Take Home Reading & Literacy Packs
Overview
Teachers had to adjust quickly to new remote teaching formats during unprecedented times. With this change came uncertainty regarding knowing how to safely provide for students’ literacy needs when in-person classroom libraries are no longer accessible from home. To solve this, Booksource created their Take Home Reading & Literacy Packs. These individually packed collections consist of four to five book sets and a reading comprehension workbook for teachers to send home with students to support students' literacy needs remotely.
Challenges
Choosing reading comprehension activities for each grade’s workbook.
Accommodating both English and Spanish-speaking students in one workbook.
Creating a clear theme for the workbook that was engaging for both students and parents.
Ensuring the workbooks are printed and ready before returning to school in the fall.
Goals
Provide more tools for teachers to use in their classroom libraries while their class is remote.
Help students still have access to books remotely.
Limiting the spread of germs by having individually packed sets for teachers to give to students instead of passing along books from student to student.
Creating an evergreen product that can last beyond the current remote times to being a tool always at the ready for teachers.
Process
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Inspiration
For this project, we took inspiration from the idea of how books can take you to new places never before traveled. So during a time when we’re all at home and inside a little more than we’d like, students can use this workbook as a passport to reading and discovering new places.
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Thumbnails
After brainstorm storming and arriving at a concept, next is creating thumbnail sketches to start to get a feel for how all the pieces fit together. Above is a rough sketch of the workbook cover showing how I envisioned the text placement, book stamp, and logo.
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Sketching
Next is taking the best thumbnail sketch and drawing it in greater detail before bringing it into Illustrator to create a clean vector image.
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Revisions
Once we’ve settled on a direction and have all the pieces in place, next is making many versions to work through any problems so that we can arrive the best version possible.
Workbook Design
For the cover and throughout the book we wanted to add a friendly, approachable element for kids. We did this by incorporating handmade illustrations, lettering, and paper textures to invite kids in. In addition we also decided to make this a flip book design so bilingual classes could flip to the side that best suits their learning needs.
Each Take Home Reading & Literacy Pack contains one workbook, five popular leveled books, and instructions for parents/guardians to guide their readers at home. The workbook is divided into five color coded sections, each section with its own comprehension worksheets. There’s also a reading log and reading tips to keep your readers’ on track.
Video flip through of Take Home Reading & Literacy Packs workbook.
Impact
The Take Home Reading & Literacy Pack has become one of Booksource’s top selling projects since 2020 when this launched. It has proven especially helpful to teachers by providing another teaching option while working remote or hybrid schedules.
Winner of the 2021 Graphic Design USA Inhouse Design Awards in the category of Brochures + Collateral.
