Education Law

How do you keep your nose in a book?

That's not the only question educators are having a hard time answering when trying to promote reading skills among their students that meet the demand in the 21st Century . The real question for them is how to keep students picking up another book to read after they finish?

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported the city's latest push to get students more excited about reading. Want a clue?

Well, actually the answer to that question requires 39 clues. The program, called The 39 Clues, is published by Scholastic and aimed at readers ages 8-12. Accompanying a series of ten books is an Internet game, puzzles, and game cards that allow readers to become a part of the clue hunt to solve a 500-year-old mystery.

So BoardBuzz wants to know, why this approach?
According to the article:

The watchword is multi-platform. Slowly, book publishing is catching up to information-age possibilities. It may be the first children's-publishing effort of its kind, expanding the idea of the "interactive" book for young readers.

Students seem to enjoy these extra features, the article said, there is also the opportunity to incorporate lessons from other subjects:

This is a teaching tool. To excel in the game, users must amass clues and learn about famous figures, places and events in history: Ben Franklin, the Taj Mahal, the Titanic.

Students at Ferguson Elementary in Philadelphia are testing out the program to see if it is the answer to the reading slump. With a movie in the works and new books being added to the series, we can't wait to find out how the mystery ends. For more information, be sure to check out the article or website.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on September 11, 2008 (boomark / email).