A Benefit of First Chapter Friday Nearpod Activities

If you’re a secondary English teacher, and especially if you’re at all connected to other teachers online (or a follower of Abby Gross of writeonwithmissg), you’ve probably heard of First Chapter Friday. Many teachers are implementing this simple idea—reading the first chapter of a high-interest novel aloud in class each Friday—to get students excited about reading. It’s a great approach: we all know the benefits of reading and the reluctance of many of our students to spend any of their time doing it. But, as with anything in education, teachers must decide how best to implement the activity in their own classrooms. Today, we’re sharing how our approach to First Chapter Friday evolved into a simple 5–10 minute activity students can complete independently.

When we first started doing First Chapter Friday, we kept it simple: we selected a book from our classroom library and read the first chapter aloud to students. That’s it! And any teacher who wants to start implementing First Chapter Friday in their own classroom can keep it as simple as this. We tried to make sure we had multiple copies of the book available for students to check out, even displaying them at the front of the classroom for the week, and we did have students occasionally pick up a book we previewed in class. We made our selections based on books we had available, though we did occasionally order a few copies of newer books we thought our students would love.

Then (all together now) the COVID-19 pandemic hit. For the last few months of the 2019–2020 school year, we were, like everyone else, just trying to survive, and our regular routines and “nonessentials” went out the window. We were still recommending books, but we were just posting about them on our Google Classrooms (which meant most students took a pass on checking them out.) Once we learned we would be starting the next school year online, however, we were determined to bring a sense of normalcy and routine to our classroom, which included bringing back First Chapter Fridays.

Because we decided to move toward a flipped classroom model, we wanted to find a way students could complete all their assignments independently. Our district promoted Nearpod heavily during our back-to-school professional development, and we realized it would be an easy way to make First Chapter Friday work. We created Nearpods that included a screencast in which we shared a few words about why we selected the book and played an audio sample (an entire first chapter was not always available), and then we added 2–3 simple multiple-choice questions for students to answer. It was a great bellringer on Fridays: students were exposed to over 35 books, were held accountable for engaging with the activity, and earned a few easy participation points. Our district provided access to Sora for students to check out ebooks, so we did our best to select books from a variety of genres available on that site so accessing the book wouldn’t be an issue for our students.

When we returned to the classroom in the fall of 2021, we made our bellringers into a menu of “weekly assignments” students could complete at their own pace. Students had 10–15 minutes to work on these assignments at the beginning of class each day, and the assignments were all due on Friday. It was fun to see students choose to do their First Chapter Friday Nearpod first and check out the books on Sora. In all, it was an engaging, easy-to-manage way of introducing our students to books they might enjoy.

Now that we’ve left the classroom to support teachers like you, we’re creating and sending out FIVE free First Chapter Friday Nearpods each month. Instead of a few words from us about why we chose the book, we’ve added book trailers before the audio sample, and we’ve included the book pages onscreen while the audio plays for students who are better visual processors (or who want to go back to the text when they’re answering the questions at the end). We strive to highlight contemporary young adult texts from a variety of genres and voices (and toss in a few oldies-but-goodies as well), and only include books we’ve previewed, enjoyed, and would feel comfortable recommending in our own classrooms. If you’re looking for a simple way to build a reading culture in your classroom but don’t have the time to research trending titles or plan an activity yourself, we hope you’ll sign up!

Do you do First Chapter Fridays in your classroom? What is your favorite strategy to engage your students with these text previews? Do you have a book you’d love to see included in our monthly selections? Reach out to us at [email protected] or on Instagram @threeheads.works. Even better? Share this blog with another teacher and give them back some time!