FARMINGTON HILLS,
Mich. and WASHINGTON,
March 4, 2021 /PRNewswire/
-- Thorndike Press from Gale, a Cengage company, has teamed up
with Beanstack and Mark
Cuban to bring schools a national K-12 summer reading
challenge, 'Level Up.' The challenge was designed to
lessen the impact of summer slide and keep students engaged and
reading all summer long. Schools can win cash prizes, book
collections or a virtual visit from Newbery award-winning author,
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. The
challenge is free, but schools must register to participate. It
will run June 1, 2021 through
July 15, 2021.
The Level Up challenge gives schools an amazing opportunity to
support student literacy this summer.
"We recognize the impact of COVID and remote learning on student
literacy and want to give educators a turnkey way to support young
readers," said Felix Lloyd, Zoobean
Co-Founder. "The Level Up reading challenge is a great way
to keep students motivated, engaged and reading throughout the
summer and we are excited to partner with Thorndike and
Mark Cuban who share our vision and
commitment to helping students achieve their reading goals."
Students can choose to read books from any genre or format to
participate. Large print books will be among the formats featured
in the challenge, which studies show improve reading speed, boost
reading comprehension and work especially well with readers who are
below their grade level.
In order for books read to count toward the challenge, readers
must track their reading progress using the Beanstack
app. Students can access the app via web or mobile to log
their reading, earn virtual badges, track stats, engage with
friends and discover their next favorite book. Additionally,
parents can download the app and link directly to their child's
school.
"Schools and parents are always searching for ways to better
engage with students during the summer," said Mark Cuban, billionaire investor and Shark
Tank personality. "The Level Up reading challenge is a
great way to keep students reading, even when they're not in the
classroom."
Winning schools will be determined by the most amount of time
their students spent reading. Cash prizes are being provided by
Mark Cuban with Thorndike Press
awarding prize packs of large print book collections to winning
schools as well as a virtual visit from Newbery award-winning
author Kimberly Brubaker
Bradley.
Prizes include:
- Grand Prize: $5,000 and
$1,000 of large print books and a
virtual author chat with the school.
- Second Place: $2,500 and
$500 of large print books.
- Four (4) Runner Ups: $2,500 and $250 of
large print books.
"During the summer, many students lose up to two months of
learning, and with the disruption COVID has caused, reading
programs are even more critical," said Paul
Gazzolo, senior vice president and general manager at Gale.
"Public libraries have seen great success in retaining and building
literacy skills through summer reading programs. The Level
Up challenge gives schools an amazing opportunity to support
student literacy this summer and we are thrilled to partner with
Beanstack and Mark Cuban to make it
happen."
Gale and Beanstack will host a live webinar on the Level
Up Summer 2021 Reading Challenge on Thursday, March 11, 2021 at 3pm ET/12pm PT.
To register, visit the webinar registration page.
For more information about the 2021 Level Up Summer
Reading Challenge, visit the challenge webpage.
About Zoobean
Zoobean, Inc. is the creator of apps and
retail products that help people achieve reading goals by tracking
reading and participating in reading challenges. The company's
flagship product, Beanstack, helps public libraries and school
districts create, manage and measure reading challenges. A sister
product, Beanbright, offers school buildings a free, streamlined,
out-of-the-box version of the reading challenge service. Most
recently, the company has introduced Badge Books, which are sticker
books that work hand in hand with the free Beanstack mobile app.
Zoobean's investors include Kapor Capital, Mark Cuban, RevUp Capital, the AT&T Aspire
Accelerator, and Amazon's Alexa Fund. Its founders were previously
Washington D.C.'s teacher of the
year and Google's first head of K-12 education outreach.
About Thorndike Press
As the leading large print
publisher, Thorndike Press from Gale, a Cengage
company, helps readers of all ages enjoy books. Publishing
unabridged reprints in large print format for middle grade and
young adult readers started in 1999 and our catalog of more than
600 titles grows monthly with high-interest fiction and nonfiction
books, including contemporary classics, award-winners and
bestsellers. Our commitment to producing high quality, 100%
guaranteed large print books supports young readers as they develop
the skills necessary to become successful, confident, lifelong
readers.
Follow Thorndike Press on:
About Cengage and Gale
Cengage, an education
technology company serving millions of learners in 165 countries,
advances the way students learn through quality, digital
experiences. The company currently serves the K-12, higher
education, professional, library, English language teaching and
workforce training markets worldwide. Gale, a Cengage company,
provides libraries with original and curated content, as well as
the modern research tools and technology that are crucial in
connecting libraries to learning, and learners to libraries. For
more than 60 years, Gale has partnered with libraries around the
world to empower the discovery of knowledge and insights – where,
when and how people need it. Gale has 500 employees globally with
its main operations in Farmington Hills,
Michigan. For more information, please
visit www.gale.com.
Follow Gale on:
- Twitter
- Gale Blog
- Facebook
- LinkedIn
Media Contact:
Kayla Siefker, Gale, a Cengage
company
248-915-9624
kayla.siefker@cengage.com
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SOURCE Gale, a Cengage company