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First Chapter Friday: 11 Videos for High School ELA

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So you’re doing your online First Chapter Friday program (whoo hoo! Good for you!) and you could use a boost. Someone to back you up, read a few of those first chapters for you in this unbelievably, crazily busy time. 

Might I suggest Nic Stone? Jason Reynolds? John Green? 

I’ve been doing some Youtube spelunking and I’ve found serious gold for you! Today I’m going to share the best First Chapter Friday videos I’ve found; I hope you can sprinkle them into your winter playlist. 

One quick thing before we begin – you know your students and your school culture best. If you’re unfamiliar with any of these books, please watch the video before playing it for your students so you can decide if the language and themes are right for your class. 


Let’s start with some readings by popular YA authors…

#1 John Green reads chapter one of The Fault in our Stars


#2 Nic Stone reads chapter one of Dear Martin


#3 Jason Reynolds reads chapter one of Ghost


#4 Laurie Halse Anderson reads chapter one of Fever, 1973


#5 Leah Johnson reads chapter one of You Should see me in a Crown


#6 Neil Gaiman reads chapter one of The Graveyard Book


By the way, are we hanging out together on Instagram yet? I’m always sharing my favorite classroom book recommendations over there, so I hope you’ll join me by clicking here. 

And now, for some (legal!) audiobook excerpts from Epic Reads… 

#1 The Poet X


#2 On the Come Up


#3 Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda


#4 The Selection


#5 The Hate U Give


In search of more great options for your First Chapter Friday program? Check out this IGTV video with some of my top recommendations from recent years, or this blog post review of five wonderful recent YA titles. 


Wish you had the whole nine yards for your First Chapter Friday program, like sketchnotes and doodle notes templates, poster templates, and “To be Read” bookmarks for your students to keep track of their favorites for future reading? Here’s my FCF curriculum set on TPT. 

If you’d like to save this video list for later, you can pin it below. 


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I'm Betsy

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8 Comments

  • Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I added them to my Wakelet collection that I have set up for my kids. Thank you so much.

    Reply
  • Thank you. I'm just curious do any of these first chapter's have swears in them?

    Reply
  • I LITERALLY shed a tear of joy scrolling through your list!!! This makes MY LIFE! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

    Reply
  • Fabulous! Will you post one for Middle School too? Just one oops! The title on Fever, 1793 has a typo!

    Reply
    • Hi Julia! I’m so glad it’s helpful! I generally focus on high school, so I’m not sure which books would be best to post about in middle school – sorry! It’s definitely worth poking around though – you never know what you’ll find on Youtube. 🙂

      Reply

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