Middle and High School Summer Reading Conversations - BINGO, One-Pagers, and More!

Summer break is almost over, and it's time for students to come back to school. Are you looking for fun, engaging ways to get middle and high school students to discuss what they read during their vacations? We've got a few ideas to generate meaningful literary discussions! 

Make an Intentional Plan Before Summer Starts

Before the summer starts, it's critical to come up with a clear reading game plan for each student. Here are some tips for co-creating a student-led list of literary goals: 

• Ask students to share about their summer routines and brainstorm where reading might fit into their schedule. For example, for the student who has soccer camp each morning, afternoons and evenings may be the best time to read. Make sure that students are setting tailored and realistic goals. For example, a student who dislikes reading might find reading 15 minutes per day on Mondays and Fridays challenging, while a book aficionado might find 45 minutes per day easy. Celebrate each student's goals and honor their autonomy to choose what works best for them. 
• Visit the school library and encourage students to ask the librarian for book recommendations. (Trust us, librarians LOVE this!) It might be helpful to have students write a list of their interests, hobbies, and book genre preferences on a sheet of paper beforehand, so the librarian will understand your students back and have some clues to work with. Remember, students are often more likely to stay engaged with a book when the protagonist and side characters have life experiences that mirror their own. 
• Encourage students to recommend some of their favorite books to each other. Students are much more likely to pick up a book after one of their peers has given a glowing review. 
• Remind students that reading doesn't just take place in a classroom. Students can read from a tree, by the swimming pool, in a tent, ...anywhere! 

Print out Summer-reading Discussion Task Cards 

You can design these question task cards by yourself or print them from a template online. Try to make sure that your students are discussing a variety of interesting topics. Here are a few prompts to start with: 

• What was the most surprising plot detail in your book? 
• Why did you pick the book? Did the cover or description influence your selection? 
• How did the book connect to experiences in your personal life? 
• If you could rewrite the ending of the book, what might you change? 
• Which character did you hate? Why? 

Play Summer Reading BINGO

• Create a BINGO card with reading-related challenges in the squares. Encourage students to cross of squares whenever they complete a challenge. Finally, give students prizes for completing the BINGO card and bringing it back to school. Prizes could include being entered into a drawing for a grand prize, receiving a gift card to a local business, getting a book in the genre of their choice, being given a completion certificate, etc. 

Ask Students to Design a Summer Reading One-Pager 

• A one-pager is a creative response to reading a book that can completely fit on a piece of paper. It can summarize plot details, themes, literary devices, characters, and more! In order to help students generate a high-quality summer reading one-pager, it is critical to provide clear directions beforehand. Be specific about how many colors they should include, whether or not any white space can be left in the design, what information should be included in the design, what paper size should be used (we recommend 11 x 17 in to give more room for writing). 

Have Students Film and Present a Book Review 

This can be a fun book review option for your techy students. Before students get started, encourage them to watch some book vloggers and analyze what makes an interesting, helpful book review. Then, give them specific directions about time length, whether or not book spoilers are allowed, background music requirements, etc. 

Design a Social Media Account for a Book Character

Ask students to imagine what a book character's social media account might be like. They could either draw and caption some posts on a piece of paper or create a digital version on Canva or another app. To increase the level of rigor of the project, students could explain why the character would have a certain number of followers, the reasoning behind a bio statement, the aesthetic choices in a profile photo, and more. 

Have more ideas? 

Leave a comment below! We'd love to hear how you encourage students to have fun while reading during the summer!