The Role of Identity in Reading Comprehension Development

The purpose of this year-long project was to examine an instructional framework intended to help middle school teachers create instruction that responds to students' reading identities while also helping students learn the skills they need to be successful readers. The project used a formative design approach in order to achieve 3 pedagogical goals with middle school students: (a) examine and positively change their involvement with classroom reading practices, (b) improve their reading comprehension abilities, and (c) allow them to progress in who they want to become as readers.