Scholastic Launches Whiteboard-Ready Digital Version of Junior Scholastic Magazine

NEW YORK, June 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children's publishing education and media company, today announced an all new whiteboard-friendly digital version of Junior Scholastic®, the classic Social Studies magazine read by more than one million kids in 6th-8th grade classrooms across the country.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100907/SCHOLASTICLOGO )

This digital extension of Junior will be available free to teachers, parents and students through the end of August. In the Fall, teachers with a paid subscription of 10 or more copies will gain access to the digital version at no additional charge. The digital version of Junior is whiteboard-ready, giving instructors a more interactive way to use the magazine for whole-group instruction.

“We are proud to offer this digital tool to enhance Junior Scholastic, making it even more dynamic for students and more interactive for the classroom environment,” said Hugh Roome, President, Scholastic Magazines. “As we head into another election year, it will become increasingly important for our student readers to know where to find accurate information on the candidates and issues that is accessible and engaging.”

The new digital features include:

• Digitally Enhanced Issues – Each issue of Junior Scholastic will be completely digitized and enhanced with pop-up maps, graphs, and charts, as well as integrated video and audio.
• Teacher and Student Editions – Teachers have access to teaching resources including background information and answer keys on their edition, while students will find their own version loaded with resources appropriate for them.
• At-home access – Students are able to log-on from home to continue reading and interacting with the content using a unique password provided by the teacher.
• Videos and Slideshows – Specially-created videos and photo slideshows accompany each issue to help build background knowledge about topics in feature stories.
• Vocabulary list – Teachers and students have access to an aggregate list of Social Studies vocabulary words that builds with each issue, as well as pop-ups defining vocabulary words within the magazine.
• Whiteboard-ready skills sheets – Teachers can print out worksheets for use in class, or use the interactive PDF on the whiteboard.
• Student polls – Students can submit their opinions on thought-provoking topics and see how their ideas compare with other young people across the nation.
• Exclusive news stories – A daily online-only news story brings up-to-the-minute information into the classroom.

Scholastic Magazines will release similar interactive, digital platforms for three other popular classroom publications, Science World®, SuperScience®, and SCHOLASTIC MATH®, within a few weeks. Those titles will also be free to preview until the end of August.

Scholastic is the leading publisher of educational magazines, including news for kids, with 28 publications for grades pre-K-12, reaching nearly 25 million students and teachers across the country. Teachers rely on these publications to enhance instruction in such subjects as reading and language arts, science, math, social studies, current events, history, geography, world languages, and art.

The preview of Junior Scholastic is available now at http://junior.scholastic.com.

For more information about Scholastic Inc. visit our online media room (http://mediaroom.scholastic.com).

SOURCE Scholastic Inc.