Not to worry. As educators, we look out for each other – so we won’t leave you in the lurch. We’ve curated a list of our favorite resources you can tap into in the coming year!

Meet Your Read To Lead Substitutes

1.Literacy Skill development: Provide opportunities for students to practice targeted literacy skills aligned to Common Core Standards

ReadTheory 

Improve your students’ reading comprehension once and for all. ReadTheory’s adaptive technology adjusts to assign passages at each student’s “just-right” level. With thousands of standards-aligned formative assessments and real-time reporting, students get routine practice, and teachers know exactly what to teach next. The best part? Teachers can sign up for free!

Read&Write 

Finding support solutions for struggling learners is always a challenge, but Read&Write could be the answer. With useful features that help with everyday tasks like reading text out loud, understanding unfamiliar words, researching assignments, and proofing written work, Read&Write is an excellent tool for students at all levels. An additional plus point – it’s free for educators!

ReadWorks

If you are looking for access to thousands of high-quality, free K-12 articles, ReadWorks may have the answer. Content, curriculum, and tools that give educators the flexibility to create digital classes, distribute printed materials, and even fuel classroom instruction – ReadWorks has it all.

2. Engagement through Literacy: Help students understand the value of reading

iCivics 

Looking for high-quality resources to engage students in meaningful civic learning? iCivics offers well-written and inventive games, lesson plans, and more that help teachers nurture the next generation of civic-minded students and build the foundation of democracy.

BrainPOP

Boost achievement for grades K-8 in math, language arts, science, social studies, and more with BrainPOP. Featuring everything from lesson planning resources to scaffolded lessons that train grammar and vocabulary skills, BrainPOP promotes curiosity-driven learning through educational tools that challenge students.

PBS Learning Media 

Well-known among educators, PBS Learning Media, is a treasure trove of free, standards-aligned videos, interactive resources, lesson plans, and more. Look no further than PBS Learning Media for timely, topical collections designed around learning objectives and tailored to students’ needs!

Newsela

Media literacy is an important skill for students to have in the 21st century. With Newsela, teachers can access real-world content that is adapted to their students’ levels to bring context and relevance to any ELA classroom. Drive engagement through literacy with amazing instructional content and support tools on Newsela.

3. SEL Skills: Nurture students’ SEL skills aligned to the CASEL framework

Emozi 

Created to address the unique challenges and teaching needs of middle and high school students, Emozi focuses on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum. It helps educators with middle school classroom management, behavior problems, emotional regulation, peer pressure, bullying, and more – setting students up for success both academically and socially.

Peekapak

Support your students in their Social Emotional Learning (SEL) with Peekapak. With a wealth of CASEL-aligned stories, lessons and learning games to choose from, you can easily integrate SEL objectives into any ELA lesson and equip your students with the tools they need to navigate the real world, middle school and beyond!

4. Real World Learning: Expose students to career exploration opportunities and engaging PBL curricula.

Beable 

Close the gap and accelerate literacy and learning with Beable. Offering a multi-dimensional approach, Beable incorporates differentiation, individualization, and personalization to meet the multiple needs of different students and strengthen the literacy-to-career connection.

Educurious 

Project-based learning is fast becoming a staple in educators’ toolboxes and Educurious makes it that much easier to implement in your classroom. By connecting students to the world through a global network of subject matter experts and mentors, this project-based learning curriculum empowers youth to take charge of their learning. Featuring customizable tools and resources, immersive professional development opportunities, and a vibrant learning community, Educurious is sure to be a hit among teachers and students alike.

5. Marketplace: Search for programs that can be a better fit for your classroom needs

Clever 

An integrated digital learning platform for K12 schools, Clever boasts one friendly interface for single sign-on, messaging, analytics, and more. Keep track of student progress, organize your classroom, and share updates with parents – all within the same platform.

Edcuration  

With so many products, resources, and tools available for educators these days, making decisions about which to purchase can be challenging! Edcuration is a marketplace for PreK-12 educators to discover, compare, evaluate and purchase from a variety of high-quality, cutting-edge offers.

EdSurge

EdTech (education technology) is a fast growing industry but educators are often not in the know about the best and latest products that will ease their classroom woes. EdSurge aims to bridge the gap between educators and innovators in the education space by providing insightful reports on people, ideas and tools shaping the future of learning.

6. Curriculum: Find complete lesson plans to complement your ELA lessons

ClassHook

Videos are a powerful educational tool kids love but finding appropriate ones that don’t have ads is hard. ClassHook solves this problem by playing videos without ads, and detecting and automatically skipping inappropriate language! With this curated video library, you’ll never have to worry about embarrassing moments in class, and increase student engagement, retention, and relevance!

Brain Waves Instruction

Could do with some free lesson plans and teaching tips to make your daily life easier? Brain Waves Instruction delivers all that and more! With lesson plans organized into categories like Literature & Reading, Poetry, and Writing, you’ll be spoiled for choice for your next ELA lesson.

With so many free and paid resources available, we are sure that you will find the perfect substitute(s) for Read to Lead that will make your classroom experience that much better in the new year!

The post Read To Lead Is Out Sick: Here Are Some Great Substitute Programs appeared first on Read to Lead.

Here are some of our favorite ideas to create a game show type of environment, get students out of their seats, or just make learning fun and enjoyable again!

Craft Review Games

Jeopardy 

Bring the classic game show into your classroom with Test Prep Jeopardy! You may think this game requires lots of pre-class prep work but it can be as simple or intricate as you like. Yes, you’ll need to set up some type of game board using a whiteboard, blackboard, smartboard, GoogleSlides, or Pear Deck but beyond that, it’s up to you. Simply choose categories based on the topics you want to review and have a list of questions and answers for each level of points.

When it’s time to play, divide the class into four teams. Each team member takes a turn to select a category and amount, for example, “Poetry for $400”. If the student answers the question correctly, the team earns points. At the end of the game, tally up the points to determine the winner!

Knockout! 

Bring a Carnival element to your classroom with this fun game board. Getting the game board setup requires some prep and crafting, but you can re-use it for years! Use hot glue to stick plastic cups in a grid format on a piece of foam board. Be sure to leave some space between the rims! While the glue is drying, prepare slips of paper with review questions and small prizes. Once the glue is dry, place one slip of paper and a prize into each cup and cover it with a piece of tissue paper. Secure the tissue paper with rubber bands.

To play, ask students to come up one at a time and select a cup. Have them punch through the tissue paper to retrieve the question and prize. To keep the prize, they will have to answer the question correctly. Otherwise, the first student to raise their hand and give the correct answer claims the prize for themselves! (limit 2 per student).

Credit Composition Classroom

Tap into Apps and Digital Platforms

Quizizz 

Access a customizable content library to quickly create interactive assessments and engaging quizzes to test students’ knowledge. Motivate students while easing the stress of testing with this enjoyable gamified platform that also gives you real-time data about student performance so you can offer support when needed.

Kahoot!

Choose from 100+ million ready-to-play games or create your own on this game-based classroom response system. Kahoot! allows all students to review contents and tests their understanding simultaneously. Project the multiple-choice questions on the screen and have students answer them on their individual devices. With games for every grade in every subject, getting through test prep with your students will be a breeze.

Flip (Formerly Flipgrid)

If your students love sharing videos with each other, they will love Flip! A free app by Microsoft for video discussion and sharing, you can use Flip to get students to review different topics ahead of testing season. By giving them the chance to showcase their creativity, you keep things fun while ensuring students understand the material being reviewed.

Get Students Out of Their Chairs

Pass the Chicken 

Bring a rubber chicken into your classroom for this test-prep game! Arrange your students so they are seated in a circle. Randomly select a student and give them the rubber chicken to pass around the circle. Ask this student a test review question and they will have as long as it takes for the chicken to make its way around the whole circle to answer. If they do not manage to answer in time, they have to sit in the middle of the circle (the chicken coop).

The game continues as you ask different students questions. If they don’t know the answer, they may ask the student(s) in the chicken coop for help. If a student in the chicken coop answers a question correctly, they get to rejoin the circle. Consider creating safety rules with this game, as students can get quite rowdy with the rubber chicken!

Snowball Fight

Recreate a snowball fight inside the classroom! For this game, each student writes three review sentences or questions on individual pieces of paper and then balls up the pieces of paper to create snowballs. Divide students up into smaller groups or teams and have them stand together. 

For the snowball fight, students take turns throwing their snowballs at members of opposing teams. The student who is hit by the snowball has to answer that question correctly to remain in the game. If they answer wrongly, they are out. The game continues until all the snowballs are used up and/or there is only one team left standing. 

Around the World 

Travel the world with test prep with this game! The aim of the game is for a student to travel around the room and arrive back at their seat. Start by having one student stand up next to a seated student. Ask the pair of them a test review question and the one who answers correctly first gets to move up to the next “point on the map” while the other sits down. Continue in this manner until the timer runs out or you complete the list of review questions. The winner is the student who has moved the farthest from their original seat!

Consider incorporating “mandatory layovers” for students who have answered a set number of questions correctly (3-5) in a row by making them sit down to give other students a chance to move.

Test prep time can be a fun and engaging experience for your students with these interactive activities! Looking for more test prep ideas for your middle school students? Check out these resources:

• 3 Review Games to Help Your Middle School Students Prepare for Testing 

• 5 Popular Test Review Games For Middle Schoolers

• December ELA Activities to Keep Students Engaged

The post Review Games To Make Test Prep Fun appeared first on Read to Lead.

Check out our top picks to get middle schoolers excited about reading this Fall!

Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega

Equal parts spooky and fun, Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega is sure to be a hit among your students. The story follows Lucely and Syd, who accidentally cast a spell that awakens malicious spirits and wreaks havoc in their town. The author expertly weaves together elements of family, friendship, and ghost-hunting in a way that will leave readers eager to find out – will Lucelly and Syd be able to reverse the curse with the help of Syd’s witch grandmother and her tabby, Chunk, before it’s too late?

Pet by Akwaeke Emezi

Searching for a multiple award winner that takes on big themes like identity and justice … with monsters? Look no further than Pet by Akwaeke Emezi! Young readers will be drawn into protagonist Jam’s world, where monsters have all been defeated – until she meets Pet, a creature from her mom’s painting who is on a quest to hunt down a monster. With a wonderfully diverse cast of characters, this book would make an excellent addition to any classroom library this spooky season! 

Babysitting Nightmares: The Shadow Hand by Kat Shepherd (Author), Rayanne Vieira (Illustrator)

What could be less scary than babysitting? Except it’s not, as babysitters Rebecca, Tanya, Clio, and Maggie discover! In this book, where The Babysitters Club meets Goosebumps, readers will be taken on a fast-paced, action-packed adventure of problem-solving and demon–fighting. What’s more – this is only the first of the series, so your students can continue to enjoy these books all through Fall!

Weird Little Robots, by Carolyn Crimi (Author), Corinna Luyken (Illustrator)

An illustrated chapter book that combines magic and science, Weird Little Robots will be a refreshing read for middle school students. Friendship, technology, and problem-solving are beautifully captured in masterful prose and gorgeous illustrations that will engage young readers and immerse them in a new world where robots come to life. If you are looking to inspire students (especially girls!) to pursue a path in STEM, this book is a must!

The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane by Julia Nobel

What do you get when you mix prestigious boarding schools, creepy secret societies, and a father who vanished without a trace years ago? A thrilling mystery, of course! In The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane, young readers follow the journey of Emmy as she navigates being in a new school in a foreign country while uncovering truths about her missing father and outsmarting sinister forces. It’s sure to leave your students wanting more!

The Curse of the Werepenguin by Allan Woodrow 

For students who prefer their eerie reads with a side of humor, The Curse of the Werepenguin by Allan Woodrow will be a popular choice! With charming characters and a plotline that keeps readers hooked from start to finish, this is a unique and enjoyable book for middle schoolers. If your students are looking for a book that is funny, creative, and perfect for Halloween – this is it!

We hope these book recommendations will make Fall reading for your students an enjoyable and enriching experience while helping them get in the mood for Halloween. Have a spook-tacular Halloween!

The post 6 Book Recommendations for Spooky Season in Middle School appeared first on Read to Lead.

Key tip: We recommend letting students choose a few books that pique their interest. Why? Because book choice is key to student agency and motivation.

Now, let’s get into our top middle school books to promote Anti Bullying. 

Out of My Mind, Sharon M. Draper

Melody knows she’s not like most people. For starters, she cannot walk or talk, but she has a photogenic memory and can remember everything she’s ever experienced.  She is brilliant but dismissed as mentally challenged by her classmates in her integrated classroom because she cannot tell them otherwise. In a true display of courage, Melody refuses to be defined by her disorder, cerebral palsy. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow.

This book is great for grades 5 and older. 

Confessions of a Former Bully, Beth Adams

Ever wonder what goes on in the mind of someone who bullies? What if you’re the bully? Katie never thought of herself as a bully. She may occasionally exclude kids from games or say some harsh things to her friends every once and a while but it’s not like she ever got physical with anyone. So what’s the big deal, right? After Katie gets caught teasing a schoolmate, she faces consequences for her actions. The consequences help Katie realize that bullying has hurt not only the people around her, but her, too. And that words can hurt. Told from the unusual perspective of the aggressor, Confessions of a Former Bully provides kids with real life tips and tools they can use to help identify and overcome emotional bullying. 

This book is great for students in middle school.

Wonder, R.J. Palacio

August Pullman was born with a facial deformity that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face. The book begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance. In a world where bullying among young people is an epidemic, this is a refreshing new narrative full of heart and hope. Dubbed “a meditation on kindness”—this book will ensure that every reader will come away with a greater appreciation for the simple courage of friendship. Auggie is a hero to root for, a diamond in the rough who proves that you can’t blend in when you were born to stand out.

This book is best for grades 5-7

The Adventures of Emery Jones Boy Science Wonder, Charles and Elsheba Johnson

Emery Jones is a genius. He even built a robot butler to get out of doing his chores. Despite his brains, however, Emery’s life isn’t easy. The other students don’t understand him, and that makes them lash out at him. When Emery accidentally sends one of the students who bullied him 190 million years back in time, he must figure out how to save him…or even if he wants to.

Told from the perspective of Emery’s best friend, Gabby, The Adventures of Emery Jones is sure to thrill and delight students. Combining an engaging story with real, tough lessons about responsibility and forgiveness, this book is an excellent way to open up discussions with students about the impact of words. 

This book is best for students in grades 5-9. 

The Survival Guide to Bullying, Aija Mayrock

The Survival Guide to Bullying covers everything from cyberbullying to how to deal with fear and how to create the life you dream of having. From inspiring “roems” (rap poems), survival tips, personal stories, and quick quizzes, this book will light the way to a brighter future for students from all walks of life. 

This book is best for grades 5 and up. 

What books would you recommend to promote Anti-Bullying? Share your top picks below in the comments section.

The post Top Books to Promote Anti-Bullying appeared first on Read to Lead.

Remember, Relationships are Key

Amanda Hunt, a Texas-based Middle School Librarian of The Next Gen Librarian, understands how important relationship building is. “Relationships are key,” Amanda shared. “Put that at the forefront of your mind before content, state testing, and other daily obligations. That stuff will come after you have a strong relationship with your students.” 

Heather Plachon of The Primary Party echoed those sentiments by sharing, “It’s okay to take it slow and build relationships and expectations during that first week. Content will always be there for you to cover, but taking time at the start of the year to get to know your students will help you best serve them throughout the year!”

Need some inspiration for the best ways to start building strong relationships with your students? Check out our top 5 get-to-know -me activities for middle school to get the ball rolling!

Put the Power in Your Students’ Hands

We’ve found great success in our Learning Games by allowing students to be the boss. Rebekah Poe, a special education educator and the personality behind Lessons and Lattes, finds success in this model as well. “Let your students help come up with the rules and expectations for the classroom. When students have a say, they also have an increased sense of ownership and responsibility. Allow your students to make suggestions for how they think a classroom can run the most smoothly by asking them what a classroom should look, sound, and feel like. Rules that state what a student SHOULD do as opposed to should NOT do lets the student know exactly what is expected of them, giving them a greater understanding and awareness of their behavior.”

We love this advice!

Take Your time and Have FUN

Heather Planchon also shared to give yourself grace in this new period of learning for both yourself and your students. “It’s okay not to do it all in the first week. Give yourself time and grace as you navigate a new year.”
 

John Rodney of Teacher to Teacher shared the importance of tying it all together. “Prioritize relationship-building activities into the curriculum. Those relationships will improve the learning taking place in the classroom and make it so much more fun.”

We wish you a safe, joyful, successful, and FUN start to your school year. We meant when we said last year that we have your back, and that statement still stands. We will continue to remain free for this 2022-2023 school year. 

Sign up for your free Read to Lead account here!

If you want 1:1 onboarding training, have questions about how to mobilize the Million Words Read Challenge in your class, or anything in-between – we’re here for you. 

Onward Educators!

The Read to Lead Team & Community

The post Educator Advice for Back to School appeared first on Read to Lead.

even more impactful for your class this year.

So what’s new in game based learning on the platform? 

Deepen student engagement with Badges!

As students play Read to Lead’s learning games, they now have the opportunity to earn digital badges that recognize development of a particular competency. Badges are centered around engagement, literacy, SEL, and career skills. Watch as students earn badges, track their success, and are more motivated than ever to continue reading and leading! 

Level-up project based learning with Quests! 

To deepen the learning from immersive game-play, we’ve added Quests which offer project-based learning experiences that allow students to dig deeper, learn more about themselves, and solve complex problems. Students will have the opportunity to take a strengths finder test, create a vision board, and so much more!

Invite students to be the boss in our newest learning game!

Drum roll please….. a brand new game series is coming soon. This summer, we collaborated with Blackrock’s Financial Inclusion team to create a new learning game that immerses students in the day-in-the-life of an Asset Manager. Students are sent on an important mission to take on the role of the “boss” as they read closely, make complex decisions, and lead a diverse team! Be sure to check back soon as this series is released in the coming weeks ahead!

Join a community built for educators, by educators

We’re uniting our most-passionate educators by forming a national community of Educator Leaders who are committed to empowering the next generation of readers and leaders, solve real classroom challenges, and be a part of the future of ed-tech. Sound like you? Start your application here!

Get up and running faster

Have questions with your account? You can use the Live Chat function on our website, check out the Help Center, or join a free Onboarding Training Webinar.

Best part is, this is just the start. Hold onto your hats – more updates are coming soon!

Create a free account or log in to create your class and begin building your students’ literacy, life, and career skills!

The post Back to School – What’s New – 2023 appeared first on Read to Lead.

With so many tools available, deciding which one to implement can be overwhelming. To make your decision a little bit easier, here are four of our top choices!

Stay on Track with a Learning Management System

Depending on what your school uses, you likely already have a subscription to a learning management system (LMS). Canvas, Schoology, and Google Classroom are popular choices that many school districts have adopted. If you don’t already use an LMS, you can easily get a Google Classroom subscription for free!

Using an LMS allows you to create, assign and grade assignments, and share information, materials, and resources with students virtually. It makes it easy to keep track of students’ progress and you’ll never have to worry about losing a paper assignment again! Certain platforms even have tools to communicate with parents and for students to interact socially within the platform – excellent for keeping parents in the loop and kids engaged!

Provide Differentiated Instruction with Formative Assessments

Research shows that using formative assessments in the classroom positively impacts student achievement – more so than almost any other educational intervention. Additionally, keeping track of students’ progress is critical to being able to provide differentiated instruction and additional support where needed.

If you’re not using formative assessment in your classroom – it’s not too late to start! Use tools like Pear Deck or Nearpod to infuse formative assessments seamlessly into each lesson. These tools also provide you with real-time insight into student understanding, allowing you to respond and adapt. Interested in integrating these formative assessment tools into your classroom? Check both options out for free to see which works best for your classroom!

Deeply Engage Students with Immersive Learning Games

Gone are the days of teachers standing at the front of the classroom and lecturing for an hour while students take copious notes. Interactive lessons that engage the whole child are the way to go! Check out Read to Lead learning games – the perfect fit for the ELA classroom.

Tap into the power of game-based learning and start building your students’ literacy, leadership, and life skills with Read to Lead. In this interactive platform, students take on the role of boss in a virtual workplace and have to navigate complex scenarios modeled after real-world situations. All content is aligned to Reading Standards and the CASEL framework so you can be sure students are mastering essential ELA skills as they work through each game. For the busy teacher, each game also comes with discussion questions and other ready-to-teach wrap-around materials!

As a bonus, Read to Lead integrates with Canvas, Schoology, and Google Classroom, making it a breeze to implement as a part of any ELA curriculum. The best part? Read to Lead is always free for educators! Find out more and sign up here!

Build Community with Collaborative Tools 

After two years of isolation and social distancing, students are craving community – something that is crucial to a healthy learning environment. Flip, previously known as FlipGrid is a unique classroom management tool educators can harness to build community. 

A video discussion app designed for small group connections, Flip offers students a creative outlet to express their ideas and learn from each other. Students can participate in class discussions via video clips on Flip and build deeper relationships with each other, even outside the classroom.

Classroom management is a fundamental aspect of a thriving classroom. With the right tools in place, you can cultivate a positive classroom environment that allows all students to reach their potential and excel. Why not get started today by introducing interactive lessons with Read to Lead into your ELA classroom? It’s easy – simply click here to sign up!

The post Top ELA Classroom Management Tools appeared first on Read to Lead.

1. This or That?

Help students find common ground with each other in this easy activity that gets students on their feet and mingling with each other. Prepare some statements that encourage students to take a stand or voice an opinion on a casual topic like “pizza is better than pasta.” Students then have to pick a side and physically move to the side of the room that represents their position. As a team, they take turns presenting their position to the class. This activity not only builds students’ confidence as they share their perspectives with their new classmates but also lets students see what they have in common with each other.

Here are some examples of this or that statements:

• I would rather vacation in the mountains than at the beach.
• Living in space is better than living underwater.
• Attending a concert is better than going to the movies/theater.
• One month without electronics is better than one month without junk food.
• I would rather have no money than no time.

Credit: Cult of Pedagogy

2. Get-to-know-you Bingo

What better way to get to know each other than by asking each other questions? In get-to-know-you Bingo, each student receives a 5×5 Bingo card. Each square has a specific characteristic like “is left-handed”, “plays the piano”, or “has an elder sibling”, “has the same birth month as you”. You can create your own, or use an online tool like this to create them.

Students ask each other questions to find a classmate who fits the criteria for each box. The first student to get BINGO wins, but the game can be extended to ensure all students complete the entire card. This game is sure to get students chattering as they discover interesting tidbits about their new classmates!

3. Class Playlist

“Where words fail, music speaks.” – Hans Christian Andersen

For middle school students going through physical, mental, and emotional changes, music is a way to express themselves. Creating a class playlist can be a great way for students to showcase their personalities, even the shy ones who hesitate to speak up. Ask students to contribute a song of their choice to a class playlist and let them bond through shared tastes in music. This playlist could also come in handy throughout the school year for an impromptu dance party!

Credit: We Are Teachers

4. Sweet Secrets

If you want to get to know your students better and win brownie points for being the sweetest teacher (pun intended!), you’ll love this activity. Bring a bag of colored candy (Skittles are a good option!) to class and announce that everyone can take as many as they want from the bag. After each student has collected their candy, reveal that each color corresponds to a category (e.g. yellow for sports, red for food). For every piece of candy, they have to share a fact about themselves related to that category. For example, if a student has two yellow candies and one red candy, they might say – I broke my leg rollerblading last year, I hate swimming, and I’m allergic to peanuts.

For a more intimate sharing session, put students in small groups to encourage discussion and deeper connections. Allowing students to get to know each other in a smaller group setting also nurtures SEL skills and fosters more authentic relationships among new classmates. And of course, everyone gets to enjoy their candy at the end of the session!

Credit: SignUpGenius

5. Summer Pen pals

The first day of middle school can be downright scary for some students – new teachers, new classmates, possibly even a new school! Help ease your students’ first-day jitters by setting them up with summer pen pals. Students will have their summer vacation to exchange emails and get to know each other better – and a friendly face to navigate the first days of school!

Randomly put students in your class in pairs or groups and start them off with some questions that encourage them to share more about themselves. You could even model the activity for them by sharing a fun introduction of yourself! Not only will it put students at ease knowing who their teacher and some of their classmates are going into the school year, but it is also a great way to learn more about your students and their writing abilities before the year starts. An extension of this activity could be to ask them to bring a hand-written letter to give to their pen pals on the first day of school!

Credit: Time Out For Teachers

In the midst of setting up your classrooms and planning your lessons, don’t forget to sign up for your free Read to Lead account this year! Keep students engaged in literacy, life, and career skills through engaging learning games, enrichment activities, and more. Get started today!

The post 5 Get-to-Know-Me Activities for Middle School appeared first on Read to Lead.

Keep reading to find out why teachers are assigning Read to Lead over the summer instead of a book list! 

Deeply Engage and Combat Learning Loss

The long break from school is refreshing for students and teachers no doubt, but along with this comes the dreaded summer slide. Going weeks without picking up a book or doing anything more stimulating than watching YouTube videos can be detrimental, but motivating students to continue their learning through their vacations can be a challenge. That’s why educators love Read to Lead learning games as a way to combat summer learning loss!

Fun – check!

Engaging – check!

Educational – check!

Builds literacy and leadership skills – check!

Choose from a library of immersive learning games depending on the skills your students need to polish up or assign summer reading playlists based on Lexile range, grade level, or career paths. The interactive platform engages students’ hearts and minds and working through different storylines captures their imagination – they won’t even notice they’re reading 5,000 words in the course of each game! Trust us, this will be one summer vacation homework that your students will be begging for!

Know Where Each Student Stands

What if there was a way to know where each of your new students stand before the school year even started? Read to Lead’s data reports lets you keep track of students’ progress even when you’re not physically in the classroom with them!

Use the Class Progress Report to track which episodes students have completed and the specific reading standard associated with it. For more in-depth information on individual student performance within the class, tap into the Performance Report. This feature can also be used to group students of different capabilities and offer tailored support and guidance on specific tasks or reading standards. Get a laser-focused look at each student’s progress and performance with the Student Activity Report. Check out the time they spent on each task, how well they performed on each task, and even review their written responses from this dashboard. With such detailed student performance reports that show exactly how each student is performing, you’ll know how best to support them in the new school year! Way to start the year off on the right foot!

Build Social-Emotional Learning & Encourage Career Exploration

Summer is not just a time for students to close learning gaps and play catch up with schoolwork – it is also a great opportunity to nurture the whole child. Build students’ social emotional-learning (SEL) while giving them a taste of what it’s like to be “the boss” in an interactive virtual workplace with Read to Lead.

How do you decide how to allocate finances within a tight budget?What’s the best way to mobilize volunteers and distribute resources in a crisis?When there is a conflict between staff members, how can you resolve the situation fairly and keep the peace?

Students tackle difficult questions like these and navigate complex challenges within different workplaces as they get a better understanding of some career options and the skills necessary to thrive in the modern workplace. Read to Lead offers students a safe space to make mistakes and learn from them as they cultivate essential life skills through summer reading.

There’s no reason reading in summer needs to be a chore for students. Fun, engaging, and enriching – Read to Lead is the quintessential summer reading companion for your students! Sign up today for a free educator account and get started building your students’ literacy, life, and career skills!

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This year, Read to Lead collaborated with the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy’s faculty and students to launch a new learning game series called Community Pharmacy. In Community Pharmacy, middle school students have the opportunity to play the role of the Head Pharmacist, leading a diverse team that includes a pharmacy technician, a nurse practitioner, a resident researcher, and a student pharmacist. As “the boss,” they must learn to solve everyday challenges in a pharmacy career world, whether it’s re-evaluating a pediatric patient’s asthma prescription or figuring out why a patient with lupus keeps showing up at the ER.

During a Read to Lead pilot session, supported through a grant from the Max and Lorayne Cooper Foundation, fifteen middle school students from Tarrant, Alabama played Community Pharmacy for the first time and shared with us their feedback. For 5th grader Kamden, the online learning game gave him a more in-depth look into a pharmacist’s job and made him consider the choices he might make in the future. He said the most important skills he learned were “how to be a leader and how to say the right things to people.” 6th grader Maleah shared that the experience made her reflect on what it means to make the right decision and learn to take advice from other people. 

The Read to Lead team assessed the impact of the learning game on the students’ SEL skills by having them fill out a survey before and after they played. The results showed that the most significant improvements were in the areas of self-management (such as getting through something even when they feel frustrated) and relationship skills (such as getting along with classmates). Additionally, 93% of students said they felt they had improved both their literacy and social and emotional skills, and 100% said they would recommend Read to Lead to a friend.

“The Community Pharmacy pilot session in Tarrant, Alabama reinforced for us the incredible potential that all of our students have in developing their social and emotional learning skills, in combination with their reading and writing skills,” shared Juliana Hess, Director of Research and Learning Design. “I was thrilled to see that the students immediately took to our newest learning game and were fully engaged and immersed throughout their Read to Lead experience. They also enjoyed making decisions and discussing how their decisions affected other characters within the game.”

While there are many digital tools available that track students’ academic success in real time, Read to Lead is leading the way in evaluating social emotional skills development, which often goes un-assessed. Through an educator’s SEL dashboard, they can see how their students are responding to in-game decisions and self-reflective journaling prompts and differentiate their instruction accordingly. This new feature was made possible through a partnership with Digital Promise and support from the S & L Marx Foundation. As Read to Lead’s learning games expand into new career worlds, social emotional learning and growth will continue to be a core component, ensuring that middle school students have a toolkit of skills to succeed at school and in life. 

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