>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington, D.C.
>> Louise Baigelman:
I'm Louise Baigelman.
I'm the Executive
Director of Story Shares.
We're so honored
to be here today.
Before I started Story
Shares I was a middle school
English teacher.
Sorry.
And this is Nicole.
Nicole was one of my students.
She had just moved
to the United States
from the Dominican Republic.
She was 13 years old and she was
sassy and willful and mature,
but she was reading below a
first grade level and I needed
to help Nicole improve
her reading skills
to become a more
proficient reader
so that she could do better
in school and in general.
But Nicole wanted
nothing to do with books
that were written
for first graders.
Stories like Barenstain
Bears were uninteresting
and embarrassing to her.
But the books that were
intended for 13 year olds
for her age were too
hard for her to read.
So I couldn't find enough
content that was relevant
to her age and interest,
but also accessible
at her much lower
reading levels.
And both of us were
totally frustrated.
She did not want to
read the books available
and I couldn't blame her.
And we know this
is a bigger problem
that goes behind my
classroom and my students.
In this country alone,
over 90 million teens
and adults lack key
literacy skills.
Seventy percent of high
school students need some form
of reading remediation.
Like Nicole, these students
need to read more in order
to improve their reading skills.
But, like Nicole, they don't
want to have to practice reading
on books that were
intended for little kids.
So, without content that's
relevant to their interests
and their age, but also
readable at their lower levels,
like Nicole, these teens
and adults often give up.
They become disheartened.
They see reading as a
negative experience.
And instead of improving
their reading skills
because of reading,
they actually fall
further and further behind.
So how do we break that cycle?
What Story Shares is doing is
we've created a new category
of books, a collection
of stories specifically
for these teens and young
adults who read at lower levels.
We have 500 titles so far,
culturally relevant themes,
intriguing topics, age
appropriate characters,
but at a range of lower
reading levels so that teens
and adults can hone in on the
books that are right for them
so that, instead of having to
choose from books that look
like baby books and make them
feel like they're reading books
for little kids, they
can choose from books
that are actually aligned with
the things that they care about,
that have characters that
they can see themselves in,
they can get excited about and
actually deepen the engagement
and the reading experience.
We have a digital library
and then our books are also
available as paperbacks
and then printable PDF versions.
So it doesn't matter the format,
that the idea is giving choices
that can really hook readers.
And the way that we build
this library is we use a crowd
sourcing method.
We tap into the existing
community of writers
and we provide them with the
tools and guidance to create
and publish the books
that our readers need.
So why are writers contributing
their stories to our library
in the numbers that they are?
We've had over 3,000
submissions so far.
Because the writers get
a lot out of it too.
They get published.
They get an immediate
audience of eager readers.
They get the chance to make
a difference in the field
of literacy, which is inherently
intriguing to writers.
And they also get our
annual writing contest,
the Relevant Reads
contest, with cash prizes
so that they can
potentially win.
And so we've built this
community of writers
in the past three years who are
now contributing their stories
to our collection for the
readers to have books to choose
from that they really can enjoy.
And what are we seeing?
We see that, when we can offer
teens and adults who struggle
with reading books that
are relevant to them,
that they can connect
with, when they're able
to read books they actually
enjoy, they read more.
And when you read more,
your reading skills improve.
And so with better books
for these students comes
better reading skills,
better academic outcomes,
and then better life
outcomes more broadly.
Because we all know
that you need to be able
to read proficiently to excel in
your high school science class.
You also need to be able
to read proficiently
to understand instructions
on your prescription
or to sign a lease or to read a
bedtime story to your own child.
Better books for the right --
the right kind of
books for readers lead
to better reading scores,
better reading skills,
and better lives.
We're excited by the
traction we've had so far.
We're now being read by hundreds
of thousands of students
in all 50 states in
this country and more
than 75 countries
around the world.
We know we have a long
way to go from here.
I want to finish by
telling a quick story
about one other student, Robbie,
who's also a struggling
reader and writer.
And he read Jacob and
the Bee Man, which is one
of the books in our library.
It's about a boy named
Jacob who starts by saying,
"Last year I did something
bad, but I'm not going
to tell you what it was."
And when the book ends, he never
tells you what it was he had
done before.
Well, Robbie read this
book and he wanted so badly
to know what Jacob
had done that was bad
that he decided he'd
write his own prequel.
So he gave up his recess
every day to go in and work
with his teacher on
creating his own book.
This is a student who wanted
nothing to do with reading
or writing, but he found
that book that hooked him,
that spoke to him, and
it actually inspired him
to then write his own.
So that's what we're
doing with Story Shares.
We are engaging these readers
who have been overlooked,
providing them with
a shelf of their own
on the library --
in the library.
Thank you.
[Applause]
>> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
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