International Literacy Association Newsletter Weekly Project: Effective Literacy Website #4 By Graham Henry

 

The fourth website I have picked for effective literacy is Read to Me International (http://www.readtomeintl.org).  Read To Me International is a non-profit organization which promote reading aloud through a couple ways.  This Organization has programs which coach parents in the schools in Hawai‘i to read aloud to learners of all ages.  You will also find Presentations and workshops for parents, educators and other interested groups.  This website’s main mission is to share the love and joy of reading aloud.  According to the website, the main goals for this non-profit organization is to ensure that every child is read to every day for at least 10 minutes.  The website provides videos and lessons on reading aloud techniques so anyone browsing through the website can learn the simple steps of reading aloud and how fun it is when it is being done to young learners. 

            One reason this literacy website caught my attention was that it was created by Pacific Islanders in Hawai’i.  This Read Aloud program has proven to be successful because it has been adopted in over a dozen states, plus Malaysia and Canada. Read To Me International has evolved to focus on equipping and coaching parents to be their children’s first teachers in life through reading aloud together. This organization serves an average of 7,500 people each year through its parent-coaching programs, annual national-quality conference, workshops, and community events. 

            If there was to be program that Pacific Islanders should apply towards Pacific Islanders, this would definitely be the one.  This Organization not only aims at helping young learners, but it also trains parents and educators on techniques which would help them become successful in reading aloud towards learners. 

Night Zookeeper.com By: Florentina Aguon

    https://www.nightzookeeper.com/teachers

    Susan Sember (2021) once said, "Writing is the painting of the voice." Similarly, Night Zookeeper,

created by Joshua Davidson, is a unique website where children learn to tap into their

imagination and share stories they made. Night Zookeeper is perfect for teachers grades 6-12

with its complete curriculum, set assignments, and progress tracking. In addition, this platform

has assisted "over 1 million children aged 6-12 to develop their writing, reading, and creative

thinking skills." Moreover, Night Zookeeper is a platform geared towards activating students'

creativity, growth mindset, and reading and writing skills.

Students gain interest in writing as they begin to create their own stories. The platform

scaffolds the writing process by teaching students words, how to formulate sentences, and, finally,

author stories of their own. Additionally, the platform encourages students to write anything

they can imagine and create illustrations that bring their stories to life. The platform is filled

with multiple forms of writing, from free writing to reports, poems, letter writing, persuasive,

exploration, playscript, and more. 

Night Zookeeper is a perfect platform that supports students requiring a growth

mindset. The platform elevates students' interests and skills by developing special lessons from

a dedicated tutor ready to help students. As mentioned above, the program is filled with fun and

engaging games geared toward increasing vocabulary and spelling. In addition, Night Zookeeper

makes learning about proper sentence structure fun by building sentences through puzzles and

challenges that develop their grammar and writing structure skills. Most importantly, Night

Zookeeper keeps students coming back for more with "inspiring prompts and story creation l

essons that spark their interest and imagination" ("Classroom Reading and Writing Program |

Night Zookeeper - Fantastically Fun Learning.")

Teachers can build on students' baseline skills through the Progress Tracking feature that

the platform provides. The Progress Tracking feature helps teachers and parents track

and identify areas for improvement. Furthermore, the platform organizes the student's

progress using in-depth statistics of their growth and accomplishments, including monthly

graphs. Once students have achieved their reading and writing goals, teachers can adjust the

difficulty levels to meet the child's proficiency levels. 

In final analysis, Night Zookeeper is an effective literacy website that encourages students

to read and "write paintings of their voices" (Sember.) The online platform is built to enhance

students' reading and writing skills through scaffolded instruction in the form of games, puzzles,

and writing challenges. At the end of the program students will have the opportunity to develop

their writing skills with a growth mindset with assistance from online tutors and teacher

feedback. Finally, all participants involved have the ability to tailor their lessons to fit the students

needs with Night Zookeeper's Progress Tracking features.

IRA NEWSLETTER PROJECT WEEK 3: READWORKS

 

ReadWorks is another sufficient tool for promoting proficient readers. The site offers a collection of free resources and tools utilized for improving literacy skills for all grade levels (Kindergarten to 12th). The employable resources include, but are not limited to eBooks, reading passages, articles, and activities used to strengthen vocabulary. It is ReadWorks’ mission to improve reading comprehension and promote grade-level proficiency by generating attainable content and tools for educators across the nation. In addition, each tool provided by the site was created using research based on cognitive science, therefore proving the validity and reliability of each activity. Furthermore, the website is competently designed as well as easy to navigate. However, the creation of a free account is required in order to access ReadWorks’ content.

Not to mention, ReadWorks’ offers a section titled Teacher Guide, which comprises a plethora of innovative assets to utilize in the classroom. Correspondingly, many of the resources available offer flexibility to support the needs of multiple classroom settings. The versatility extends the options of all lessons to be printed out or assigned digitally. In like manner, finding certain reading passages can be done within seconds. ReadWorks provides a search tool and filter option to accurately detect resources that meet the needs of each reader. In essence, each passage provides a specific set of questions, vocabulary activities, and even audio guides to improve students’ reading comprehension.

Given these points, ReadWorks is an innovative site that is committed to improving literacy skills for all students. This tool offers various types of resources that meet the needs of all learners. Its site is user-friendly and accessible to all teachers across the nation. It is recommended that all educators explore ReadWorks and utilize its functional tools in all classroom settings.

Effective Literacy Website #3 - Khan Academy by Pearl Hamada

Khan Academy is a non-profit organization that provides free online education to all learners. Parents and teachers can sign up for a free account to support literacy learning and more for their children or students. Khan Academy provides reading and language education for students as young as age two to the 9th grade. Teachers can also create online reading and language classrooms using the Khan Academy platform.

Parents and educators can download the application “Khan Academy Kids” for children aged two to eight through a website link. Small children can learn through books and play without ads or subscriptions. Khan Academy also provides activities that include reading, phonics, and writing. Teachers or parents can set up a class, assign activities, and track student progress. A bear named Cody and his animal friends guide the learner through lessons, such as choosing the picture with the beginning sound “b.” Online books are grouped by topics such as “feelings” or “grade level”. A section in the app contains e-books with lesson activities that students may do after reading. Khan Academy In the video section, young children, can watch and learn about sight words. The videos discuss word spelling and how to use the sight word in a sentence, all in an animated short with Cody and his friends.

Teachers and parents can also create a reading and language class on the Khan Academy website for 2nd grade to 9th grade. Teacher training videos about classroom strategies are available that help determines how to use components of Khan Academy in the classroom. Khan Academy allows users to create a goal for individual students, groups, or a whole class based on a given literacy skill. For example, a teacher can assign a unit on “Pets.” Students will be given an article to read as an introduction to the unit, learn different vocabulary words about the topic, and watch videos about summarizing a story. Next, they will learn how to locate information using text features to answer questions. Teachers can track individual student or class progress through online progress reports. By reviewing student data on the website, teachers can design their instruction effectively and group students who require extra practice for a particular literacy skill. LearnStorm Tracker is an incentive tool that follows the progress of all the individuals in a class. When all students reach a particular goal, the whole class receives a celebratory notification. The teacher is able to provide prizes or incentives to celebrate the class’ success. Students are encouraged to show growth as a team and may even collaborate to support the learning of their peers who may be struggling with components of reading and language. English Language Learners may find the videos about English Language Grammar helpful to build background knowledge or vocabulary.

Khan Academy provides free tools and information to promote literacy. Educators can use differentiated instruction to meet their learner’s needs. The platform activities can be used as review or practice, as students work at their own pace. Khan Academy is clearly an effective website that gives all learners access to Common Core State Standards-aligned literacy content, no matter where they are in the world. 

Half Pint Kids by Charlene Chiguina

Image retrieved from: https://halfpintkids.com/ 

          Half Pint Kids (https://halfpintkids.com/) is a website where teachers and students can access a series of decodable phonics books. A kindergarten teacher who understood the beginning stages of reading created these books. Many of her students started by sounding CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and wanted to explore reading real books. The kindergarten teacher started to write and illustrate these decodable books and noticed a progression in her students’ reading skills. These decodable books incorporate the five essential elements of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension). Many students, speech therapists, and adult literacy have used Half Pint Kids decodable readers and gained much success. 

           Half Pint Kids have various products teachers can utilize in their classrooms, such as literacy centers, reading games, and multi-sensory lesson plans. The literacy centers are free to download and a great way to practice reading skills. Additionally, reading games and activities pair up with the Half-Pint decodable books. Some games include Snuggle Up, Rhythm and Rhyme, I Spy, and Phoneme Fun. These reading games are a great way to review and practice reading skills. Half Pint Kids also offers multi-sensory lesson plans where children can learn through discovery and play. Many activities cater to all learning styles; visual, auditory, and tactile-kinesthetic. Most of the materials are found in any household, and all children will find these lessons engaging. 

           Overall, Half Pint Kids is an effective literacy website because the decodable readers can read for free. I have used decodable readers in my classroom and found that it helps my students with fluency and reading comprehension. I would use Half Pint Kids for my students who are still struggling and working on their CVC words. I like how the lesson plans are engaging to every kind of learner out there. Overall, this website would benefit all students, especially those who need to build their confidence in reading. 

Scholastic Literacy Website Review #3: By Saileen Fango

 

Thursday, December 29, 2022 

Scholastic Literacy Review: 

         The Scholastic website (https://scholastic.com/teachers) is the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books, connecting educators and families through accessibility, engagement, expertise, and digital educational materials for pre-K to grade 12. In addition, the Scholastic website is best known to be the leading provider of literacy curriculum, professional services, and classroom magazines, and a producer of educational and popular children’s media. Scholastic is currently in 115,000 schools, reaching 3.8 million educators, 54 million students, and 78 million parents/caregivers domestically. Significantly, the website is an effective literacy teaching tool that supports teachers and students through literacy instruction, classroom magazines, and digital programs, and provides children access to quality books through Trade, Book Clubs, and Book Fairs. 

The Scholastic website provides a variety of options to access information, multimedia resources, and reading materials that will inspire students to cultivate their minds to the utmost capacity, become familiar with our cultural heritage, and strive for excellence in creative expression in all fields of learning through literature and art. In addition, it helps enlarge students’ concern for and understanding of today’s worlds, and help build a society free of prejudice and hate, and dedicated to the highest quality of life in community and nation. 

The website’s homepages take you to a variety of options to access different subjects, genre, theme, grade, programs, books, libraries, digital, and category that includes classroom books, classroom materials, professional growth, and digital and audio instructional tools that can be use to incorporate in a classroom, at home, and an online course.   

The Guided Reading Programs and Parents Guided Reading section is found very appealing and interesting.  It features complex texts in a wide range of nonfiction text types and fiction genres. All the guided reading materials fit seamlessly into today’s blended learning classrooms. It also allows educators to create guided reading groups from the student’s roster, search for and assign texts, and generate reports of guided reading levels and skills. This teaching tool also features an allowable request trial before actually purchasing it. Most importantly, these guided reading levels are all based on word knowledge, comprehension, and fluency. The levels range alphabetically from A to Z, with level A representing the lowest level and level Z the highest. In addition, these programs support a comprehensive reading program by integrating small-group instruction, assessment, and independent practice into a classroom to foster independent learners. 

Furthermore, the Scholastic website inspires literacy and learning for all students through traditional, virtual or hybrid instruction. Their commitment is believing that the development of robust literacy skills is at the very heart of empowering children to thrive in school and in life. This website also allows educators to create literacy solutions that support the whole child-in the classroom, at home, and in the community. This website features additional access to instruction support in the classroom, virtually, or in a hybrid or blended learning model. From transformative, research-based literacy instruction to expert professional development, and groundbreaking family & community engagement, and promising us educators that they are with us every step of the way on the path to literacy.

Photo from: (https://hail.to/saint-pauls-catholic-school/article/DJjKFLG) 

ILA Literacy Website Review # 3: epic! School by Celia Chavez

Web Address: https://www.getepic.com/educators Epic Website link

Jackie Kennedy once said "There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all." I couldn't agree with her more, and found a great website that would definitely help to grow that love for books. I chose Epic because it looked inviting and useful for literacy instruction and development, and it had not been selected by any of my other classmates yet. It is so full of books and other literacy resources in different formats and styles. I will give a guided tour through the site, noting its usefulness for reading instruction, ease of use, and other important details that are worth mentioning.

For starters, Epic is extremely visually appealing. The organization of its contents are pleasant to the eye, but are also self-explanatory, as well. It is a free site, which is a major plus, but I do need to add that signing up for membership is mandatory in order to enjoy the full extent of the web resource. The sign-up process is very simple, though, and completely worth it. Once you are signed up, you are taken to your dashboard, where a slew of tools and useful contents await. There is a class code for your specific account that you can share with your students. If desired, you can even use Epic as a Classroom Management System, just like Khan Academy, Google Classroom, or any other popular CMS.

Epic can be accessed based on specific subject areas, such as Math, science, or ELA. ELA is divided into genres such as fiction and nonfiction, poetry, and picture books. There is even a tool for teaching writing. What I found there was really cool, and I had never heard of it before. Epic’s ELA collection includes Hi-Lo books, which I had to look up for an explanation. Hi-Lo books, I found, are a type of book that features High interest but Low readability. These books are intended to get a struggling or reluctant reader to be comfortable and interested in reading. It is a great starting platform from which a teacher can expand upon as a student becomes more confident and equipped for more difficult literary material. 

The website is also organized by types of literary material. Under the dropdown “Books” you will find more than a hundred electronic books, in different formats. When I selected the “Breadwinner” book, I was delighted to find a beautifully illustrated online graphic novel with a heart wrenching story about an Afghani girl who must disguise herself as a boy to help make ends meet for her family. There are countless other books that are just as beautifully illustrated and narrated. Other categories besides Books are Videos, Read To Me, Audiobooks, and Collections. 

For every category, you can select the Age or Reading Level of your desired selection. You can also decide to search on the basis of Fiction/Nonfiction, Format, or Language. It is just incredible how you can target the needed reading materials by such specific parameters. There are even quizzes available for every resource.

Epic is such a diverse and easy-to-use website. There are so many topics, literary formats,

and even videos to guide literacy instruction.  My favorite part about Epic is that a teacher can search so specifically based on the needs of each child. After finding the proper material, there is a Classroom Management System available, in which you can tailor assignments and quizzes to fit the specific development of each student. I will definitely be using this website in the future. 

Fan.School Student Generated Blog by Florentina Aguon

    Paule E. Gray once said, "The most important outcome of education is to help students

become independent of formal education." Additionally, Fanschool is a

classroom management system that teachers and students can use to

enhance student learning and socialization. In the words of Lev Vygotsky, "a child's

cognitive development and learning ability can be guided and mediated

by their social interactions" (Marketing.) Furthermore, Matt Hardy, the CEO of

Fanschool, has created a classroom management system (CMS) where teachers

safely expand students' creativity for grades seven to twelve through technology while

enhancing their writing skills beyond the classroom. Moreover, Fanschool is a

learning management system that is safe for students, applies to students in

social interaction, and provides teachers with the tools to enhance students' writing skills.  

    For starters, Fanschool is a safe place for students to express themselves

through writing through its Fanschool moderation tools features. In addition, the

platform is

equipped for teachers to ensure the safety of students through its notifications and

approval system. For instance, when a student publishes an article for an

audience, the teacher is notified that a student's blog requires the teacher's

approval/action. The system is also color-coded red to signal that a student's

writing needs action. Finally, Fanschool allows parents to monitor their child's online

interactions by notifying them (the parent) when the child has posted content.

Likewise, parents are notified when students post and can monitor their

writing progress as they publish their writing. 

    Additionally, the CMS allows students to have a safe social space to publish

and share their interests about a particular topic, activity, and what they have learned in school.

With that said, students are free to socialize with their peers creating a publishing

community at their learning levels. Furthermore, students can collaborate and

produce articles by adding members to their space with the teacher's

approval. When adding members to students' Personal Spaces, the process

is quick and easy. In addition, the website provides step-by-step

instructions with visuals that make publishing a breeze. 

    Fanschool gives "Teachers a new Superpower: through its Feedback mode" ("Article | Fanschool.”) On the one hand, the Feedback feature amplifies teachers' power to dispense particular "highlights, comments, and suggestions while reviewing a draft article" ("Article | Fanschool.”) On the other hand, there are tools that allow students to submit an article for review where teachers can provide feedback to enrich students' writings. Furthermore, students in the class space can choose to submit their articles for review by the moderator(s) of the class space. Additionally, many tools allow "peers to give compliments, point out mistakes, or provide specific suggestions" ("Article | Fanschool.”) Once feedback is given students can request for final publishing by submitting their article to the class blog space or personal profiles. 

    Fanschool is an online blog classroom management system that allows students to grow as independent writers and learn through social interaction and collaboration beyond the classroom. The CMS safety measuring approval system ensures that all parties involved are informed and protected (i.e., teachers, parents, and students.) In addition, students are encouraged to share their creativity by publishing their interest about a specific topic, activity, or content learned in

school. Finally, Fanschool's feedback mode takes students through the writing process

when the teacher or peer moderators highlight, comment, and make suggestions while

reviewing their unpublished work.

https://go.fan.school/teachers