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the past several years, ������Ƶ and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame
Workshop have become known for our book Tap,
Click, Read and for our joint research and analysis on how digital
technologies could be used to improve, instead of impede, early literacy.�� Now our two organizations are going a
step further: We are releasing a toolkit of free materials designed to help
educators and other leaders put these insights into practice to help children
learn to read.�� Fourteen
research-based resources—including tipsheets, discussion guides, ratings lists,
and a quiz—are now downloadable and free for further distribution at .  

These
materials will be reaching large audiences through our partnerships with First
Book and the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, two organizations dedicated to closing literacy divides and ensuring that children in low-income
families and high-need schools have access to high-quality teaching and reading
materials. They are in the
of the ,
which includes short videos of Q-and-A. And they will be highlighted through
four blog posts on the , an online
forum for the 200+ cities participating in the . You will also see them in the coming months through (Oct 31-Nov 4) and at the in a featured session on
November 3.

With the creation of these resources, we are trying to “walk the talk.” We recognize that in today’s
high-paced world, adults as well as children are learning in multiple ways, and
they need easy access to multimedia materials that spark conversation and new
ideas. Since the ���Ǵǰ�’s
release in October 2015, we have been providing information in as many
formats as possible: through the stories and brilliant people we introduce in
the chapters of our book, through forums and presentations we have given around
the country, through five videos that are freely available on our , on ,
and on ; through social media
conversations at
on Twitter and throughout Facebook; through the one-and-two page downloadables
we are announcing today (including ratings charts, quizzes, and expert advice);
and through just-released discussion guides (see below) that are designed to
prompt critical thinking by educators and other leaders throughout
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Our book
and the accompanying resources lay out a vision for building
21^st century ecosystems of learning that combine the best of media
and reading. We playfully call this combination “Readialand.”  We believe that Readialand ecosystems
can be created in communities around the country through new collaborations
between educators, families, and community leaders who recognize that 21^st-century
learning has to be human-powered first and tech-assisted second.�� The downloadable resources are:

• —A list of recommendations for updating
  teaching methods, working with libraries and public media, and more.
• —A list of ideas for parents and
  caregivers, including the importance of listening to and talking with children
  about the media they use and why.

• —Used well, media can
  spark opportunities for children to converse with their family members at home
  in their native languages. This helps them build a foundation for learning
  English too.
• —Children need to learn what it means
  to be a creator, not just a consumer, of media. New tools bring this concept to
  life.
• —Choose wisely. Use app-review sites
  and advice from literacy experts to find materials that match your students’
  needs.
• —Content, context, and the individual child. Become more
  mindful in using digital technology with young children by taking this quiz.
• —A guide for community and state leaders on how to make
  progress in solving America’s reading crisis and strengthening family-centered
  approaches that will endure over time.
• —A one-page
  list of “must-dos” for community leaders, district administrators,
  and policymakers to break out of the literacy crisis and bring opportunities to
  all children.
• —Media and
  technology developers can become a key part of creating ecosystems of learning
  by partnering with educators and recognizing the needs of today’s diverse
  families.

We have also produced five discussion guides to
accompany short videos that could be used to spark dialogue in community
workshops or professional learning community meetings:

Comienza en Casa: Helping immigrant families prepare their
children for kindergarten.

• (5:15 minutes)

Tutormate: Matching community volunteers with first-grade students
for weekly reading sessions.

• (4:18 minutes)

Parents And Children Together (PACT): Encouraging parents to read
with their children using e-books and text messages.

• (5:05 minutes)

Play and Learning Strategies (PALS): Helping parents see how to
create language-rich moments with their children.

• (5:37 minutes)

Univision and Too Small to Fail: Spreading messages about the
importance of talking, singing, and reading with young children.

• (4:06 minutes)

 Funding from the Pritzker Children’s Initiative has made it possible for
us to do the lion’s share of writing and researching the book, producing the
videos, and creating and distributing the toolkit comprised of these 9 downloadable
resources and 5 discussion guides. The idea for this project was sparked by the
Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. We are grateful to the Pritzker Children’s
Initiative and CGLR for their support. All royalties from sales of Tap,
Click, Read (you can order it  and see other sellers and post ) are invested back into the education research programs at our
two institutions, ������Ƶ and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame
Workshop. All materials on the TapClickRead.org website are openly licensed
under the Creative Commons .��