Help Behind the Book

Behind the Book

New York, New York

Cause Description:
Behind the Book (BtB)’s mission is to inspire New York City public school students to love reading by bringing accomplished authors and their books into classrooms and creating rich, innovative literacy programs. The organization was founded in 2003 with the goal of creating a new generation of readers and writers. Our Executive Director Jo Umans, a TV producer and school librarian, was asked to coordinate a series of author visits at her school. After seeing the impact of those workshops on students’ motivation to read and write, she resolved to make such opportunities accessible to underserved students throughout New York City. Working in Pre-K through 12th grades, BtB provides customized literacy programs to NYC public schools that are incorporated into class curricula and meet Common Core Learning Standards. We identify books that are written by diverse authors and that speak to urban youth, and bring the authors to classrooms as the centerpiece of a comprehensive program. Authors discuss their book and teach a genre of writing, then guide students in a writing project. Our programs focus on reading engagement – one of the six key criteria cited by experts as necessary for lifelong achievement, and the only one of the six that is entirely independent of socioeconomic factors. BtB provides structured classroom preparation for the teachers; an engaging project led by the author and supplemented by writing coaches and research aides; and a deep collaboration between teacher, author, students and BtB staff and volunteers. Our organization purchases books for each student – often the first book a student has owned – and additional books for classrooms and school libraries. Many series, and increasingly so, culminate in BtB designing and publishing an anthology of the students’ work and providing copies for each student to keep. Our program models are differentiated by age group, with programs for elementary, middle, and high school.

Type: Animal
Listed on iGive since: February 2017
iGive members supporting: 2

Website: http://www.behindthebook.org/

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