Everywhere your students learn, they still need books. While digital instruction has become a necessity due to the pandemic, many schools and districts are recognizing the need for alternatives to e-books and other digital texts. Reading real, physical books can benefit your students in the following ways:
Improves comprehension & retention
Students who read from a physical book are more likely to understand the narrative and remember the information.
Enhances concentration & reduces screen time
Students concentrate best when not distracted by the internet. Plus, an excessive amount of screen time can have a negative impact on cognitive and social development.
Builds vocabulary
A larger vocabulary leads to better understanding in all subject areas, higher test scores and greater success in life.
Increases empathy
Students can better understand the feelings and beliefs of others by reading about people unlike themselves.
6 Reasons Why It’s Important for Kids to Read Real Books
Creating engaged readers means getting books in the hands of students. This year in particular, this process will require a bit more creativity and ingenuity, but it can and must be done. Booksource is here to make it easier for you to purchase and distribute books for home or school using CARES Act funding.
What is CARES Act funding?
The $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act includes emergency funds to help K-12 schools deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. For districts struggling to provide remote education to children, the bill includes new funding to help make learning more accessible to students with disabilities, at-risk populations, language needs and other challenges.
Congress set aside approximately $13.2 billion of the $30.75 billion allotted to education through the CARES Act for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER Fund). Under the ESSER Fund, funding is awarded to local educational agencies to address the impact that COVID-19 continues to have on elementary and secondary schools across the country.
What can CARES Act funds be used for?
The CARES Act provides districts with broad discretion over how they use new funds to address the unique needs of low-income students, children with disabilities, English learners, racial and ethnic minorities, students experiencing homelessness and youth in foster care. There are a wide range of categories covered by the funds from laptops and internet hotspots to cleaning supplies, face masks, teacher training and anything that will facilitate remote learning such as books and workbooks. Districts can use the money to cover costs from last spring (like replacing lost books) or to make purchases for after-school and summer programs as well as the new school year.
How can you use the CARES Act to improve your students’ literacy?
The trend to add e-readers, laptops and tablets to classrooms has led many schools to rely more heavily on digital books. However, studies have shown that reading real books on printed pages has many benefits for kids that outweigh the advantages of using digital devices for reading. Real books are especially important to improve equity in instruction for students who are learning from home and have limited or no internet access.
9 At-Home Reading Strategies to Share with Parents & Families
Whether you are currently supporting students through at-home, hybrid or in-person learning, physical book access is essential to literacy instruction. While this may feel daunting, particularly when students are learning remotely part or all of the time, here are some ways educators are incorporating books into their daily routine:
Online read alouds (the teacher reads aloud from their book)
Paired reading in breakout sessions (assigned pairs have their own book to read together in an online space)
Shared or guided reading in small groups (the teacher and each student in the group or class have their own copy of the same book)
Online book club/literature circles (groups of students have a book to read and discuss with a small group)
Online independent reading (students self-select their reading and come together to share what they are reading)
Virtual reading workshop with comprehension strategies (teacher read aloud along with shared reading or guided reading, plus independent reading of assigned text and strategy)
Text sets (create lesson-centered or student-centered text sets for independent reading, content area learning or reading for enjoyment —use our physical distancing service to package these for easy distribution to students and families)
“Make your own audio book or read aloud” (students can read to themselves, record and share with the class, teacher or reading buddy, or listen to their recording to follow along in a re-read)
How Booksource Can Help
The availability of CARES Act funding varies by state and district, so speak with your school principal, COVID-19 response team or district purchasing office to inquire about the availability of funds and how they are being spent in your district.
If physical books are a part of your school’s COVID-19 response, Booksource offers multiple literacy solutions and helpful services to make things easier for your school or district during this time of transition and uncertainty.
If physical books aren’t yet part of your school’s COVID-19 response, keep reading to see how we might be able to help you provide students with this crucial resource.
Booksource Literacy Services
Get Free, Personalized Assistance Building Student Libraries or Classroom Libraries
No two districts, schools or even classrooms have the same needs right now. And no matter what role you fill, you’re likely feeling overwhelmed. You need something to be easier. That’s where we can help.
We have a team of experts ready to answer your call or email and help you find and purchase the books you need. Whether you need books for traditional classroom libraries or are focused on building individual student libraries because of the pandemic, your Booksource Literacy Accounts Manager (LAM) can create a custom quote with titles to fit your exact request and budget.
After you order, our team can also streamline the packaging, shipment and payment process for you.
Get Your Book Order Packaged for Physical Distancing
Although the COVID pandemic requires an enormous amount of flexibility with in-person, remote or hybrid learning, book choice and access are still essential to get kids reading, help build literacy skills and reduce screen time.
Especially under these demanding circumstances, we know your time is limited, so let us do the work for you! We can package any type of book order to support physical distancing guidelines in classrooms or for easy grab-and-go distribution for remote learning.
We can bag your books and label the bags with student names, reading levels, genres or whatever you need to make distribution easy. This method limits the touch points for the books and makes it easier to sanitize one plastic bag per student instead of multiple books per student.
How to Make Books Accessible for Students During the Pandemic
Find out more about how you can request physical distancing packaging with every book order.
Replace Lost Books
Your school or district may be trying to replace lost books that were sent home with students at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown but never made their way back to school. Districts can use CARES Act funds to cover the cost of replacing these lost books, and we can help with a variety of book collection options. You might purchase an entire classroom library such as the Starter Classroom Library or Leveled Classroom Library. You could also purchase smaller collections such as Budget-Friendly Best Sellers or Fresh New Reads. Or you can contact us with a wish list or title list of your own, and we’ll get you a quote.
Booksource Classroom
Booksource Classroom™ is a free, web-based tool from Booksource that helps educators inventory, manage and analyze their classroom libraries. Many teachers are using the tool to allow students to browse books online instead of touching books on the shelves. You can encourage students with computers to browse your titles from the safety of their desks or homes using the tool’s student portal. They can then select the books that interest them and click “check out” to alert you to which books should be distributed.
In early November, we will also launch a new feature in response to the current pandemic that allows teachers to quarantine returned books for a specified amount of time. Booksource Classroom will let you know when it is safe to check the books out to other students!
Booksource Literacy Solutions
Booksource offers a wide array of literacy solutions to help educators engage readers and put books in the hands of students. Here are a few of our products and collections that educators are finding particularly helpful during the current pandemic.
Summer Reading
Now that summer slide will collide with COVID slide, it is more important than ever to keep your students reading during their summer break. Our Summer Reading Solution offers the level of choice you need to put the right books into the hands of your students.
We make it easy for educators to send a wide variety of exciting books home with students. Our 5-book Summer Reading Packs are filled with popular, inclusive and award-winning titles. Plus, every pack can be customized to meet the needs of each of your students.
In addition, we offer resources to help parents and families support their readers at home. You can download and email or print our PDFs to send home with students along with their summer reading books.
Take Home Reading & Literacy Packs
You can help students bridge the gap between home and school with our affordable (about $25 per pack), all-in-one, take home reading solution. Our Take Home Packs are a grab-and-go solution that can be used at home or in the classroom.
Each Take Home Pack contains:
4-5 popular, high interest, leveled books
1 workbook (English & Spanish in a flipbook design) with reading log, tips to inspire reading at home, discussion questions, worksheet sets for each book, creative bonus activities and easy-to-follow instructions for parents/families to help their reader at home
Sturdy plastic zip bag (easily disinfected) to protect books as they travel from school to home
9 Proven Ways to Teach with Take Home Reading and Literacy Packs During an Uncertain School Year
There are several packs available at each grade level or you can choose the titles you want in the packs. We can also customize the Take Home Packs to meet the unique needs of your classroom, school or district. You can include as many or as few books as you want in each book pack, purchase book packs without the workbook or purchase the workbooks separately. Your Literacy Accounts Manager can guide you through this process.
Social-Emotional Learning
While much remains uncertain about the 2020-2021 school year, we know that social-emotional learning (SEL) will be critical to creating emotionally and physically safe learning environments and helping students process complex emotions like anxiety, stress, sadness and grief.
To help you find the best books for addressing emotionally charged topics and supporting the social and emotional needs of your students, Booksource has curated grade-banded Social-Emotional Learning collections that feature a mix of 12 fiction and nonfiction books and touch on topics like empathy, self-management and social awareness. We also offer a collection of Social Emotional Learning Read Alouds, featuring picture books you can share with students at any grade level.
Booksource also offers four Dealing With Stress & Anxiety collections that can support students’ mental health and help them learn how to cope with stress and anxiety in their everyday lives. These collections feature 6-8 fiction and nonfiction books.
Student Workbooks
Give your students a break from screen time with our budget-friendly student workbooks. They are perfect for in-person, hybrid or remote learning and are an excellent supplement to your daily instruction. Workbooks are available by grade level and can be purchased individually or as a supplement to our Booksource collections.
Brain Quest Workbooks for Grades PreK-6 are aligned with Common Core State Standards and feature curriculum-based activities, exercises, games and challenges. They appeal to kids’ natural curiosity and offer interactive layouts and easy-to-follow explanations.
Spectrum Language Arts Series Workbooks for Grades K-6 encourage creativity and strengthen communication skills. These standards-based workbooks are packed with engaging, open-ended writing activities and grade-appropriate practice to build a stronger understanding of essential language arts concepts.
How is your school or district using CARES Act funding? Tell us in the comments below.
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