Scholastic Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month With Special Classroom Curriculum & Online Activities.

Scholastic, the global children’s media and publishing company, is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month 2001, September 15th – October 15th, with special content and curriculum in its classroom magazines for grades pre-K through 12 and online at Scholastic.com. In addition, Scholastic is producing a colorful Hispanic Heritage Month poster with the theme of “Tell Your Story” that is being distributed to more than seven million students and teachers nationwide. Scholastic’s Hispanic Heritage Month activities are an extension of year-round initiatives to promote literacy and cultural education among Latino children such as Scholastic’s Spanish Book Club and classroom magazines produced in Spanish.

Scholastic is at the forefront of meeting the literacy needs of America’s Spanish-speaking youth. The company owns Lectorum; the largest and oldest distributor of Spanish language books in the country. Lectorum also runs a Spanish language book store in Manhattan, and throughout Hispanic Heritage Month they will feature book signings and readings.

As part of its initiatives throughout the year, Scholastic publishes classroom magazines in Spanish, offers a Spanish/English Book Club to schools, publishes and distributes Spanish language books through the Scholastic Book Fairs and publishes Scholastic Solares(R), a leading classroom language arts reading program for Spanish-speaking children. Scholastic received the Corporate Citizen of the Year Award from the National Association for Bilingual Education and sponsors their Bilingual Teacher of the Year and student essay programs.

“By celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month we are embracing the wonderful variety of people that make our country a microcosm of the world,” said Richard Robinson, Chairman, President and CEO, Scholastic Inc. ” Hispanic Heritage Month helps to remind us that a person’s heritage, is something to be recognized, valued, celebrated and shared. The campaign reaffirms Scholastic’s long term commitment to encouraging literacy and the joy of reading among the Latino population throughout the year.”

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, classroom magazines Scholastic News, Scholastic Action and Scholastic Scope are publishing special issues featuring articles on inspiring Latino figures. Scholastic News readers will also receive the 5th Annual Hispanic Heritage poster entitled “Tell Your Story,” in recognition of 500 years of history, culture and races that have met and blended together in the Americas. With its mission to encourage all young Latinos to reflect on and celebrate their cultural backgrounds and make all children aware of the important contributions of Latinos, the poster also includes information, reproducibles and lesson plans for teacher use in the classroom.

Scholastic.com celebrates the lives and accomplishments of Hispanic Americans featuring interviews with, and biographies of Latinos of note, including an astronaut, a scientist, an illustrator and an author. Also featured online are multimedia timelines about the roots of Hispanic heritage as well as an interactive map. In addition, a comprehensive teacher’s guide is available online. Many of the articles featured on Scholastic.com were created with Grolier online, a leading research resource for kids.