Weekly Reader Releases Expanded, Enriched Version of its Award-Winning Online Program, Weekly Reader Connect

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Aug. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Educational publisher Weekly Reader announces today the release of Weekly Reader Connect 2.0 -- a redesigned, vastly expanded version of the online reading comprehension program that was named one of the top 100 educational products of 2010 by District Administration magazine.

Weekly Reader Connect, which launched in 2010, is a Web-based service for kindergarten through sixth grade. It combines the dynamic content Weekly Reader is famous for -- frequently updated, age-appropriate news materials, now enhanced with video and other multimedia resources -- with an in-depth, online reading comprehension program. Version 2.0 adds numerous new features, including educational games and vocabulary lessons, more animation and read-aloud materials, grade-specific assessments, a dynamic home page, and 129 additional on-screen comprehension lessons.

"This revamped edition of Weekly Reader Connect takes what was already an exciting way to teach reading comprehension and makes it deeper, stronger, more engaging, and more user-friendly," said Ira Wolfman, the company's Senior Vice President, Editorial. "We expect teachers will be delighted with the fresh look and powerful new resources."

More than 200,000 students in 46 states used the program in its first year. The response was hugely enthusiastic: "Weekly Reader Connect is an effective, engaging, and technological means for teaching reading skills! It works and my students love it!" noted Paula Page Lusk, a teacher at Leicester Elementary School in North Carolina.

Since its launch, Weekly Reader Connect has offered educators tools for teaching reading comprehension in a direct fashion. It includes more than 300 grade-specific reading passages and over 100 lesson plans. The program is built around the Concepts of Comprehension,© a framework of comprehension skills developed by the nonprofit Urban Education Exchange. Weekly Reader Connect requires no special software or other tools; it is available through a password-protected Web site and is sold only for school-wide usage.

Here are details of the new features unveiled this week:

• Revamped Reading Comprehension Lessons (RCLs): Every RCL page has been redesigned with enhanced animation, multimedia, and activities. New Flash-based lessons will include animations of the characters and text, and supporting audio files of the lesson content -- including student-friendly Concept definitions read by the characters.

• 129 new on-screen RCLs: Every Concept of Comprehension is now covered with two interactive lessons, bringing the total of on-screen lessons to 258. All lessons include new and improved functionality.

• Educational games: Cloze activities and other interactive games have been added. Every RCL has one or more activities associated with it -- all with Flash "rewards." For example, when a user successfully completes an activity, the associated animated character does a dance.

• Improved search capability: Enhanced search functionality is now available across all content areas of the site, including full-text search.

• Vocabulary Builder Lessons: These new onscreen lessons offer teachers content to strengthen students' vocabulary with interactive passages, read-alouds of vocabulary terms and definitions, and educational games to reinforce the featured content.

• Assessments: Weekly Reader Connect now offers assessments in PDF format to help teachers measure their students' understanding -- before they begin the year's study of the Concepts of Comprehension and at the end of the school year.

• Dynamic new home page: The revamped Weekly Reader Connect home page includes timely, frequently changing information, promoting specific content areas and offering teacher tips, digital exclusives, and other regularly updated content.

"Research shows that rich content and multiple entry points increase student interest and deepen understanding," says Senior Managing Editor Linda Ruggieri. "Weekly Reader Connect 2.0 provides all that and more, encouraging young learners to read, see, hear, and experience informational text. Just as important, it gets them thinking critically about what they are reading."

For more information about this affordable, easy-to-use program that brings learning to life in the classroom, visit www.wrconnect.com or call 877-344-2834.

ABOUT WEEKLY READER

One of the great innovative forces in American educational publishing, Weekly Reader has been creating cutting-edge, curriculum-rich supplemental materials since 1902. Our unique digital products and 11 award-winning classroom magazines give teachers tools that help them achieve their goals while inspiring students and igniting a love of learning. Weekly Reader materials reach more than 150,000 teachers and 6 million students from Pre-K through grade 12. Weekly Reader is part of the Reader's Digest Association, Inc. Visit www.weeklyreader.com.

Weekly Reader's Reading Comprehension Curriculum

Weekly Reader magazines and Web content are built on a framework of skills that provide teachers with a systematic, explicit approach to teaching reading comprehension throughout the elementary school grades. Called Concepts of Comprehension,© this research-based curriculum, developed by the nonprofit Urban Education Exchange, builds students' understanding of what they read and helps them to move successfully from one academic year to the next. The curriculum is presented through lively, timely nonfiction text that engages and excites students.

Weekly Reader materials also support vocabulary instruction and the expansion of background knowledge, thereby providing teachers with resources in the three research-based components of reading-comprehension instruction: inferential thinking skills, vocabulary, and background knowledge. All of this rich content is supplemented with follow-up activities and assessments.

Explore the world with Weekly Reader at www.weeklyreader.com

Press contact:
Stephanie Schreiber
914-242-4009
[email protected]

SOURCE Weekly Reader Publishing