69ý

Teaching Profession

Teachers’ Favorite Reads This Summer

By Elizabeth Heubeck — July 12, 2024 2 min read
Woman reading book in hammock
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

Teachers push their students to read over the summer, and for good reason. Regularly reading in summer months when school’s not in session has been tied to all sorts of , from preventing a loss of literacy skills to improving reading proficiency to building a lifelong affinity for pleasure reading.

But summer reading isn’t just for students.

Without the daily demands of the classroom and the work that so many teachers take home to do in the evenings and weekends throughout the school year, summer presents perhaps the best opportunity to squeeze in reading—other than poring over curricula objectives and student essays, that is.

So, what’s on teachers’ reading list this summer?

Education Week posed the question to teachers in an unscientific online poll earlier this month. The robust level of responses assured us that teachers do, in fact, practice what they preach—at least with regards to summer reading.

Based on our sample, it appears that teachers choose to read a bit of everything: fantasy, historical accounts, educational pedagogy, science fiction, classics, how-to, inspirational, escapist, and pretty much every other genre out there.

The following selection of books, culled from teachers’ summer reading lists, provides a window into the active, curious minds of educators. Responses were edited for length and clarity.

Selections that show some teachers’ minds never stray far from their job

I’m reading a lot of the books in my classroom library in order to place them on a new rubric our district just introduced. I’ve read Kira Salak’s “The Cruelest Journey: 600 Miles to Timbuktu,” Caroline van Hemert’s “The Sun is a Compass: 6,000 Miles Into the Alaskan Wilds,” Natalie Babbitt’s “Tuck Everlasting,” and Victoria Aveyard’s “Red Queen.”

I’m still working on Erin Morgenstern’s “The Night Circus,” Stephen King’s “Insomnia,” Amy Tan’s “Saving Fish from Drowning,” and a few other titles that I need to become more familiar with for student benefit.

—.

I’m reading topics involving differentiating in the modern classroom as well as effective literacy instruction, to name a few.

“Unreasonable Hospitality” by Will Guidara, “The Anxious Generation” by Jonathan Haidt, and “Bad Therapy” by Abigail Shrier.

Book lists that suggest a voracious appetite for learning

Service manual for Daddy’s last car, étude study and intonation practice intervals for double bass, Stephen Hawkings’ ”Universe” and Arthur C. Clarke’s “3001: The Final Odyssey.”

—.

Just finished “Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI” by Ethan Mollick; finally read “Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results” by James Clear; and, just for fun: “The Paris Novel,” by Ruth Reichl, which was delightful!

—.

The Cesar Chavez autobiography, “It” by Stephen King, “The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics” by James Oakes, “Raising Critical Thinkers” by Julie Bogart, “Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland” by Patrick Radden Keefe.

“The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.

Without reading too much into it, this respondent’s last selection leaves us pondering his intentions:

“This Side of Paradise,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and “How to Retire Earlier,” by Robert Charlton.

Read all the responses to the original LinkedIn post . And check out Education Week’s own recommendations for additional summer reads and podcasts:

See also

Conceptual illustration of hand holding books and digital devices showing podcasts.
Conceptual: Liz Yap/Education Week and iStock/Getty Images

Related Tags:

Events

This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Artificial Intelligence Webinar
AI and Educational Leadership: Driving Innovation and Equity
Discover how to leverage AI to transform teaching, leadership, and administration. Network with experts and learn practical strategies.
Content provided by 
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School Climate & Safety Webinar
Investing in Success: Leading a Culture of Safety and Support
Content provided by 
Assessment K-12 Essentials Forum Making Competency-Based Learning a Reality
Join this free virtual event to hear from educators and experts working to implement competency-based education.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

Teaching Profession Opinion Teacher Contracts Need to Change. And It’s Not Just About Money
If we want to retain effective teaches, we should increase teacher compensation—but we need to do it strategically.
Karen Hawley Miles & David Rosenberg
4 min read
Final Piece Of The Puzzle. Two people about to shake hands over trading a jigsaw puzzle piece needed for the solution.
iStock/Getty Images + Education Week
Teaching Profession The State of Teaching Teachers Say the Public Views Them Negatively
The perception coincides with teachers' low levels of job satisfaction.
2 min read
survey teachers static
via Canva
Teaching Profession Download Play Teacher TV Bingo and Spot All the Teacher Tropes
It's trope bingo; spot the common (and often annoying) mischaracterizations.
Image of bingo cards, a remote control, and a television.
via Canva
Teaching Profession Fictional Teachers on TV Can Skew Public Perception
Media tropes about teachers can give incoming educators and the public unrealistic expectations about the profession.
5 min read
Chris Perfetti, Lisa Ann Walter, Quinta Brunson, and Tyler James Williams play teachers on the ABC sitcom “Abbott Elementary.” Teachers say the show resonates with their experience.
Chris Perfetti, Lisa Ann Walter, Quinta Brunson, and Tyler James Williams play teachers on the ABC sitcom “Abbott Elementary.” Teachers say the show resonates with their experience, but researchers say many other portrayals of teachers are flawed.
Gilles Mingasson/ABC