For Middle Schoolers: Activities to Build

College-Level Reading Skills

By: ACT

ACT has developed the following list of activities to help middle-school students improve their
reading ability. Parents and educators can use this information to help ensure that these students
are on target for college and career readiness.
ACT research shows that to be on target for college and career readiness in reading by the end of
eight grade, students should be able to demonstrate the following skills:

Recognize the clear intent of an author or narrator in uncomplicated literacy narratives

Locate basic facts,e.g., names, dates, events) clearly stated in a passage
Determine in uncomplicated passages when, i.e., first, last, before, after, or even if an
event occurred
Recognize clear cause-effect relationships described within a single sentence in a passage
Understand the implication of a familiar word or phrase and of simple descriptive
language
Draw simple generalizations and conclusions about the main characters in uncomplicated
literary narratives

Individual students learn to read, and to improve their reading skills, in different ways. Getting
students interested and maintaining their interest are essential, and the ideas in the chart below
can help. We've listed the ideas under five headings, each relating to a different area of reading:
Main Ideas and Author's Approach; Supporting Details; Relationships; Meanings of Words; and
Generalizations and Conclusions. The items in each list are things an individual student can do
independently, but they also lend themselves well to discussion with interested parents,
educators, or fellow students.
Each list is divided across two columns. The first column details reading activities at the
Benchmark level or below, meaning that the skills they are meant to strengthen are skills that a
student must have in order to be ready for college and career. The second column contains
activities meant to strengthen more advanced skills (in increasing order of difficulty). The
activities in this column meant to strengthen the most advanced skills will help even the best
readers.

Skill Area
Main Ideas and
Author's
Approach

To improve reading skills beyond

benchmark level, you can:

To improve reading skills up to

benchmark level, you can:

Find details in a story

that reveal the author's or
narrator's opinions or
goals (for example, "I

Decide whether a paragraph in a

short story or novel has its own main
idea or serves mainly to support
another point

appreciated my aunt
because she gave me
more freedom than my
mom.")
Note details in fiction
that convey the author's
or narrator's opinions or
goals

Supporting
Details

Relationships

Read an article or story

and answer basic
questions, like Who
planned the attack? What
did the person do all
day? and Where did the
person feel the happiest?
Practice looking quickly
through a piece of
writing to find specific
dates, places, concepts,
etc.
Decide the purpose of
each paragraph in a short
story or article (for
example, to provide a
specific example, prove a
point, give a different
opinion)

Find an interesting topic

in the news and learn
how past events have
affected the present
situation (for example,
how the careless
dumping of trash has led
to stricter rules)

Take notes on a challenging text;

decide how the information fits
together as a whole
Practice writing brief summaries of
books you have read
Decide who is telling a story (a
child, an adult, etc.) and if that
viewpoint relates the story well
Use two different mediums, like
sculpture and music, to summarize
the main idea(s) of a text
Read a play or book, deciding what
each scene or chapter is primarily for
or about
Change a text's wording to alter its
tone or attitude (for example, from
serious to humorous)
Explain in your own words why
certain facts or details are important
to the meaning of an essay, a film, an
ad, a picture, etc.
Understand textual details and how
they contribute to the author's or
narrator's message (for example,
strengthening or clarifying it)
Write an essay about something
you've read, supporting your ideas
with evidence
Examine how an author develops an
argument in a complex text (for
example, issue and terms defined,
position taken, reasoning used,
evidence presented,
counterarguments addressed)

Highlight words or phrases in a

cartoon strip, short story, or novel
that suggest what happened first,
second, etc.
Pick an event in a piece of writing
and find statements that clearly show
the reason(s) it happened and the
final result(s)

Meaning of
Words

Generalizations
and Conclusions

Look for words like

since, because, and
consequently in a piece
of writing to help you
find causes and effects
Note how characters are
described in a story
(what they say and do),
then tell what
relationships are revealed
(for example, they're best
friends because they
confide in each other)
Try different strategies,
like asking "what if"
questions and roleplaying, to better
understand possible
causes and effects

Note words that suggest

a specific emotion or
refer to a particular idea
(for example, "Mine,
really mine?" suggests
surprise; "home" could
refer to a nursing home
or a person's house)
Note language whose
meaning is not clear,
then come up with
possible meanings based
on the context and your
own knowledge

Connect two or more

pieces of information to
make a general statement
about a character (for
example, "a little girl"
and "skinny arms"
suggests "She had a
slight figure")

Use a chart or web to connect a

series of events in a text or film, or
from an everyday occurrence, and
justify your chosen sequence
Decide whether comparisons made
by the author or narrator help you
understand relationships in a text
Predict what would happen if events
occurred in a different order in a text
or not at all
Note how a character is seen and
treated by others in a challenging
text
Find details that suggest reasons for
and effects of a character's actions or
words

Figure out the meaning of words or

descriptive phrases by looking for
clues in the writing (for example,
how the word is used [noun, verb,
etc.]; whether other sentences define
or provide hints about its meaning;
whether the word looks like other
words you know)
Look up word meanings and
determine how the words an author
or narrator uses affect people's
impressions of a topic or issue
Examine figurative and technical
expressions used in the media (for
example, ads, news articles), and
relate their meaning to your personal
experience
Review a variety of materials,
looking for statements that
oversimplify ideas or stereotype
people
Identify details in a challenging text
that support or challenge conclusions
drawn by the author or narrator and
by you or your friends

Guess what a person

might say or do
throughout a story,
checking the accuracy of
each prediction as you
read
Read brief reviews of a
novel, then find evidence
within the book that
supports or contradicts
the statements made (for
example, "compelling
poignant
spellbinding")
Practice writing general
statements about people
or ideas you read about,
using qualifiers like a
few, typically, or
sometimes when little
information is provided

Defend or challenge the author's or

narrator's claims in a text by locating
key pieces of information in other
sources
Make accurate generalizations
avoiding oversimplificationsbased
on details in the text (for example,
"You live therein that polka-dotted
house?" suggests disbelief)
Combine information in challenging
texts, reasoning clearly about people,
situations, etc.

ACT is an independent, not-for-profit testing organization founded in 1959.