For any words he struggled with, I tapped as he read and let him pause and watch the guided sounding-out. Then I pressed the ear and let him enjoy the animation. If he was right, I did nothing and let him finish. I wanted Jack to sound out the words, not the iPad! So I developed a routine with him where on each page, I would point to the word and let Jack try it. But I found that Jack was much more interested in the little movies and animations than he was in doing actual reading. Then you press the arrow-which turns into the ‘short a’ and says the sound again-and move onto the next page. If you tap on the little musical ear icon, the voice reads the whole sentence, and then animates the illustration. If you tap on the word, a pop-up zooms in on it and highlights the letters while a voice audibly sounds them out, and then blends the sounds to make the word. There was a brief animation with a dancing ‘A’ and a song, and then it opened up the book. It was called ‘Zac the Rat’ and dealt with the ‘short A’ sound. I sat down with one of my senior kindergarten students (let’s call him ‘Jack’) and worked through the first lesson. There is a small bottom panel with some movies and animations which most of my students found quite catchy I am training my Grade 3/4 class to use this app in a ‘reading buddies’ function with some of the younger students, and even they were humming the songs when we were done. The bulk of the real estate is the series of phonics-based books and lessons. But it’s a nightmare to use in a classroom setting, so I appreciated I could just download the app, direct the student to where I wanted them to go, and then be underway. I understand that such features allow a teacher or parent to personalize the app and get more directed feedback. One thing I appreciated about this app was that I did not need to create accounts and log students in. So I downloaded Starfall Learn to Read and gave it a go. I wanted to do some extra phonics work with them to shore up these basic skills, and I thought an app would be more fun for them. I had a few who were borderline at Level 2-they were able to complete those books by heavily relying on the picture cues, but they were still weak on phonics and could not actually decode new words. Our school is heavily invested in the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) program, where students are assessed using a series of progressive readers. I have written already about some of my whole-class teaching. As I also teach Technology, I have had a few interesting opportunities to merge my two roles and use e-book apps to help improve my student’s reading. Ear buttons are supplied for fluency when AutoRead is off.Īrt Gallery, Magic, Music, Poetry, Tongue Twisters, and Bird Riddles sections from the Starfall website.Īn AutoRead feature to model fluent reading, which can be disabled once your child is able to read independently.One of my hats this year has been as coordinator of my school’s reading program. Users can enable or disable the AutoRead feature. The stories can be read aloud to model the qualities of fluent reading: intonation, expression, inflection and rate. The games and activities within demonstrate the joy of reading through rhyme, alliteration, spelling patterns, and word play. For accessible content visit After reading about artists and musicians, making a magician, reading poetry, laughing at tongue twisters, and solving riddles, your child will agree: It's Fun to Read! With a basic understanding of letter-sound relationships, your child is ready to explore a variety of genres and topics that will expand reading vocabulary, comprehension, and world knowledge. The activities at motivate through exploration, positive reinforcement, and play. The Starfall It's Fun to Read FREE app is made possible by the member supporters of, a publicly supported nonprofit.
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