about grammar standards & here to learn more about ELA standards for sixth graders
Seventh Grade Standards
- Cite several pieces of evidence to support analysis of text
- Determine a theme of text and analyze its development throughout text
- Analyze how elements in a story effect characters
- Determine meaning of words using text, including figurative meanings
- Analyze different points of view in a text
- Compare and contrast different medias
- Read and comprehend texts that are grade level appropriate
- Click here to learn more about grammar standards & here to learn more about ELA standards for sixth graders
Eighth Grade Standards
- Cite several pieces of evidence to support analysis of text
- Determine a theme of text and analyze its development throughout text
- Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
- Determine meaning of words using text, including figurative meanings
- Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style
- Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader create such effects as suspense or humor
- Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors
- Read and comprehend texts that are grade level appropriate
- Click here to learn more about grammar standards & here to learn more about ELA standards for sixth graders
4. What books would Study Buddies Connect recommend for mid-level readers? (Expand by clicking on each level)
Level W (Sixth Grade)
- The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1) Rick Riordan
- Bluish by Vi
- Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
- Coraline by Neil Gaiman
- Any Small Goodness: A Novel of the Barrio by Tony Johnston
- Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan
- The Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thompson
- One True Way by Shannon Hitchcock
- Hoot by Carl Hiaasen
- Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America by Sharon Robinson
Level X (Sixth Grade)
- Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
- The Lightning Queen by Laura Resau
- Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
- The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson
- The Last Book in the Universe by Rodman Philbrick
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
- The Lotterys More Or Less by Emma Donoghue
- El Deafo by Cece Bell
- Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman
Level Y (Sixth Grade)
- Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
- Enola Holmes by Nancy Springer
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- I Am Malala: How One Girl Stood Up for Education and Changed the World by Malala Yousafzai
- A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Mass
- A Corner of the Universe by Ann M. Martin
- Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis
Level Z (Seventh and Eigth Grades)
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
- Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson
- George by Alex Gino
- Kinda Like Brothers by Coe Booth
- The Lines We Cross by Randa Abdel-Fattah
- The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
- The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child by Francisco Jiménez
5. What discussion questions should I ask before, during, and after we read together?
(Click here if you want to be able to download these questions to your personal computer)
Questions to ask before you start reading together
- What do you think the genre of this book is? Do you think it’s fiction or nonfiction? How do you know?
- What other books of this genre have you read?
- What is the title of the book? Does the title provide you with any clues as to what the book might include?
- Describe the images, artwork, or graphics on the front cover. Do the images, artwork, or graphics provide you with any clues as to what the book might include?
Basic understanding questions to ask as you read together
First, we want to make sure our students understood what they read by asking them to summarize the text. Ideally, summaries are concise and reflect the important and overarching ideas in information and texts. They should also be sequential and driven by cause-and-effect.
- Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.
- What was the problem in the story?
- How did the characters solve the problem?
- How did the story end? If applicable, what was the surprise at the end?
- What were the events that led to the ending?
- Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from the details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
- What new information did you learn about __?
More advanced questions to ask as you read together (predicting and inferring)
Predicting
- Based on what you know about a character, predict what he or she will do.
- Based on what you know, what might happen next? What clues from the book or personal experience helped you with this prediction?
- Has your prediction happened? How do you know? With new events in the story, how did you revise your prediction?
Inferring
- Look at the dialogue in the text. What does the dialogue tell you about how the characters are feeling or thinking?
- Why do you think the character felt ___ or acted _?
- Why did the character __? How do you know?
- How did the character change from _ to _? Why? How did the characters feelings towards each other change from _ to __? Why?
- How would you feel if ____ happened to you? Would you solve the problem the same way the character did?
- What is the big idea/theme of the text? How do they apply to our lives today?
- How do actions of one character affect another?
- What does the author mean by ___ (symbol – objects, events, motifs, characters)? How does it enhance the meaning of the story?
Questions to ask after you finish the chapter/ book (analyzing and critiquing)
Analyzing
- What did the author do to make the characters, situation, or topic interesting?
- What descriptive language did the author use? How did it add to your enjoyment or understanding of the text?
- What is the genre of the book? What are the aspects of this genre that you noticed? (realistic and historical fiction, complex fantasy, biography, autobiography, memoirs and diaries, myths and legends, hybrid texts and other nonfiction)
- Could this story really happen? Why or why not?
- Look at the way the writer ended the book. Do you think this was a good way to end? Why or why not?
- Show me a page where (identify a text structure element like motif, symbolism, metaphor).
Critiquing
- What did you like/dislike about this (book, beginning, characters, ending)?
- What did you think about (book, beginning, characters, ending)? Why?
- What was the most important part of the story? Why?
- Do you agree or disagree with __? Why or why not?
- Was the title of the text a good one? Why or why not?