Books That Grow Expands Reach in 2015!

Dear Friends,

2014 was an extraordinary year for Books That Grow (formerly Borne Digital). We won national awards, worked with some of the largest school districts in the nation, and most importantly, transformed classrooms across the country.   

We’ve come a long way. In 2013, Books That Grow began as an idea - that the same digital book could contain multiple reading levels, enabling ALL students to participate in reading assignments, saving teachers time and fostering student success. It is one year later, and the Books That Grow software platform has been built, won acclaim, and has positively changed reading experiences for students and their teachers across the U.S.

Although originally designed for late elementary and middle school students, Books That Grow is now widely used in high schools, community colleges, and even adult education classes. This fall we have been thrilled to work with clients such as the City University of New York and the Queens Public Library, who attract students like Leo Martinez:

Until now, we’ve made Books That Grow available to only a select group of schools and libraries. As the response from these early users has been tremendously enthusiastic, we’ve decided to expand our reach.  Beginning this January, any student or any teacher can go to BooksThatGrow.com, create an account, and start reading, for free!

There are so many students that have the potential to excel, but are held back simply because they struggle with reading comprehension. This is a problem Books That Grow will help solve. To learn more about what we are doing to improve education, please subscribe to our newsletter, like or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, or email me directly. Most importantly, if you believe in our vision, I invite you to join us by sharing our story with other educators.

Thank you and happy New Year!

Daniel Fountenberry

Founder and CEO - Books That Grow

Winner – 2014 Verizon Powerful Answers Education Award

In the Classroom: Meg Weiss of Bronxville Middle School

In many schools across the country, teachers have turned to Books That Grow to reach their struggling readers. However, Meg Weiss, a 7th and 8th grade ELA teacher at Bronxville Middle School in New York’s Westchester County, faced a different problem: continuously challenging her advanced students who are reading above grade level.

Bronxville is a nationally recognized district with top-performing students. “Most of my students come to me highly prepared and highly motivated,” said Ms. Weiss. “This allows me to keep the level of rigor high for the whole class, but some of my students are so many years ahead that they can still become bored and disengaged.”

With Books That Grow, Ms. Weiss found a new way to meet this challenge. “By picking texts in in the app that include very hard versions, I can keep those students challenged without losing everyone else.”

For Ms. Weiss, this often means using a primary source document, like My Escape From Slavery by Frederick Douglass, which she incorporated into a unit on memoir and the conventions of life-writing. “This is a 19th Century account of slavery in Baltimore , and so the text is very challenging. But my more-advanced students were able to dive right into the original text, and they loved it.”

At the same time, her less-advanced students were able to extract the same key information from a easier-to-read versions of the text. This allowed them to participate in a thoughtful give-and-take on how slavery differed across states. "For me,” said Ms. Weiss, “this is a huge help, because I want my less-advanced students to learn from my more-advanced students. That can't happen when my more-advanced students are disengaged."

Meg Weiss has been an educator for over ten years. Prior to teaching at Bronxville, she taught at Ramapo High School in  Spring Valley, NY for five years. Meg earned her B.A. in English from the University of Rochester, and went on to earn both an M.A. in English Education from Teachers College at Columbia University and an M.A. in Adolescent Special Education from Lehman College.