Effective Literacy Website #4: Oxford Owl by Pearl Hamada

       

Image from: https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/

    Oxford Owl (https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/) is an award-winning website, from Oxford University Press, that supports parents, caregivers, and teachers in reading, writing, and math. Their site is divided into two sections: Oxford Owl for School and Oxford Owl for Home. 

    Oxford Owl for School offers teacher support in which users can access YouTube video links to learn how to set up a class login, how students can log in using a class code, how to provide assignments to students on the platform, and how to add students to the eBook library on site. Schools or individual teachers can subscribe to programs provided by Oxford Owl. These programs include Big Writing Adventures, Read Write Inc. Phonics, and Read Write Inc. Spelling. Educators have access to free teaching resources and professional development videos or articles for literacy strategies. If a teacher or school has a paid subscription, homework can be assigned to students and submitted online. Student progress can be tracked through the “Homework and Reporting” section. A Teacher Support section is provided if there are any questions on topics such as reading comprehension, activity sheets for writing, etc.   

    Oxford Owl for Home is a parent support system that includes educational advice, activities, and games, and an eBook library for 3 to 11-year-old children. In the Phonics Support section, parents can watch a video and read about what phonics is, and includes activities that parents can do to help their child practice. Children can read free eBooks independently or choose to click the “Play” icon to listen to the read-aloud. Other menu options on the book include volume control, mute for audio, search bar for a specific page in the book, and zoom in or out to change the size of the book on screen. Two activities can be found at the top of the book for students to complete. For example, a student may put the different illustrations of the story in order from beginning to end. Another activity includes students looking at a word from the story and determining what sound it begins with by listening to different sounds through the audio button choices. eBooks also include a section at the beginning of the book to guide teachers, parents, or caregivers on the instruction as the child reads the book with them. The guide includes questions to ask children at the beginning of the story, during the story and vocabulary words that would be helpful for reading comprehension.  

    Oxford Owl provides instructional guidance for teachers, parents, and caregivers to support student learning at home or in primary school. Children who have “common issues with reading”, parents who want to help their children realize the “joy of reading”, or teachers who want access to “reading schemes and levels” will find expert advice to help students become successful in literacy.