What We Learned from 531 Educators Talking About Adolescent Reading
Published September 2026
This August, 531 educators joined us for two conversations about what secondary readers need: From Guessing to Grounded: What Strong Reading Looks Like in Secondary Classrooms and From Standards to Strength: Building the Reading Skills Behind the Standards.
We came ready to talk about comprehension. Teachers came ready with questions.
One theme surfaced again and again: How do we give adolescent readers the explicit support they need without turning every reading assignment into a lengthy intervention?
Teachers wanted practical ways to help students stay connected to meaning when texts get difficult. They asked where to start, how much instruction is enough, and how to support students whose reading breaks down in different places.
Their feedback after the sessions reinforced the point. Teachers described the strategies as a “simple structure,” “immediately useful in the classroom,” and “very practical tools to apply to reading comprehension.”
That’s exactly the conversation we want to keep having.
Explicit reading instruction doesn’t have to mean stopping after every paragraph to practice every possible strategy. Sometimes it means noticing where meaning is breaking down and giving students one concrete move that helps them get it back. With practice, those moves become habits students can use independently.
If you missed the live sessions—or want to revisit them—the recordings are available free through edWeb:
→ Watch: From Guessing to Grounded
→ Watch: From Standards to Strength
Thanks to everyone who joined us, asked questions, shared experiences, and made these sessions conversations rather than presentations. We’ll be digging into some of the questions you raised in the September issue of The Zinc Literacy Lens.
Want to dig deeper?
Explore the strategies we discussed in our free, three-part Foundations of Adolescent Literacy professional learning series. The self-paced modules take about an hour total and offer practical ways to support stronger secondary readers.
Not using Zinc yet? Complete all three modules, then request free Zinc Explorer licenses for you and your students at the end of Module 3.
FROM YOUR CLASSROOM
What’s one thing you wish more people understood about teaching reading in middle and high school?
↓ Share your experience below.