There’s a beautiful moment that happens when students engage with a text and get excited by it. When I’m creating lessons, I’m constantly looking at current popular culture and what interests my students. There are plenty of great lessons for teachers to use with students when school’s in, but what about summer school reading activities?
As our students look forward to enjoying their summer out of school, we know how vitally important it is for them to keep reading over the break.
Below are some of my favorite summer reading resources!
Hip Hop & Rap Reading Activities with Songs
It’s important to be able to tap into the interests of individual learners. If Hip Hop dance and rap music appeals to your kids, then this is a great resource for you!
Perfect for students in 5th to 7th grade and homeschool students, this bundle of activities covers many important aspects of English Language Arts.
It’s essential that our kids learn how to deconstruct a text. They need skills in detecting the main idea and make inferences to uncover meaning. Often around middle school, we can see students feeling disengaged with reading that doesn’t interest them. As an educator or parent, you can use this bundle of summer school reading activities with YouTube videos to engage your kids again!
These reading activities are a fun summer school idea as they engage through video, music, and rap song lyrics!
Comicbook Reading Activities with Rap
Teachers and students alike are all too aware of tedious worksheets. However, pair in-depth worksheets that cover necessary curriculum with intriguing YouTube videos, parody rap songs, and classic comicbook storylines, and you’ve got a winning combination!
Making learning attractive to our students is all about using captivating characters that they already know. For example, by exploring the characters of the Spiderman franchise, students can take a deep dive into exploring fictional characters.
Similarly, by looking closely at the interactions between protagonists and antagonists students can begin to decipher clues within a text. Take for example our Hero Riddle rap song with making inferences activities.
Try using this as a part of your summer school reading lesson plans to help your students unlock key reading strategies.
Kids Movie Reading Activities with Rap
Summer break is a great time for watching kids movies. Why not combine a relaxed, movie viewing with some in-depth learning? For example, have your students compare and contrast a viewing of The Lion King movie with the anime plot of Kimba the White Lion using our reading activities.
This is a great task for students in 4th to 6th grade as they’re able to make comparisons between the two movies, finding similarities and differences.
And here’s the most important thing…
Whether you’re a parent or teacher, coming up with interesting summer reading for kids can be a challenge. However, find the right text and learning can be dynamic and enjoyable. Personally, I love using rap music, song lyrics, and pop culture to drive my summer curriculum. Plus, by including both audio and subtitles, it means that the text is accessible for different learners. I love pairing this with vigorous activities that help build and develop their reading skills while challenging them to think deeply about the text.
There’s a good reason why the tagline for Rap Opera for Kids is “When the music stops, the learning doesn’t.” When I create my lessons, I am designing learning that incorporates a fun, rap music medium with a complete activity that integrates student interest with reading skills.
I would love to hear how these resources work for you and your learners. Let me know if your kids found this material enjoyable and relevant by leaving a comment below!
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