Starfall’s successful learn-to-read activities are based on teachers’ experience and research. The temptation is too strong to play with the fun stuff.Free Content For Kids Millions of children have learned to read at , But if you plan to use this app with a younger child, you’ll need to be prepared to sit and work with them. This is a fantastic app! Stronger readers could use it independently without difficulty to refresh their basic skills. The Web site is free, and the actual app is $3.49, but well worth it. I don’t think Jack would have sat through all of that in one session, though. I haven’t tried all the lessons yet, but ‘Zac the Rat’ did have two alternative titles which presumably worked further with the short A sound. I did let Jack play around with the movies when we finished the little reader, but there was more work we could have done. They simply aren’t used to using these devices as actual learning tools.
#Starfall learn free#
They constantly pester me about how much ‘work’ they have to do before we get to the free time part. I’ve struggled, too, with the legacy of non-techie teachers who used the iPads as a bribe or a free choice activity. But I don’t think I can realistically except them to sit with their child and monitor their work.
#Starfall learn download#
They would download the app if I suggested it-it’s free, and they do have iPads at home. I’ve got two students who I think would really benefit from using this app at home-on a daily, regular basis-but whose parents have thus far struggled to fit in just regular reading time. But I am quite sure that if I left Jack to his own devices, he’d simply let the book do all the work for him, and then go straight to the movies and games. These are key skills, and the app executes them beautifully.
#Starfall learn how to#
The guided sounding-out feature is extremely effective, and models both the sounding out part, and how to blend the sounds to make a word. But the downside is, it is very teacher-intensive. It was a good approach, and it’s what I am training my little reading buddy army to do. When we finished the page, he got the animation. For any words he struggled with, I tapped as he read and let him pause and watch the guided sounding-out. Then I pressed the ear and let him enjoy the animation. If he was right, I did nothing and let him finish. I wanted Jack to sound out the words, not the iPad! So I developed a routine with him where on each page, I would point to the word and let Jack try it. But I found that Jack was much more interested in the little movies and animations than he was in doing actual reading. Then you press the arrow-which turns into the ‘short a’ and says the sound again-and move onto the next page. If you tap on the little musical ear icon, the voice reads the whole sentence, and then animates the illustration. If you tap on the word, a pop-up zooms in on it and highlights the letters while a voice audibly sounds them out, and then blends the sounds to make the word. There was a brief animation with a dancing ‘A’ and a song, and then it opened up the book. It was called ‘Zac the Rat’ and dealt with the ‘short A’ sound. I sat down with one of my senior kindergarten students (let’s call him ‘Jack’) and worked through the first lesson. There is a small bottom panel with some movies and animations which most of my students found quite catchy I am training my Grade 3/4 class to use this app in a ‘reading buddies’ function with some of the younger students, and even they were humming the songs when we were done.
#Starfall learn series#
The bulk of the real estate is the series of phonics-based books and lessons. But it’s a nightmare to use in a classroom setting, so I appreciated I could just download the app, direct the student to where I wanted them to go, and then be underway. I understand that such features allow a teacher or parent to personalize the app and get more directed feedback. One thing I appreciated about this app was that I did not need to create accounts and log students in. So I downloaded Starfall Learn to Read and gave it a go. I wanted to do some extra phonics work with them to shore up these basic skills, and I thought an app would be more fun for them. I had a few who were borderline at Level 2-they were able to complete those books by heavily relying on the picture cues, but they were still weak on phonics and could not actually decode new words. Our school is heavily invested in the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA) program, where students are assessed using a series of progressive readers.
I have written already about some of my whole-class teaching. As I also teach Technology, I have had a few interesting opportunities to merge my two roles and use e-book apps to help improve my student’s reading. One of my hats this year has been as coordinator of my school’s reading program.
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