reading – Page 7 – iLearn Technology

Signed Stories

February 4, 2010February 4, 2010Kelly Tenkely6 Comments3706 views

What it is: Signed Stories is an excellent online story site that I learned about from The Techie Classroom blog. Signed Stories makes hundreds of children’s stories available online accessible in British Sign Language and in text, pictures and sound. This site has it all. Students can read the story, watch it signed, and listen to the story. This enriches literacy on a variety of levels. Deaf and hearing alike can benefit from this excellent free website. These are published stories and include a variety of popular titles. Books are sorted into categories including adventure, baby and toddler, fairytales and folktales, families and friendships, funny, open house, slimy scary, or students can browse all books alphabetically.

How to integrate Signed Stories into the classroom: Signed Stories is a fantastic add to any literacy classroom. Students can read, listen to, or watch a book signed. The site is accessible to all language learners and has engaging popular stories that students will love. Expand your classroom library by pulling up Signed Stories during reading and allowing students to read online. Signed Stories also adds great discussion to the classroom about different ways that people learn. Students can expand their sign language vocabulary by listening to familiar stories and watching them being signed. This is also a great site to send home. Kids can practice their reading even when their isn’t an adult available to read with them.

Tips: Check out the Resources page for links to other interactive story sites.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Signed Stories in your classroom.

Story Nory

January 12, 2010January 12, 2010Kelly Tenkely9 Comments3812 views

What it is: Story Nory is a collection of FREE audio books for kids. There is a mixture of new stories, fairy tales, and specially adapted myths and histories. A new audio story comes out each week (this has been true since November of 2005!). Search stories by newest additions, original stories, fairy tales, classic authors, educational, or junior stories. The stories can be subscribed to as a podcast in iTunes, through their iPhone/iPod touch app, via email, or RSS feed. Story Nory offers the text to accompany the audio so that kids can read along.

How to integrate Story Nory into the classroom: Story Nory would make an excellent addition to your reading/listening library. Listening to audio books can be a great way to help students improve comprehension skills, and to listen for different literary features (such a voice, timing, rhythm, annunciation, etc.). Set up a listening center on your classroom computers, an iPod or MP3 lab, or in a lab setting. Students can access stories that are of high interest to them at their level. Students can create book talks, or reviews of the stories to share with their peers. Set up a wiki where students can share their thoughts about the stories they listen to.

Tips: Encourage parents to sign up for the Story Nory emails so that they can share the story of the week with their kids.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Story Nory in your classroom.

Skratch Track

December 2, 2009Kelly Tenkely3 Comments2965 views

What it is: Skratch Track is an amazing virtual bookshelf for primary students. It uses the same idea behind Shelfari, giving students a virtual bookshelf where they can track which books they are reading, rate the book, write a little synopsis of the book, and even turn in a virtual book report to earn Skratch Track awards. The interface of this site is very easy for primary kiddos to use independently. Students can keep up to 15 books on their bookshelf at a time (for free account). Parents or teachers sign up for an account and add children accounts to their head account. Parents and teachers can then receive reports about what books kids are reading, and a copy of the book report they complete. The book report asks students questions such as: was this book real or make believe?, How did you complete the book? (someone read it to me, I read it by myself), genre of the book, favorite characters in the book, new words learned, favorite part of the story, moral of the story, how hard was the book to read?, how did the book make you feel?, did the book remind you of something that happened to you in real life?, and did the book remind you of another book you have read?.

How to integrate Skratch Track into the classroom: Skratch Track is a great alternative to the paper reading log. Students will be proud to show off their virtual bookshelves and awards on their Skratch Track account. No more keeping track of the reading log between home and school, no more extra copies, or ‘the dog ate my homework’ excuses. Skratch Track is a great way for students to show what they are reading, how it was read (independently or with help) and makes it simple to keep track of what your students are reading at home. The mini book reports help students to check comprehension. They can rate the book, think about genre, record new words learned, write about their favorite part of the story, rate how difficult the book was to read, and make connections to their life and connections to other literature. Each time a student completes a book report or earns an award, teachers or parents are notified by email and on the parent account page. Skratch Track keeps teachers and parents connected to what children are reading so that they can begin to gauge comprehension and writing levels.

Tips: The free Skratch Track account allows a parent or teacher to sign up 2 children, record up to 15 books, and earn the first 3 awards. To record additional books, earn all of the available awards, or sign up more children is $19.99 annually. Skratch Track will work with educators, schools, and libraries to make bulk accounts available and affordable. If you plan on using this with students as a reading log, it may be worth purchasing an account.

Leave a comment and share how you are using Skratch Track in your classroom.

Wizz-e Free e-Books

October 19, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment9175 views

What it is: Wizz-e is a kids interactive e-book website. Not all of the e-books are free, but they are SO high quality and definitely worth any investment. Wizz-e does have some free e-books for you to preview. Both Puss-in-Boots and the Elves and the Shoemaker are free to play online or download to your computer. The stories can be read to students who may struggle with reading on their own. Students can also choose to read the story independently without sound. At the end of each e-book is a quiz that checks for comprehension. Wizz-e also has a few games that students can play online including puzzles and hidden picture hide and seek.

How to integrate Wizz-e Free e-books into the classroom: The Wizz-e ebooks are a wonderful way to read a story as a class on a projector or interactive whiteboard. With the large print and pictures, every student in the class can read along and see the illustrations clearly. These ebooks also make for an excellent reading center on classroom computers. They are especially good for students who may struggle reading indpendently. Students can listen to the story and follow along or read a page independently and then click to hear the story for understanding. The e-books bring reading to life and will draw in your struggling readers. Wizz-e only features two free ebooks but would be a worthwhile investment for your classroom library. The site features a variety of topics and genres and has some amazing math and science stories that teach key concepts through story. If you teach 3-8year olds the two free stories are must downloads! The quiz at the end will ask students question at the book and help them to monitor their own comprehension. The quiz models the questions that good readers ask as they read.

Tips: Because the Wizz-e books can be purchased, there is an option to purchase a gift certificate for the e-books. This would be excellent to put on your wishlist for parents to donate to your classroom. The e-books add to your classroom library but have the added bonus of creating a listening center where struggling readers can read along.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Wizz-e Free e-books in your classroom.

Reading Logs

October 11, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2326 views

What it is: Reading Logs is a free website that makes reading, spelling, and vocabulary simplified. Reading Logs is a great way to organize student reading, spelling, and vocabulary practice. Learning material can be uploaded by teachers to be accessed by students online. Once the material is online, students can use the electronic reading log, vocabulary card creator, and and use the listen and spell practice system. Teachers can upload reading lists and reading goals for their class. These can be weekly or monthly goals and can be set up to track the number of minutes or the number of books read. Online competitions can be setup by the teacher (example: first student to read a certain number of minutes). Teachers can quickly post a vocabulary list where students can look up words with the online dictionary and add definitions to the cards. The cards can be studied online or downloaded as a pdf to print out. With the listen and spell system, teachers can upload spelling lists for students to practice. Students click on a button to listen to the spelling word and practice spelling it. They receive immediate feedback from the program. Reading Logs tracks students reading logs and updates teachers with progress.

How to integrate Reading Logs into the classroom: The Reading Logs website is a great place to organize your classroom. It eliminates the need for paper spelling lists, vocabulary cards, and reading logs. Parents and students will appreciate the one stop shop for these common weekly tasks. I am not normally a fan of reading logs, I think they can stress students out about reading unnecessarily (readicide!), but this online reading log works more as a motivator and goal setter for reading. I like that the focus is not on the number of pages read but on what books that a student is reading. This could encourage great conversation about reading between students who are reading similar books, or between the teacher and student. The focus is on encouraging the love of reading and not on the task of reading. The spelling practice center is great for vocabulary development, pronunciation, and self guided learning of spelling words. The vocabulary card creator allows students to easily create vocabulary cards, look up words in the online dictionary, and practice the words. I like this site for student and home connections and for the self guided learning and pacing. The spelling portion of this site could be great for English language learners because they will hear the pronunciation of words and can look up the definitions within the program.

Tips: When you register for this free website, you will get some great printouts explaining the site to parents and students.

Related Resources: Spelling City, Shelfari, Book Adventure

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Reading Logs in your classroom.

Storybird

September 8, 2009Kelly Tenkely5 Comments9166 views

What it is: Storybird is a fun new collaborative storytelling website. Storybird makes it easy to create and tell stories digitally. Students and teachers can create stories together by combining imaginative artwork and text. The final product can be printed, watched on screen, played with like a toy, or shared in an online library with the world. “Storybird promotes imagination, literacy, and self-confidence.” Creating, sharing, and reading Storybird stories is free.

How to integrate Storybird into the classroom: Storybird is an excellent way to get your students enthusiastically writing. The imaginative artwork will have your students creating stories in no time. Storybird stories are meant to be collaborative. Students can work together in teams to create stories. This type of learning through play reminds me of the “lets pretend” stories that students create on the playground. Students will feed off of each others ideas, creating more creative stories and learning together. Storybird is also a fantastic place to create a classroom story, each student can contribute pages to the story. The final product can be easily shared with families and friends in the online library. Storybird can be used by teachers to make ‘special’ stories for students. They can include students as characters, emphasize classroom themes or curriculum, and be created for specific reading levels. Encourage your students to create and share their stories on Storybird, open up your classroom computer during DEAR time for students to read stories their classmates have created.

Tips: Storybird is currently in an open Beta version. Right now all features on Storybird are free. Storybird plans to keep story creation, reading, and sharing as free features. Premium (pay-for) features will be added.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Storybird in your classroom.

StoryPlace Elementary Library

August 9, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3245 views

What it is: StoryPlace Elementary Library has great printout activities, topsy turvy tales (interactive stories), and a suggested reading list. These interactive stories help making reading fun. The reading list provides students with great off-line reads.

How to integrate StoryPlace Elementary Library into the classroom: Use the StoryPlace Elementary Library topsy turvy tales as a reading center in the classroom. Students can read along with the interactive books. This site is great for struggling and new readers. The offline reading suggestions will help students find books that they will love during a trip to the library.

Tips: There is also a StoryPlace for preschoolers.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using The Prince’s Rainforest Project for Schools in your classroom.

UDL Book Builder

July 29, 2009Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3876 views

What it is: UDL Book Builder is a site where you can create your own interactive digital stories. The books have built in coaches that can support diverse learning needs. The coaches direct student learning even when students are working independently. The digital books can include text, images, audio, glossary terms (that are linked within the story), and coaches that can provide hints, prompts, and modeling. The published books can be viewed online, downloaded to a computer, saved to a CD, or shared with others in the UDL library. Both teachers and students can use the UDL Book Builder to create interactive digital stories.

How to integrate UDL Book Builder into the classroom: Use the UDL Book Builder to create interactive stories for your students that meet their specific learning needs. Include students and familiar locations in your stories to boost reading motivation. Students love starring in their own stories. As you are creating a book in the Book Builder, be sure to devleop the coaches within the book. The coaches can offer reading hints, strategies, and model good reading. Start a school library of teacher created digital books. As the digital library is devleoped, be sure to note which reading skills are being emphasized so that other teachers can quickly sort through books that will match their students learning needs and interests. Students can also create digital books from their writing. The writing should be ready to publish (correct spelling, grammar, etc.). These stories can easily be shared online with other students in class, in the school, and with pen pals. UDL Book Builder would be a great tool for creating stories as a class using the interactive whiteboard.

Tips: The UDL Book Builder site has a great section with tips for authors and illustrators using the Builder. These tips are helpful for any adults creating a book, but are also worth sharing with students using the tool.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using UDL Book Builder in your classroom.

My Story Maker

June 15, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment3921 views

What it is: My Story Maker is an amazing interactive website created for the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh. My Story Maker is an interactive story book where students are in charge of creating a story. Students choose characters, and a genre and then begin telling a story. The students create the story by dragging and dropping characters, objects, and backgrounds into their story. The characters can have emotions and perform actions with the different objects and interact with each other. As students drag different elements to the story book, a story is written for them based on what is happening in the pictures. When they are finished, they have created an interactive book that they can read and share with friends.

How to integrate My Story Maker into the classroom: My Story Maker is a fantastic interactive tool to get students creating a story. What I love about this website is the way that it encourages students to create by first thinking about the elements of a story (who will it be about?, what kind of story will it be?, what happens first?, what happens next?). This is a great tool to use to help students understand the importance of beginning, middle, and end, setting, supporting details, and dialogue. My Story Maker would be fun to use to create a whole class story using an interactive whiteboard. Students could take turns adding elements to the story and reading the story aloud. As students create the class story, be sure to keep them thinking about the setting, plot, and characters. My Story Maker can also be used individually on classroom computers or in a computer lab setting. The written story will be very basic “Fox threw a ball to lion.” Encourage students to embellish their stories with vivid verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. When students are finished with their story they can download it, share it with others, preview it, or print it.

Tips: I learned about this site from Kevin Jarrett‘s excellent blog. Check it out for great tips and inspiration for your classroom!

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using My Story Maker in your classroom.

James Patterson’s Read Kiddo Read

June 12, 2009Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1676 views

What it is: James Patterson’s Read Kiddo Read is a website dedicated to making kids readers for life. This site has a wealth of good information and resources that will help you foster a love of reading in your classroom. Read Kiddo Read has outstanding book lists for every age group. These are tried and true favorites kids books. In addition, Read Kiddo Read has some outstanding features such as a can’t miss reading list just for boys, and an “if your kid likes…” that matches up popular kids toys and movies with books that they may enjoy. There is a great book-based lesson plan exchange that uses popular kids books as the basis for lessons. Read Kiddo Read has some audio interviews with favorite children’s authors complete with a written transcript.

How to integrate Read Kiddo Read into the classroom: I’m sure that you have encountered at least one student who was dead set against reading. You make suggestions, walk the library together, ask about interests but just can’t seem to find the book that hooks them. Read Kiddo Read is a site that will help you to crack the code for those students who just aren’t interested in reading. Search books by age, books just for boys, and books matched to other interests, movies, and toys that a student enjoys. You are bound to find something that they love. Use the author interviews as an introduction to reading or writing. Students will be inspired to write when they listen to stories of how the ‘pros’ do it. Be sure to check out the outstanding library of lesson plans based on popular children’s books. Read Kiddo Read is a great place to get inspired and put some excitement in your reading classroom.

Tips: Be sure to register for free on the Read Kiddo Read website, you will become part of a great community of teachers and parents passionate about creating life long readers.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Read Kiddo Read in your classroom.