We bring our expertise in education and literacy to your work.

When we were teaching together in New York City, Room 228 was our English office. It was where we met to brainstorm ideas, support one another’s work and collaborate.  Then, Sharon left to supervise student teachers and Erica left to work in publishing. We’ve come back together in Room 228. Now, we collaborate with educators from all different disciplines, all over the country, offer our expertise in education and literacy to a variety of industries and create resources and programs that can benefit children everywhere.   

Project of the Month

Clues, codes, and connections! What could be more fun for a middle grade classroom? Award-winning authors Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin’s The Bletchley Riddle is a wild ride that incorporates mystery and history in a way that speaks to young people. The educational materials can be integrated seamlessly into teachers’ existing academic units. The mini-unit encompasses four lesson plans—two geared toward 5th–6th grades and two for 7th–8th grades. But each lesson plan can easily be adapted in language, vocabulary, number/complexity of tasks, and objectives to match your grade level. The activities in this mini-unit encourage text-to-self and text-to-world interplay and activities are aligned with Common Core, Social Justice Standards, and Social Emotional Learning competencies. The lessons are academic and inclusive and are constructed so students can read, write, draw, listen, move, speak, and of course, decode! Each worksheet contains a secret code at the top of the page that connects to the content of that day’s lesson. The mini-unit also includes a mystery math worksheet where students will be investigators and code breakers and help solve the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Jakob and Lizzie’s mother. The Bletchley Riddle is teeming with cross-disciplinary topics, themes, and skill-building that can be comprehensively woven into social studies, math, science, ELA, and art curricula. Like we said: clues, codes, and connections galore!

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Happy Clients

  • “We feel so fortunate to have found Room 228. The feedback from the focus group of educators helped refine our positioning and ensure accessibility to a broad audience. In addition to improving the readability, the feedback highlighted our strengths, allowing us to retain the joy and levity while balancing our desire to inform and educate our readers. We have greater confidence in our project as we move forward with submission to agents and publishers. The process was timely, productive, and exceeded our expectations. We look forward to working with Room 228 in the future.” — Elizabeth Walsh, Co-Founder at GenReGen

  • “It’s an absolute pleasure working with the professional team at Room 228. Their passion for literacy and their resources to get kids excited about books is unsurpassed. For the past two years, Erica helped KidLit TV organize and execute fantastic multi-hour live streams in celebration of World Read Aloud Day.   We can’t wait to celebrate with Room 228 again next year!” — Julie Gribble, Founder of KidLit TV

  • “The team at Room 228 never fails to impress me.  Their classroom activities and questions prompts are incredibly thoughtful and creative.  Their guides always generate a lot of praise from authors, illustrators, and our editorial team — and that’s pretty impressive.” – Jenny Choy, Little Brown Books for Young Readers

  • “Room 228 was recommended to us for an in-school project DOGO was creating for a client in Hollywood.  I now understand why!  Erica and Sharon are true professionals who delivered a program that won over our client through its detail and innovative educational resources.  I can’t wait to work with them again!” — Ed Meagher, VP Sales at DOGOnews

  • “I cannot recommend the expert educators at Room 228 highly enough. My books tackle extremely challenging subjects, so I’m grateful to Room 228 for creating educator guides with thought-provoking questions and a range of activities that encourage teens to look both within themselves and at the world around them to find their own answers. Thank you Sharon and Erica, and all the amazing educators at Room 228!” – Sarah Darer Littman, award-winning columnist and critically acclaimed author of 19 middle grade and young adult novels, including Some Kind of Hate

  • “Working with the team at Room 228 was, and continues to be, a dream come true. The level of thought, passion, commitment and execution that went into the educational materials for my Little Senses book series is beyond anything I could have even touched upon if I were to do this myself.  To know that educators, caregivers and therapists have such useful Little Senses tools to help raise awareness and understanding within the neurodiverse community means the world to me.” — Samantha Cotterill, picture book author and illustrator of many books including the Little Senses series

  • “Sharon, Erica, and their team value collaboration. They made sure to include my requests and suggestions and communicated their passion for my book and its themes. Their enthusiasm was reflected in the insightful activities and questions in the educator’s guide. I know readers will feel encouraged to think deeply about my book’s plot and characters and, more importantly, about themselves.” – Laura Shovan, educator and author of the middle grade novels The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, Takedown, and A Place at the Table (co-written with Saadia Faruqi).

  • “Room 228 has been such a valuable resource for us at Page Street Kids in creating educator’s guides for our picture books that are fun, interactive, and useful. I’ve been so impressed with their careful attention to detail, innovative ideas for discussion questions and activities, and ability to take our suggestions and make them even better. We and our authors are so grateful for their help with integrating our picture books into classroom curriculum.” — Lizzy Mason, Director of Marketing and Publicity for Page Street Publishing

  • “Working with…the Room 228 Crew has been awesome. They helped me design a set educational guides for my children’s book series that hit the mark on addressing Social Emotional Learning, Social Justice, and Common Core Standards. The overall process was seamless, taking my ideas and making them a reality. Room 228, thank you for your support, guidance, and help in creating these resources.” — Claude Jones, author of the Astro the Monster series

  • “I am absolutely thrilled …and can’t thank [Room 228] enough for this truly thorough guide with such insightful questions and ideas. I am so excited to have it now, at the start of the school year, as I start my first visits to schools and libraries.” — Adrienne Wright, Author of Hector: A Boy, A Protest, and the Photograph that Changed Apartheid

  • “Room 228 is an absolute delight to work with! Their knowledge of the Common Core standards has been invaluable to us.  Not only are they knowledgeable  but also highly responsive to our needs and feedback. Would recommend working with them on any future projects.”— Katie Halata, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group

  • “Working with Room 228 was absolutely fantastic! They were able to take my work and quickly develop middle school lesson plans in ways I couldn’t imagine. They frequently kept me updated on the project’s process and were a pleasure to work with. Any author interested in the development of classroom materials for their books should know that their work will be in good hands with Room 228!” – Mark Jarmon, Ed.D., author of Monster Surf Tales and Other Poems & Back to Echo Beach and Other Poems

  • “Erica and Sharon were so easy to work with – from the concept of the project through the delivery. They were flexible and amenable to our ideas, while also keeping in mind what content would be best for teachers.” — Kathryn Bhirud, School & Library Marketing at Penguin Group USA

  • “Erica and Sharon are a pleasure to work with. Their educators’ guides are high quality, tailored to each book, and current to meet the changing needs of teachers. I really appreciate their hard work and collaborative spirit!” — Lisa Nadel, Owner, Lonni Lane Marketing and former Director of School & Library Marketing, Random House Children’s Books

     

  • “Working with Room 228 has been an absolute pleasure! They put so much thought and creativity into the educator resources they produced for my books. Every single activity was genuinely educational and fun. The educator guides are custom creations, uniquely tied to my books. Room 228’s team was extremely open and responsive to all feedback from me. I wouldn’t want to launch a children’s book without their support!”  — Eileen Kennedy-Moore, PhD, author of Moody Moody Cars and Growing Friendships: A Kids’ Guide to Making and Keeping Friends