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.