Hitting the Books: Back to School Reading!

I hope that your summer was restful, relaxing, rejuvenating... everything that you needed it to be. And that you read a good book or two, or 12! Mine wasn't necessarily restful since I feel like my life is crazier now than ever, but I did manage to go social media silent for most of August which felt great.

Whether you have been back in school for over a month like my own daughter (fingers crossed for a great SENIOR YEAR), or for two weeks like the school I'm working at, or you start after Labor Day, I wish you a great 2019-2020 school year, filled with BOOKS for you and your students!

I have resources to help you now and throughout the year. Here are some tools to gear up for a great year of READING:

1) I have posted my Back to School Booktalk Videos for 2nd-12th grades here and on TPT. These 25 - 35 minute videos are great to get your students excited about reading this school year! If you are not a paid subscriber to MrsYuskoReads, then you can find them on my TPT site. The bundle of all the videos PLUS a FREE 30 minute PD video of best new Picture Books for all grades is ON SALE NOW!

Already a MrsYuskoReads.com subscriber? You have FREE access to all of them now...click here, choose "subscriber webinars" and login.

Want to become a subscriber? Click here for the details!

2) Missed my Summer Reading suggestions for all grades? Never fear! Reading doesn't just happen in the summer and these lists contain great new books for your students. Feel free to copy and distribute as needed! I have posted my Booklists for all grade levels (PreK-12th...and adult!) on my website, including Top 10 picks for Elementary, Middle School, and High School. Or email me and I can send them to you.

3) Everyone has access to my Best New Picture Books for all Grades (K-12) video! This 30 minute video highlights some of the best new picture books of 2019 that you will want to read aloud, have in your classroom library, use to introduce curriculum, or read for #classroombookaday. This video is designed as PD, to show your staff to help them keep current on the best new picture books to be used in the classroom. Picture books are not just for the youngest students. Most of the books mentioned can be read aloud to all grades, while a few are actually better suited for use in middle/high school classes.

Watch a 10 minute sample of this video below, which highlights the best Back to School Picture Books. The FREE full-length video (about 30 minutes) can be found on my website, or on TPT.

Happy reading!

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#backtoschool #bestbooks #newbooks #mrsyuskoreads #booktalks #teachers #librarians #elementary #middleschool #highschool #yalit #kidlit #picturebooks

Choice: It's Not Just For Reading

Besides talking about books at my #yalit seminars, I also share real-world examples of student success stories, classroom activities, and how I incorporate and promote reading during the school day.

I can talk about the importance of CHOICE reading ad nauseum, and could probably write a dissertation on the topic at this point. So instead, I thought I would focus this post on student responses to reading. One of the questions I get asked frequently is "how do you know if they've read the book?" I'm going to be honest, READING is the point of the class for me and what I consider the most important. But you're right, schools require us to grade something, and since I hate reading logs, here are some ideas that I do throughout the year.

1) Free Read Friday: Barring assemblies, field days, or standardized testing, our Fridays are spent READING! As long as students are on task, we spend the 45-ish minutes of class "silent" reading. (All of us...teacher included). First of all, I will fight any administrator that says this is a waste of time. Luckily I don't have to at my school. Now, before you think that I've cracked the code to keep a class full of teenagers silent, on task, and reading for 45 minutes, I haven't. Fridays are days where I have reading conversations with students, do formal and informal booktalks as needed, give students the opportunity to write book reviews and tell other students about what they're reading, and more. Of course, the majority of the time is spent reading, and I'll be honest, most of my students honor this time and their classmates by finding a place to relax and read. I think most of them appreciated the "break" from the stresses of other classes. Do students get off task? Sure. Are there students who don't read? Sometimes. But as with any classroom, you deal with that as necessary.

2) Reading Response Projects: Besides informal conversations, book reviews, and the occasional in-class on-demand writing prompt, students are required to complete a "project" after their reading. (Middle school and high school had different guidelines for number of books read vs projects completed but every one had to complete at least a few each semester). At the start of the year I offered students a list of choices for these projects as well as guidelines/rubrics. They included anything from one-pagers, book commercials, and poetry journals... to comic strips, quote posters, and Snapchat stories. Here are a few samples of my high school class' projects this spring:

Digital art representing Moxie by Jen Mathieu

One pager for Samurai Rising by Pamela S. Turner

One pager for The Girl Who Was Supposed To Die by April Henry

Comic strip for a poem in The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Quote poster for Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Playlist for The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Part of the script of a book commercial for The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang.

Comic Strip for Treasure Island

Persuasive presentation on why I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson is the "best book ever."

3) Student Created Projects: Besides giving them a list of acceptable project ideas, I invite students to come up with their own (teacher-approved) ideas for projects that demonstrate reading. This is how, for the last project of the year, I was convinced by my seniors to let them bring in food that represented their book (because yes, they wanted a class party and we weren't technically allowed to have one). Let me tell you, the level of thought that went into these food choices was TERRIFIC and definitely showed their comprehension of the books.

4) Volunteering at Literacy Events: True, it's voluntary and not graded, but I encourage my students to volunteer at our monthly Feed n Read events. This is a great opportunity for younger students in our community to interact with teens and tweens and to have positive, shared reading experiences. It has the added benefit of being an enjoyable experience for my students as well. I always offer the option to trade out one "assignment" per semester in exchange for volunteering at one event. Let's be real, life gets busy, and there are a myriad of reasons why students may not be able to complete an assignment. But our Feed n Reads always need volunteers and the younger kids LOVE reading with the teens so it's actually a win for more than just me. And most of my students that volunteer come each month, not just the one time...proof that they secretly enjoy reading with the kids.

5) Book Character TED Talk: We did TED Talk Tuesday in our classroom each week. You can read more about that here. As a final project, I had my Contemporary Lit students choose a book character (from a book they read this year) that they would want to give a TED Talk, and then outline the key points or message that would be included. Again, WOW! I received some amazing responses. Definitely an assignment I'm keeping in the rotation.

What are some of your favorite reading-related classroom activities?

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#classroom #contemporarylit #studentchoice #choicereading #TEDTalk #FeednRead #studentwork #highschool #middleschool #reading #freereadfriday

Are You Summer Reading Ready? Part 1...

It's the madness that is May: you survived testing season only to be rewarded with too many things to do before summer vacation and not enough days left in the school year. I feel your pain! (For those of you that get out of school in June, please just procrastinate reading this post until then).

Are you looking to get your kids excited about READING this summer? Don't have time to read all the books yourself? Looking for a way to promote good books to your students in a limited amount of time? I've got you COVERED!

Every year I create Summer Reading Booktalk videos for some of my teacher friends. This year I thought, why not make these available to anyone that's interested? So, over the weekend I recorded four videos, highlighting good books for various grade levels that your students will want to read this summer! If you already have a subscription to MrsYuskoReads, you can access all of them for FREE immediately. Click here, choose "subscriber webinars," and login with your email. They can be found under "Subscriber Booktalks." ENJOY!

Videos range in length from 16:00-35:00 minutes (depending on grade level) and can be shown in class or uploaded to your Google classroom. They are designed for students "graduating" from the grade levels listed below, but depending on your readers they might find books of interest in the one above or below. You know your audience best. You can choose from:

2nd-4th Grades

5th- 7th Grades

8th - 9th Grades

High School

Not a subscriber? You can join now and get immediate access to all of these videos, plus past webinars on best new books.

OR... I've made the 2nd-4th Grade one available for free to everyone...click here (you'll find it under "Booktalks") or scroll down.

OR...You can purchase individual videos on my TPT site. I've also bundled all four together, but feel free to contact me for a special bundle price if you only want two of them. Stay tuned for "Are You Summer Reading Ready, Part 2" later this week where I'll post my FREE Summer Reading Suggestions Book Lists for all ages, PreK- ADULTS! Can't wait? Click here and see last year's lists. Print, post, share WIDELY!

Happy reading! See you soon with more to help you get Summer Reading READY.

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#summerreading #bestbooks #newbooks #mrsyuskoreads #booktalks #teachers #librarians #elementary #middleschool #highschool #yalit #kidlit