Activites and Games

http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/games/pawpark2/pawpark2.html
This website helps children with many skills such as spelling, vocabulary, and reading. Alphabetizing words is just one of many activities kids can play and learn. By showing them an example the first round shows children what is expected of them when they play this activity. They have a fun background with bright colors and an amusement park which will attract children. The bears are wearing yellow shirts with the word on them along with a picture so it can help children who work better with visuals along with the word underneath it. Then the child must alphabetize the bears from left to right and drag them into a cart that they will drive off in. It has fun graphics and sounds that will grab the child’s attention which is important for children’s games. I like this game because even if a child does not know the word the bear is wearing, when you move your mouse over it will say the word which also helps children with visual impairments. Also, the main website has levels that you can have you child play. It varies from beginner, intermediate, and advanced which is helpful for teachers and parents who have a variety of learning abilities. Because of the levels, I accept the other games even if they are little more advanced. Some of the games could have a better pronunciation person because it is hard understanding some of the words he/she might be saying. Other than that, this website is organized and well structured in dealing with children’s games and what they want to teach. Students will be able to try a variety of games that could teach them spelling, vocabulary, and reading.

By:Courtney Kagan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/
This is a great interactive website for students. It provides reading, writing, and spelling and grammar sections. Inside each of these sections are links for games, reading activities, videos and quizzes that deal with each section. For example, the reading games that a student can play includes things like reading directions to get to a certain in place in so many steps. The child has to read the directions carefully to follow the steps correctly and win the game. These games provide children with fun ways that require them to read. In the read link there is important information about different types of reading, like newspapers, and advertisements, and more. In this tab students are able to read and gain knowledge about different types of literature and where people find readings. In each section there is a quiz link about what that section discussed, which is beneficial to students because they are able to summarize and solidify what they have learned. This website is a great tool for children and students who working on their reading, writing, spelling, and grammar skills, therefore it is a very good site for English language learners. This website provides literacy development activities for English language learners that help to develop their literacy skills. There are links for teachers and schools that have lesson plans and general education information on it.
By :Molly Rice

www.readwritethink.com
Although the requirements for the Word Family Sorts online activity may appear to be simple, this website provides students with both the understanding of rhyming and different vocabulary words as well. In this activity, students must identify "word families" where they are provided four words that have the same main vowel use but are structured differently. When each new word pops up, the student must be able to identify which "family" the word belongs based on its grammatical structure. While students are identifying each word's makeup, they also have the potential to learn new words, considering the activity provides up to 28 words per vowel. Although this activity may appear repetitive, this process promotes students to become accustomed to seeing the grammatical structure of various words and helps them to recognize why these words look and sound the same. In addition, students have the opportunity to practice this activity with each of the five vowels, which means the idea of word families is reiterated even more. I think it is a very helpful way for a student to become familiar with word structure and also potentially to learn new vocabulary. RWT: Word Family Sort
By: Melissa Berger

http://www.literacycenter.net/lessonview_en.php#This is a great site for ESL students to learn and practice their vocabulary, reading, writing, and comprehension skills. There are multiple activities for ESL to do for fun. A great way for students to practice reading skills is by clicking on the "Colors" tab and clicking on a color, and the name of that color pops up. This is an effective exercise because it is providing a picture to go along with the word so the student can apply the English name of the color and compare it to the their own language's name of that color; thus, they are learning that word with more effective instruction. To practice their writing skills, the "Writing" tab is effective for ESL. It teaches students how to write uppercase and lowercase letters of the English alphabet. For early English learners, there is a tab for "Uppercase letters" and "Lowercase letters" to look at the letter "A" or "a" to get familiar with it and remember their names, and there is a "Uppercase/lowercase" tab to compare and contrast the letters to show the difference. Using pictures, as stated above is affected for ESL students because it shows them the difference, and also helps with their comprehension skills in English. The "Words" tab is one of my favorite tabs for ESL students. First, it shows all the vowels of the alphabet, and the students are free to click on the words. Then, it has pictures of crayons, and the student can click on the color, then they must spell it out the English name of the color to work on their vocabulary, spelling, and comprehension skills. The "Word" tab exercises are designed to help students read words. Instead of teaching students that "o is for orange", the site shows students an "orange" or "cat." An exercise teachers can try is saying to the ESL student(s) “o-r-a-n-g-e spells orange”. This will help the teacher to later replace the first language word with a second language word for the same object. Also, teach the names of the numbers and then names of the colors so you are using the chunking technique, which in turn can give students confidence, a sense of achievement and help build self esteem. Then, celebrate when your child can read all the number words or all the color words. is also a "Shapes" tab to introduce ESL students to different shapes, encouraging recognition and comprehension. The site also familiarizes the students with numbers. Overall, this is a great site for ELLs and is strongly recommended for educator to refer to families and incorporate into their
By: Morgan Smith

Phonemic Awareness : Rhyming

The following resources are websites that focus on rhyming. This is an important skill in phonemic awareness that children need to know and understand. These websites are ones that can be used in the classroom by children and websites that can help teachers plan lessons based on rhyming.

1. http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/bll/reggie/index.htm

Scholastic is a website that has many resources for teachers, parents, and kids. There are several games and activities under the kids section, like “Reggie Loves to Rhyme.” This game allows children to pick a place (home, store, restaurant, etc.) where they want to rhyme. After choosing a place, the students are then given a word, like dime, and they choose the picture that rhymes with that word. I think this is an excellent resource to be used in the classroom. This website provides pictures of the words for children who are not proficient in reading. I would use this website in class by showing the students the word and picture, and then have them write or draw the rhyming word on a dry erase board or piece of paper. After an allotted amount of time, the students would then show their answer and we would use the website to see if they are correct. They could also think of several words, independently or in groups, that rhyme with the given word. For homework assignments, students could write a rhyming story based on the word. I think this is a great resource for EL classrooms because it provides many opportunities for them to develop language. For instance, it allows them to read, write, speak, and interact with their peers. It also shows them pictures if they are uncertain of what the word is. This helps them connect what they see to what the word says. Scholastic illustrates principles of effective teaching because it provides several opportunities for the children to practice developing their target language.

By D’Anna Siciliano

2. http://www.thevirtualvine.com/nurseryrhymes.html

The website The Virtual Vine is a website that will be very useful for any future teachers when focusing on a lesson on rhyming. As we all know when it comes to teaching young children the concept of rhyming a great tool to do so is using nursery rhymes. It is something that most children grow up with. If they don’t know them it will be easy to catch onto because of the rhyming. On the left side of this website, it lists most all of the popular nursery rhymes like Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, and Little Miss Muffet. Once you click on the actual rhyme then a visual of the poem will come up. This is a great tool to bring up onto the computer for the students to see the poem. The words to the poem are displayed along with a picture that describes the nursery rhyme. Then once you are done with going over rhyme under the poem the website gives you many activities to do with your students. First you can ask the children to point out the rhyming words in the nursery rhymes. Then you can go over other words that rhyme with the words seen in the poems. Also, the website is good for helping teachers use the poem into different activities. For example on the Jack and Jill page, there is an example activity that a student could write what else Jack and Jill could do besides go up a hill. Maybe instead the students could come up with Jack and Jill go pay their bill. This is great way to have students get their mind working and thinking about rhyming words. This website is a good transition into a homework assignment for the students to do at home. The teacher could give them the website and the students could pick out the poem they want to read. Then they could make up their own rhyming poems using similar words from the website. The website will be good for students of all different learning levels. Students are able to see visually the poem, which can help many students. The downfall to this site is that it is a site that will be more useful to a teacher than a student. This site is made to help a teacher with their lessons on rhyming. But overall this website will help students and teachers with the concept of rhyming.

By Stephanie Nguyen

3. http://www.instructorweb.com/lesson/rhymetime.asp

I found a very useful Lesson Plan dealing with rhyming through Instructor Web. “Rhyme Time Lesson Plan” is recommended for grades K-2. The objectives of this plan include reading a rhyming book in which the children will learn to identify, say and write rhyming words by participating in class discussions of the text. Not only will students learn rhyming techniques, but they will also work on the development of phonemic awareness, writing, and reading comprehension. By the end of this these activities, students should be able to successfully identify words that rhyme or have the same ending sound.

Some helpful books for this lesson should include books such as:

§ Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? by Bill Martin Jr.

§ Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.

§ Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

§ One Fish, Two Fish, Three, Four, Five Fish by Dr. Seuss

Using these books as resources, you can create many fun activities for your students. After you have chosen a book, do a read aloud and have the students predict main characters, setting , etc. Then, read the story and have them repeat the repetitive or predictable phrases with you. After this, see if the students can carry on the same process by themselves. Then, reread the book and have them raise their hand when they hear a rhyming pair then write these words on index cards. At the end of the story, mix up the cards and put them back up on the chart. Call students up to match a pair of rhyming words. Have them stand at the front of the room and read their pair with the class. They can then play a variety of games using the words. A game like Memory can be implemented by mixing up the cards and assigning them to students who will then find their rhyming pairs. In the end, you can do a simple closing activity by calling out a word and pointing to individual students that will need to shout out a rhyming pair!

By Alyssa Sacco

4. http://www.sesamestreet.org/

The Sesamestreet website is a wonderful website for children to engage in innovative and educational content. This website helps children prepare and be successful in school. This website is attractive to its audience. There are many activities and games for the children to get involved in that emphasize phonemic awareness.

This website is a wonderful place for children to practice the concept of rhyming. If you go to the main website and click on “games”, and click the link that says “by subject”, you will find the rhyming link. Here there are three different games that involve rhyming.

Teachers can use this resource in their classroom by using it as a bonus lesson, such as when the class has been behaving really well. The teacher can have the students involved in the lesson by having them call out ideas about which words rhyme together and what kind of words rhyme with the words that were not the right answer. The teacher can also use this website as a possible homework assignment. The teacher could have the students go to this website and write down six words that rhymed with each other. The limitation to using a website for a homework assignment is the accessibility of computers to the students outside of class. The teacher could incorporate this activity into small groups and one group at a time, can go up to the computer and learn their six words for the day.

A strength of this website is that it involves simple words that the children already know but then introduces the concept of words that sound alike. During each game, the website gives parents a tip on another rhyming activity they can involve their child in outside of this website. The tips are wonderful because they show kids how many things they can do with. Another very important strength of this website is that it is fun! Kids will engage themselves in activities that they enjoy doing.

By Amy Yarbrough

5. http://www.seussville.com/main.php?section=playground&pgarea=area1

Upon entering Seussville children become immediately encompassed with a website that disguises learning in the fun, animated world of Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss is known for his way with words in children’s books, especially with rhyming. In Seussville, children can explore several games in which rhyming is used to encourage phonemic awareness. Particularly, the “Fox in Socks” Matching Game under the playground link is a great example of how children can discover through rhyming. The idea of the game is for children to create rhyming sentences that match the picture. For example, a picture of a fox sitting in a box will appear and the children would have to take each individual word (i.e., fox, box, the, in, socks, knox, etc.) and rearrange them to create a rhyming sentence that describes the picture. Another great tool is the “quote maker” which is also found in the playground section of the website. Each time you click on the link, a rhyming quote from one of Dr. Seuss’ popular books, pops up. This is helpful so that the students can guess certain words that may also rhyme with the quote and even go so far as to create their own quotes. This can be incorporated in homework assignments. For example, students may have to explore the website and click on the quote maker, and then personally add on a sentence or two to the quote that continue the rhyme. This website could also be used in the classroom as a reward for finishing assignments early or earning free time. It is a great way to encourage learning through fun activities and games. One other interesting tool this website offers is the “Seussville Story Maker”, which is also found under the playground section. In this section, students can select a background and characters and then, page by page, create a story. One condition the teacher can implement is that the story must rhyme, much like the rest of Dr. Seuss’ popular books. Overall, this website is a great device for encouraging phonemic awareness in an interesting manner, so that students can learn, while having fun.

By Noura Wakim

Phonemic Awareness & Rhyming

The following resources are to guide teachers, students, and parents in becoming more phonemically aware by using rhyming activities and lessons.

1.

Resource: http://www.edb.utexas.edu/readstrong/rhyming.html

Phonemic awareness means understanding how sounds work and sound within words. Any person who has phonemic awareness can hear the individual sounds in words. It is an auditory skill, and is necessary for reading success. One of the most fundamental phonemic awareness skills is the ability to rhyme. When students learn how to rhyme, they are able make tons of associations and connections between words which then helps them to read.

The website, “Read Strong,” is a tool for parents and teachers to use with their students and children to teach phonemic awareness. Read Strong’s motto is, “Using research to help struggling readers become successful readers” (Read Strong Site). Read Strong’s website incorporates the participation of students, parents, and teachers to work together to help develop student’s phonemic awareness and eventually reading abilities. One specific section of the Read Strong website is their section on, “Rhyming Chants, Jingles and Songs” (Read String Site). The rhyming portion of the website provides fun and interactive lessons involving, “rhyming chants, jingles and songs,” to get students involved and familiarize them with rhyming (Read Strong Site). Yopp explains, “that phonemic awareness instruction for young children should be playful and engaging, interactive and social, and should stimulate curiosity and experimentation with language” (Yopp Article P. 132). Read Strong’s activities and instructions include just that. For example, Read Strong provides rhyming songs that students can use with jump ropes and hand clapping games. Through these activities, students are interacting with one another while they are learning to rhyme. The songs make the activities fun and engaging for the students so they will be encouraged to learn. These activities from Read Strong keep students active and learning. By incorporating songs with hand movements and/or jumping movements students will be able to pick out the rhyming words and understand there are patterns that go along with rhyming words and they will be able to make the connections as well. Students may also be encouraged to come up with their own rhymes and share them with the class. The Read Strong site includes lists of fantastic rhyming books, and other online resources parents and teachers can visit to further engage their students and children in rhyming activities.

Read Strong also provides a section for teachers to include how they themselves use and incorporate rhyming into their curriculum. This is a great way for teachers to communicate and share their ideas. Read Strong also provides a section like this for students themselves to get online and share some of their, “favorite rhymes, riddles, and songs” (Read Strong Site). This is a great way for students to learn new rhymes from other students and then maybe even be able to share rhymes they learn from the Read Strong site with their own classrooms.

One of the most important benefits from the Read Strong site is that it’s material and instruction is totally research based. This way you know the ideas and tips are bound to work most of the time.

Evaluated by Brooke Ellis

2.

Resource: http://www.actionfactor.com/pages/lesson-plans/v0.01-recognizing-rhyme.html

The website opens up with the objectives of the lesson, and then a section as to what the concept of rhyming is, as well as phonetic awareness. It goes on to explain that phonetic awareness is a critical pre-reading skill that students need to require early on. This paragraph is a good section to explain to parents how reading and comprehension builds up with steps, and goes to show how important it is to have children involved in literacy activities at an early age. It gives good examples on how to expose children to rhyming at an early age, all in interactive and fun manners. This article also stresses the fact that rhyming is something that is auditory, not visual. Children learn from repetition and rhythm, which helps kids that can’t read be able to understand how to make a rhyming scheme. This article does a good job on what to expect with rhyming at an early stage and age, in comparison to making vague generalizations on development, that maybe would confuse children if jumping around with different levels of difficulty. A drawback of this article, is that the teacher or whoever it is that is enforcing the lesson, has to have specific materials and items to give the lesson. The mini charts and CD’s needed, are specific on which track to use during the activity as well as which chart. The author gives suggestions on making the lesson more exciting by adding musical instruments.

The article gives very descriptive and thorough procedure on how to administer the activity. Although that would be very beneficial when giving this lesson in a home setting, it provides strict guidelines for teachers. The person giving the lesson has to follow the chart specifically, and is limited to rhyme with what is on the page. In a way, the procedure is too scripted, even telling the teacher/parent what exactly to say, and such a script could make the lesson seem less friendly or caring. I think that if the teacher or parents does an activity like this with pictures and words that are more relatable to the child, that they will understand and be more interested in the concept of finding rhyming words for that picture.

After the procedure there is a follow up section to test the child’s comprehension , as well as an extension section, so that the child is able to build on what they already learned. What I really like about this article, is that it gives suggestions on how to assess if the student understood the activity, but the form of the assessments are low anxiety and more relaxed, offering a more beneficial setting for younger students.

This can illustrate good teaching because all teachers need to be able to interact with their kids in a fun and exciting way. What I am concerned about in this, is that the teacher would need to be able to adapt the lesson, and maybe not follow the procedure word for word. Overall I believe that this is a good idea and activity to be able to branch off of and teach early phonetical awareness with rhyming to children that are younger and not literate. This lesson can be beneficial in the classroom, or even at home in a more lax setting with musical instruments and other household items that the child can make noise and rhythm with.

Evaluated by Jordan Farmer

3.

Generating Rhymes: Developing Phonemic Awareness

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/generating-rhymes-developing-phonemic-121.html

The Read Write Think website discusses the idea of phonemic awareness and a variety of activities that teachers may use in their classrooms to help students develop phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is “the awareness that speech consists of a sequence of sounds” (From Theory to Practice). This type of instruction should be used in early reading level classes in the form of storytelling, word games, rhymes, and riddles. This website specifically discusses how generating rhymes can help students become “aware of word and letter patterns that will help them develop decoding skills” (Overview).

The activities explained in the Instruction Plan category make phonemic awareness instruction playful and engaging for young students. There are four sections to the lesson plan, the first section, Session 1, describes a creative way to introduce the term “rhyming” to your students by using a fun activity that involves matching words that rhyme and singing a song. The second, Session 2, involves two more activities that allow children to practice rhyming. The first activity is a guided instruction and the second activity is an independent instruction. The third session of the lesson plan is for modifications or extensions to the previous activities. The students are given the opportunity to generalize rhyming and use it in different contexts. Lastly, the students have an independent task worksheet, which is an assessment or reflection for the teacher to see how well the students understand the concept of rhyming.

This lesson plan is very organized and goes through a variety of steps that allow the teacher to introduce the concept, model the concept, provide guided and independent practice, and assess the understanding of the concept. Going through each of these steps will further the understanding of rhyming for the children and allow them to comprehend why it is important. A limitation to this lesson plan is that it would take a long time for the students to get through each activity and the activities are somewhat repetitive. If the lesson plan was shortened to only playing one matching game, singing one song, and doing one worksheet on rhyming, the lesson would be more realistic for young children. The continuous change of activities will help keep the children focused, but will also give them enough experience with this new concept.

This lesson plan could be done all at once in a classroom, or some of the activities could be done in the classroom and the worksheet could be assigned as homework. These activities would also work for multiliteracy classrooms because the teacher can use rhyming words that are very general so that all cultures recognize them, or the teacher may decide to do English rhyming words for the English speakers and Spanish rhyming words for the Spanish speakers. Just by changing the words, the teacher could modify the activity for different language learners. This lesson plan as a whole illustrates good teaching because it goes through the steps of explicit instruction, which allows the learner to easily comprehend the concept and to use it in different contexts. Overall, when children learn about rhyming they are increasing their phonemic awareness, which therefore increasing their language and communication skills.

“Generating Rhymes: Developing Phonemic Awareness.” Read Write Think. 2010. Web. 6 April 2010.

Evaluated by Jeana Sorrels

4.

http://www.teach.virginia.edu/go/wil/rimes_and_rhymes.htm#About

The selected website is designed to strengthen young children’s phonological awareness or exposure to sound structure using rhyming. The program offers weekly downloadable units of instructions featuring thirty nursery rhymes presented in the order of frequency that ending sounds, such as “at,” “it,” and “ill,” appears in the text of primary grade reading material. For example, “Jack and Jill” opens week one with emphasis on the sound, “ill,” and the endings, “oke” and “oak,” are introduced in week twenty-eight with “There Was an Owl”. Furthermore, this classroom plan includes four downloadable items; nursery rhyme cards, rhyming picture sets, riddle rhymes, and teacher lesson plans.

Designed by Webbing in Literacy (WIL) foe Headstart programs, the website program seeks to help students identify unfamiliar words and improve reading skills by promoting the recognition of rhyming words. To accomplish this, the website includes weekly lesson plans that progress from introduction of a new nursery rhyme on Monday to actively using the rhyme in acting, singing, chanting, and riddle rhymes by the end of the week. As a result, the method reflects the principles of good teaching in the form interacting and having fun, as well as doing as much repetition and activity as possible to set in motion motor and brain skills to insure retention and learning. In addition, the easy rhythm of the text and simple picture presentation makes the website a strong resource for second language instruction. Also, teachers can change the weekly order of instruction to meet the needs of a diverse class. Despite the strengths of the program, the lesson plans offer some limitations for classrooms composed of students with varied reading and language skills. Specifically, the plans often insert the introduction of new vocabulary at the risk of confusing students that are not proficient in English. For example, with “Jack and Jill,” the teacher is instructed to ask the student to “touch the crown of your head.”

Consequently, as a future teacher, I can use portions of this website as a resource to help students read more easily and efficiently. That is, using the nursery rhyme cards and rhyming picture sets in the order suggested, I can show how words sound similar so that the students can realize that they have the skill to read unfamiliar words that have the same ending. Furthermore, assigning read from the “Seventy-One Other Take Home Rhymes” included in the program, as homework will provide students with the necessary practice to retain information.

Evaluated by Kathleen Armitage

Unique Strategies and Activities to Help Teachers Teach Children Literacy

The Websites our group has provided will help teachers develop methods and strategies to improve their student’s literacy and learning capabilities. These websites include stories, games, and practice work to help children develop their literacy skills for the future.

1) http://www.meddybemps.com/7.33.html

The Website I have chose focuses primarily on helping children in preschool and children up to the age of 8. This website is great for helping children hone their literacy skills by providing a large amount of games that specialize in different aspects of literacy. For example this website provides games in the fields of “writing and reading”, “observation and discussion”, and “language skills.” Though I have only listed three sections that offer games to help children increase their literacy skills, there are many more. What makes this website great is that it provides levels for each game, for example a 4 year old child can do the same game as an 8 year old child, but the content will be slightly different. I really like the structure of this website, it keeps the child thinking differently by offering a wide variety of games to chose from, a child can work on his reading by doing the “riddle” sections or if the child would like to work on their writing, they can just play the “writing and reading” games. Also if games like that don’t appeal to the child they can play puzzles.

This websites looks like if it were to be used by a teacher they could only assign these activities during school. It would not be a good idea to use this website for homework assignments because there is no way to check the child work. When dealing with multiliteracy classrooms, this website is useful to a point. This website offers a “language skills” section where they offer stories that can be translated into 12 different languages. This would help greatly in a multiliteracy classroom because the teacher could tell the child to read it in their 2^nd language first than their 1^st language to grasp the full meaning of the story. The “language skills” section offers a wide variety of stories and this would be very helpful in multiliteracy classrooms. The best way to use this website would be a “classroom fieldtrip” to the computer lab. Most of the learning that will be taking place will be on the computer and alone without the help of others. Scaffolding will still be possible, the teacher should walk around and make sure the child is doing what he or she is supposed to, but there is room for the child to wonder about and just randomly click during the games and end up not really learning. The teacher should make sure he or she knows the levels of each child’s literacy, so they may assign the child what game level to work with. Also the teacher should definitely switch up the games in order to keep the child’s mind thinking and creating new ideas.

By: Michael Dang

2) http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/index.shtml

I think this is a great website to improve children’s literacy, as well as build confidence, as the activities seem easy enough that they could do them on their own for the most part, with a little guidance on the instructions. It uses a bunch of bright and pastel, fun colors on the homepage, which are more appealing and inviting.

What stood out to me right away was the fact that there are games and activities for all different levels, whether you have a child who is just starting to build their literacy skills, or whether you have one who is a little more advanced. I think this would help a whole lot in a class with both L1 and L2 learners, as there is something for everyone. For example, on the left includes different links of different categories that are available to children. These include, but are not limited to, CVC Words, High Frequency Words, Consonant Clusters, and so on. Clicking on CVC Words, shows a couple different activities, including a “Magic Pencil,” in which you can watch the pencil write a word, and then write it yourself. Another is a little more advanced and you try to make different words with the limited letters they give you, proving to be a little more of a challenge. Another thing I like is that all of this is not online. They also have a “Print and Do” section. This could come in handy, as the teachers could print these and send them home with the children. Or, if a family does not have computer access, they could maybe go to a local library and print the sheets out to take them home to do with their children.

This website focuses on many of the difficult aspects to fully grasping literacy. There is a whole section devoted to words that are frequently used, as well as one focusing on long vowel sounds, such as “coat” and “hide.” Another cool aspect is the gallery of “Silly Sentences” where children and parents can actually submit sentences of their own that they have made up. This could give children a sense of accomplishment as they can build on their skills, and then prove what they have learned later.

I discussed all of the strengths above, so now for a couple weaknesses. There could be more pictures, especially on the home page, to make it seem like a more fun website. I think a more exciting layout would definitely spice it up. Also, once the students have done the exercises, there’s not really any more to do, so maybe an update every once in a while with new, exciting ideas would be a good idea! And finally, some software is necessary, for example, a RealPlayer for the Magic Pencil, which might not be compatible with all computers.

Overall, any kind of practice is good practice when learning and developing literacy skills. But, I think that this website has a fun and cool way of doing things!

“Evaluated by Kayla Acosta”

3) http://www.tickettoread.com

The aforementioned website is a wonderful tool for children to use to increase their vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and increase their overall level of literacy. Although the website is not free, it can be a very effective if purchased through the school or the district.

This website is individualized so that each student has his or her own account. Each user has a home page called a club house. The club house is a place that they can decorate and customize. They may purchase decorative items and other trinkets with tickets they earn. Users earn tickets by reading short passages that range from a paragraph to a page. T.J. Ticket is an animated character who reads all of the instructions aloud and gives clues to the user as he or she navigates the website. He’s TicketToRead’s equivalent of Microsoft Word’s Paperclip. T.J. Ticket shows up after each segment of the lesson to further instruct students.

This website is really effective because it measures the student’s progress by asking comprehension questions, setting a goal for the words read per minute, tracking the student’s words read per minute, and tickets. For every passage the student reads, they get 100 tickets. The website tracks the amount of time the student uses to finish the passage and records it. If the student reads too quickly, the When they read the story aloud into a microphone, they get 50 additional tickets. At the end of each short passage, there is a series of 6 comprehension questions. The questions have an audio button for students who can’t comprehend what the question is asking by reading it. This is especially helpful for second language learnersbecause it reinforces their comprehension with the audio aid. For each question answered correctly, 10 tickets are earned. In order to help readers stay on track, the screen highlights the current line when the student mouses over it.

For students who have trouble with reading and are not reading at the “Target” speed, T.J. Ticket offers a few words of encouragement and asks the reader to follow along as the narrator reads the story to the student. Then, there are flashcards that appear with the three vocabulary words in the passage. On these interactive flashcards, the word is read aloud, a picture of the word is shown, and the definition is read aloud. After a few moments, the narrator uses a sentence with the word, making the word more meaningful to the student. The student is then asked to read the passage along with the narrator which helps the student with fluency, inflection, and tone.

If implemented in a school-wide setting, it would be a great incentive system for children to read. Teachers can keep a list of how many tickets their students have and use that as an incentive for a school wide store full of goods like pencils, school supplies, small toys, and bigger prizes that can be won if students save enough tickets.

By: Karynna Garcia

4) http://www.eduplace.com/kids/

The Austin School District has just adopted Houghton Mifflin as their primary textbook source. This website would be extremely beneficial for students (especially AISD students) because it is a great way for the students to have access to a fun way of learning on the web and it is in sync with what they are reading and learning in school. This website is very interactive and the learning aspect is easily disguised because it is entertaining. The student can choose between many different school subjects, among them spelling and language arts. There are levels that pertain to grades so the activities are appropriate. It’s important, in this era, for children to learn how to access the web because there is so much information they can gain through it. These games are kid friendly and provide an excellent source of information because it comes from the textbook creators.

Students could be required to master certain levels and games at home or even at school and print out their scores. This is a way to check their understanding but also give them a sense of accomplishment. The website has a wide spectrum of learning techniques for all different types of learners. This is especially helpful for visual learners (like me!) Using this website is helpful because students can go at their own pace and bilingual students can find games and activities according to their level and knowledge of English.

I love the idea of this website because it parallels to what is being taught in schools that carry Houghton Mifflin books.

By: Kate Hoffner

Books to Assist with Reading and Second Language Acquisition

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 Reading: http://www.rif.org/kids/leadingtoreading/en/leadingtoreading.htm

The acronym RIF stands for “Reading is Fundamental.” Although the parent website (http://www.rif.org/), offers a variety of resources as well, this branch off (Leading to Reading) is particularly helpful. The theme is “where young children discover the joy of reading and grownups enjoy the journey.” Providing books and literacy resources for young children between the ages of 0 and 5 years of age, the site can be accessed in either English or Spanish. There is also a link for adults, providing them with books, activities, articles and advice, and other resources to help them assist young ones with early acquisition.

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 Reading.”

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.

Leading to Reading illustrates good teaching because it allows the children to do things on their own, and promotes their independence. At such a young age, children need to be encouraged to read and enjoy reading so that by the time they start first grade, they have the tools to lead them towards success. This is a great website to help youngsters achieve confidence and independence in their literacy acquisition!

(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: Teaching kids to read and helping those who struggle: http://www.readingrockets.org/

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)