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.

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Searching for technology that integrates… 

With so many tools and multi-tab teaching at an all-time-high, Lauren was searching the Clever database of learning tools that had an easy integration with Clever (their school’s Learning Management System.) That’s when she discovered Read to Lead!

Motivating students with the Million Words Read Challenge…

Lauren introduced the Million Words Read Challenge to her two classes and started keeping track of student progress on the whiteboard in her classroom. After the first day of playing, students would want to play all the time – during homeroom, as an early finisher activity, for homework…. any way they could get more Read to Lead time. “The most surprising thing about implementing Read to Lead was that I didn’t feel like I was making them do it – they genuinely wanted to read, write, and understand,” Lauren said.  

Driving real-world connections and conversations… 

Lauren started using the Bullying Prevention Month lesson bundle on the Read to Lead platform that had lessons, learning games, and discussion questions around bullying prevention. “The content was relevant and meaningful – we have a lot of kid drama at our school and it was nice to also weave in those SEL skills,” Lauren shared. 

“One of the most unexpected things about the learning games was the real-world conversations that would spark in my class as students played. It really got them thinking critically and reflecting on their decisions.” 

Celebrating success together…

Lauren’s class read 1 million words together over the course of the school year and joined the Read to Lead Millionaires Club. They received student prize packs in the mail along with a gift card to host a class celebration hosted by Read to Lead’s generous donors. Thank you Lauren for your commitment to help your students build their reading comprehension and confidence, we’re inspired by your classes!

The post Building Reading Comprehension in 4th & 5th Grade appeared first on Read to Lead.

Amanda Flanagan, 5th grade teacher says it best “My favorite moment in using Read to Lead is when a student came in on a Monday after the weekend and said “Mrs. Flanagan, I moved us from 25th to 24th on the leaderboard when I finished the last game! They were playing over the weekend because they wanted to reach Millionaire Status!” 

So what is Millionaire Status and why are Middle Schoolers talking about it? 

The Million Words Read Challenge is game-based learning challenge that encourages middle school students to read, plus rewards them with prizes and a class party once they read 1 million words together! 

So how does the challenge work?

Every interactive learning game that each student completes on the Read to Lead platform adds to their collective words read count as a class. The more games they play (and words they read), the closer they get to achieving their goal of 1,000,000 words read. Reaching millionaire status as a class not only gives them serious bragging rights but also earns them certificates, student prize packs, and a class pizza party to celebrate the achievement together!

Create Friendly Competition

Nothing motivates kids quite like friendly competition.As students work through the literacy games, they get to see their progress in real-time on the leaderboard that ranks them against other classes in the nation. 

Trust us – when your students see that Mrs. Smith’s class down the hallway is just ahead of them on the leaderboard, they’ll be scrambling to play Read to Lead games during every free moment they get!

“Read to Lead brought the students together for a common goal. They wanted to see who they were competing against on the leaderboard from around the country, and it made them feel connected to something bigger, ” said Crystal Starr, 6th grade teacher. 

Promote Collaboration

The Read to Lead Million Words Read Challenge isn’t just about reading – it’s about accomplishing something together, growing together, reading together. It gives students the opportunity to share in success and help each other get there. 

“The Million Words Read Challenge showed my students that when we all give our best effort as a collective, we can achieve such a huge goal.” — Holly Crider, Graham Middle School

Celebrate Success

What better way to motivate end-of-year reading among your students than with a little incentive? When your class collectively reads 1 million words, they will receive a special delivery of student prize packs which include Read to Lead backpacks, t-shirts, water bottles, and more! In addition to that, every student gets an official certificate recognizing their hard work and effort to achieve Millionaire status. As a cherry on top, you’ll also receive a celebration gift card to spend on a class celebration party (whether virtual or in-person). 

Ready to Accept the Challenge?

The Million Words Read Challenge runs from the 18th of January to the 30th of June, 2022, so there’s still time to sign up. So far this school year, students have read over 56 million words and counting – will your students join them?

Sign up for free and assign your students their first learning game to put them on the path to becoming millionaires today!

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Making up for lost time … 

Jan Franz is a 4th Grade Teacher at Hallinan Elementary School in Oregon. Students entered her class this year at varying reading levels. “My incoming class this year was really struggling with reading comprehension. I was super frustrated. I knew I needed to find something that would both re-energize students about reading and also give them the practice they need. So one Sunday afternoon I went searching on Google and I found Read to Lead, ” Jan shared.  

Reaching each student where they are with Read to Lead 

With students at such highly varied reading levels, it was helpful to Jan that Read to Lead’s learning games are leveled and respond to the student’s performance, becoming more challenging as they show strength in an area, while giving more practice for those who are not progressing as quickly. “Everyone can go at their own pace and don’t have to feel on the spot if they don’t know an answer,” Jan explained. “My high achievers were challenged and could keep progressing, and my struggling students got the skills practice time they needed.” 

Using reporting to drive instruction…

“Our class has Chromebooks, and sometimes students will go off-page or toggle between screens. They have gotten very good at that! But Read to Lead tells you who has logged in, how far they are progressing, what questions they got right, wrong, etc., so it is very easy to see in real-time who is on task and who I should go check up on,” Jan said with a laugh. With Read to Lead’s reports, Jan can see different learning areas, how students are performing as a whole, and  each individual student’s performance too! The new Reports even recommend what games to assign next based on where students need the most skills practice. 

Jan shared that while she started with reading comprehension as her core objective, exploring different career worlds sparked students’ interests more than she would have expected. “I always tell my students, if you can read, then you can teach yourself anything,” Jan said. Making connections between literacy and career worlds was an unexpected outcome of the learning games.  “The After the Storm game led into our social studies lessons on Hurricane Katrina, and the students made that connection on their own! Students got better at math word problems because their comprehension skills had strengthened – it’s all very much related to each other. “ 

Jan shared, “We have a lot of technology tools and choices in our school, but students BEG me to play Read to Lead. And it works, it gets them engaged in reading and wanting to read – and that was really needed this year.” Jan’s class is looking forward to celebrating reaching one million words read together this spring. Thank you Jan for your commitment to helping your students build their reading and leading skills, we’re inspired by your class!

The post The Road to Building Students’ Literacy Skills Post Pandemic  appeared first on Read to Lead.

The Million Words Read Challenge, Read to Lead®️

Read to Lead is redefining the word ‘millionaire’ – it isn’t just about dollars anymore. Inspire your students to become millionaires, simply by working together to reach a collective goal of one million words read on the Read to Lead platform. The Million Words Read Challenge runs from the 18th of January to the 30th of June, 2022, and can be a great motivator to encourage students to read more.

All classrooms and programs that have registered for a free Read to Lead account are automatically enrolled in the challenge. With every learning game that each student completes, they add approximately 3,000 words to their individual and class tally of total words read, so the more they read, the closer they get to achieving their goal of becoming millionaires.

Students get to check a Digital Leaderboard on the platform and see where their class ranks amongst classrooms across the nation! Once classrooms reach 1 million words read, Read to Lead sends each student a prize pack in the mail and throws a party for the class to celebrate this major achievement! 

Did we mention the challenge is 100% free? Check it out and create an account to get started here!

In 2019, the achievements of hundreds of students who had read over one million words on Read to Lead were celebrated at The Million Words Read Celebration Breakfast. Educators and students alike reported that their participation in the Million Words Read Challenge boosted student confidence and increased motivation, particularly among students with lower levels of academic achievement. 

12 Books, 12 Categories, 12 Months

In this fun yet very manageable challenge, students are encouraged to expand their horizons by reading widely from a variety of genres. Students tend to discover a certain genre or style of books and stick to reading books from that category. Fantasy books or comics are common favorites, but introducing diversity in the books students are reading can have a multitude of benefits.

Science fiction pushes the limits of their imagination. Historical fiction breathes life into ancient characters. Biographies cultivate empathy and teach them about walking a mile in someone else’s shoes. Reading widely helps students increase their awareness of the world and enlarges the boundaries of the world they’ve come to know – and they can do this just by reading one book a month!

Encouraging students to read different genres can also help with engagement. When a student has the chance to explore a variety of books, they are more likely to develop a love of reading! 

A Challenge for Every Season

What better way to theme your students’ reading than by the seasons? Books about winter in January, stories about new beginnings for spring, reading outdoors during the long summer days – incorporate fun into reading by letting the spirit of each month or season shine through in the books your students read.

Brightly, A Penguin Random House Company has a variety of reading challenges for children that highlight key themes, celebrations or events each month or season. The April challenge focuses on National Humor Month and National Poetry Month, while the October challenge draws its inspiration from Halloween and the essence of autumn. Each challenge works in perfect harmony for the season and is sure to be a source of excitement for students as they look forward to each month’s challenge.

Reading challenges are a great way to encourage students to read and to read widely while allowing them autonomy and choice in their book selections. We’d love to hear about any reading challenges you’ve designed for your students to keep them enthusiastic and engaged in reading all year round in 2022. Share your ideas with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

The post New Years Resolutions: Reading Challenges to Inspire Your Students in 2022 appeared first on Read to Lead.

“Amplify student voice” they say. What does that really look like? We’re here to help you engage and motivate students to reach higher levels of achievement. Ready? Let’s dive in. 

Recently, more attention has been placed on elevating student voices in schools, and with good reason. When students feel they have a stake in their education, they become more motivated and engaged, and it’s found that this is often reflected in their academic achievements.

If you’re looking for easy and effective ways to boost student voice in your classroom, we’ve got you covered! Keep reading to learn more about our four favorite ways to boost student voice and keep students engaged!

Use Tools That Allow Students To Go At Their Own Pace

Nothing tells a student that they’re in the driver’s seat of their own education than allowing them to set the pace for their learning. While this may be tricky in a traditional classroom, there are student-friendly tools that make implementing differentiated learning a breeze.

Give students free rein over their pace of learning with Read to Lead games. In this interactive learning platform, students get the freedom to explore, read, and learn within virtual workplaces. Adaptive technology also ensures that each game is catered to each student’s learning needs. As students complete games on the platform, the Auto-Assign feature provides game recommendations to easily assign the next learning game and provide deeper practice on the skills your students need most. The Teacher Dashboard also records students’ progress and performance, providing insights on each skill, organized by the support level needed so you can introduce additional differentiation in your teaching. Differentiated learning has never been so easy, or fun!

Show Students That They Belong In Our Classrooms

Would you speak up in a room you didn’t feel you belong in? Our kids are the same. That’s why showing our students that they belong in our classrooms is critical to empowering and encouraging student voices.

Incorporate culturally relevant teaching in your curriculum with the books you choose as a class, and include educational materials that allow students to see themselves in their learning. Resources to support students’ learning should also showcase diverse and inclusive representation to ensure that no child feels left out. Read to Lead, Flocabulary, and Learning for Justice all offer educational resources that are an excellent addition to any middle school classroom that’s eager to make students feel welcome and elevate student voice.

Bonus: Need ideas for culturally diverse and inclusive reading lists? Check out our recommendations for 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade!

Ignite Engagement With A Reading Challenge 

A reading challenge is a great way to engage students and boost their confidence by putting them in-charge of their own learning. We’ve found when students feel they have agency, achievement follows. When a student is able to read and learn at their own pace, they will feel more confident in flexing their voice. The Read to Lead Million Words Read Challenge is an easy way to get started. 

Simply sign up for a free educator account on Read to Lead, and get your students on the platform to read and rack up their word count at their own pace. The challenge officially kicks off in January 2022 but words read on the platform during December also count toward the final tally! P.S. When students in your class cumulatively reach one million words read, we’ll reward them with prizes and a celebratory class party! Sign up now to get started!

Survey Students To Find Out What They Want

What better way to boost student voice than to actually give your students… you guessed it, a voice! We often assume we know what our students want or are interested in, but the best people to ask about students’ opinions are the students themselves!

Use a fun survey or polling tool like Kahoot, Plickers, and Socrative to get students’ input in classroom decisions that matter. Whether it’s the music that plays in the background during independent reading time, choosing what book they read for that month, or how they want to showcase their learning, giving students a choice in their education is an easy and effective way to boost student voice in your classroom.

Elevating student voice doesn’t have to be a challenge! Being mindful about putting students front and center learning and including them in the conversation about their education is all it takes. By giving them agency and the opportunity to take ownership of their learning, we will not only be able to boost student voices, but also nurture more engaged learners who perform well in and out of school!

Are you ready to empower the next generation of readers and leaders? Create a free Read to Lead account and watch student achievement soar.

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For many students, Response to Intervention (RTI) is necessary for them to achieve independence and success in their learning, but there is often a certain stigma associated with needing extra help. Read to Lead eliminates that stigma. 

By eliminating the stigma of being a “struggling reader,” Read to Lead boosts students’ motivation, accountability, and allows each student to move at their own pace. Our structured, audio-supported platform keeps students engaged, on-task, and challenged. 

Ready to develop a Response to Intervention practice that works for students with diverse learning needs? You’re in the right place. 

Read on to find out how to use Read to Lead for reading intervention in your classroom!

Go Deeper with Reading Comprehension

Ever tried to run comprehension exercises with your class, only to find that while some kids were comfortable discussing metaphors and implied meanings, others were struggling to understand certain words in the text? Read to Lead takes care of that for you!

The learning games on the platform are designed to respond to the students’ performance, meeting each student at their own level. Read to Lead employs adaptive technology that modifies assessments based on students’ performance within the platform, and the Read Aloud feature provides an additional level of support for struggling readers. For English Language Learners (ELL), the Translator feature is another useful tool that provides translations to over 100 languages.

Get the Student Data You Need

Students’ progress and performance is recorded in the teacher dashboard, allowing you to immediately assess their progress and see where they stand. This also gives you the chance to introduce additional differentiation in your teaching, and provide more support to students who need it. Since the learning games are leveled according to the students’ individual performance, knowing where each student stands is critical. That’s why we’re launching a few new features this fall! 

Start getting deep reporting insights on each skill, organized by the support level needed. See overall class stats like words read, time spent reading, and leadership decisions on the new Performance Class Report!

Know Exactly What to Teach Next

Once your students have played a game, you can use the new game recommendations feature to easily assign the next learning game and provide deeper practice on the skills your students need most. Each Read to Lead game provides students with the opportunity to practice specific literacy skills tied to Common Core Standards (CCSS). By reviewing the students’ progress and performance within the teacher dashboard, you can see which areas students need extra practice in, and have the option to assign them games based on the skills you want your students to improve.

Develop Stronger Vocabulary Acquisition Skills 

Real-life context helps students remember new words by connecting them with their existing knowledge, and repetition deepens their understanding. Read to Lead draws on real-world applications to introduce and reinforce vocabulary words across the curriculum. For example, when students play one of the learning games from Vital Signs, they learn new vocabulary related to the medical context. As they work through the series, they encounter these words repeatedly, cementing them in their long-term memory. The fun they have playing learning games to strengthen their vocabulary acquisition skills is just a bonus!

Foster Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Skills 

Students who need reading intervention may also struggle with social and emotional skills. Read to Lead’s learning games are also an excellent tool to support students as they navigate their own complex emotions, learn healthy ways to manage stress, and practice self-management skills. 

Created in alignment with the CASEL framework, Read to Lead guides students in developing skills across five areas of social and emotional competence. As they build literacy and leadership skills, students are empowered to also build life skills.

Here’s the best part… Read to Lead is FREE for educators! Sign up today to start empowering your readers with the skills they need to be successful in life after school. Have questions? Email us or set up a 1:1 demonstration to get started!

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What do our middle school readers need right now?

We want our 5-9 grade students to become flexible, resilient readers who read for pleasure as well as for academic purposes. At the same time, we want our students to be empathetic, curious, and confident leaders. A student who can read confidently, comprehend fully, and write clearly opens doors to worlds of discovery in science, literature, math, and history. But a student who can do all those things and can practice self-management, empathy, and make complex decisions — that’s the student that’s fully prepared for life after school. 

How can we best meet those needs?

With just 15-minutes a day of consistent skills-based learning, students will begin to build muscle — and not the kind you build in the gym! After all, why do we call it a Literacy Blitz? Its 15 intensive minutes of immersive game-play where your students will experience high engagement, rigorous standards-aligned content, and unparalleled achievement. In fact, after playing four Read to Lead reading games, students build the foundation to outperform reading expectations by 60%.

Why are our Literacy Blitz Bundles so effective?

The simplicity and predictability of the bundle frees the teacher from constant choreographing so that they have time to observe, to listen, to assess, and to teach into specific student needs. With a real-time student insights dashboard, teachers are able to know where each student stands and how to differentiate teaching.

How can you get started?

Easy, grab your free bundle, and sign up for a free Read to Lead account. 

Now… more about each bundle!

We’re focusing on the three skills our middle school students need to master most. While there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all classroom, so you can choose one or teach them all. The choice is yours! Each bundle is jam-packed with immersive learning games, activities, discussion prompts and more.

   Reading Comprehension

   Vocabulary Acquisition

   Social Emotional Learning 

Reading Comprehension Bundle: Analyze and Compare Texts

Reading Comprehension is when students are demonstrating a level of understanding of a text. This understanding comes from the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text. 

In this bundle, we specifically tackle and achieve your classroom learning goals focused around the CCRA.R. 9 standard. Let your students dig deep by practicing analyzing and comparing multiple texts during their work day when they take on the role of the ‘boss’ at a community center.

 Get the bundle! 

Vocabulary Acquisition Bundle: Practice interpreting words and phrases

Vocabulary acquisition word knowledge is often linked to academic success. Students who possess large vocabularies can express their ideas better and understand new concepts more quickly than students with limited vocabularies. 

In this bundle, you’ll focus on anchor standard CCRA.R.4 to nurture and reinforce students’ vocabulary skill development. Students will play immersive learning games and participate in activities specifically designed to contain texts where students flex this skill when selecting words or phrases that suit a specific context or message. Bonus: Since students are deep in an immersive day at work, the experience is centered on real-world application and will even introduce industry-specific vocabulary. 

Get the bundle! 

Social Emotional Learning Bundle: Practice self-management skills

Everyday students endure various levels of stress and change, prompting the ongoing need to find programs and curriculum that helps them identify and manage their emotions. Building from the foundation of self-awareness, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines self-management as, “the ability to successfully regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in different situations.

While Read to Lead covers many SEL competencies, in this bundle we’ll focus on students’ practicing self-management. Support students as they navigate their own complex emotions, learn healthy ways to manage stress and develop the agency needed to advocate for themselves. Encourage students when they play these learning games to set goals that are personally meaningful and define a plan to achieve them.

And that’s a wrap – three core bundles to help you streamline lesson planning and jump-start literacy skill-building this school year! 

The post Literacy Skills Bundle for Middle School appeared first on Read to Lead.

So how does it work?

Easy! Teachers sign up for a free Read to Lead account and start the challenge by assigning students the online learning games in the platform. Teachers can implement 15-20 minutes of independent reading time (immersive game-play) during the school day in English Language Arts classrooms, Homeroom, or even for homework. As students play, their words read count gets recorded on a leaderboard in real-time where they can track their progress against classes around the nation, inspiring them to climb the board and read more. All students need is a laptop or tablet and an internet connection.

The challenge is all about putting students in-charge of their own learning because when students feel they have agency, achievement follows. In fact, students who play the learning games regularly, are out-performing reading expectations by 60%.

“My favorite moment in using Read to Lead is when a student came in on a Monday after the weekend and said “Mrs. Flanagan, I moved us from 25th to 24th on the leaderboard when I finished the last game! They were playing over the weekend because they wanted to reach Millionaire Status!” – Mrs. Flanagan, Educator, Massachusetts

The learning games are aligned to English Language Arts standards and teachers have access to reporting by standard to know when to differentiate learning. The friendly competition inspires students to strive for individual excellence, but ultimately, they have to work collaboratively as a class to achieve the target goal of one million words read. The collective goal serves to motivate students and push each other to read more words to hit the targets of the challenge.

Bonus – Countless corporations have committed to sponsoring classroom parties and prize packs for classrooms that become “millionaires” and reach 1 million words read – allowing the achievement to be majorly celebrated. And let’s face it – after a year of virtual learning, we could all use a little motivation, celebration, and achievement this year.

Think your class could benefit from participating in the challenge? Learn more about it here! 

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