October, 2014
A few weeks ago I posted here in Edtech and Mobile Learning a list of useful web tools to enhance students reading comprehension. Today, I am adding two other tools to the list. Check them out below:
1- ReadWorks
ReadWorks is an excellent platform that provides effective free resources to enhance students reading comprehension. It also gives teachers a bunch of research-proven tools and support they need to improve the academic achievement of their students.
ReadWorks also provides a wide variety of reading materials that are aligned to the Common Core Standards. These materials include both non-fiction and literary passages that students and teachers can access online for free. There is also a section on ReadWorks called " Lessons & Units" that features a plethora of lesson plans and comprehension worksheets for teachers to use with different grade levels. The lesson plans are arranged into four main categories: skills and strategy units, comprehension skills, novel study units, reading passages.
2- Reading Bear
Reading Bear is a great tool for helping kids learn to read. Reading Bear integrates both vocabulary practice (over 1200 vocabulary items) and phonetic awareness ( covering different phonetic principles and patterns of written English) into their lessons. All of these lessons are provided in the form of narrated presentations playable either as a video or as an interactive slide show. Presentations are available in seven different versions. In the fullest version, the narrator sounds out a word slowly and quickly, then blend it slowly, and finally (after an optional prompt) blend it quickly. As sounds are pronounced, the corresponding letters are highlighted. Then a picture is displayed illustrating the word, show a sentence (with the individual sounds again highlighted, karaoke style), and finally show a video illustrating the sentence.
