Issaquah District helps students access favorite authors online
January 19, 2009
By Chantelle Lusebrink
Students, parents and Issaquah school staff members can now access their favorite book authors online.
TeachingBooks.net is a program that allows children to see and hear their favorite authors and illustrators through an online library and provides a glimpse into their thoughts and work.
“I used it with kids, in the first or second grade, as an author study,” said Mary Berry, a librarian at Challenger Elementary School. “After we talked about the book, we read a brief biography of the person on Teachingbooks.net and the author’s program took us to the study, where she was actually making the pulp and turning it into the paper for her book.
“The kids’ faces were great,” she said. “Here was the author they had just read and she was making the paper we saw in her book. I could have told the kids how she did it, but seeing her doing the process made it come alive for them.”
Access for the entire district, and parents and children at home, costs $875, according to Sara Niegowski, the district’s communications director.
TeachingBooks.net is a Wisconsin-based company created to generate enthusiasm for books and reading by providing thousands of author programs and kindergarten through 12th-grade book resources that help students better understand the spirit, meaning and personalities behind their favorite books or required readings.
There are more than 12,000 types of resources that include author interviews, books sorted by subject and grade level, local and national book and reading lists, and movies.
“Using the author program, kids can see the real authors behind their books and see how their passion for their work comes across on the one hand,” Berry said. “On the other, students and parents can use it as a resource to expand their knowledge of a particular author or knowledge of a particular book.”
It also has an online community for teachers to share their experiences and resources when teaching certain books to help them share ideas nationwide.
Issaquah schools have used the program for roughly two years, but it was recently re-released as something parents could try with their children and their teens at home.
Reach Reporter Chantelle Lusebrink at 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@isspress.com. Comment on this story at www.SammamishReview.com.
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