Storyshares CEO Shares How You Can Support Your Striving Readers
Following is an informational Q+A with Louise Baigelman, CEO of Storyshares, a literacy organization focused on dreaming up new books to spread a love of reading across the globe. Louise has been honored on Forbes esteemed list of 30 Under 30 in Education and the International Literacy Association’s list of 30 Under 30 in Literacy. She’s passionate about books and students and their power to change the world. We love that these decodable books are available to parents and teachers!
Q: Please introduce our readers to Storyshares!
A: Storyshares is a literacy organization that creates books and resources for striving readers in grades 3 and up. We support previously underserved readers who are working on foundational reading skills beyond third grade, by creating relevant, compelling, and diverse content written at an accessible reading level.
Q: What’s the mission of Storyshares?
A: Storyshares empowers older striving readers to rediscover the joy of reading by offering a curated library collection designed just for them.
We offer a continuously expanding selection of over 500 engaging and relevant decodable and high-low titles catering to a wide range of reading abilities and interests. Furthermore, we support teachers with a comprehensive suite of literacy resources and professional development opportunities, ensuring that secondary educators can effectively bridge the Science of Reading with culturally relevant content and fostering significant literacy growth for students in grades 3-12.
Q: How does Storyshares support educators?
A: Storyshares has created a Pathway to Literacy, which empowers educators to help students to build reading skills through a structured approach: starting with decodable chapter books (designed to build essential phonics and decoding skills in older struggling readers), progressing to high-low books (high-interest stories for older students, written at a lower reader level), and culminating in an interactive eLibrary (with 500+ digital books). Along the way, professional learning and a comprehensive literacy curriculum (coming Fall 2025) enable educators and foster a lifelong love of reading for underserved older striving readers. Storyshares Ambassadors have the opportunity to receive free or deeply discounted books in exchange for social media promotion and feedback on products.
Q: As parents, how do we access Storyshares for our students who are dyslexic? What other products/services/e-learning do you offer for parents?
Storyshares offers “educator” guides, and considers parents as educators!
A: Our definition of "educators" includes parents! All of our educator guides and book activities can be used by parents and family members. They include quick, easy-to-learn instructional routines, and pair with our paperback books.
Q: With Storyshares, how could parents help their dyslexic learners avoid reading regression that occurs over the summer?
Parents are encouraged to supplement home libraries with Storyshares titles, to read them with their child, and to use the questions and visible thinking routines to foster deeper comprehension and a love of reading. Our decodable chapter books are perfect for students with dyslexia. The educator companions are written in parent-friendly language, explaining the phonics concepts students need to know to read the decodables successfully. Our high-low books are also excellent supplements to home libraries! We recently co-published new editions of our high-low books in Noah Text, a dyslexia-friendly scaffolded text format that allows readers to see sound-parts within words for proper decoding & enunciation and is highly effective for striving, dyslexic, and English language learning readers. This recent podcast provides more in depth information and advice around the topic: Have a struggling reader? Try these tips
Q: Could you tell us about your Story of the Year contest? I know that the 2024 contest is in full swing – when do you announce the winners? How could a writer apply for the 2025 contest?
A: We started Storyshares to develop a new kind of book for the millions of students in grades 3-12 (and beyond) who lacked key literacy skills. With over 68% of 4th and 8th graders not reading proficiently, we knew there was a huge gap in the content available for authentic reading practice among older students. (6th graders won’t be engaged in reading if their only book choices are stories written for Kindergarteners, stories like ‘Hop on Pop’). We know that this was a need that we must find a way to solve.
The 2024 Storyshares writing contest winners will be announced in April 2025.
So we set out to build a new shelf in the global library: one with representative and intriguing books for readers at all levels, featuring themes and characters that resonate with older students — wherever they are. To do so, we started with a one-time writing contest, as an experiment. Could we bring together writers and educators from around the world to develop new stories that would meet the needs of older striving readers? The result of our first content exceeded all expectations, with over 600 story submissions received in just four months. It was this that led to the Storyshares publishing approach: a two-sided marketplace powered by crowdsourcing from a community of global writers.
Since then, we have run seven annual writing contests, receiving over 4,000 submissions from authors in 180 countries. Our panel of expert judges hones in on the very best story submissions, which our team of editors, literacy specialists, and designers then refine for publication to our collection. To date we have published more than 500 titles, offering choices at every intersection of interest and reading level. Contest winners receive cash prizes, and contribute to our mission to inspire millions of readers. Through this unique publishing model, we also develop a cohort of resident writers, who become serial contributors to our ongoing core library.
The 2024 Story of the Year Contest featured 5 distinct categories, including a “For Teens by Teens” category, and our first ever “Immersive Decodables” category.
We will announce the 2024 contest winners in early April 2025, and we will gear up for the 2025 contest this fall!
Q: How do our readers learn more about Storyshares?
A: Please visit our website at storyshares.org or reach out to info@storyshares.org. We love to hear from you!