10th grade summer reading assignment

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10th Grade College Preparatory & Honors

English 10 summer reading assignment 2022.

• ELA 10 College Preparatory (optional). This assignment will receive bonus points in the form of a quiz grade.
• ELA 10 Honors Summer Reading and completion of the full assignment is required .

Greetings! As you know summer reading is a tradition for most high schools across the United States. Summer reading is a way for you to keep your brain "fit'" and it has been stated that the more a person reads, the better they read. Overall, we encourage you to take advantage of the reading options available, and, hopefully, find a little enjoyment while reading.

ELA 10 College Preparatory (optional) *Follow steps 1 & 2 only

Choose one of the following books:

• Born a Crime  by Trevor Noah
• The Curious Incident of the Dog   in the Night-time , Mark Haddon

ELA 10 Honors Summer Reading (Required)

Step 1: Read the following book:

• Born a Crime  by Trevor Noah (10H required)

Step 2: Summer Reading Assessment: (English 10 Honors only): When you return to school, you will apply your understanding of the book in an in-class essay assignment. You will be able to use your notes and the book to help write and support your essay. Class activities designed to help with the understanding of each novel will be conducted.

Here is a  Novel Guide  you can complete while you read the book. For College Prep this assignment is optional and will be applied as bonus points for an assignment. For honors, this is an optional tool that will help to prepare you for the in-class writing.

If you have any concerns about summer reading, feel free to contact any of the tenth grade English teachers via email.

Mrs. Bartman:  [email protected]

Ms. Corduff:  [email protected]

Mrs. DeCaro:  [email protected]

Mrs. Garner:  [email protected]

Mr. Weber:  [email protected]

Mrs. Svec:  [email protected]

Summer Reading 2023

High five! You made it to summer! Tech's English Department hopes that July and August offer you some rest and relaxation, some time to invest in the people and activities you love. We also hope you find a book to enjoy. For this summer assignment, choose any work of fiction or non-fiction that interests and challenges you. You can see our suggestions on the next page, but the choice is up to you.

What do I do over the summer?

• Select a book that you haven't read before from our suggested list or find one on your own. You can check many of these books out digitally from our school library using the Sora app or from a public library. Be thoughtful about your selection. Choose something of personal interest and something that will push you as a reader and thinker. You are free to read from any grade level or even something that isn't on our list.
• Choose one of the options below:
• Option 1: Write a personal response to your chosen book. What did you find relatable / compelling / infuriating / thought-provoking / problematic and why? How do the issues and themes this book raises relate to your life? Dig into some specific ideas and moments that got you thinking. (350-500 words)
• Option 2: Create a piece of visual art that explores an important idea from the book you read. The piece should delve into your response to the book, not just provide an illustration. It may be any size or medium, but it must be your original artwork. Include a caption that explains your intentions and choices. (~150 words)
• Option 3: Compose a letter to the author of your chosen book OR a letter to a character in it. In your letter, bring up the ideas and questions that the book raised for you. Consider offering your personal reactions to specific moments in the book. Write like it's a conversation, not an essay. (350-500 words)
• Two additional guidelines to consider:
• The spirit of this assignment is to encourage curiosity and thoughtfulness about books and the world. Be original, be creative, have fun! Please, please, please don't be boring. We are interested in your opinions, reactions, and responses to the book. No summaries please; we can read those online too.
• Save your work digitally so that you can easily upload your writing/artwork to Google Classroom in the fall by Friday, September 15th .

Come to class in the fall ready to talk to your new classmates and teacher about your book and share your writing/artwork. Your English teacher will provide more details in the first week of school, but plan to submit your work on Google Classroom by Friday, September 15th . EVERY SINGLE TECH STUDENT IS EXPECTED TO COMPLETE A SUMMER READING ASSIGNMENT!

For Rising Seniors, Class of 2024:   In addition to the summer reading, all seniors are expected to have a complete draft of an essay that responds to one of the Common Application essay prompts . You may revisit the work you did with your 11th grade English teacher this past spring or start over with a new idea based on what you learned. This essay is also due Friday, September 15th . You will spend some time in the early fall revising this piece.

Alternate Assignments:   Please note that students who are taking the following classes next year have a different summer assignment that they should complete in lieu of this one: AP Capstone Seminar, AP Capstone Research, and AP English Literature . Those assignments are posted below. Also note that juniors taking AP English Language must choose from the list of 11th grade non-fiction options.

What's that you say? You want to read MORE!?

Please join us for the BTHS Summer Reading Challenge Bingo ! Read three books in different categories and win Tech merch! Students, staff, parents and alumni are all invited to participate.

•       10th Grade AP Capstone Seminar - Complete the alternate assignment below called "Summer Reading 2023 AP Capstone Seminar."
•       11th Grade AP English Language & Composition - You MUST choose from the list of suggested 11th grade NON-FICTION works in the general assignment.
•       12th Grade AP English Literature - Complete the alternate assignment below called "Summer Reading 2023 AP English Literature." 
•       12th Grade AP Capstone Research - Complete the alternate assignment below called "Summer Log 2023 AP Capstone Research."

• Walton High School

Educate. Inspire. Empower.

Summer Assignment Lists

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Every student will have a required summer assignment in English and Social Studies. Additionally, some courses in mathematics and science require a summer learning assignment. These assignments along with specific instructions on the assignments will be posted to the Walton website in May. Please consider these requirements when planning your course selection for the 2024-2025 school year.

English Summer Reading:

9 th Grade English Literature and Composition (All levels – one book with assignment)

Between Shades of Gray (Sepetys)

9 th Grade Literature Small Group (One required book with assignment) 

Refugee (Gratz) 

10 th Grade English World Literature (One required book with assignment)  

               The Alchemist (Coelho)  

10 th Grade English Honors World Literature (One required book with assignment)  

            Life of Pi ( Martel)

10 th Grade English ISA Honors World Literature (One required book with assignment) 

            Life of Pi ( Martel)   

10 th Grade World Literature Small Group (One required book with assignment)  

Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)  

10 th Grade AP Language and Composition (Two required books with assignment)  

Thank You for Arguing (Heinrichs)  

The Elements of Style (Strunk and White)   

11 th Grade English American Literature (Choice of ONE book with assignment)  

Choose one: Range (Epstein), David and Goliath (Gladwell), Grit (Duckworth), or Quiet (Cain)

11 th Grade English Honors American Literature (One required book with assignment)  

Choose one: Range (Epstein), David and Goliath (Gladwell), Grit (Duckworth), or Quiet (Cain)  

11 th Grade English LA Honors American Literature (Two required books)  

How to Read Literature Like a Professor (Foster)  

Choose one: Range (Epstein), David and Goliath (Gladwell), Grit (Duckworth), or Quiet (Cain)     

11 th Grade American Literature Small Group (One required book with assignment)  

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass  (Douglass)   

11 th Grade AP Language and Composition/American Literature (Two required books with assignment)     

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass  (Douglass) 

*In addition to summer reading, all 12 th graders must complete the Post-Secondary Options Packet available on the “Information” page of the School Counseling website by the end of summer. 

  Home | Walton High School Counseling Department (waltonhighcounseling.com)

12 th Grade English British Literature (One required book)  *

Buried Giant (Ishiguro) 

12 th Grade Dramatic Writing (one book and one movie required)  *

The Martian (Weir – novel) and The Martian (film, 2015)  

12 th Grade English Honors British Literature (One required book with assignment)  *

Buried Giant (Ishiguro)  

12 th Grade British Literature Small Group (One required book with assignment)  *

The Hound of the Baskervilles (Doyle)

12 th Grade AP Literature and Composition (Two required books with assignment)  *

Grendel (Gardner)

Oryx and Crake (Atwood)  

12 th Grade ISA AP Literature and Composition (One required book with assignment) *  

The Farming of Bones (Danticat)  

Social Studies Summer Reading:

World Geography & AP Human Geography

No Assigned Reading, Geography will complete level specific summer assignments. 

Economics, Honors Economics, & AP Microeconomics

How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes (Schiff and Schiff)

              The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation (Hennessey)

Honors Government & AP Government

              Nickel & Dimed (Ehrenreich)

U.S. History, Honors U.S. History & AP U.S. History

              No Assigned Reading.  All US History classes will complete a summer assignment.    

World History & Honors World History

              A History of the World in Six Glasses (Introduction & Chapter 1-4 ONLY) (Standage)

AP World History

              A History of the World in Six Glasses (Introduction & Chapter 1-4 ONLY) ( Standage )

AP European History

              Brunelleschi’s Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture (King)

Science Summer Assignment:

All students enrolled in AP Biology will have a summer assignment.  Students should contact Mr. Wolfe at [email protected] for access to the assignment.  Students should include their name, email address and section (Regular, STEM AMS, STEM BMS, or STEM Engineering) when contacting Mr. Wolfe.

Math Summer Assignment:

All Students enrolled in Enhanced Geometry/Advanced Algebra will have a summer packet to complete.  The packet will be available on the Mathematics Department page of the Walton website in May. 

Related Files

US History Summer Assignment Document Packet

US History Summer Assignment Answer Packet

AP Lit (12th Grade) Summer Reading

Small Group 12th grade British Lit Summer assignment 2023 (1)

On Level 12th Grade Brit Lit summer reading assignment 23

Honors 12th Grade Brit Literature 2023 Summer Reading

Dramatic Writing (12th Grade) Summer Reading 2023

AP Language 11th 2023 Summer reading

Small group 11th grade Summer reading 2023

11th Grade On-level American Lit Summer Reading 2023

11th Grade Honors American Lit (LA) Summer Reading 2023

11th Grade Honors American Lit Summer Reading 2023

Ap language 10th 2023 summer reading assignment.

10th Grade On-level World Literature Summer Reading Assignment 2023

10th Grade Honors World Lit Summer Reading Assignment 2023

10th Grade Honors World Lit ISA Summer Reading Assignment 2023

9th Grade Lit On Level Comp Summer Reading Assignment 2023

9th Small Group summer reading 2023

Honors ISA 9th literature Summer Reading

Honors 9th Grade Literature 2023 Summer Reading Assignment

AP Human Geography: How Syria Came to This Summer Assignment Article 2

AP Human Geography: Cuban Migration Summer Assignment Article 1

AP Human Geography: Summer Requirements

AP Human Geography: Countries Regions Practice

ISA APUSH Summer Assignment

Related links.

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Summer Reading

NEST+m is a community of readers. Each summer, our students receive grade-specific reading assignments. Please see the information below for Lower, Middle and Upper Grades summer reading assignments. All books have been carefully chosen by our ELA teachers.

Before starting your assignment, please read the important information below:

“Books are sometimes windows , offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. Readers have only to [look] through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created and recreated by the author . 

[A book] can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience . 

Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation , and readers often seek their mirrors in books… 

[We] need books that will help them understand the multicultural nature of the world they live in, and their place as a member of just one group, as well as their connections to all other humans.”  

“ Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors ” (1990)

Upper Grades 9-12

Summer 2024 Assignment is still to be announced!

Last year's assignment:

Please see the Grades 9-12 Summer Reading Assignment

• Grade 9 reading list
• Grade 10 reading list
• Grades 11 & 12 reading list

Middle Grades 6-8

Please see the Summer Reading assignments for 2023 :

• 7th & 8th Grade

Summer reading assignments are due during the first week of ELA class. 

Lower Grades K-5

Please see our Summer 2023 Reading Assignments :

• Kindergarten does not have a Summer Reading assignment
• Grades 1 & 2
• Grades 3, 4 & 5

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Excellence • Leadership • Wellness • Honor

SUMMER  READING

At gala, each student is, expected to complete a, summer reading project, in  preparation for, the upcoming  school year., scroll below to, your grade level, for full details..

THIS SUMMER READING LIST IS CURRENT AS OF FEBRUARY 2024. BOOKS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

6TH GRADE SUMMER READING

To prepare for the 6th grade English class, please read one of the following over the summer.  Assignment: Double Entry Journal Due Date: First week of English/History Classes

Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

7th grade summer reading, rising 7th graders, please read one of the following novels and complete the assignment over the summer. . assignment: double entry journal due date: first week of english/history classes.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Kane Chronicles: The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

Magnus Chase and the Guards of Asgard: The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan

8th grade summer reading.

In eighth grade, students will discuss the novel by J.R.R Tolkien - The Hobbit. To prepare for this work, please read the novel over the summer.  Assignment: Double Entry Journal Due Date: First week of English/History Classes Questions : [email protected]

9th grade summer reading, throughout the ninth grade, you will be exploring what it means to come of age. for your summer reading, choose one of the following books to read and construct a double-entry journal. please click on instruction pdf below.  assignment:  double entry journal due date:  first week of english/history classes.

Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Brave New World by Aldous Husley

Godless by Pete Hautman

Lord of the Flies by Lois Lowry

The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizinni

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco Stork

To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Lemonade Mouth by Mark Peter Hughes

Nothing by Janne Teller

9th grade ap biology, if you have registered for ap biology, the information in this summer assignment is intended to remind you of information that you have learned in middle school science as well as what  you would have learned if you had taken high school biology.  as a reminder, ap biology is designed for students that have already taken high school biology, so this summer assignment should help support you in your ap bio journey., 10th grade summer reading, throughout the tenth grade, you will be exploring the topic of culture. for your summer reading, choose one of the following books to read and construct a double-entry journal. instructions in the pdf below.  assignment:  double entry journal due date:  first week of english/history classes.

View/Print FULL Assignment Details in a PDF format

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel Fattah

Like Water For Chocolate by Pete Hautman

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Big Mouth & Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates

Failure is Impossible by Susan B. Anthony

Meridian by Alice Walker

The Fold by Ana Na

Black Boy by Richard Wright

Hidden in Plain View by Tobin & Dobard

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Good, The Bad, and the BARBIE: Doll's History by Ward & Burns

Brief Wondrous Life Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

How Garcia Girls Lost Accents by Julia Alvarez

Tasting the Sky by Ibtisam Barakat

When I was a Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago

11th grade summer reading, 11th grade american literature (not ap lang) : to prepare for this class, please read one of the following books over the summer. assignment: double entry journal due date: first week of english classes.

A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The Autobiography of Malcom X by Malcom X and Alex Haley

Unorthodox by Deborah Feldman

Farewell to Manzanar by Waksatsuki Houston & Houston

The Color of Water by James McBride

Freakonomics by Levitt & Dubner

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

11th grade ap lang, if you are taking ap lang, please read the book below during the summer and complete the assignment. assignment: click on the instructions . due date: first week of english classes.

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green

11th grade ap seminar, if you are taking ap seminar, please see below. assignment: see instructions due date: first week of ap seminar.

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

12th grade summer reading.

Assignment: Click below for a detailed description of instructions along with links and PDFs of some of the books below.

Due Date: First week of English Classes

Dare to Lead by Brene Brown

Ethics 101  by Brian Boone

7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens  by Sean Covey

Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before  by Julie Smith

12th grade ap literature.

Assignment: Click below for detailed assignment instructions. 

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

King Lear by William Shakespeare

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Baltimore Polytechnic Institute

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Supported by

Our 15th Annual Summer Reading Contest

Students are invited to tell us what they’re reading in The Times and why, this year in writing OR via a 90-second video. Contest dates: June 7 to Aug. 16.

By The Learning Network

The illustrations for this post were originally created by Adolfo Redaño for “ Summer Books 2023 .”

Our Summer Reading Contest is our longest-running challenge — and our simplest.

All you have to do to participate is tell us what you’re reading, watching or listening to in The New York Times and why.

Don’t have a subscription? No problem! We’ll be providing dozens of free links to teen-friendly articles, essays, videos, podcasts and graphics every week from June through August.

And this summer, both to celebrate the contest’s 15th year and to shake things up a bit, we’ll be trying something new: Students can enter as they always have by submitting a short written response — or they can make a video up to 90 seconds long.

Got questions? We have answers. Everything you need is detailed below.

But if you’re a teacher who would like to have your students practice for this now, before the contest begins, note that the only rule around content is that a piece must have been published in 2024. Beyond that, we don’t care if your students pick something on cats , chatbots , the cost of college or the crisis in the Middle East ; Beyoncé , book bans , basketball or banana bread . We just want to hear what they think. To help, we’ve created a special practice forum . Join us!

Have fun, and, as always, post your questions here or write to [email protected].

This announcement is available as a one-page PDF to hang on your class bulletin board.

Here’s what you need to know:

The challenge, rules and guidelines, resources for teachers, students and parents, frequently asked questions, how to submit.

Choose something in The New York Times that got your attention and tell us why — via a short written or video response.

Here’s how the contest works:

Every Friday for 10 weeks beginning on June 7, we will publish a post asking the same question: “What got your attention in The Times this week?” That’s where you should submit your response any time until the following Friday at 9 a.m. Eastern, when we will close that post and open a new one that asks the same question. On Aug. 9 we’ll post our final question of the summer, open until 9 a.m. on Aug. 16.

You can enter every week, or any week, all summer long, but you may only submit once each week.

You can always find the proper link to the place to submit at the top of this page, updated each week. Once the contest begins, you can also find it on our home page . Please see the How to Submit section below for more details.

You can choose anything you like that was published in the print paper or on nytimes.com in 2024, including articles, Opinion and guest essays , videos , graphics, photos and podcasts . To see the variety of topics winners have responded to over the years, read this column .

Then tell us what Times piece you chose and why it got your attention via a 250-word essay OR a 90-second video. See the full Rules and Guidelines for each type of response below. We have a contest rubric , as well as a guide for students that details four simple ways to make your response stand out.

We’ll choose winners each week, and every Tuesday during the contest, starting June 25, we’ll publish them in a separate post, which you can find here . All written and video entries will be judged together. We will also celebrate the winners on Facebook.

Please read these rules and guidelines carefully before you make your submissions.

Guidelines for written responses

Your written response should tell us what you read, watched or listened to in The Times and why it got your attention. You can find many examples in this column , which spotlights the work of our previous winners.

This guide walks you through some of the key elements of a great reader response, including making a personal connection to the piece, thinking critically about it, referencing specific details or quotes, and writing in your own unique voice.

Here are some guidelines to keep in mind:

Written responses must be no more than 1,500 characters, or about 250 words.

Make sure to i nclude the complete URL or headline of the Times piece you have chosen. For example, “The Joys and Challenges of Caring for Terrance the Octopus” or https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/11/us/tiktok-octopus-pet-oklahoma.html. Yes, this is included in the word count.

Guidelines for video responses

Just as with written responses, video responses should explain what Times piece you chose and why you chose it. The advice in this guide , while originally created with written responses in mind, can apply to video, as well.

We hope you’ll be creative, but that doesn’t mean your video has to be complicated or use special effects; sometimes simple is best. All you need is yourself and the camera on your phone to make a great video response.

Here are the guidelines:

Use a phone to shoot your video vertically (so it looks like the videos you might see on TikTok or Instagram Reels ).

Your video must be 90 seconds or fewer .

Please be sure to say or show the headline of the Times piece you are discussing.

Your video MAY NOT use any images, video clips, music or sound effects, other than those that appear in the Times piece you are discussing or what you create yourself. We cannot publish your video if it uses any copyrighted images or sounds — including TikTok sounds.

Make sure we can see and hear your video clearly. Pay attention to lighting and try to limit background noise as much as possible if it’s not an intentional part of your video.

Please do not include anyone else in your video. For the most part, we recommend filming only yourself, inanimate objects, animals, or your Times piece. You may film crowds of people in public places, but, to protect people’s privacy, try to avoid any close-ups.

A few additional rules

These rules apply to both written and video responses:

You can participate as often as every week, but we allow only ONE submission per person per week.

Any teenager 13 to 19 years old anywhere in the world is invited to join us , as long as you are in middle or high school, or have graduated from high school in 2024 and haven’t started college yet. See below, How to Submit , for more details.

The children and stepchildren of New York Times employees are not eligible to enter this contest. Teenagers who live in the same household as a Times employee are also ineligible.

The work you submit should be fundamentally your own — it should not be plagiarized, created by someone else or generated by artificial intelligence.

Your work must be original for this contest. That means it should not already have been published at the time of submission, whether in your school newspaper, for another contest, or anywhere else.

Keep in mind that the work you send in should be appropriate for a Times audience — that is, something that could be published in a family newspaper (so, please, no curse words).

For this contest, you must work alone , not in pairs or a group.

Entries must be received by the deadline at 9 a.m. Eastern time each Friday to be considered.

We have created many resources to help students practice for and participate in this contest over the years. Although they were written with the goal of helping students create written responses, many of them can work for video, too.

Writing Resources and Lesson Plans: Our full unit on independent reading and writing has lesson plans, writing prompts and mentor texts that can support students in the kind of thinking we’re asking them to do for this contest.

But, to see how easy this contest is, you might start with “ A Simple Exercise for Encouraging Independent Reading .” We invited four teachers across the country to try a short experiment in which they challenged their students to read a Times article on a topic within their comfort zone, and one article on a topic outside it. In this piece, they and their students reflect on the successful results.

We also have a Student Opinion question that challenges any student to do the same.

Student Mentors: “ Writing Rich Reading Responses: Participating in Our Summer Contest ” showcases a series of student-written mentor texts that demonstrate the four key elements that can make a short response — whether in a written or video format — sing.

You can also read all of the winning student entries from 2017 to the present , including reflections from many participants and judges.

And, check out a video version of our “Annotated by the Author” series (embedded above) in which two student winners of our 2020 contest discuss the “writer’s moves” they made.

Webinars: Teachers, to learn more about this contest and how you can teach with it, watch this free on-demand webinar from 2020 . And, to get ideas for supporting your students’ independent reading and writing, watch this on-demand webinar from 2021 .

Our Rubric: This is the rubric our judges will use to judge this contest. We’re looking for written and video responses that include personal connections, critical thinking, references to the source material, and voice and style.

Q. What kinds of responses are you looking for?

A. The subject matter isn’t important; neither is whether you loved or hated it. What we care about is what you have to say about why you picked it.

If you don’t believe us, scroll through the work of previous winners . They have written on weighty topics like abortion , racism , the war in Ukraine , Alzheimer’s disease , climate change and the dangers of vaping , but they have also covered handbags , hummingbirds , the Minions , text messaging , staycations , power naps, junk food , Wordle , Disney shows, running and bagels.

Whatever the subject, you’ll see that the best responses year after year make personal connections to the news and discuss the broader questions and ideas that the topic raises. We have even created a guide that outlines four simple things you can do to make your responses more powerful. We will use this rubric to judge entries.

So whether you were moved by an article , irked by an essay , bowled over by a photo , or inspired by a video , simply find something in The Times that genuinely interests you and tell us why, as honestly and originally as you can.

Q. Since you now offer the option to respond in video, are you looking for something different in that format?

Short answer: No. Longer answer: We’re excited to see what you come up with! We’ve purposely not put a lot of guidelines around what you can create since a) it’s summer, and we want this to be casual and b) we hope you’ll surprise us and show us what’s possible.

Though at the beginning all our contests focused on writing, in recent years we’ve been trying to encourage other forms of composition and expression. We hope you’ll take a risk and submit in video at least once this summer.

Q. Who will be judging my work?

A. The Learning Network staff, a team of New York Times journalists, along with educators from across the country.

Q. What is the “prize”?

A. The prize for winning any of our contests is having your work published on The Learning Network.

Q. When should I check to see if my submission won?

A. Every Tuesday from June 25 until Aug. 27, we will publish the previous week’s winner or winners in a separate article that you can find here . We will also celebrate the winners on Facebook.

Q. How do I participate in this contest if I don’t have a digital subscription to The Times?

A. All Learning Network posts for students, as well as all Times articles linked from them, are accessible without a digital subscription . So if you use any of the articles we have linked to on our site, they will not be blocked.

Each time we pose our question — “What got your attention in The Times this week?” — we will link to dozens of recent, teen-friendly pieces that you can choose from if you don’t have your own subscription.

You can also find copies of The New York Times at most public libraries, and some even allow you to access NYTimes.com with your library card.

And remember: You can use anything published anytime in 2024.

Q. How do I prove to my teacher that I participated?

A. If you are 13 to 19 in the United States and Britain — or 16 to 19 elsewhere in the world — and are submitting your written response by posting a comment, make sure to check the box that asks if you would like to be emailed when your comment is published. If you do so, the system will send you a link to your comment, which you can use to show your teacher, your parents, your friends or anyone else you’d like to impress. (Please note that you will not get an email until the comment has been approved, which may take longer over weekends.)

If you are submitting a video response or an adult is submitting a written response on behalf of an eligible student via the embedded form at the bottom of the post, please take a screenshot if a student needs proof that they are participating in the contest. You will not receive a confirmation email.

Another method? Some teachers ask students to keep a Google Doc of all their submissions, while others instruct students to take screenshots of their responses before they hit “submit.”

Q. How can teachers, librarians and parents use this challenge?

A. Our goals for this contest include some that appear on many educators’ lists. We want to help students become more aware of the world and their place in it; learn how to navigate sophisticated nonfiction; and create for a real audience, beyond the classroom. But more than anything else, we just want students to realize that reading the newspaper can be fun.

Through the years, adults have told us over and over that participating in this contest has made their students both more aware of and more interested in what’s going on in the world. Many see it as a low-stakes way to help teenagers start building a news-reading habit.

And, too, at a time when some educators are alarmed by the ability of chatbots to do students’ work for them, this is a contest that rewards the human touch. As our step-by-step guide to participating shows, what we’re looking for are genuine personal connections to the news, explored with voice, style and personality — something A.I. can’t (yet?) do with anywhere near the verve of the teenagers we hear from.

Another reason? For some teachers, assigning the contest over the summer helps them to quickly get to know their new students when school starts. In our related webinar , Karen Gold, English department chair at The Governor’s Academy in Byfield, Mass., details how she uses the contest in this way.

But maybe the most compelling reason to assign this contest is what students themselves say about it. In 2017, Emma Weber, a student from London, posted that, thanks to the contest, “I feel grounded in my views and understand what’s going on in the world. It’s amazing what a change 1,500 characters a week make.” In 2020 we invited Emma to help judge the entries, and here is what she had to say after Week 10:

I know firsthand that the Summer Reading Contest has the ability to change the way one engages in the news — I went from passively reading to actively thinking and questioning. The more you reflect on what is going on in the world and what interests you about it, the more you will understand your place within it. I urge all those who enjoyed participating this summer to continue reading, reflecting and writing.

Thank you for making this contest a hit year after year, and please spread the word that it’s back for its 15th season.

Any 13- to 19-year-old anywhere in the world is invited to join us, if you are in middle or high school, or if you graduated from high school and haven’t yet started college.

Every Friday starting on June 7, we’ll post a fresh version of this question: “What got your attention in The Times this week?” We will link to each week’s version at the top of this post. Here is an example from last summer. How you respond to this question will depend on your age and whether you are choosing to respond via writing or video, but all responses will be judged together.

For written responses:

Students ages 13 to 19 in the United States and Britain — and ages 16 to 19 elsewhere in the world — can submit by posting a comment on the post itself. See the GIF below to see how to do that.

If you are a teacher, parent or guardian of a student or child who is ages 13 to 15 anywhere in the world besides the United States and Britain, then you should submit an entry on the student’s behalf using the form embedded at the bottom of each week’s post.

For video responses:

All students should use the form at the bottom of each week’s post to submit video responses. Students ages 13 to 19 in the United States and Britain — and ages 16 to 19 elsewhere in the world — can submit their own entries. Students ages 13 to 15 anywhere else in the world must have a parent, teacher or guardian submit on their behalf.