LitWeaver: Netflix for English teachers?

4220-the-last-dogAuthor Will Weaver’s new company, LitWeaver, is getting a lot of buzz lately and its for good cause. With writers such as “Bridge to Terabithia” author Katherine Paterson and “Maniac Magee” author Jerry Spinelli on board, many teachers and librarians are getting excited.

“I’ve gathered a cohort of leading authors and we are making an end run around… the big publishing companies in delivering content directly to schools,” Weaver said after being 1 of 3 winners of the annual IDEA Competition sponsored by the Bemidji-based Northwest Minnesota Foundation. “We think textbooks are too expensive, and teachers need more choices and more options. We’re providing them.”

Joyce Valenza’s interview with him highlighted that LitWeaver’s “focus is the shorter work of well-known authors in the form of essays, short stories, plays, poems and mixed genre pieces. Teachers can easily set-up classrooms and populate them with students, assign readings, post online questions and writing prompts.” These writing prompts, or reading guides, help with learning as well as help teachers guide the discussion.

LitWeaver promises it “will always have free reading for schools.” Sign-up is quick and easy, so check it out and let us know what you think!

Bottom Line: As of the writing of this post, the service is free and a piece of it will likely remain free, but a low-cost subscription (Plus version) will be added. Also, look for more and more authors to be added to the collection.