The reading improvement activities in this handbook are intended for use by middle school language arts teachers. Focusing on study skills, vocabulary development, and comprehension development, the activities include (1) surveying literary materials, (2) outlining, (3) spelling, (4) syllabication, (5) word recognition, (6) using synonyms, (7) understanding the main idea of a text, (8) remembering details, (9) determining the sequence of events stated in the text, and (10) making inferences from texts. Many of the descriptions of these activities include samples of teacher planning sheets and master copies of student worksheets. The appendixes contain additional advice and materials that language arts teachers can use to develop their students' reading skills. These items include directions for constructing "magic slates" and electric quiz boards, a dictionary of word parts, a list of reading skills needed in the language arts, the Fry and the SMOG readability formulas and directions for their use, a five-part strategy for word attack, hints on accenting and syllabication, and suggestions for "selling" books in language arts classrooms. (RL)