Learning Links Information

Founded in 1976, Learning Links is the brainchild of Joyce Friedland and Rikki Kessler. As reading teachers in a prestigious Long Island school district, they decided that real literature, not basals or skills lessons, should become the core of their reading program. To do so, they created study guides to accompany the literature. Novel-Ties was their unique method of incorporating literature into the curriculum. At first, using Novel-Ties only in their own classrooms, Joyce and Rikki soon realized that other teachers wanted these guides for differentiated instruction with several novels or whole-class study of a single novel. From its initial advertisement in 1981, when it offered only twelve study guides, Learning Links now publishes over 600 Novel-Ties study guides. In fact, Learning Links provides everything teachers need for literature-based reading programs - books, study guides, audios, videos and more. From humble beginnings, and with very hard work, Joyce and Rikki steered the business to its present status as a major bookseller to schools in the United States and abroad Novel-Ties contain questions to ask, the important issues to discuss, and the organizational aids that help students get the most out of each book they read. Staying close to the teachers who keep their business growing, Joyce and Rikki continue to select new study guide titles and develop book collections based on teacher requests online and at the professional conferences they attend as exhibitors. Learning Links demonstrates its commitment to the best in literature for children and young adults by developing and offering to educators around the world the teaching tools that make literature accessible to students.