Reading is one of the most important things a student can learn to do. From a solid foundation in reading, all other subjects and topics can blossom. Reading has been proven to build and expand a student’s critical thinking and memory skills while also boosting their self-esteem as they become more eloquent and confident in themselves. This leads to better grades, more meaningful social interactions, and more success into adulthood. There’s no question that students of all ages should be reading frequently, but unfortunately, many students lose their love of reading during their elementary school days (if they ever had it at all). At GEDDES, we believe it is so important to make reading fun for students, so we suggest incorporating some engaging reading challenges into the classroom, then rewarding students for participating. In this post, we’ll go over our four favorite reading challenge ideas that will work for students of any age.
# of Days Challenge
The # of days reading challenge is designed to get students reading every day, regardless of how much. With this challenge, the teacher sets a certain number of days (lower for younger students and higher for older students) for the challenge to last. Students must read something, no matter the length, each day during the challenge to get credit for that day. Students who successfully read something during every day of the challenge win a reward at the end.
# of Books Challenge
The # of books reading challenge is designed to encourage students to read more books overall. The teacher will set the goal number of books for each student to read during this challenge. For example, an elementary school class may have a goal to read five books, while a high school class’ goal may be 20 books. Students will have a certain length of time to finish the goal number of books, which is often until the end of the school year. As each student successfully reads a book, they will document the book’s information on their reading challenge log. Once they have read the number of books required by the challenge, they can submit their log to the teacher to be rewarded.
Theme Challenge
Themed reading challenges are extra fun because they encourage students to read book and articles they may have otherwise skipped past. Themes for this type of challenge can be almost anything, from seasons and holidays to specific authors to books from a certain time period. Teachers can even choose a very broad theme to give the students a lot of potential books to choose from. The teacher will set the time limit for the themed challenge and have students fill out a log of all the books they read during the challenge that fit the required theme. At the end of the time limit, the student who read the most themed books wins.
Bingo Challenge
This reading challenge pushes students to read books outside of their comfort zone while also incorporating the fun game of bingo. Each student will receive a bingo card. In each spot on the card there will be a different topic or theme. The student must choose and read a book that fits the topic or theme. Once they have, they can mark off that spot on their bingo card. The first student to completely fill out their bingo card wins.