Modern secondary education approaches literacy instruction with the assumption that our students are coming to us ready to read. How many times have we heard some version of the mantra, “From first through third grade students learn to read, and from fourth grade on they read to learn”? This assumption is not true for many of our students. At Ryan Middle School, we had the data showing low reading skills, endless discussions about them, and finally decided to take action. This workshop illustrates our middle school Walk to Read (WTR) program, a twice-weekly leveled reading instruction intervention for our entire student body of about 600 students (grades 6th through 8th). WTR includes targeted reading groups for the entire student body, and professional development for secondary teachers who wanted to help students but were unsure about how to teach reading skills. Learn from our successes and frustrations to help create a program that works in your district.