As Seen in District Administration
Blended Reading Platform Supports Diversity, Equity, and Choice
San Jose Charter Academy Enhances Literacy Instruction Using Scholastic Literacy Pro ® F or the San Jose Charter Academy (SJCA) in Southern California, an effort to enrich literacy instruction diverse books that reflected the diversity
of our community to use in literacy instruction. We also wanted to emphasize choice and provide enough books that we could empower students to choose books they identify with or are interested in,” Shiroma says. “The remote environment of the pandemic presented a challenge, because students couldn’t access any
through culturally diverse books, combined with the need to pivot and adapt during the pandemic, led administrators to implement a new blended reading platform that is making a difference for students. The school serves just over 1,250 TK–8 students and includes 59 teachers; it’s unique in design and organizational structure, being divided into three smaller academies of primary (grades TK–2), elementary (3–5), and junior (6–8). Technology, equity, and diversity Erin Shiroma has been principal since 2016. Shiroma highlights certain important initiatives that the school had undertaken that enabled SJCA to quickly adapt to the pandemic in March 2020. “Equitable access to technology has always been one of our top priorities, as part of our mission to create 21st-century learners who are ready for college and career,” she says. “As part of that mission, we had gone one-to-one with iPads and laptops for all our students, which enabled us to quickly pivot to a remote teaching and learning environment during the pandemic.” At the same time, the academy had been promoting equity and diversity in its literacy tools and materials. “Prior to the pandemic, we had been investing in culturally rich and
“I’ve had teachers thank us for implementing Literacy Pro because it is making a difference in how their students are growing as readers.”
independent reading level. As a browser-based program, Literacy Pro is accessible on multiple operating systems and devices, and is available to access in school or at home. Michelle Ruiz is literacy and data coordinator for the academy. “Literacy Pro caught my attention because it offered the opportunity to provide a lot more books to our students and to help develop their independent reading skills,” she says. “And it was the right choice at the right time, because we could use it in a remote learning environment, but also continue to use it when we came back to in- person learning,” she continues, noting that the program met their needs far beyond dealing with the circumstances of the pandemic. “Our students commonly access Literacy Pro to
of these books in person. So, the next step was exploring digital resources that could also provide a diversity of books to students from their devices. That led us to Literacy Pro from Scholastic.” Creating continuity between school, home, and grade levels Literacy Pro is a reading management solution that provides access to a library of over 2,700 ebooks for students in grades K–8, comprehension for teachers and families. The platform curates a personalized bookshelf for each student, using a reading recommendation engine that works in partnership with teachers to drive students toward books that are aligned with their interests, grade, and checks for thousands of books, assessments, and many additional resources
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