Read-Alouds in Middle Schools

 When educators think of read-alouds, middle school classes are seldom on their minds. However, as shown in the article Tapping the potential of teacher read-alouds in middle schools by Lettie K. Albright and Mary Ariail, it is shown that read-alouds can be just as effective in the middle school classrooms as in the elementary school classrooms. It had never occurred to me that reading aloud in middle schools would be beneficial to the students. As an educator, I might would think the students would feel as though I'm belittling them by reading aloud to them. However, this article has completely changed my mind.
One of the first types of text thought of when considering a read-aloud is generally a picture book, which is obviously too simple for a middle school students. However, there are many other texts that can be used as a read-aloud. One of my favorite options is to read small texts, such as newspaper articles, poems, or short stories. This way, students are able to be exposed to text that may be at a slightly higher reading level, and are able to understand the text with some support from the teacher. These smaller texts would also be texts that would interesting to the student.
I also think that reading small sections of the textbooks would be a good idea as well. Textbooks can be hard to comprehend, especially as a middle school student who has not been exposed to reading that type of text before. This also allows students to be able to focus more on the content of the text rather than focusing on pronouncing the words correctly. I do think, however, that reading text books aloud can cause students become uninterested after listening to a long section of intense expository text. Because of this, when text books are read aloud, the educator should ensure that the section of text is small enough that the class will continue to be actively engaged.

Questions:
1. What is an appropriate length of text to be read aloud to a middle school aged classroom?
2. If I am a teacher in a 6th grade classroom, what level should the read-aloud text be?