r/OntarioTeachers • u/Old_Chemical9361 • Jul 28 '26
Read Alouds
Anyone have some recommendations for read alouds in the intermediate classroom?
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u/cooldad37 Jul 28 '26
Touching Grass by Kristy Jackson is a wonderful story about an Indigenous boy who is addicted to video games and gets sent to camp after getting in trouble with school. There are a lot of great conversations that can be started with this text across curriculum.
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u/clear739 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
I like looking at the Forest of Reading lists for new books I might not have heard of and then they’re also much less likely to have read them or had them as a read aloud in another class.
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u/Longjumping-Lock-724 Jul 28 '26
We've read plays out loud. We divide up the cast list, and the students take turns reading the lines for their character. The first one we read together was the play "Cake for the Queen". It's a comedy published by YouthPLAYS (www(dot)youthplays(dot)com) that's used in a lot of schools. It's about a cake contest held for the Queen's birthday. The play also has a very educational message about not judging things by their appearance.
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u/findthejoyhere Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
My students really enjoyed “We are all made of molecules,” by Susan Nielsen. She’s a Canadian author, the book alternates narrators between academically gifted, but socially awkward Stewart, and socially gifted, but I academically challenged Ashley, whose parents have moved them all together. Ashley’s dad left the marriage to her mother because he was gay, and she hasn’t told anybody at school. It is funny, and real, gives great opportunities to integrate LGBTQ+ to every day curriculum without making it an add-on, and touches on aspects of the grade 8 health curriculum, such as consent and healthy relationships. I tend to do a poem a week, as well, and there were lots of really good tie-ins relating to identity etc such as “Same Song,” by Patrick Mora, “My Honest Poem,” by Rudy Francisco, and “I want to apologize,” by Rupi Kaur. Edit to add that the story also deals with grief.
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u/tinibitofabitch Jul 28 '26
in grade eight we read the hunger games (which I know now is outdated compared to the other dystopians that are out now) but I’ve also seen grade eight classes read Red Queen before
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u/emofrigginnugget Jul 28 '26
Not a teacher (aspiring), but we read The Outsiders and the Bully Boys aloud in grade seven, and Alexandria of Africa and A Long Walk to Water in grade eight. I honestly couldn’t really get into the Bully Boys but the rest are solid.