Getting your students interested in and excited about reading is a top priority for any reading teacher. You read aloud with overly animated expression, dress up to bring characters to life, and offer student voice and choice when it comes to independent reading.
One system I’ve found to be most successful is the implementation of classroom reading games. Students set a goal to complete the game by the end of the school year and track their progress each month. Below, I’ve shared some of the most popular games I’ve created in my classroom over the years.
Scroll to the bottom of this post for tips on creating your own classroom reading game!
Readopoly
Modeled after the classic board game, Monopoly, this reading game requires students to move around a giant game board as they read books from a variety of genres. I allow students to complete the requirements in ANY order. This ensures that students do not know who is “ahead” or “behind” in the game. Instead, they put their square play piece (simply, a piece of paper with their initials on it) on the book requirement they’re currently reading. So, if they’re reading a mystery novel, they’d put their piece on the “Mystery” square on the board. You can come up with any requirements you’d like. In addition to popular genres such as mystery, fantasy, and poetry, I included “Book Recommended by the Teacher” and “1st and 2nd Novel in a Series.”
Bookcraft
Modeled after the pixelated look of the popular computer game, Minecraft, this reading game had a whopping 40 requirements! Students even had to read and summarize 10 nonfiction articles as part of this reading game. I used small colored squares for the background to created the pixelated look. I then purchased Minecraft stickers to use as play pieces and Minecraft lettering for the title off of Amazon!
Book Crush
This was a big hit when the app, Candy Crush, was popular. There were 17 candies with requirements printed on them that needed to be “cleared” in order to complete the game. This is the only game I had where students did NOT have a play piece to move around the board. I definitely recommend incorporating play pieces somehow in your reading game, as it makes the bulletin board interactive and progress feels more concrete to students. The board was super cute, though!
Book Bingo
Modeled after a classic Bingo game, students had to cover six “Bingos” to complete the game, totaling 30 books over the course of the year. They could complete rows, columns, and diagonals. Books could not overlap. In other words, if a student chose to complete the top row and the left column, they had to read TWO mysteries – no doubling up!
Making Your Own Game
Here are some things to keep in mind if you’re interested in creating your own classroom reading game.
- THEME: Decide on a theme. Is there a popular video game out right now? A popular app the students like? A new movie? Relevancy is everything for students – you should have seen their faces when they walked into the room to see Bookcraft, designed to look like the Minecraft computer game!
- MEASURE THE BOARD! Before actually sitting down to create the pieces for your game, take a minute to measure your bulletin board. Do some math to figure out how big your game needs to be in order to fit perfectly. This step is sort of a pain, but I promise you’ll regret it if you don’t measure first! (Been there, done that!)
- GAME REQUIREMENTS: Decide on what requirements you want to include in your game. Some ideas include: general nonfiction, mystery, biography, two novels by the same author, read a book recommended by a parent, two novels in the same series, personal interest, book over 300 pages, graphic novel, book by Roald Dahl, etc.
- INCORPORATE PLAY PIECES! Find a way students can move a “play piece” around the game somehow. Students LOVE the action of physically moving their play piece when they finish one book and begin another.
- RESPECT STUDENT PACING: Consider finding a way to let students complete the requirements in ANY order. This way, individual student progress is not necessarily “on display” for all to see. If student play pieces can be anywhere on the game, then it won’t be obvious if there is a student who is lagging behind…
- BOOK CHOICE: Decide on whether or not you want veto/approval power when it comes to book choice. I tell students they must read novels are are “just right” for them in order for the books to count toward the game. This way, students at all levels will be appropriately challenged. I do allow students to use three “candy books” toward the game. (“Candy books” are books that are a bit too easy, but they love them anyway – such as the ever popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.)
- PROGRESS MONITORING & GOAL SETTING: How will you monitor student progress? I conference with my students regularly, and so an important part of our discussion is their independent reading. Not only do we discuss the plot of the book they’re reading, but we’ll also update their reading logs and progress toward finishing the classroom reading game. We discuss pacing and set goals, as well. If you don’t conference regularly, you might consider having students turn something in to you every time they finish a book as proof of completion.
- RECORDING FORM: Last but not least, I highly suggest creating a recording form for students to fill out as they work toward completing the game.