Since 1948, Scholastic Inc. has been sending its flyers to classrooms so that students and teachers could order books. So ubiquitous is the program, that you may remember seeing the flyers when you were in school, perhaps poring over their contents before breaking open the piggy bank and ordering a book or two. I know I do.
But Scholastic announced last week that the famed book flyers have been redesigned, a change that comes at the same time as the company rebrands its “Scholastic Book Clubs” as the “Scholastic Reading Club.”
Starting this year, the flyers will be targeted to specific grade levels—instead of a single flyer serving multiple grade levels—with book selections chosen to help students improve their reading proficiency, according to Scholastic’s press release. Each flyer will also offer books that align to the new Common Core State Standards.
The flyers will arrive monthly in grades preK-8, and the company hopes that the redesign will make it easier for teachers and parents to find “just right” books for kids in each grade. Leveling guides for the books will also be included, labeled by Lexile Framework® for Reading, Guided Reading Level (GRA), Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA), and Accelerated Reader® Level(AR).
Perhaps most exciting, at least for people like me, is that Scholastic has gathered 25 top children’s literature experts to come up with a collection of classic and favorite children’s books that every child should read. The group selected 50 books for each grade level, and a selection of those books will be featured in the flyers each month. (Go on, check out the page—I’ll wait. How many have you read?).
Despite the changes, much will remain the same for teachers who use Scholastic, the company says in the press release: Books will still be available for as little as $1.00, and teachers can earn “bonus points” from orders, which they can redeem for free books and classroom supplies. A dedicated page for teachers provides videos and other information about the program.