- Into the Book -
Into the Book was developed by PBS Wisconsin Education, with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and a team of experienced educators. It is a reading comprehension resource for elementary students and teachers. It provides practice activities that focus on eight research-based strategies: using prior knowledge, making connections, questioning, visualizing, inferring, summarizing, evaluating, and synthesizing. Into the Book includes: a student website featuring interactive reading comprehension activities, teaching videos, feedback, audio or read aloud capability, and rewards; the teacher website features video clips, posters, teacher guides, lesson plans, and matrix linking each activity with Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts (ELA).
When you log onto the student website [https://reading.ecb.org], you will be asked if you are a returning or first time user. You will enter your name or key (which the site will generate for you). Into the Book does not collect any personally identifiable information. The name students enter to log in to the site is used only to save their work on the site. E-mail addresses provided at the end of an activity are not collected or saved, but is used to send work. However, you can also skip logging in and use the site for practice only, but work will not be saved or tracked.
Once you enter the keycode, or enter as a guest, you will choose from the strategy icons. From there is an instruction or teaching page where there is an explanation of the strategy and a video to watch the strategy demonstrated. The videos are not current or modern looking, but are quite helpful and straight to the point. Afterwards, you can choose the text you want to practice. Each practice activity is different, some require you to find text evidence, some you can create pictures. Once the activity is completed, the user can choose an award. After all strategies are learned, there is a culminating activity. Which can also be used as an opportunity for higher order thinking or as a fun challenge.
I find the website easy to navigate through, and very user friendly. Even for non-native English speakers, it is easy to use and the lesson videos are helpful. The task of finding evidence in the text to answer the questions, is assisted/ guided giving the user immediate feedback. At the end of the task, you will receive a reward of your choosing. I really enjoyed this website! I find it valuable to use in the classroom as it is quite engaging, and effective in teaching strategies and reinforcing skills in a simple yet interactive way. There are not a lot of resources for practicing specific reading strategies, so I am glad I found this site. There are some minor issues with the program freezing, especially during the drawing activities, but for the most part, most of the activities can be completed.
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