5 Ways to Get Your Students Talking About Books

By: Presto Plans

If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that middle school students LOVE to talk! If you have a chatty class, why not channel that energy into talking about books?

Reading helps middle schoolers broaden their understanding of the world, empathize with characters of different ages, genders, and backgrounds, and build their vocabulary. If you’re looking to build a stronger reading culture in your middle ELA school classroom, here are five sure-fire ways to get your students talking about books!

1) Make it Social with Book Clubs

Reading doesn’t have to happen in isolation. Literature circles and book clubs can provide structure for collaborative reading activities and encourage deep conversations about books. While there are many different ways to approach literature circles, I like to assign students to a discussion group (five students in each group works best!) based on a good-fit, high-interest book. Once they are in their groups, it’s important to make sure each student has a clear role. This lets them take responsibility for different parts of the discussion in their meetings.

One advantage literature circles or book clubs have over a whole-class novel study is that they allow students to express more choice and voice about what they read. You might want to offer a selection of books that touch on a similar theme or genre (like historical fiction or sci-fi), or you could provide a selection that caters to the wide variety of interests your students likely have. However you choose to approach your book club, your students will love the opportunity to connect with each other and have conversations about their books. You can read in more detail about how I implement literature circles here.

2) Ditch the Traditional Book Report

Hear me out - I think book reports can be really useful in middle school ELA! The trick is to take a fresh, choice-based approach that lets students express themselves, make relevant, personal connections, and meaningfully share their understanding with others. Although book reports aren’t necessarily intended for discussion, I have found that if you take an alternative approach to fiction analysis, it often sparks meaningful conversations as students work together. That is why I like to have students complete these alternative options to book reports in pairs. I’m always surprised by how a simple but unique twist can enhance discussion and engagement with the books students are reading. Here are three of my favorite book report “alternatives” to try with your class:

CREATIVE ASSIGNMENTS FOR ANY NOVEL OR SHORT STORY:

I love to keep a bundle of fun, ready-to-use assignments that work with any novel or short story on hand. The tasks offer opportunities for students to explore plot, theme, characterization, conflict, setting, author’s purpose and more! More than that, though, these assignments actually get students working together and talking about the books they are reading in a different context. Some of the activities included in the 50 reading tasks I share with students include…

• Hashtags: Writing social media updates (with hashtags) as a character.
• Check My Internet History: Sharing a character's browsing history during the plot of the story.
• Point of View Change Up: Retelling a part of the story from a different character's perspective.
• The Setting Tour Guide: Taking on the role of the tour guide and writing a description of the setting of the reading.

You can see how these types of assignments would lend themselves to more discussion and engagement with the text rather than simply having students answer questions or write an analysis paragraph.

TURN A STORY INTO A VIDEO GAME: 

Hook students who love gaming with this engaging multi-step project! As they create a plan to turn their novel or short story into a video game, they’ll demonstrate their understanding of character, setting, and plot. This outside-the-box approach will definitely get your gamers talking!

TURN A STORY INTO A MOVIE:

If you have any film buffs in your class, they will love this fresh take on a book report, which asks students to re-imagine a novel or short story as a movie. I share eight assignments with students and have them work in pairs. The assignment draws on students’ creativity and critical thinking skills as they consider which actors would play their favorite characters and design promotional materials for their film. The assignments require outside-the-box thinking, which lends itself well to fostering discussion around the content in the text.

3) Use Engaging Discussion Prompts

Discussion prompts are a quick and easy way to get students talking about books! I like to keep a set of general prompt cards that can be used with any text to use with groups in any novel unit. Discussion cards allow students to explore new ideas, share personal experiences, express their opinions, and create deeper connections to literary texts. Simply pick a card to generate a lively whole-class discussion, or distribute a handful of cards during group discussion to help inspire meaningful dialogue.

What’s great about these questions is that they work even when students are reading different books. Have students provide a bit of context about their independent novel before sharing their response, allowing the whole class to engage with a variety of texts while still discussing literature. It’s a quick and easy way to spark meaningful conversations and broaden students’ exposure to different stories.

4) Make Connections with Video Prompts

Want to get students talking about the books they’re reading? Try using videos! Watching a short, high-interest clip related to a novel’s themes or topics can spark meaningful discussions, encourage deeper connections, and engage even reluctant readers. Plus, videos help students develop active viewing skills and strengthen media literacy.

I love using videos to inspire thoughtful writing in all of my novel units, but they’re just as effective for generating lively classroom discussions.

Here’s how it works:

• Students watch a video that connects to a key theme or topic in the novel.
• Put students into groups and have them each share how they think the video relates to the text they are reading.
• Have each group share their thoughts with the whole class to generate even more discussion.

5) Hook Students with Book Talks

A book talk is essentially a commercial for books! Students love sharing their ideas, and I love seeing them get excited about books. Best of all, book talks offer opportunities for students to engage in natural conversation about reading. 

I like to begin with a focused lesson on what makes a compelling book talk. From here, middle school ELA students often benefit from some guidance and structure as they begin planning their own book talks. Graphic organizers can help students make sense of their ideas and plan out their talk. Likewise, checklists can be used to support students as they finalize their book talks and prepare to share their ideas with their classmates! 

I hope these suggestions give you a few fresh ideas to get your middle school ELA students talking about books! 

Looking for more resources and ideas for teaching novels and short stories in middle school ELA? Check out these great links from my friends here at the Secondary English Coffee Shop!

• 3 Ways to Use #BookTok in Class by Tracee Orman
• Book Talk Hacks for Secondary Teachers by Room 213
• Reading Activities Escape Room by the Classroom Sparrow

Teaching The Hunger Games and Other Dystopian Novels

 

Teaching The Hunger Games and Other Dystopian Novels

By Tracee Orman

Author of Hunger Games Lessons

I began teaching The Hunger Games to my ninth graders in the fall of 2009. So much in education has changed since then, but one thing is constant: students love Katniss’ story and reading dystopian literature.

WHY NOW?

In less than a month, Scholastic is publishing Suzanne Collins’ fifth book in the series, Sunrise on the Reaping. The movie is set to hit theaters later in 2026. Whether you have never taught the novel, taught it but replaced it with something else, or continue to teach it but would love to bring new life to your unit, this renewed interest is a perfect opportunity to incorporate it into your curriculum. 

WHY DYSTOPIAN LIT?

Dystopian literature has been a favorite for decades. Though it dates back to the French Revolution, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), and Lois Lowry’s The Giver (1993) have all had a profound impact on the genre. They all tackled issues that were important and pressing at the time in a futuristic world. The Hunger Games (2008) is no different.  The topics it addresses that are relevant in today’s world are endless: climate disasters, rebellion/uprisings, totalitarian governments, reality TV, materialism, disinformation and propaganda...I could go on and on. 

Dystopian literature allows students to explore these topics, fears, and real feelings in a fictional world. It builds confidence that they, too, can make a difference in their own world. It gives them hope that there is time to improve and change things in our real world so we don’t end up in one of these fictional settings.

TEACHING THE HUNGER GAMES

I cannot lie, but The Hunger Games (THG) is my favorite dystopian novel to teach. One of the best parts of teaching THG is introducing students to such interesting and beloved characters that make them so invested they actually want to read all the other books in the series. I had students who admitted to me that they had been “fake” reading all through elementary and middle school and THG was the first book that actually made them want to read. I call it my gateway into reading: it hooks them on the genre, so I can keep feeding them other series like Divergent, Legend, Scythe, The Selection, Ender’s Game, and so on.

TIMELINE

I am always reluctant to give a set timeline for teaching the novel because it truly depends on your students, class structure, and how much time you wish to devote to the novel. Things you need to consider before starting: 

1. Will you be reading the book in class or assigning reading as homework?

I chose to have students read it in class only when I first began because I did not have enough books for them to take home. It took us at least six weeks to get through the novel. Some groups it took even longer. (Another factor is the length of your class. My high school class periods had 50 minutes per class; middle school had 35 minutes.) If you are reading it in class, I suggest blocking out at least 5-6 weeks, if not more, for the novel. When I had enough copies of the book to allow students to check them out and assign reading at home, I was able to get through the novel in about 3 1/2 weeks (unless we had disruptions in our schedule, like snow days). 

2. How many skills do you wish to cover in the course of the unit?

If you only want to cover basic reading comprehension skills, you can get through the novel much more quickly. However, if you want to dive deeper into critical-thinking skills, writing, speaking, figurative language, close reading analysis with Shakespeare and other texts, you will want to extend the unit out longer.

3. How much fun do you want your students to have?

One of the things I love to include in all my novel units are some opportunities to make the reading FUN. Even though the themes of THG are serious, even the author weaves in an incredible amount of humor to keep readers engaged. It’s important for your students, as well. I think it’s worth sacrificing a few extra days to make sure your students are enjoying the novel.

CONNECTIONS TO THE REAL WORLD

On my blog Hunger Games Lessons I wrote a series of articles for teachers called Classroom Connections. In each post, I highlight ways you can have your students make real-world connections to the novel(s). Here are just a few possibilities:

✅ Making connections to the Holocaust and the rise of Nazism. In this post, I discuss the similarities of ordinary German citizens and the characters of THG. You could team up with a social studies teacher in your school for a cross-curricular lesson, having students find examples/similarities in the novel and in history. For example, by the use of propaganda and other authoritarian methods, millions of people were led to believe that certain groups of people were lesser than and deserved to be exterminated. Students can find examples in the novel of the same propaganda methods that they've studied in history class.

✅ Combating Hunger. Hunger is an obvious theme throughout the novel. Having a food drive for a local food pantry is one way you can have your students give back to the community during your novel unit. You can also make it a competition: which section/class can raise the most for your “Hunger Games.” Another option, as I highlight in my post, is playing the online game on FreeRice.com. This website has fun vocabulary (and other topics) games that when played will donate rice to areas in need. It works with the UN World Food Program and corporate sponsors, so it costs you and your students nothing to play.  

✅ Presidential Elections Connections and President’s Day Connection Both of these posts are additional ways to tie into history and current issues. While we have the luxury of living in a democracy, the characters in THG do not. Both posts have prompts you can use as discussion points or research topics. For example, IF Panem had elections, which characters would make good candidates for President and why? How would life change for the citizens of the Capitol if a district citizen became President? What sort of restrictions or criteria would you have for running? Would they be similar to your country’s government or would you make changes? And so on...

✅ Science Connections: BioDiversity in THG. Author Suzanne Collins gives us many examples of how Katniss uses her surroundings and nature to survive and thrive. This post explores ways students can connect with science through the novel. They can research different plants that can be used as sustenance, such as dandelions (one year we gathered some from outside and ate the greens as a snack in class). Another topic is that of creating the mutts, exploring the ethical nature of creating hybrid species. It’s another great cross-curricular opportunity with a science teacher in your building.

✅ Poem in Your Pocket Day. Which poems would Katniss and Peeta carry in their pockets on this day? This is a fun way to integrate poetry into your unit. You can have students choose poems that match the characters’ moods, personality, emotions, etc. Have students share with the class. What better way to get them reading and sharing all sorts of poems in class!?

✅ Peaceful Protests and Olympic Connections. In THG, Katniss is given the “silent salute” by the District 12 citizens before she leaves for the Capitol. As the novel progresses, she realizes how it and her own actions of placing flowers on Rue’s body are silent ways of protesting. Many athletes choose the Olympics to demonstrate a peaceful protest. In 1968, Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave the Black Power salute during the playing of the US national anthem. You can have students compare the different gestures and what each symbolizes. They can also go beyond the Olympics and find other methods of peaceful protest and the consequences of their actions (i.e. Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the anthem).

✅ Hosting a NONVIOLENT Hunger Games. I struggled with how to approach this when I first began teaching the novel. So many students wanted to have our own class Hunger Games. I felt really icky about it given the theme that the Games are obviously and inherently bad. How could I incorporate fun activities and competition without glorifying violence and still have them learn? I created different challenges (trivia games, marketing campaigns, skills competitions, and more) that still allowed them to have fun, but in a non-violent way. In the part 2 post HERE, I give visual examples of our Class Games.

RESOURCES FOR TEACHING THE HUNGER GAMES

My unit for teaching THG gives teachers so many possibilities and opportunities for engagement. Because my unit is packed with so many activities, you can pick and choose which ones you wish to skip and which ones to use. Often, people are confused about which of my resources to use, so I’m going to break it down for you.

🏹 The Hunger Games Novel Unit: This was my first bundle of all the essential teaching materials. It includes the Student Survival Guide (discussion questions, basic activities, vocabulary, etc.), tests, check quizzes, and so much more. This is all you need if you are going to keep your unit short (less than 5-6 weeks). If you are looking for an even shorter unit, I would just purchase the tests and Survival Guide separately and call it good. 

🏹 The Hunger Games Mega Bundle: This bundle contains everything in my unit (above), plus all the fun extras, like: Introduction & Visual Guide Slideshow Presentation: , The Hunger Games Escape Room Activity:, The Hunger Games Interactive Bulletin Board & Fun Quiz Activity:, The Hunger Games Coloring Pages, The Hunger Games Interactive Notebook Flipbook, and more. This bundle is by far the best deal, especially if you wish to spread more than 6 weeks on the unit. 

🏹 Grab these FREEBIES for the novel. Not only do I love sharing my ideas freely on my Hunger Games blog, but I’ve created so many downloadable handouts you can use for free on TPT. I love sharing my knowledge and success with you and want you to have the absolute best experience with your students. 

🏹 As I said before, THG is a great gateway for so many other dystopian novels. You can purchase novel guides for the other two books in the trilogy, as well as some of my other favorite dystopian novels here:

Catching Fire Unit, Mockingjay Unit, Divergent by Veronica Roth Unit, and The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness Unit

My friends here at the Secondary English Coffee Shop also have some great units and activities for teaching dystopian literature:

DYSTOPIAN SHORT STORY FLIP BOOK & ACTIVITIES by The Classroom Sparrow

THE GIVER UNIT PLAN by Presto Plans

FAHRENHEIT 451 UNIT PLAN & NOVEL STUDY by The Daring English Teacher

DYSTOPIAN FICTION UNIT by Jackie from Room 213

Thank you so much for reading!

Teaching Romeo and Juliet: 15 Engaging Ideas for Before, During, and After Reading

By The Daring English Teacher

Teaching Romeo and Juliet is one of the pinnacle experiences of being a high school English Teacher. Romeo and Juliet has it all: poetry, love, fate, and tragedy. Try incorporating these 15 creative activities and assignments into your next Romeo and Juliet unit to keep students engaged and help them understand the play more!

All of the linked activities are included in my Five-week Romeo and Juliet Unit that comes with a pacing guide and multiple activities. It is perfect for teaching the play!

Teaching Romeo and Juliet: Pre-Reading Activities

1. Teach Blank Verse & Iambic Pentameter 

With blank verse being such an integral part of the play to help establish character rank, teaching your students about blank verse and iambic pentameter will help them better understand the soliloquies and monologues! 

After teaching students the basics of blank verse, I like to have students try out the classic poetry format for themselves. This free blank verse project is a great way to get students to write their own lines! Plus, these projects make for excellent classroom decorations and bulletin boards!

2. Prologue Annotation & Writing Activity

Shakespeare holds nothing back in his prologue of Romeo and Juliet. In fact, he basically spoils the plot before he even gets started with Act I! That is why this Romeo and Juliet Prologue Activity that breaks down the prologue through annotation and analyzing its themes, imagery, and meaning is such a great activity to complete with your students before you read Romeo and Juliet. 

A fun classroom activity is to challenge students to rewrite the prologue in modern language! Another fun twist on this activity is to have them write a prologue for their favorite Disney or Pixar movie —bonus points if they do it in sonnet form! 

Romeo and Juliet Prologue Activity

3. Shakespearean Insult Battle

Introduce students to Shakespeare’s witty insults by having them create their own using authentic Elizabethan vocabulary. Let them engage in a playful (and classroom-friendly) battle of words. You can find Shakespeare insult words online and share them with students. It is a great way to familiarize students with Elizabethan language. 

Teaching Romeo and Juliet: During-Reading Activities

4. Foldable and Interactive Romeo and Juliet Comprehension Bookmarks

These Romeo and Juliet Comprehension and Analysis Bookmarks are so great because they help you pace the drama as you teach and fold up so students can actually use them as bookmarks as they read! These bookmarks contain comprehension questions to help students understand the play, a place to track a timeline of events, and space for quote analysis!

5. CLOZE Summary Passages

One of the reasons why many students struggle with Shakespeare is because of the Elizabethan language. However, these Romeo and Juliet Cloze Summary Passages solve that problem! This resource includes a summary passage for the prologue as well as for each of the Acts! Each passage is summarized and written in everyday language and includes multiple fill-in-the blanks to assess students’ understanding of the play!

You can use these fill-in-the-blank summary passages to check for understanding and reinforce key events, themes, and character actions in each act or as a different kind of quiz.

Romeo and Juliet Cloze Summary Passages

6. Emoji Scene Summaries

One fun way to help students understand the text is to have them work in small groups to summarize scenes from an Act using only emojis! This can also be a fun and collaborative group presentation you assign your students after finishing an Act.

To assign an Emoji Scene Summary, divide your students into equal groups for each scene in the act you just finished. In a collaborative Google Slide presentation with one slide for each scene, have the students only use emojis to summarize their assigned scene. Before moving on, have each group present their scene summaries to the class. 

7. Storyboard a Scene

Another great way to assess student understanding of an Act is to have students work on comic strips or storyboards where they summarize key details and quote from a scene. By allowing students to visually represent key scenes by creating a comic strip or digital storyboard, it will then break down complex Shakespearean dialogue and analyze the significance of each moment. Students can even work in groups to create a comic strip or storyboard for an entire act, or even the entire play!

8. Romeo & Juliet Meme Challenge

Another way to help students understand the themes and character dynamics from the play is to assign a Romeo and Juliet Meme Challenge. For this fun and modern activity, select a scene from the play and have students work in partners to create a meme that they feel best represents the conflicts, tensions, nuances, or underlying tones from the scene. Since students love and relate to memes, this will allow them to dig deeper and analyze the text beyond the surface level. The key for the meme challenge is that the memes cannot be super obvious!

9. Create a Romeo and Juliet News Report

This fun activity is a perfect way to wrap-up Act I so that all students understand the initial conflicts and become acquainted with the characters before the rising action begins! Students can use their phones or Chromebooks to record quick 1-2 minute videos that report just the facts: the who, what, where, and when of what happened from a particular scene. Students can even go further into this activity by playing roles such as characters and reporters and creating mock interviews!

10. Romeo and Juliet Act Writing Tasks

While it is fun to incorporate engaging, hands-on, and kinesthetic activities into your Romeo and Juliet unit, it is also important to go back to the basics. This Romeo and Juliet Writing Assignment Pack includes a guided writing assignment (prompt, organizers, and scaffolds) for each Act.

Romeo and Juliet Writing Assignment Pack

Teaching Romeo and Juliet: Post-Reading Activities

11. Final Argument Essay

Once you reach the end of the play, it is time to point fingers, assign blame, and decide who or what is ultimately at fault for Romeo and Juliet’s demise! This Romeo and Juliet Final Argument Essay resource includes everything you need from brainstorming organizers to peer editing sheets to walk students through the entire writing process. 

12. Timeline Review Activity

To help students review Romeo and Juliet, assign a timeline review activity that requires them to work together and sort through all of the events from the play. Students will work together against other groups in your class to place all of the events in order first! 

Romeo and Juliet Timeline Review Activity

13. Rewrite the Ending

I’m not sure about you, but no matter how many times I read Romeo and Juliet with my students, I am always hoping that somehow the ending has magically changed and that there is a more favorable outcome. Alas, that never happens. 

A fun way to incorporate the narrative writing standard into your classroom is to assign students a quick one or two-page rewrite of Act V. 

14. Symbolism Analysis Stations

Help your students understand the symbols within the play by completing a symbolism analysis station. This Romeo and Juliet Symbolism Analysis Activity includes six different symbol analysis stations. At each station, students read carefully selected passages and analyze the passage for the included symbol. It is an engaging and collaborative way to gain a deeper understanding of the play!

Romeo and Juliet Symbolism Analysis Activity

15. Romeo and Juliet: The Soundtrack

At the end of the play, assign students a soundtrack assignment. In small groups, students will work together to curate a soundtrack that accurately captures the themes, conflicts, and ideas from each Act of the play. Students can either select multiple songs per Act or just one song to best represent each Act. 

As students go through the soundtrack, they should experience the same mood and emotions as they did as they read the play. Students can also write a quick paragraph for each song explaining its connection and create an album cover for their compilation!

Make your next Romeo and Juliet unit your best one yet!

Whether it’s your first or fiftieth time teaching Romeo and Juliet, adding in some new activities is a great way to keep the play relevant, modern, and engaging for your learners. You can grab all of these linked resources in one bundle here: 5-Week Romeo and Juliet Unit. 

Looking for more Romeo and Juliet ideas, check out our earlier blog posts about Romeo and Juliet and Shakespeare: 6 Creative Ideas for Teaching Romeo and Juliet and Six Tips for Teaching Shakespeare!

Additional Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet resources and ideas:

• Romeo and Juliet Character Cards and Character Charts (Print & Digital Charts) by Addie Williams
• Romeo & Juliet Shakespeare Coloring Pages by Tracee Orman
• Romeo and Juliet Questions & Activities by The Classroom Sparrow
• Romeo and Juliet Activity - Romeo & Juliet characters on social media by Room 213
• Romeo and Juliet Activity Bundle - Creative Activities & Assignments Shakespeare by Presto Plans