All of the following resources have books that assist children with reading and second language acquisition. Each website has a variety of books that can either be purchased to read aloud to children, or provide guided reading to children, by highlighting the words as the book is read out loud. The books are also illustrated so that children can understand the gist of the book through pictures regardless of their reading ability. Some of these websites have books read out loud in different languages as well. All of these resources can be used at home or in the classroom, and are entertaining for children as well as adults.
RIF Leading to
The acronym
The first link is for babies and toddlers (ages 0-2 years). The children can choose from “Stories,” “Nursery Rhymes,” “Lullabies,” or “Games & Finger Plays.” The “Story” section has several different books that are illustrated and read out-loud. As each word is read, it is highlighted. This helps the children recognize the words as they are spoken and written. The “Nursery Rhymes” section has several different nursery rhymes that are read aloud. Although the words aren’t highlighted as they are read, they are printed on the screen so that children can see what the words look like. The “Lullabies” section has a variety of children’s lullabies that are sung in either English or Spanish (or both). The “Games” section has several different matching games, a game where children can play instruments, and a game where children can hear animal sounds. Finally, the “Finger Plays” section is an area where adults are acting out different songs and rhymes such as “I’m a Little Teapot,” “Pat-a-Cake,” “Five Little Monkeys,” and many more.
The second link is for preschoolers (ages 3-5 years). The children can choose to either “Read,” “Sing,” “Play,” “Doodle,” “Explore,” or “Meet Riffy & Rita.” The “Read” section is very similar to the babies and toddlers stories; however, the stories are more advanced. The words are highlighted and read out loud as the child reads along. The “Sing” section has a variety of songs and is really entertaining because the songs are illustrated and animated. The words are also highlighted as they are sung. The “Play” section has a lot of different games and activities for the children. Some are the same as the games for babies and toddlers, but there are some that are more interactive such as “Supermarket Spree,” a game in which the preschooler can fill their cart with different groceries. The “Doodle” section has a coloring book, where children can color online, a scribble pad, where children can draw online, and printouts so that pictures can be printed and colored on paper. The “Explore” section has videos and facts about different kinds of animals such as elephants, frogs, blowfish, and several others. “Meet Riffy & Rita” is basically a playhouse for preschoolers to meet the characters associated with “Leading to
One strength of this resource is that it is very user-friendly; children should be able to do the activities and read the books on their own or with minimal assistance at a very young age. As you move your mouse over each link, a child’s voice tells you what the link says. This is helpful for children who can’t read the links yet. It is also entertaining and interactive. Children should find the activities enjoyable, which will encourage them to read and enjoy reading at a very young age. Another benefit is that the website can be accessed in both English and Spanish. This is predominantly useful for children whose first language is Spanish. Although it does not provide books in any other languages, it is also useful for helping children that are struggling with English because it shows spoken and written English, as well as illustrations that assist with understanding. On the Spanish site, the links are said and written in both Spanish and English. This is really beneficial for children’s second language acquisition. All of the resources on the Spanish site are culturally relevant, and vary from the ones provided on the English site.
Although this resource is not geared towards school-age children, it is wonderful for parents to use at home, or for can be used in day-cares or preschools. As a preschool teacher, I would probably use this website for in-class readings and activities. If I had the materials available I would project a story for the children to listen to and read along with. We would listen and read along in both English and Spanish. I would also have them do some of the activities and games on their own and allow them to choose what activities or games interested them. We could also listen to the songs in both English and Spanish and learn to sing along. Furthermore, there are printouts available, such as printable coloring pages with words and illustrations, which I would have the children color in class. It would also be useful to inform parents of the website so that they could take advantage of this resource as well.
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(Evaluated by Clare Cryar)
Bilingual Books for Kids Inc.: http://www.bilingualbooks.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=0
Bilingual Books for Kids Inc. is a great website for bilingual readers at different levels. This site offers lists of bilingual books and activities for all ages. The focus of this site is to provide many titles in these lists that you can purchase straight from the web page. This is a pro and con of the website.
On the main page is an index of categories, each with their own description. These categories provide for a simple and easy way to navigate through the website. Each category is a button you can click on, which takes you to another page that has detailed lists. These details include title of the book or activity, a summary, a picture, number of pages and the price. You can buy these products straight from the website or you can look for them in your local library, if you don’t want to buy them. Parents will love this site because they won’t have to do a ton of research to find good quality educational books and activities for their children.
The con of this website is the lack of interactive material for kids. This site was not really designed for that, however it can be used in classes with L1 and L2 students. Students can look up bilingual books to read and even further if they are interested in a certain topic, the sites categories may provide books of specific interests. There are books for students learning Spanish or English. Also the library can use this site to order books for bilingual students. It would only be beneficial for students if these books were in the library.
As a teacher, an assignment I could have my students do is to find 3 books from the site that are of interest to them and then choose one to share with the class. The site is easy enough for students to use and everything is packed into one location. Another assignment students could do is to all find a different book in the same category to share with the class. You can teach that topic and then back up the material with books, for example poetry. This site provides books that will help L2 learners with their vocabulary as well as how to relate material from the L1 to the L2 like Universal Grammar believes. Besides vocabulary, students can learn about an array of things such as colors for younger students and relationships for the older students.
I think this website is a gold mine. It has so many books that it would take a while to read them all and the website isn’t limited to just one type of student or one interest. It even has a place at the bottom where you can select a price range if you are interested in purchasing any of their products. Some of the highlights of the site are the categories for infants, ABC’s, 123’s & Colors, nursery rhymes, fairy tales, games, poetry, and books for adults. Teachers, Parents, and students will enjoy using this website to explore and find bilingual books just to their liking.
(Evaluated by Marissa Rosenstein)
TumbleBooks: http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/asp/home_tumblebooks.asp
Is a great Website for children who are learning how to read or already know how to read but are trying to further their reading level. On this Website children can choose from thousands and thousands of books for the computer to read to them. This is great for the beginning learner because as they read along they can see the word and also hear how the word is pronounced. The site also has Spanish books available for English language learners as well. This would be great way for the children to also get to know their neighborhood library because this program will give the children access not only at school but at libraries in their area. When I tried to access this site and review it I couldn’t full access everything in the site. The site didn’t allow me to see the books but I could hear the audio. This could become a problem if the site has a continous technical problem that I encountered, it won’t allow the children to get the full effect and advantages of the site. Now if the children are already reading the book on their own and have hard copy, it won’t that much of an issue. As for the classroom, for the students who need extra help with their reading and the teacher cannot get to every student at once. The teacher can send certain children to the computers to listen to the book while she works with another student and they switch them. So that way the child is getting that reinforcement of pronouncing the correct words. The child can sound out the words they do not know, say what they think the word is and then listen to how its being pronounced. However, teachers should not use this as a substitution for one on one with the teacher. The student could just sit over in front of the computer listens to the book and not make an effort to try to actually read it for themselves. By continuing the one on one time with the teacher, the teacher can evaluate the progress of the child.
(Evaluated by Candyce Pace)
Reading Rockets is a great website for children that are struggling to read in any language, need to further their skills, or for people who are trying to teach children to read. It offers resources for teachers, children, parents, librarians, and people of other professions. It is also offered in Spanish for non-English speakers. There are strategies offered for teaching children, thousands of articles posted about how to help with second language acquisition, blogs about helping children learn to read, and a section with long lists of great books for children learning to read. This website is great because it reaches out for children of all skill levels, many different languages, and who struggle in many different areas of literacy.
If you go to the Home page, there are categories you can search on the side of the page. Under the Children’s Books section of the website, there are long lists of books that can help children read. If you go to Books by Themes, it will give you lists of books that will be very helpful for language learners. They have audio books, digital books, picture books, and many more categories. One of the downfalls is that you cannot buy all of the books through this website. You can find them in libraries, or specially order some of them. All of the books have Descriptions under them, or will send you to another website that gives you more of a variety. There is a space for people to comment under the description of the book to give feedback on it. This can be very helpful for people trying to find useful books. The website is easy to navigate and has many options for children to find helpful books; however there is not a specific category for second language learners, so you may have to search more.
There is one thing offered called the Family Literacy Bag which includes a fiction and non- fiction book, a hands-on craft project, an imagination activity, a get real activity, and a bookmark. This packet is offered in English or in Spanish. I think this would be great thing for children to use at home or in the classroom. In the classroom I could have the children search for books which might be of interest to them. However, I think this website is more beneficial for teachers or parents to pick books that would benefit the children. Therefore, I could use this resource to structure my class, find good strategies, and pick books that will help children in all areas. It tells me what books are good for what part of learning, and activities that I can incorporate into the lesson to help further the children’s language acquisition. This site does an amazing job at giving books, strategies, and games for teaching children. I will definitely use this site when I become a teacher.
(Evaluated by Micah Morgan)
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