Build Student Agency with Project-Based Learning 

After a whole year of guiding students through lesson plans and learning activities, it’s time to hand over the reins to them! That’s right – let them be in charge of their learning! Surprised? With Project-Based Learning (PBL), students not only gain agency over their approach to learning but also become more engaged. It also provides an avenue for students to explore learning concepts from new angles to solidify their grasp on the material and close any gaps in understanding.

Stumped about what to assign as a project, or just don’t have time to pull something together? Read to Lead has your back! Choose from one of three different Enrichment Projects and let your students take control of their learning. We particularly love “Develop a Community Service Plan” for the end of the school year – students put together a plan to make a difference in their community as part of the project, and you can encourage them to make it a reality over the summer vacation!

Close Learning Gaps with Immersive Games Catered to Different Levels

In the last couple of weeks of school, it can be tempting to let kids play games and relax, but you also want to help weaker students play catch up. We have the solution – Read to Lead learning games!

Confidently meet students’ educational needs using real-time progress and CCSS-aligned formative assessments. The platform’s adaptive technology modifies assessments based on students’ performance within the platform to help students close learning gaps. Read to Lead also features accessibility tools like the audio read-aloud function and the language translation feature to provide students with additional support. With a game-like interface that puts students in the driver’s seat to manage employees and navigate various challenging workplace scenarios, Read to Lead is bound to be a hit! (We can keep all the learning they’ll be doing our little secret!)

Celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month

This May, teach students how to develop, recognize, and practice good mental health with a FREE lesson bundle jam-packed with learning games, activities, and resources! Featuring a series of four immersive learning games that focus on helping students find anxiety relief, support from others, and navigate complex decisions, this lesson bundle makes for great morning work, early-finisher activities, or extra credit activities to keep students engaged even as they build essential life skills.

One click is all it takes to assign the learning games in the Mental Health Awareness Bundle. Simply select it right from the playlist section of your Activities Page Tab on the Read to Lead platform! 

Save a Seat for Read to Lead: Live! 

Bring the real world into your classroom just for an afternoon! Join us on Friday, June 3rd at 1:00 PM EST for this school year’s last inspirational career chat – this time with Emmy-winning documentary filmmakers Hannah Ayers and Lance Warren! Your students will have an opportunity to go behind the camera and learn to tell a story they are passionate about to the world. They will learn all about researching a topic, interviewing experts, editing a film, sharing knowledge on that subject, and more. The webinar is free for all to join but has limited capacity, so you’ll want to save your seat early!

Let’s make the last few weeks of school enjoyable yet educational as we bring the year to a close on a positive note. Sign up for free for Read to Lead to get immediate access to literacy-focused engaging learning games, complete lesson plans for Project-Based Learning activities, and so much more!

The post End of the Year Projects for Grades 5-9 appeared first on Read to Lead.

You may be thinking… why should we be teaching about volunteering and community service in middle school?

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning at Tufts University found that students who volunteer are more successful in school and more likely to graduate from high school and college than those who don’t volunteer. This may be because most service opportunities teach students essential life skills like planning, working in groups, interacting with diverse groups, and solving complex problems. It also gives students a purpose, and an outlet to find their passions and strengths. 

This week, we’re providing resources for teachers to be able to shine a light on the people and the causes that inspire us to serve. The world needs volunteers who donate their time, energy, and passion to the causes they care about and this starts with our students!

Ignite an interest in volunteerism for your students to make an impact on their own neighborhoods with our week-at-a-glance planner!

Snag it here to download!

Monday

Introduce the concept of Volunteerism through immersive game-play. 

Introduce students to community service organizations, volunteer work, career exploration, and social-emotional learning experiences through immersive gameplay with the Community in Crisis learning game.Start building their knowledge with this lesson plan.

Students take on the role of the “boss” at a community center as they read closely, think critically, lead a diverse team, and solve complex problems — all within the immersive context of a day at work.

Play Community in Crisis, learning game, Stranded! Answer key.

Tuesday

Inspire students to make a difference.

Have your students ask themselves: How can I make a difference in my community? Use our enrichment project to help them identify a cause they are passionate about and develop their own community service plan.

Use these lesson sessions to get your students excited about volunteering and community service.

Wednesday

Give students a front-row seat into community activism through career exploration.

Grab the popcorn and watch an on-demand Read to Lead: Live! session with Mary Walker, where students will get an inside look into the leadership journey of this passionate professional who discusses her role in corporate philanthropy to help nonprofits achieve their mission. 

If you thought the on-demand session was powerful, you have to catch a LIVE session! Sign up for the next one here!

Thursday

Spark deep class discussion.

Read to Lead: Live! always seems to spark deep questions and reflections for students about their passions, desires, challenges, and future.

Use this discussion guide to spark deep discussion and reflection with your students!

Friday

Connect to the real world.

Allow students to share their community service plans with their peers and start mobilizing their volunteer plans with an organization they feel a connection with.

Start with this comprehensive list of Volunteer Opportunities across the country.

And there you have it! Five full days of igniting an interest in community service for your middle school students. Whether you do all five days, or just one –  tell us how it goes with #NationalVolunteerWeek on Twitter and Instagram. Tag us to be featured –  @ReadtoLeadGames

Happy teaching!

The post Teaching National Volunteer Week appeared first on Read to Lead.

It also holds special significance in the movement for women’s rights and gender equality. Across the world, from Cuba to Cambodia, from China to Chile, this day is celebrated through parades, marches and other symbolic observances. 

Women’s Empowerment Must Begin Young 

Part of the problem starts at a young age. Growing up, we look to the adults around us, both in real life and in the media, to form our concepts of who we are and our roles in society. However, women are poorly represented in the workforce in senior or decision-making positions, in management, and in government. The truth is our girls and young women lack female role models to inspire them to pursue their ambitions.

In the area of STEM, research shows that when girls have a role model to look up to, they are more likely to consider a career in this field. Deep and personal conversations with relatable mentors can also help instill confidence and impact their career aspirations, giving them the self-belief that they too can achieve greatly.

How Read to Lead Helps

Finding real-life female role models and mentors for young women can be a challenge. At Read to Lead, we believe young women should see themselves as leaders today. That’s why our learning games feature women in a variety of roles from medical assistant to senior reporter, from Director of Technology to family physician, that serve as role models for students to envision themselves in these careers.

By working through the different games on the platform, students see women in key positions of leadership, as decision-makers who have the power to affect change, and as influencers whose opinions bear weight in the workforce. They also interact with these characters in an authentic workplace environment that allows them to clearly see their role, not just in their workplace but in the community as a whole.

Read to Lead also offers students a chance to learn more about the workforce skills necessary to perform their jobs effectively. Interpersonal skills, communication skills, even just having the confidence to speak up and voice their opinions are some of the critical skills young women can gain from using this platform.

For example, in the Vital Signs game Sick and Tired, students help Victoria, the new medical assistant at the community clinic, find the confidence to speak up when she thinks she’s discovered what is wrong with the patient, in order to help the medical team give her proper treatment. By helping students develop these essential skills, we are empowering them to take on challenges they may face as they enter the workforce in the future.

As a society, we have not tapped into the full potential of half our population. This untapped potential is a great loss, and we should be aiming to unlock more of the talents of all our students, including young women. Read to Lead can provide an opportunity to share how women can be leaders, influencers, and change-makers in the workplace, and inspire young women to pursue their ambitions.

This International Women’s Day, share Read to Lead with your students to show them women in leadership positions in the workplace, and inspire them to strive for greatness. How are you empowering the young women in your classroom to pursue their ambitions and create a more equal workforce?

The post Celebrating International Women’s Day appeared first on Read to Lead.

Women’s History Month is a celebration of women who have taken risks, broken frontiers, and paved the way for future generations. It is a recognition of the impact of women in history.

From the Daughters of Liberty, founded in 1765 as one of the earliest formal organizations of women in the US, to the Suffragettes who fought for women’s rights to vote – 

From Hedy Lamarr, who invented the technology that forms the foundation for WiFi, first used in World War II, to Claudette Colvin, a teenaged activist and pioneer in the civil rights movement who refused to give up her seat on the bus – 

And in more recent times, from Kamala Harris, the first Black-South Asian woman to become the Vice President of the US, to Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist for female education and the world’s youngest Nobel Prize laureate – 

Incredible women have pushed boundaries, expanded the role of women, and left their mark on history. Indeed, their work continues to impact our lives today.

Our students also have great potential to be the next generation of leaders, innovators, and women making history.  They stand poised to be the pioneers for the next generation, and we, as educators, have to equip them with the necessary tools to create history. 

Find out how you can empower your students to become the trailblazers of the future with these four strategies!

1. Debate and Discuss

Women’s issues have come a long way, and every day, countless women are out there continuing to pave a better, brighter future for our youth. However, there is still room for improvement and a myriad of issues that women are still fighting for. 

What better way to teach women’s history in the making than to bring these discussions into your classroom? Whether it’s how to get more women into leadership roles, or close the gender pay gap, introducing these topics to your students through debates and discussions can help them become more engaged in issues concerning women.

If you’re wondering where to start – don’t worry; we’ve got you covered! Use this debate question about mandatory paid parental leave from Read to Lead’s special Women’s History Month supplement to promote a discussion through debate. 

2. Introduce Representation and Diversity through Read to Lead Games

Do your students love games? Why not use Read to Lead learning games to highlight just how your students too can become women who make a difference in their communities?

The Read to Lead gamified platform gives students the opportunity to interact with a diverse staff in a wide range of professions, as well as introduces students to women in positions of leadership – all while playing fun games. This array of characters helps expose students to different career paths and shows them that women, too, can try new things, push boundaries, and be agents of change in their community.

By introducing representation and diversity that showcases women occupying important positions in different fields and industries, we empower our students to see themselves in these roles.

Each game in Read to Lead also presents an issue that students need to resolve. By working through these games, students hone their critical thinking and SEL skills. In addition to that, these issues are related to common issues in the workplace and society, including women’s issues.

For example, in the learning game, Financial Crisis (Morning), LaDonna Watkins asks for a pay raise. Educators can use this as a springboard for discussions around the gender wage gap and how this negatively impacts not just women but everyone in society.

3. Tune in to Read to Lead: Live! a career chat webinar series 

Pull up a chair, grab some popcorn, and listen to the journey of a trailblazing modern-day woman entrepreneur – Tiffany Norwood, Founder, and CEO of Tribetan. 

At the young age of 27, she raised $670 million to build the first-ever global digital radio platform, launch three satellites into space, support the development of MP3/MP4 technologies, and invest in a new generation of digital radio receivers. Tiffany was also the first in her family to be born with all of her civil rights, thanks to the women activists who fought for them.

Want your students to learn from other women who have smashed gender stereotypes and challenged the status quo? The Read to Lead: Live! Library also has a selection of great interviews with other women who have made an impact in their industry – all for you and your students’ viewing pleasure!

4. Build Literacy Skills to Empower Women Trailblazers of the Future

Reading and literacy skills are a strong predictor of future success and the foundation to create empowered women. If we want to cultivate the women leaders and trailblazers of the future, we have to start now. By helping our students develop their literacy skills, we are setting them up for success.

But we get it: getting students to read can be difficult! That’s why we’ve created the Million Words Read Challenge! 

Combining competition and collaboration while constantly cheering on students to success, this isn’t your average reading challenge –  but it’s sure to get your students in the spirit of reading! And with 5,000 words read per Read to Lead game completed, students will be expanding their literacy skills by leaps and bounds, putting them on the path to future success.

Women’s history month is a great time for us to celebrate the successes and achievements of the women who have paved the way to where we are today. It is also a time to look to the future – and see our students as the future generation of women pioneers making history. 

Get started on empowering your students with Read to Lead by clicking here!

The post Teaching Women’s History in the Making appeared first on Read to Lead.

Whether you are teaching summer school, tutoring, running a summer program, or are a parent looking to keep your student productive this summer, we’ve got you!

Research tells us that when we utilize summertime to re-engage students social-emotionally, there is a better chance to mediate some of the summer learning loss. Overall, consistent summer learning experiences can help close opportunity gaps, lead to higher graduation rates, and increase college readiness in students. But motivating students to participate in any type of summer program can be a struggle, especially when the summer program isn’t 100% recreational. So how can you inspire and encourage your students to dedicate some of their vacation time to further their knowledge while making them feel like they aren’t back in the classroom?

Get hands-on!

“Tell me, I’ll forget. Show me, I’ll remember. Involve me, I’ll understand.” – Chinese Proverb

Summer is an excellent time for students to get involved in hands-on, project-based learning where they can express their creativity and solidify key concepts they have learned during the school year. Read to Lead provides project-based learning through enrichment projects and activities. Students can work individually or collaboratively to gain teamwork, leadership, life, and career skills while understanding the value of what they are learning in the classroom. 

For students who are visual, auditory, or tactile learners, this can be an opportunity to pursue non-traditional forms of education beyond just textbooks and blackboards. Providing students with avenues to pursue their strengths and interests will inspire them to participate actively in summer programs.

Connect the dots between school and real-life

Schools were created with the intention of preparing students for life. However, as the focus in schools has increasingly shifted to producing good test scores and other arbitrary indicators, more and more students are becoming disillusioned with school – and its relevance to life after graduation. A survey from YouthTruth found that only 54% of middle school and 46% of high school students found what they were learning in school to be relevant to their lives. 

Luckily, technology can help bridge this gap. Educators and parents can take advantage of resources like Read to Lead, a free game-based learning platform that allows students to improve literacy and leadership skills while exploring various career options. By putting students in the role of “the boss” in a virtual workplace scenario, they learn valuable life skills and are able to see the connection between what they learn in school and their future careers. When using Read to Lead, 89% of teachers report that the game helps students connect reading, writing, and verbal communication skills learned in school to real-world careers.

Bonus – connect the dots even further and use any one of Read to Lead’s enrichment projects to spark engagement with your students this summer.  Let them discover that what they learned this past year during in-person, hybrid, or remote school applies to any situation happening in the world around them. Allow students to create a public service announcement or develop a service plan to address a problem in the community.  Any one of these enrichment projects make for great summertime activities and will help students connect the dots through real-world applications. 

Challenge students to read for just 15 minutes a day

Literacy is the foundation of all learning, but fostering a love for reading isn’t easy.  In Read to Lead’s engaging learning games, students read 5K words in each game, are introduced to new vocabulary, read closely, and solve complex problems – but they don’t feel like they are reading! When playing Read to Lead, 88% of teachers reported improvements in students’ performance on other reading and writing assessments, as students were able to transfer skills learned through the game to other ELA tasks. Not only that, but 94% of teachers reported that students gained confidence in reading after using Read to Lead! So while students are immersed in game-play, they are developing key foundational skills they could not obtain by reading a traditional summer-reading novel. 

Motivating students to participate in summer programs is the first step to ensuring that students have a fruitful summer that contributes to their long-term educational and career success. Ready to empower your students over the summer or in the next school year?  Sign up for a free account and get started!

The post How to Motivate Students During the Summer appeared first on Read to Lead.

Read to Lead’s immersive literacy learning games are not your traditional books, but they sure will get students reading! Choose from grade-level specific learning games on the platform, and with each game completed, students rack up approximately 5,000 words read. Best part? They can see where they stand on the nation-wide leader board!

During each immersive “day at work” students read closely, think critically, and make complex decisions in addition to allowing students to interact with diverse characters and learn more about different careers. The program is designed to meet anchor standards and is catered to the Lexile range for each grade. 

Let’s break it down… here’s our top 4 reasons to use Read to Lead for summer reading programs: 

#1 Elevate Student Choice

There’s no better way to boost student agency than making them the protagonist of their own story. Invite students to “be the boss” in a virtual workplace scenario and deepen learning with culturally relevant, rigorous, and immersive learning games. 

#2 Track Student Progress in Real-Time

Confidently meet students’ learning needs using real-time progress and CCSS-aligned formative assessments. Even though you’re not physically with them over the summer, you’ll know where they stand. Plus, reach every learner with accessibility tools designed for the whole classroom.

#3 Use Project Based Learning

Choose from a library of literacy learning games, lessons, discussion prompts, and enrichment projects aligned to Common Core Standards for students to complete over the summer or when they return to school. Goodbye book reports, hello real-world application and discovery!

#4 Boost SEL Skills

During each game, students will practice self and social awareness and responsible decision making as they lead a diverse team and solve complex problems. Best part? Students are so immersed in the decision-making that they don’t even realize they are reading! 

How’s that for summer reading done differently? Ready to give it a whirl?  Sign up for a free account to get your class up and running for the summer!

The post Summer Reading in Middle School – Reimagined appeared first on Read to Lead.

More commonly known as PBL, project-based learning has become all the rage in the education sphere these days. We’re here to break down what it’s all about, and why you should try it in your own middle school classroom! 

First, the basics… what is Project-Based Learning?

Compared to the traditional teacher-centered style of education, PBL puts students at the center of their own learning. Say goodbye to standing at the front of the classroom, lecturing semi-comatose students, and say hello to independent, engaged learners with PBL.

Students are presented with real-world problems to solve in the form of a long-term project. In their investigation and research to produce creative solutions, they discover concepts and learn content in an authentic and meaningful way. Through this process of engaged discovery and learning, students not only develop content knowledge but also skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, negotiation, and more.

You may be thinking – it all sounds great in theory, but does it really have a significant impact on middle school students? The short answer is – YES! 

Want to know why? Let’s get into it. 

1. Boost Real-World Application

How many times have you heard students say “But when will I ever use this again in life?” Yep, middle schoolers can be dramatic, but they also have a point in asking this very pertinent question.

Oftentimes, students find it difficult to connect abstract concepts and in-depth knowledge to their daily lives. This leaves them feeling like what they’re learning is irrelevant or useless, and this can negatively impact their motivation and engagement.

PBL is a great way to bridge the gap between abstract and actual, and demonstrate the real-world application of what students are learning in school. Perhaps the cell structure of a virus seems like abstract information to students, but when taken in the context of a real-world problem like the prevention of the spread of COVID-19 in schools, the information becomes infinitely more relevant and applicable.

2. Develop Social and Emotional Learning Skills

Middle school is a critical time in the development of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) skills. But how do you help students develop the five core competencies – self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making – especially when they can’t always interact with each other in real life (thanks COVID-19)?

Enter: PBL! 

Every stage of the PBL process lends itself to helping students cultivate SEL skills. In the planning stage, they have to engage in responsible decision-making and social awareness. They learn relationship skills and self-management through interacting with each other and working collaboratively in groups for the duration of the project. PBL also lends itself easily to virtual classrooms, which is a huge plus in current times.

3. Increase Student Agency and Engagement

If you think about it, students don’t have a lot of agency in their lives. At home, their parents are in-charge. In school, it’s us teachers. It’s no wonder that students often feel they have no say in many aspects of their lives. That’s where PBL comes in to increase student agency, and elevate engagement.

In PBL, students are given free rein to approach the main problem or question in a way that makes sense to them, and showcase their ideas in the best format for them. For example, in tackling the question “How does the media influence what we perceive to be real?”, some students might create a video documentary highlighting the problems and solutions. Others may conduct a focus group with peers and experts and create a presentation, and a select few may research extensively and write a paper explaining their ideas. 

By giving students the opportunity to take charge of their own learning through PBL, we help create empowered and engaged students, even within the virtual or hybrid classroom.

Ready to bring PBL to life in your class? 

There’s no doubt that PBL offers a world of benefits to your students. But we get it – introducing something new into your classroom can feel intimidating.

That’s where Read to Lead comes in. 

Each Read to Lead game comes with a PBL experience or enrichment project that you can easily add on to deepen learning! For example, in the game Vital Signs: Act Up, students learn about a power plant that is polluting a neighborhood and making residents ill. The accompanying PBL experience focuses on creating a Public Service Announcement about an issue in their own community. 

To discover more, simply log into your free Read to Lead account, choose a learning game, and discover the enrichment project tied to the game by clicking on the Enrichment tab!

Introducing PBL into your classroom doesn’t have to be hard. Get started with Read to Lead by signing up with a free account!!

The post 3 Reasons Why More Educators Are Introducing Project-Based Learning (PBL) in Their Classrooms appeared first on Read to Lead.

Cultivating Student Voice, Creating Student Agency

Simply put, student agency is all about giving students a voice and choice in how they learn. It gives them the chance to be active agents in their own education. There are a multitude of reasons why giving students agency is beneficial, and ways in which we can work to elevate student voices in our classrooms.

In the English Language Arts (ELA) classroom, writing is a powerful tool that can encourage students to find their voice and use it. Indeed, voice is one of the most important elements of good writing, that conveys to the reader who the writer is and what they stand for. 

Yet, too often, students are not given the opportunities to cultivate their own unique voice, and end up producing poor imitations of others’ work – and along the way, feel robbed of their agency and ability to learn in a way that suits them best. Creative writing using “what if” prompts or open-ended narratives, image writing based on single or multiple pictures, and writing responses to text-based information are all ways in which we can help our students develop their voice.

For students in middle school, speech writing can also be included in ELA lessons as a powerful tool to teach students how to instil their voices in their writing, while at the same time increasing their agency. Voice is most easily captured in the spoken word, hence speech writing easily lends itself to helping students discover their unique ways of expressing themselves. 

As educators, we are well aware that each student learns, grows and expresses themselves in different ways. Speech writing helps solidify the belief in our students’ minds that their voice matters, by helping them feel confident in the way they express themselves. This confidence also translates into other areas of their lives, including giving them agency to learn in a way that best suits their abilities and style, as well as to undertake projects in their community.

Teach Speech Writing Using Read to Lead

Instilling our students with the skills to write a great speech may feel like a daunting task. Read to Lead has some useful resources to get started.

The Read to Lead learning games offer a variety of close reading and literacy skill-building lessons to  help students build their literacy and leadership skills. These lessons aim to achieve objectives such as being able to read closely to make inferences, cite evidence, interpret words and phrases, analyze word choice, and evaluate content.

As a complement to the game Community in Crisis, the Read to Lead platform features a collection of speeches delivered by political figures. These close reading lessons expose students to authentic speeches and give them a taste of what it means to have their own unique voice. Students also have a chance to learn more about concepts such as cooperation, responsibility and perspectives, particularly in the context of serving a community.

Building on this, the game Vital Signs is designed to fulfill College and Career Readiness Anchor (CCRA) Standards through close reading of a diverse collection of articles. Topics include non-violent resistance, the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and anti-bullying efforts, and relate directly to needs or problems students may encounter in their own communities.

These lessons are easily adapted to teach speech writing, by encouraging students to share their thoughts on relevant and relatable topics in a speech format. They can also hone their expressive skills by giving a rousing call to action, or seeking to inform and educate listeners on the topic. Beyond the classroom, these lessons can serve as a springboard for students to launch their own community projects that address real needs.

The Read to Lead platform was created with a flexible approach in mind, to allow these lessons to be used for in-person, remote, and hybrid class settings. As such, implementing these lessons in your classroom (whether virtual or in-person) is a breeze.

Student Agency Leads to Action

Building tomorrow’s leaders who have the confidence in their skills, abilities and voice starts in today’s classrooms. By incorporating lesson plans and activities that empower students to develop agency and connect with their communities, we can have an enormous impact on helping our students see their own potential for creating change.
Click here to sign up for Read to Lead and give your students the confidence and agency to engage with their community!

The post It’s More than an Argument: How Speech Writing Supports Student Agency appeared first on Read to Lead.

Photo Attribution: Alpha Stock Images | www.alphastockimages.com

The Presidential debate that took place on September 29, 2020 was not one of the United States’ proudest moments. However, like all historic events, there are lessons to be learned from the debate. As educators, it is our responsibility to guide students in critically viewing and navigating the information they may be seeing first hand or hearing about afterwards.

Respect and open communication are essential in a democracy, particularly one as diverse as the US. Sharing diverse viewpoints and trying to understand how others think and feel should be modeled by our leaders. This does not mean we have to agree with one another, but we should strive to engage in respectful dialogue. However, we continue to see, at the highest levels of our government, an absence of respectful dialogue and openness to diverse viewpoints. 

The 90-minute debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, was not our proudest moment. Both parties continually interrupted each other, and made personal attacks and hateful remarks. Ultimately, the presidential debate was more an instance of bullying at the highest levels of government, than a true debate to engage constructively with opposing viewpoints. Students today need to understand that bullying is not a characteristic of leadership.

October is National Anti-Bullying Month, which makes it all the more important to highlight instances of bullying, particularly when our most powerful leaders are engaged in it. Pointing out instances of bullying wherever we see them ensures students are aware of and can recognize bullying behaviors or actions when they encounter them in their own lives. As educators, we also need to equip students with the tools to address the problem of bullying.

What is Bullying?

With one in five students reporting having been bullied, this is almost certainly a term you and your students have heard before. Bullying goes beyond taunts in the playground, or stealing someone’s lunch money. It is important for students to understand that bullying exists in many forms. Generally, bullying can be hostile actions or words from one person to another with the intent to hurt someone.  

A bully can be any gender, shape, size or color, and may be bullying others for a variety of reasons. Bullying usually happens when there is an imbalance of power. In the school setting, the bully may be bigger in size, have superior knowledge, or is better in some activity. They use this to their advantage and act on their desires to hurt the other person. 

We often think of bullying as something physical – hitting, pushing around, stealing, or forcing people to do things against their will, but it can also be verbal. Teasing, insulting, refusing to talk to someone, spreading lies or rumors, or excluding someone from a group, are all examples of bullying. There were numerous examples of this during the first presidential debate, despite the fact that the activity of debating someone can be a helpful tool to address bullying. 

How Can Debate Help Address Bullying?

Debate is a long-standing tradition and a historic skill set focused on respectful listening to facts and evidence to engage in a productive and constructive conversation on a topic that two people may disagree on. There are ground rules in place that must be respected, such as only speaking when it is your turn, listening attentively and respecting all opinions. Read to Lead‘s lesson plans outline the ground rules for effective debate.

The beauty of debate is that you don’t have to agree with someone, but you do have to respectfully establish your position based on facts, with the goal of convincing others of your position, rather than bullying them to concede defeat. The opinions presented may not be in line with your own, but this does not mean you can’t have some level of respect for the person who holds these opinions.

This is how the Presidential Debate should have been conducted, but unfortunately, poor form on both the part of the participants and the moderator, led to what critics have described as “a disaster” and “one of the worst debates in televised American history”.

At Read to Lead, we believe giving students tools for respectful debate will reduce bullying. By giving students the skills they need to engage in meaningful and respectful dialogue, and disagree constructively with one another, we empower them to take control of situations where bullying may occur, and avert them.

Resources to Develop Debate Skills and Avoid Bullying

Read To Lead games explore the value of debate and offer proven resources to cultivate these skills in students. 

Many lesson plans include a debate component, such as “Is it worth it to have health insurance?”, “Should schools practice techniques like meditation during the school day?”, and “Which type of therapy for anxiety do you think is more beneficial? Why?”. The lesson plans also outline ground rules and guidelines about how to conduct debate sessions, while providing students with language to approach debate.

In the game Dad Genes  of Vital Signs, the debate question focuses on how to deal with a friend who is bullying someone. Students are encouraged to explore different options like approaching the friend directly or seeking help from someone else. By digging deeper into real life scenarios that students may encounter in their daily lives, we equip them with the skills necessary to tackle such situations.

In line with Anti-Bullying Month, we also have a special close reading lesson for October about bullying. This close reading passage provides a deeper look at what makes a bully, and some strategies to handle bullying, as well as teacher-guided questions to lead discussions around the effects of bullying on victims and students’ own experiences with bullying. By holding space for our students to engage in these conversations around bullying, we help them recognize and address the problem of bullying in our schools.

Bullying is an issue of serious concern in our schools, workplaces and even government, as demonstrated by the recent Presidential Debate. However, by drawing attention to it with our students and providing them with the necessary tools to engage in constructive debate, we can help address this problem and reduce the instances of bullying.

The post Using the First Presidential Debate to Teach Lessons on Bullying appeared first on Read to Lead.

Summer is just around the corner, and ordinarily, we’d be looking forward to fun activities and holiday plans. However, with many parts of the country and the world still in varying degrees of lockdown due to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic, our summer vacation plans may be in need of a revamp.

Students have now been engaged in home-based learning for the past few months, and if they do not keep up with educational activities during summer, the effects of summer slide could be very pronounced. Summer can be used as an opportunity for kids to dive into experiential learning, outside the structure of the classroom. These activities can keep your child’s brain engaged while also being fun!

If you’re feeling stumped about how to keep kids occupied at home during the long summer months, we’ve got your back. Here are some free summer activities your kids and you can enjoy together!

1. For the Art Lover

The Smithsonian Museums have a variety of resources available, including online events and workshops, open access to digital images and data, and games and activities to keep children occupied for hours. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York also has specially designed a section for children to explore interesting exhibits, as does the Boston Children’s Museum.

2. To Make Young Scientists Squeal with Glee

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is another museum that offers virtual tours of their exhibits. The American Museum of Natural History also has virtual field trips designed for students of different grade levels.

3. For the Intrepid Traveler

International travel may have been severely restricted, but there’s no reason why you can’t still take your children on a trip of a lifetime this summer – for free! Why not take a virtual vacation outside of the US? Use the power of technology to “teleport” to iconic landmarks throughout the world, and be back in time for dinner. 

Fancy a visit to Easter Island off the coast of Chile? What about a trip to the Sydney Opera House? Perhaps explore the architectural wonder that is the Eiffel Tower! You can even spend an afternoon or two exploring the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, the Vatican Museums, or any of the hundreds of other museums worldwide with the Google Arts and Culture platform.

4. Space Adventurers Aboard!

If you and your children are feeling particularly adventurous – NASA’s Glenn Research Center offers virtual visitors an inside look into their testing facilities.

5. Something for the Nature Buffs

National parks are also stepping up their game and offering virtual visits to their premises. Yellowstone National Park has virtual tours of Mammoth Hot Springs, Norris Geyser Basin and more, while many other parks have set up live streaming webcams for virtual visitors to enjoy the sights and sounds of the park from the comfort of their homes. You can even Find Your “Virtual” Park to discover what else the National Parks have to offer.

6. For the Young Zoologist or Aspiring Veterinarian

Nature and animal enthusiasts will also enjoy the variety of live streaming webcams available for viewing. The Nature Conservancy has webcams featuring some of their popular animals, while Explore.org has wildlife webcams to pique anyone’s interest. WildEarth hosts a guided live stream of their sunrise and sunset safaris daily, and many zoos and aquariums such as San Diego Zoo and Memphis Zoo also post live webcams of their popular residents.

7. Bring out the Bibliophile

Libraries are a great treasure trove of resources and activities to do with your children during summer. From summer reading challenges to virtual storytime at the library to weekly creative writing prompts by beloved children’s authors, summer can be the perfect opportunity to cultivate your children’s reading habits and engage in literacy activities together. In addition to special programming created in response to the pandemic, libraries also have a huge variety of eBooks, audiobooks, videos, and more.

8. For the Moving, Grooving and Active Kids

Get your groove on with Just Dance, a YouTube channel that will get the whole family busting out the dance moves and working up a sweat. If you just need your kids to settle down and stretch for a while, Cosmic Kids Yoga has videos for yoga and mindfulness suitable for the whole family, while PE Teacher of The Body Coach regularly puts up PE lessons that will definitely be a workout for mum and dad too.

9. Give Your Child a Virtual Internship with Read to Lead

An award-winning gamified platform that puts children in the boss’s shoes within an immersive virtual workplace, Read to Lead games are the perfect summer activity to keep children reading and leading. Each game is also accompanied by free lesson plans and discussion questions that you can use with your children to explore different professions, and engage in meaningful discourse about topics such as decision-making in the workplace, the importance of cooperation and more!

The COVID-19 pandemic may have put a damper on our summer plans, but there’s no reason to squander away this precious time we have with our children at home. By doing different activities with your children during the summer vacation, you can help keep their minds and bodies active while strengthening your bond with them – all for free!

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