5 Ways to Use Redeemed Reader for School

Apples, new pencils, pumpkin spice, and the hint of a cool breeze—must be September—and a new school year! Did you know you can use Redeemed Reader for school, no matter what school looks like in your home?

This School Year is a New Adventure

As we all know, this school year is starting off differently than previous ones, no matter what type of schooling your family was previously attending. Homeschool co-ops are up in the air. Traditional classrooms are a mash-up of in-person with masks, hybrid online learning, or entirely virtual. Libraries may not be open for in-person browsing. Extra curricular activities look different—if they’re even happening at all.

No doubt, you are spending your school dollars differently, too. Perhaps you had to invest in new devices, tweak your WiFi speed, buy books you previously planned to get at the library, or purchase an online class or two.

Did you know that you can use Redeemed Reader for school? For free?

Before you plunk down more dollars on curriculum you may or may not need, consider the following ways to use Redeemed Reader this year for school whether you are a parent, a teacher, a homeschooler, or a librarian.

#1: Use Redeemed Reader for “Reading”

We’ll start with the obvious: use our website to get ideas for reading! Are your children learning to read? Try browsing our collection of Early Reader recommendations; don’t forget to ask your child to read to you. Working on pre-reading and listening skills? We’ve reviewed loads of picture books. Check out our Family Read Alouds for great audio ideas. Encourage your teens to browse our Teen Reviews for “free reading” ideas.

Take it to the next level:

• Have your child track the books he or she reads.
• Alternatively, have your child track the minutes he or she reads. This is a popular option for new readers because it may take more than 20 minutes to read a book out loud, but 20 minutes might be plenty of practice for one session!
• Keep a running list of the books you read aloud as a family.
• Try working through the Love Your Neighbor Book Club titles.
• Check out our exclusive collection of essays by Gladys Hunt for inspiration on reading to and with children.
• Enrich a traditional reading list that primarily includes books from pre-1950 and/or about only one group of people by browsing our Multicultural recommendations.

#2: Use Redeemed Reader for “Content” Subjects

“Content” subjects are courses like history and science (as opposed to “skill” subjects like handwriting or math). Reading about ideas, people, and topics related to your course is a great way to enrich your existing material or create your overall content in the first place.

How to discover relevant content on Redeemed Reader:

• Browse our book lists for ideas.
• Browse our nonfiction books.
• Browse our picture book biographies. (Hint: even middle school and high school students will benefit from these!)
• Browse all our biographies.
• You can also browse the subjects listed on the Book Reviews hub.
• Search for your topic in the upper right corner of the site; note: one of the things we hope to do through our new membership program is fund a more robust search engine.

#3: Use Redeemed Reader for Academic Assignments

An obvious academic assignment is to require a certain amount of reading along with some sort of response (oral narration, written narration, traditional book report, etc.).

But you can dig a little deeper, particularly for middle and high school students. Consider the following resources:

• The Hero’s Journey: Have your students use the chart in the download to analyze a hero in a book they’re reading for class (this pairs well with works like Beowulf, The Odyssey, Great Expectations, and other character-driven works in which the main character is on a journey (literal or figurative)).
• Discussion Starters: Use a discussion question like those in our “discussion starter” reviews to jumpstart an essay assignment. Most of these are opinion questions. Ask your students to write an essay to “prove” or demonstrate their point using examples from the book in question.
• Debate: Use one of our Reflections, like this one about “Messing with the Classics” or this one “Are Graphic Novels Literature,” to prompt a class (or family) debate.

#4: Use Redeemed Reader for Teacher Prep

Sometimes, you just need a simple, short resource to help you think through a literary work or an issue surrounding reading in general. And sometimes, you want to work more methodically through a resource that acts as professional development. We’ve got you covered for both.

Reflections: these are our musings over all things literary. Some of them might be of particular help in your teacher prep:

• Bad Words in Books
• The Hero’s Journey
• Why Is Writing So Hard to Teach?
• Browse our Shakespeare materials

Literary Nightstand: books about books! These are books for professional development in general, more than help with a particular lesson or topic.

#5: Use Redeemed Reader for the Most Important of All: Bible Class

Whether you are teaching an official “Bible class” or not, the Bible is still the most important book you can read with and to your children (or for them to read for themselves). We’ve got plenty of recommendations along those lines, whether your child is a beginning reader or a teen ready to dive into a meaty study. Check out some of these resources as a start:

• Best Bibles Guide (our top recommendations in one place)
• Browse our devotionals for ideas for all ages

Have you used Redeemed Reader for school? Tell us in the comments!