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Summer reading looks a little different in every classroom, but the goal remains the same: keeping students engaged with literature while giving them creative ways to demonstrate their thinking. In the Intermediate and Middle School divisions, teachers used a mix of analytical writing and visual projects to help students reflect on their required summer texts, shaking off the summer rust and sharpening core skills for the year ahead.

Our 4th grade students completed a character analysis project, as they evaluated who the characters were on the inside versus how they presented on the outside, examining their personal challenges and growth throughout the story. To bring their work to life, they paired their profiles with oversized, hand-drawn character portraits.

In 5th grade, students completed two distinct projects. First, they wrote an essay evaluating a central problem in their book, explaining how it was solved and offering their own perspective on how they would have handled it. Second, they created "Bloom Balls"—12-sided geometric shapes where each panel highlighted a different literary element, from setting and figurative language to author facts, themes, and quotes.

Sixth graders practiced empathy by writing friendly letters directly to a main character, addressing the character's main conflict and offering advice on how to navigate it. For their second book, they designed an illustrated one-pager capturing the novel's setting, theme, key characters, and plot dynamics.

The 7th graders focused on sustained attention to writing prompts and paragraph structure. They wrote a three-paragraph essay exploring how a main character showed courage or changed over time. For their second and choice books, students chose between a visual one-pager, slideshow presentation, or video highlighting plot conflicts and character arcs.

And, in 8th grade, students dusted off their academic writing skills by crafting five-paragraph essays centered on character, conflict, or theme, with a focus on organizing ideas and integrating textual evidence. Like the seventh graders, they also completed a visual project or slideshow, including a short "book talk" on an award-winning text of their choice to argue whether the book truly earned its acclaim.