Magic Blox

https://magicblox.com

MagicBlox is an online library filled with many different kinds of books for children.  It is a free resource and the website is user friendly. You can navigate through the website by the different tabs or simply browse through the collection of books shown on the homepage of the website.  Enjoy reading books from your computer, tablet, or mobile device! You can take your books anywhere.  The stories offered are age appropriate and there are books for all ages.

MagicBlox offers different access passes.  If you opt into experiencing the website for free, you are able to enjoy the Ladybug access pass and have unlimited access to reading one free book a month.  The website also offers a Bookworm access pass which allows you to have unlimited access to all the books for a monthly fee or the Butterfly access pass that also gives you unlimited access to books for a fee of once a year - saving you 36%!

One feature that I like about this website is how every book has a description.  I think that this is really helpful in choosing what book you want to read, especially if you are using the free one book a month access.  I also like how each book has a star rating.  The online library is always expanding which makes this resource better than it already is.  The choices of books are endless! I also appreciate the stories that have the audio narrations and music.   

MagicBlox is a resource that everyone should know about.  I, myself, use it for my kids.  As an educator, I want to instill the love for reading into my students and as a parent, I want the same for my children.  MagicBlox makes reading a whole different experience for them and they love it.  

*Contribution by Jia

Pebble Go and Pebble Go Next

By Capstone

Pebble Go (https://pebblego.com/) and Pebble Go Next (https://pebblegonext.com/) by Capstones is a curricular content hub. Pebble Go is designed for K-3 students and Pebble Go Next is designed for 3rd-5th grade students. Capstone is a family owned company to support the needs of reading in grades Pre-K to high school students. There are high quality and high-interest fiction and non-fictional materials. The content hub includes informational articles, ready-made activities, and literacy support for students of all abilities. It allows and fosters independent learning in core areas.

You can also sign up for a free trial to explore what Pebble Go and Pebble Go Next has to offer. Pebble Go Next's big idea is research. Its databases help students learn key concepts in Social Studies, Biographies, Science, States and American Indians. The articles are all supported by read-aloud audio and are connected to the curriculum. Pebble Go in particular assists early readers, meets student needs, and supports educators.

Pebble Go and Pebble Go Next offers a lot of user friendly features. Students just click on what they would like to read about or learn. Each category has a huge library of choices.

Among the features, is simple navigation and information is easy to find. The read aloud articles have real voice actors to help model correct pronunciation and fluency. It also provides text highlighting for readers of all abilities to follow along. 

*Contribution by Dona Miles

International Children’s Digital Library Foundation

 

The International Children’s Digital Library Foundation (ICDL) website - http://www.childrenslibrary.org was created to support the world’s children in becoming effective members of their local and global community while respecting the diverse cultures, languages, and ideas throughout our world.  ICDL strives to make the best children's literature available online, free of charge.  Another thing to note about this site is that it is a government-funded website so the content on the site has been reviewed and filtered. 

Even though the primary audiences for the ICDL are children from three to thirteen years old, parents, children caregivers, and educators, as well as academic professionals working in the field of children’s literature, are also targeted, since these people also impact the literacy of a child.  This website is great for students, parents, and educators, because it has a large collection of interactive books and they're all free.  It is valuable, especially considering its goals of helping a diverse audience accept all cultures.

*Contribution by G. Henry

Teach Your Monster to Read

 

            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

ABC's of Family Literacy

by Dr. Matilda Naputi Rivera

A lways take the time to read to your child at home.

B elieve in your child’s ability to achieve literacy success.

C reate a print-rich environment.

D iscover the importance of literacy together.

E ncourage your child to read daily.

F ocus on a positive reading experience.

G rab your favorite book and read!

H andle reading and writing with care.

I nspire your child to read with meaning.

J oin family literacy events.

K eep up the great work!

L isten to your child read.

M ake reading a ritual at home.

N ever give up!

O pen your mind to the wonderful world of reading!

P repare your child for literacy success.

Q uality time is essential. Make time for it.

R ead and write with enjoyment.

S et a good role model.

T alk about the books you are reading.

U se prior experience and knowledge to enrich your child’s reading.

V isit the library or bookstore and select an age-appropriate book to enjoy reading.

W ear a SMILE!

X out and conquer all obstacles.

Y ou can make a difference!

Z oom in on literacy strategies to enhance reading.

Season’s Greetings!

May the spirit of Christmas bring you much love, joy, peace, and happiness to last through the coming year 2021 and beyond!

Rewordify

Rewordify.com, http://rewordify.com/, a powerful and free literacy website is dedicated to improving reading, learning, and teaching aimed at improved learner’s comprehension level.  This app is free, fast, and safe for all users.  Both students and parents can become members and have access for a better and monitored learning.  Created by Neil M. Goldman, this site’s aim is to help more people understand materials read to enhance their reading skills. After ten years of teaching experience, Mr. Goldman realized the need to further build on reading skills and decided to develop an app for struggling readers who need to work very hard to understand materials read. He further stressed that despite the fact that dictionaries are already in place the help is minimal. As a result, he created this site to allow all learners the opportunity to attain their maximum capability. This application eliminates the difficulty to understand words and replaces them with simplified words while keeping as much of the original meaning as possible. Being a user-friendly site, it gently introduces learners to new words, teaches meaning, and empowers them to make necessary changes as they see fit for enhanced learning. 

The goal of Rewordify.com is to build on its learners reading comprehension and vocabulary development by making the language easier to understand. It also allows the ability of rewording sentences or paragraphs in simplified forms. This app is an important part of reading instructions and vocabulary instructions for ESL students, people with reading disabilities, people with a learning disability, or anyone who wants to improve reading skill.  Benefits of this app includes saving time when reading hard texts, improves comprehension and self-confidence, improves vocabulary and word retention, reduces frustration and improves comprehension just to name a few.  This site has received several positive comments from various educators which includes “pretty remarkable”, “one of the most innovative websites”, “this is amazing”, “a fantastic web app”, “excellent tool to enhance comprehension”, “makes your life easier” etc.

            With the use of rewordify.com, materials will become simplified to boost understanding.  When understanding is in place for sure learning will become productive.  As educators, we ought to learn more about this app and utilize it in the learning environment especially that it’s free of charge.  Since we are ESL learners, this tool matches our capability and is more appropriate for our use to maximize learning.

*Contribution by Y. Kanichy