It Is More Important than Ever to Keep Students Empowered, Engaged, and Learning

As more schools shift to online learning during this challenging time, it’s critical that students continue learning in a way that’s fun, accessible, and maintains positive communication with their teachers and classmates. 

Read to Lead is a 100% free and proven blended learning solution that leverages game-based learning to help students build reading, writing, and leadership skills. Teachers across the country use the “Be the Boss” learning experiences to engage youth, and build core academic and leadership skills essential to their success in school today and the careers of tomorrow. 

Here’s how Read to Lead can be a valuable resource while you’re planning for distance learning:

Deeply Engage Students at Home By Making Them the Boss

Distance learning requires flexible and self-paced learning activities that pique a student’s interests. In Read to Lead games, students become the boss of a community health clinic, online magazine, or community center. They read closely, think critically, and work with a diverse staff to solve real-world problems. 

The free web-based curriculum is modular so students can move at their own pace, logging in any time of day for any length of time. One episode, or one “day at work”, takes about 30 minutes to complete. In that time, students read 5,000 words, make 10 leadership decisions, and practice a specific Reading Anchor Standard. If students read their way through 12 episodes, that’s equivalent to completing a middle school chapter book! 

Students can self-select episodes or you can assign specific episodes based on your learning goals. Here’s an example. Let’s say your students are playing Vital Signs and you want them working on vocabulary acquisition. You would assign episodes 3, 5, 8, and 11 to your class as those episodes are aligned to CCRA.R.4. 

Look over the guides below to identify the skills, standards, and themes addressed in each episode and make your selections. 

• Community in Crisis (Grades 5 and 6) – Community Center 
• Vital Signs (Grades 7 and 8) – Medical Clinic 
• After the Storm (Grades 8 and 9) – Online Community Magazine  

Alternatively, you might invite students to read the episode summaries in their own portal and choose the episodes that sound the most exciting!

Track Student Progress with Real-Time Reports

You have three different reports in your Read to Lead hub that give you a clear picture of your students’ activity and growth. All of these reports are updated in real-time and can be downloaded or printed.  

The Progress Report is your built-in classroom management tool so you can see how many episodes each student has played and if they are currently logged into the program.  

The Performance Report allows you to see how each student is performing against Anchor Standards in Reading. 

The Student Activity Report shows you each student’s reading task and writing prompt.  

Supplemental Resources Enhance the Virtual Workplace Experience

Each Read to Lead game includes wrap around activities that scaffold and extend learning. Post-game discussion questions foster self-reflection on the decisions made as the boss. Graphic organizers are provided to assist students as they complete the in-game writing prompt. All of these resources exist as Google Documents in the student’s portal making them accessible from anywhere and easily shareable so you can offer feedback and guidance. 

Read to Lead has several other student-led projects that youth can explore at home! Students can create a Public Service Announcement or map out their dream career.  

Here’s some quick tips on how students can work with our Google worksheets. 

Motivate Students to Keep Reading and Leading At Home: The Million Words Read Challenge

We have a fun contest that challenges students to work together to read one million words in Read to Lead games! Once your class reads one million words collectively, they will receive prizes from the Read to Lead team!

Students are automatically awarded badges for the number of words they read. You can monitor how many words your class is reading in your account to keep them informed on their progress and celebrate their milestones virtually! 

If you need any guidance while planning, please reach out to our team at support@classroominc.org. We’re here for you!