Starfall

Starfall: Learn to Read

Created by: Starfall.com

Starfall is a website, as well as an application available on all iOS and Android devices. Starfall is targetted towards early elementary students and focuses on phonemic awareness, and early literacy development. The resource is free to use both online, and using the app, and teachers or parents can easily create accounts. There is a low-cost paid version where schools can gain full access to more resources and content. Teachers or family members can utilize this tool to promote and support phonemic awareness and reading development. 

For Students

Starfall is visually simple, and simple for young learners to work through. The resource includes fifteen mini-books, which each focus on a pattern from a vowel sound. The resource also includes games, songs, videos and images to reinforce and engage students in their early literacy development. There are four levels that students can work through to develop their reading. The first level is "Learning ABC's" which focuses on the most basic root of reading, understanding letters and letter sounds. The next level is the "Early Beginning Reading" where they elaborate on their understanding of letter sounds by adding consonants and learning about word families. Each letter within a word is highlighted, as the sounds are read to the learner. The next level is "Intermediate Beginning Reader". At this level, students are exposed to the book characters within the next level, and are able to explore the tools, such as magic tricks, that they will utilize in their last level. The final level is "Advanced Beginning Reader". In the final stage, students are exposed to a variety of books that they can choose to read, as seen above. There is a range of genres, topics, and styles, including comics and fables. As the students progress through these levels, there are skills that are aligned with each level, such as blends, digraphs, and short and long sounds. 

For Teachers

Starfall is a great tool for lower elementary teachers to implement into their classrooms, as well as encourage families to utilize. As seen on the left, the content of this program is easily accessible, and simple to guide families and students through. Starfall also allows for class logins, where teachers can track and monitor student progress. 

Response

Starfall is a great resource to promote and enhance early literacy. The games, songs, and practices are bright, and kid-friendly, which allows students to remain engaged. Starfall also does a great job encouraging students to foster a love of reading through positive messages and headings such as " I Love to Read!" and "I'm Reading!" This encourages students to utilize these phrases, and put the words into action and see themselves as readers. Since the program is simple, there is little room for distractions. The simplicity allows students to focus on developing their literacy skills, as opposed to learning to solely rely on images and illustrations. One downfall I recognize in this program is the simplicity may lead to boredom or disinterest in students. Students love to be stimulated and engaged through moving pieces, which this program does not have a lot of. Since there are only fifteen texts, there is not a lot of exposure to a wide variety of texts. Once a student is able to read a simple book, I suggest moving on to a different program where they can engage in books that interest them, as well as a program that has a wide variety of diverse texts. Starfall is research-based and aligns with Common Core State Standards for ELA development. Starfall brings to life the concept of effective exploration and play as it pertains to encouraging students to become motivated and successful readers.

Teach Your Monster to Read

Teach your Monster to Read

Created by: Teach Monster Games

Teach your Monster to Read is an application as well as a website, available on all iOS and Android devices. It is based on a child's early literacy development. This means that it includes basic skill-building from matching letters to letter sounds and pictures, to reading small skill-building books. This digital resource focuses on early phonics instruction and reading games, so it is the best fit for lower grades. 

For Students

This resource is designed to guide students through their first two years of learning to read through a progression of skills. Students are immediately engaged when they open the app or website and get to create their own monster. The program is story based, so the students are engaged in a mission to fix their ship and progress through the galaxy. There are three different "stages" of the program through which the students, and their monster progress. The first phase is called "first steps" where they build their letter-sound correspondence, as seen above. Here, they practice connecting sounds to letters and images. The second phase is called "Fun with Words", and is pictured on the left. Here, students learn how to segment and put letters and letter sounds together. The final stage, "Champion Readers", shown below, is where students put all of their knowledge together and read small introductory books. The other phases of the game are slow and repetitive, however, this section moves quicker and is more challenging so that it best fits the new abilities and learning speed of the student. The books are highlighted, and read aloud to the student to gain exposure with fluency, pace, and letter-sound correspondence. Here, the students are exposed to short sentences. Throughout the resource, students are able to progress through different planets, which keeps them engaged and encourages them to progress through the program. 

For Teachers

This resource has a great resource area for teachers to monitor and assign phonics development for early learners. Since it is aimed for early learners, teachers could utilize this program as a tool to reinforce and strengthen the reading skills of students who may be struggling to grasp these early concepts, or as a way to encourage and support  ESL students to engage with the English language. Within the easily findable "Teachers' Area", there are resources for teachers to bring the program to a whole group setting, as well as tips for implementing and introducing the program. Teachers are encouraged to create profiles for their students, so that they can easily log in at home or in the classroom. By creating a class, teachers can also track progress, and recognize if a student has been on a "planet" for a long time, and may need extra support. Teachers are able to view reports of student progress, as well as find additional resources to reinforce phonics and reading development in early readers. 

 Response 

This program is designed based on research for phonemic, phonological, and reading development. There are no external advertisements, so it allows for minimal distractions. Since this program's skill practice is game-based, the students are consistently engaged and learning key skills to develop their reading. There is a strong reward system, which praises the students for their success, and inspires them to try their best and continue to succeed. The students cannot be monitored on their amount of time creating and editing their monster, which could be distractive. Since the content is repetitive, it ensures that the students have a lot of exposure to the concepts, and are receiving quality information and quality time with the phonics practice. Since it is a story-based program, there are not a wide range of texts or cultures represented, because the "champion readers" are reading simple sentences to build text awareness. One area I would be cognazent of would be assigning this as a resource for a whole class. Since students are at such varying ranges of reading development, it is important to only assign resources that will further the individual's reading development. This resource should be for early readers, before they have a lot of experience with time in text because it is a resource that builds student's foundation for reading.   

RAZ Kids

RAZ Kids

Created by: Reading A-Z

Raz-Kids is a website, as well as an application available on all iOS and Android devices. RAZ-Kids provides texts spanning over 29 levels of reading, in both fiction and nonfiction texts. The texts address different literary concepts, content area subjects, and prompt comprehensive responses. Within their account, students are prompted to read, listen to, or record themselves reading, and each text is followed by a comprehension quiz. The students are able to "Level Up" and earn stars for their work, so it is visually and motivationally engaging. 

For Students

RAZ-Kids is designed in an outer space theme where students can create and build their own robot. This automatically engages and excites the student to earn more stars so that they can personalize their robot. If their teacher already inputs their reading level, the student will be able to have full access to the book room, labeled by the yellow planet, where they will be exposed to books on, below, and above their reading level. To build fluency, RAZ will first read the text out loud so that the student is able to learn unknown words, and build familiarity with the text. It will also model reading fluency. Following the "listen", students will have the option to read and record their books at their own pace. This will allow them to practice and apply their learned reading skills, as well as demonstrate the fluency they have experienced. Each book also includes interactive reading tools, such as a highlighter or a space to make notes. When they take the quiz after having exposure to the text at least three times, they will be able to show their understanding of the text. Each quiz is linked to a Common Core Standard, as well as a comprehension skill to report to the teacher areas in which the student may need more support. If the blue plant is present, it means that the teacher has assigned the student either a reading, or an assessment, which can be teacher-created, or a running record. By having it's own planet, this makes the assignment clear and simple for students to locate. As students read more books, they will earn stars and progress towards their next level, which motivates students to remain engaged and continue reading. By allowing a wide text selection, students love this program because it gives them many different options, and they can choose texts that interest them. Within the article, Selecting Appealing and Appropriate Books, authors Cahill and McGill-Franzen state that online reading programs are effective for English as a Second Language learners. This is especially true for RAZ-Kids because there is an option where students can read a text in their native language, and then transition with that same text into English. 

For Teachers

For teachers, RAZ-Kids provides great tools for monitoring, assigning, and assessing students. Teachers are able to input their class data, as well as reading levels for each student. They can create "kid-friendly" log-ins, where the password can be in symbols for students still developing their reading and typing skills. Teachers have easy access to reports and student data that is easily organized in a way that teachers can gather data. The reports consist of time logged, texts read, concepts that the students struggle most with and succeed most in, as well as level progression. Teachers can also assign texts for students to read, as well as assessments such as running records. Teachers are also able to create and assign their own assessments to students. 

Response

Raz-Kids creates an effective tool for both teachers and students. It has multiple features that support student needs, and grow literacy growth. Through the consistent monitoring of "just right" and "level up" texts, students are pushed in their reading without feeling frustrated. There is a store where students can accessorize their robot, however, if it becomes too distracting, a teacher can deactivate a student's access to the store. Within reports, teachers can see the amount of time each student spends in the store, in order to maintain quality reading time. Since it is an ever-changing source, there are new texts being added frequently ranging a wide variety of concepts, as well as cultures. The students are encouraged to learn from illustrations, so the illustrations within the texts are detailed enough in a way that is not distracting.