Thank you for your interest in submitting a #BuildYourStack resource! The goal of the Build Your Stack blog post series is to help teachers build their text knowledge and their classroom libraries through booklists and recommendations curated by NCTE members. You can view previous posts by clicking on the menu to your left.
As of 2025, we are not accepting new submissions as we reimagine this resource.
Questions? Email us at buildyourstack@ncte.org.
Build-Your-Stack Resource Posts
Instructional Resources + Recommended Texts (400–600 words maximum)
Pair a favorite classroom idea with a brief review of a specific text or texts that work well with it. Your piece should use a personal, conversational voice and speak to your own experience as a teacher or that of a teacher you have observed closely. If appropriate, cite the source for your idea. Your description should offer succinct, easy-to-follow instructions and just enough detail to allow other teachers to use it successfully in their own classroom.
While these posts may derive from content you have written previously, we’d like them adapted to the Build-Your-Stack theme rather than simply reposted from a previous context.
We welcome posts in written and/or video form. If you choose to include a video, short videos always work best, and for accessibility purposes we need a transcript so they can be closed- captioned. Please see below for additional video guidelines.
The texts that are reviewed should match the idea being shared. For example, if you are sharing an idea for reading nonfiction science texts, the books should be in that genre. The book reviews should give readers a sense of what is special about these books in particular and why they should be added to one’s stack. Include links to either the author’s page for the book or a Goodreads page for the book, but not a link to an online store. We want to be careful not to endorse particular marketplaces.
Wherever possible, authors of these posts should make connections with appropriate NCTE resources; staff can supplement the pieces with these connections as well. Be mindful that your selections reflect multiple perspectives in their themes, authors, and so forth.
NCTE will create the social images that go with these posts, pairing the Build-Your-Stack logo with the book covers of the texts explored in the post itself.
Examples of topics we’d like covered in resource posts:
- What tips do you have for facilitating choice reading in your classroom?
- What are some texts that lend themselves to read-alouds?
- What are favorite texts for exploring other disciplines?
- Where do you go to find new books?
- How do you quickly get up to speed on your students’ interests and areas for growth so you can become a book matchmaker?
- What are your favorite ways to use books as mentor texts for students’ own writing?
- How do you bring the voice of authors into classroom discussions around books?
I am always reading with an eye toward a potential read-aloud. Read-aloud time is one of the most important parts of our school day. It is a time when we come together as a community around a book. The talk around the book is always powerful, and this is the time that we grow as readers and as humans. Because there is time built into a read-aloud for talk, we can only read 6 to 9 novels each year as a community. So it is important that I choose wisely. If I am not careful, I will read books that are all very similar in genre or author perspective. But it’s my goal to use this important time of our day to build community and have important conversations that stretch us.
When I read with an eye toward a read-aloud I am looking for:
- A book that will start conversations around an important issue,
- A book that is written specifically for middle grade readers
- A book that invites us to think about things we may not have thought about before or to think about something from a perspective we may not have considered previously.
- A book that stretches us as readers in some way.
I’ve discovered two new books that I am keeping in mind as possible read-alouds for next school year. These are Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes and The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor. Both of these books address important issues and are written in a way that invite deep thinking and thoughtful conversations from middle grade readers. Ghost Boys tells the story of a young black boy who is killed by a police officer while The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle shares the journey of Mason Buttle, an incredible and complex character who is bullied by classmates.
From a reading perspective, these books offer so much. In The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle, the relationships between characters, the interactions with family and friends, and the treatment of Mason Buttle by his classmates all give the reader new ways to think about characters and character development. The author invites a great deal of inferring from readers. Although this is a quieter book, there is a great deal for readers to think deeply about.
In Ghost Boys, the story is told from the perspective of Jerome, who has recently been shot by a police officer. Because this is told after the fact and Jerome has already died, readers are led back and forth in time, as we learn what happened before, and follow the family after, Jerome’s death. There is also a plot connection to Emmett Till, which gives us an important piece of history embedded in a fiction text.
Because both of these books have so much to offer middle graders as readers and as human beings, these are two I am glad to have on my stack of possible read-alouds for next school year.
You can see the fully formatted post here.
Video Guidelines
If you plan to submit a video for your Build-Your-Stack submission, please keep the following guidelines in mind:
- Please follow the format indicated above. Videos should not be longer than two to three minutes for resources posts.
- Record in horizontal mode if you’re using your phone. Stability is important; if possible, use a stand.
- Try not to include background noise or music as it can be distracting.
- Look for good lighting in front of your face. Backlighting can make the video too dark.
- Send us the largest video file you can. You may need to use a service like Dropbox or Google Drive.
- Include a transcript for accessibility.
Editorial Process
Note: We are not currently accepting new submissions as we reimagine this resource.
