Reading is a
skill that is imperative to success as we all know. Students are pressured and
reminded daily at school of how important it is and I’m sure at times have felt
defeated when or if they struggle to make sense of the all the sounds and
graphemes that are introduced to them. The pressure to be a good reader can at
times make reading not fun or enjoyable and why would a kid want to do
something that is not a good time?
The Teach Your Monster to Read site - https://www.teachyourmonster.org/ helps remove that pressure as
they foster independence within the program. Teachers or parents start by
creating a group of students and printing or downloading their personal passwords
to log in. When students log in, they immediately are greeted by a friendly
automated voice that walks them through personalizing their monster and then on
to their first adventure. The graphics are bright and whimsical, and the voice-over
has a slight British accent. The instructions are clear however it does encourage
the user to click around and learn to navigate through trial and error. The
instructions given are a bit redundant and the four activities initially
introduced become monotonous for a reader, but a non-reader may find comfort
and success in knowing exactly what to do as they progress through the levels.
Students are given in-game incentives for completing tasks. Feedback is
immediate and if a mistake is made the rigor is decreased to ensure success. Students
are introduced to letter names and sounds initially and then progress into diphthongs
and digraphs. This portion of the site is intended for non-readers or beginning
readers.
For
students that can read and are learning to read for enjoyment, they can explore
Teach Your Monster Reading for Fun. In this game module, students via their monster
venture into a Monster city where they must read books and perform tasks to
gain incentives and save the city. The books on this website are know books
that can be purchased through Usborne Publishing. This game mode gives students
more freedom to explore and includes scaffolded rigor. Students can choose to
read the adventure prompts for themselves or click on the conversation bubbles
to have it read for them.
The Teach Your Monster to
Read site was developed by the Usborne Foundation which is a charity set up by
the founder of Usborne Publishing to encourage and support early literacy. The
site boasts that the content is created by academic experts and is trusted by
teachers. This site has won many awards
and recognitions to support literacy.
*Contribution by Heidi Cameron
