Raz-kids
Raz-kids is a fantastic web resource for reading. It provides access to leveled reading materials from aa to Z, with options for having the book read to students, taking a quiz for different texts, and tracking running records. It is also possible for the computer to read the quizzes to students who have difficulty reading the questions and responses independently, up to a certain reading level (around G-H). Beyond this level, instead of having the entire text read, difficult vocabulary can be clicked on and that specific word is read aloud to the student. This change makes Raz-kids a bit more difficult to use with older students with more severe reading difficulties.
There is a cost of $79.95 per class (with a discount for more than 9 classes at a time) and each class has slots for 36 students. Student access can be password protected and teacher access has a separate password. If you use codenames for students, this can be used as a home reading program, as well as being used in class. Using Raz-kids for home reading solves the problem of books not being returned or destroyed, but is only useful if your students all have home internet access which is still not true in some neighbourhoods.
At my current school, for the past few years, we have purchased access for all of our students from Primary to Grade 2, and used any extra slots from each class to support struggling readers in the upper grades.
Book Adventure
As I was perusing sites during class I was excited to come across Bookadventure.com, which offered assessment activities for different levels of books, incentive programs for students and free access to parents, students and teachers. You can search for books by genre or grade level, which includes looking above, at and below grade level. There is a Quiz-O-Matic for over 8000 books to help assess comprehension, with points awarded for successful completion. I was then very disappointed to discover that there were no actual books on the site. You (or your students and their parents) would have to find the books in the classroom, school or local libraries and then go to the website to complete the activities. The site therefore, does not offer any support to struggling readers beyond the incentive program, and is not useful in an Assistive Technology role.
Woodlands Literacy Zone
I have used the math extension of this website in the past with great success but hadn’t really explored the literacy side. There are a lot of different games at a variety of skill levels and for different skill sets. Woodlands is a collection of links to relevant literacy games. Because I teach primary, I sampled a game at that level to describe.
In the Letters and Alphabetical Order section, I chose Alphabetical Order. This transfers you to another website where the game is (learningplanet.com). The game is called ABC Order. Part of the alphabet is displayed across the bottom of the screen, then a smaller (3 letter) chunk is displayed with one of the letters missing. A child’s voice reads the letters aloud and asks what comes next. The child then has to click on the correct letter from the bottom of the screen. The game is fairly easy to navigate but it was a bit convoluted to get to the game. There were a lot of options that were represented mostly by text. An adult’s help would probably be needed to get to the game but once there, a child should be able to use the game quite easily.
Earobics - Game Goo
I had heard of the Earobics program from a resource teacher that I work with. She spoke very highly of it. I didn’t realize that there was an online resource that is available for free until it was demonstrated in class. Game Goo is fun and gross and everything that you'd expect kids to love. There are a variety of skills to practice including synonyms, letter ID and sounds, spelling and sentence-word order. I like that there are 3 clear skill levels for kids to choose from and I thought I'd sample these two games as examples.
Paw Park – Kangaroo confusion is for matching upper and lower case letters, no function for reading the letter names aloud, if you make a mistake it tells you the correct answer and moves on to the next one (beginner)
Quiet Quest for the Opposites (advanced) – no function for reading the words aloud, you have to match antonyms. If you pick the wrong one all options disappear except for the correct one.
