Increasing numbers of middle school teachers recognize that literacy is the responsibility of all teachers. Traditionally, teachers in many content areas have developed on the read-and-answer-the-questions approach almost exclusively when reading is part of their instruction. Now they can find a smorgasbord approach of content area reading strategies in journals, books, and on the Internet. But because most content area teachers have had little training in the teaching of reading, they remain confused about when specific strategies are best to use. The author discusses how middle school teachers determine which strategy would prove most useful when helping their students comprehend textbooks, and describes "scaffolding" as the term used to describe the instructional strategies that can provide support and guidance to struggling readers. She also discusses the two important factors that influence the students' readiness to comprehend text material: interest and text difficulty, and suggests some ways to help teachers motivate middle school students to read material they find tedious and hard to understand. (Contains 1 figure.)