BiblioNasium is a powerful social network that promotes and enhances the independent reading process for elementary school age children. Part kids social network, part parent’s guide, part educator’s tool, BiblioNasium blends technology with personal connection to create a social yet personalized space for children’s reading success.

The platform starts with the basic functions of popular sites such as GoodReads and Librarything where young readers can catalogue, share, and exchange book recommendations with their friends, teachers, librarians and parents. Building on top of the COPPA compliant platform, are then features specifically designed for this digital generation of elementary school children: Virtual connection with their classmates and a teacher or librarian, Online Reading Logs, Virtual Rewards for completing reading challenges, and the ability to see and search for books based on reading level difficulty.

Marjan Ghara, Founder & CEO and Adele Schwartz, Chief Education Advocate, will present the platform and show how educators engage and interact online with their students, how they access real time and historical reading data for each child and how they can use the information to determine the reading habits, ability and preferences of each student. Through a partnership with MetaMetrics®, BiblioNasium also integrates the Lexile Framework for Reading, a reading-level metric based on 20 years of research, that is widely used throughout the United States. They will discuss Lexile Measures and how the Common Core Standards’ grade and Lexile bands serve as a guide to help educators direct their students’ independent reading activities.

Marjan is a mother of two elementary school age children and an experienced technologist with a BA in Systems Analysis & Design from the University of Pennsylvania. Adele is an alumni with extensive teaching and administrative experiences in schools & colleges in New York City. She has a BS in Special Education and MA in Literacy Education from CUNY and earned her EdD. in Special Education and Education Technology from Teacher’s College Columbia University.

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