Rewordify

 

            Rewordify (http://rewordify.com/) is a free, online software that helps students improve reading, learning and teaching. The website was created ten years ago by a English teacher named Neil Goldman. He states that, “I created this site to give everyone a different way to learn words. It takes away hard words and replaces them with easy words, keeping as much of the original meaning as possible.” Goldman made Rewordify to break the nonreader cycle of students who does not like to read, hate reading, poor vocabulary, and comprehension.

Rewordify has many features to offer. It can be utilized to simplify challenging English words for faster and better comprehension, to teach words for vocabulary, produce lesson plans for teachers, and help learning outcomes.

Using the simplification feature, individuals can type and enter hard sentences or chapters of a story onto the website and Rewordify will instantly create an easier version for it, creating a better understanding for students. The reworded words will be highlighted, and you can hover or click on it to see the original word. In addition, students can also click on Learning Sessions and it helps with teaching vocabulary. Rewordify finds challenging words and students can select which one they want to learn from the list. The session is a step-by-step process where listening, typing, and reading are done to improve and better understand the new vocabulary words.  In addition, teachers can customize vocabulary word lists for their students to learn. Students can use Rewordify to earn points just by learning new words. Lastly, Rewordify can easily help teachers monitor student’s reading and learning progress. Charts and reports can be used to tell teachers their weaknesses, strengths, and improvements. Overall, it is a free, fast, and safe website that teachers and students can use to improve student learning. 

ReadWriteThink

            ReadWriteThink (http://www.readwritethink.org) is a website that provides free Reading and Language Arts resources and instruction to educators, parents, and afterschool professionals. It is partnered up with International Literacy Association, National Council of Teachers of English, and The Verizon Foundation to create quality work and resources. ILA is an international membership organization dedicated to improving reading instruction and encouraging reading as a lifetime habit. NCTE is also an organization that helps improve the teaching and learning of English, while Verizon funds and supports the creation of the ReadWriteThink website. In addition, the website also has professional advisors that ensures that all resources are organized and with excellent quality.

            The resources include the following: classroom resources, professional development, videos, and parent and afterschool resources. The classroom resources have lesson plans that are aligned with ILA and NCTE Standards for ELA but also to individual state standards as well. It also has interactive tools for students, mobile apps, calendars, and printouts for teachers. The professional development resources provide strategy guides such as differentiating instruction, reading in the content areas, and evidence-based discussions. It also has a professional library that provides books for teachers and online professional development webinars. There are abundant videos that new teachers can use to familiarize themselves with classroom instruction and management. There are webinars for seasoned teachers, as well, to refresh their minds of classroom strategies that works. ReadWriteThink also provides videos in literacy and resources from K-12 students for parents and afterschool professionals. These resources are fee and there is no registration is needed to download and printout worksheets for teachers and parents.

            Overall, I enjoyed the ReadWriteThink website. It has many insightful and educational information that can be learned. Plus, all resources are free!  

Wonderopolis

           

           

Wonderopolis (https://wonderopolis.org/) is a website that lets curious students ask different questions about absolutely anything. It was created by the National Center for Families Learning in 2010. NCFL is a national nonprofit organization that is dedicated to helping children and adults learn.

With Wonderopolis, individuals can ask intriguing questions and these questions can be voted as the “Wonder of the Day”. When a question becomes a “Wonder of the Day”, the members of NCFL research and find answers for the question. This will help students who have questions, us teachers do not even have an answer too.

In addition, Wonderopolis also offers a free online summer-learning website called Camp Wonderopolis that features interactive STEM and literacy-building topics. With it, children can improve and build their vocabulary, background knowledge in Science, reading comprehension, and critical thinking. Every summer, Camp Wonderopolis has a different topic. In 2014, students learned about the zoo, Chemistry, and Biology. In 2015, students learned about first aid, technology and innovation. For 2018, Camp Wonderopolis will explore the symphony of wonders, which I believe will be about music, art, and poetry.

Besides Camp Wonderopolis, Wonder Ground is another website that helps educators find ready-to-use lesson plans and classroom resources that relates the “Wonder of the Day” to education standards. The “Wonder of the Day” questions are aligned to the Common Core State Standards, the STEM Educational Quality Framework, and Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy.

Overall, Wonderopolis and its sister websites offers abundant resources for students and teachers. The “Wonder of the Day” can be an intriguing anticipatory set and help critical thinking happen in the classroom. It is also a good ice-breaker to help students feel comfortable asking, even the strangest, questions. 

Star Fall

           Star Fall (http://www.starfall.com/) is a free website that young children can use to practice and learn reading. The owner of Star Fall, Stephen Schutz, struggled with reading in his childhood. He created the website to motivate kids that reading can be accomplished and can be fun too! Star Fall promotes collaboration, wonderment, and play. Students are given positive reinforcement to become confident, motivated, and successful readers.

            Star Fall focuses on children to read with phonics. It primarily focuses on children who are in preschool, kindergarten, 1^st grade, 2^nd grade, and special education students. Resources like animated songs, mathematics, and reading activities are also included in Star Fall. In addition, Star Fall is divided into four levels based on a child’s ability to read. The levels are ABCs, Learn to Read, It’s Fun to Read, and I’m Reading. ABCs level focuses on the alphabet letters and its sounds with a matching image that relates to the letter. Learn to Read mainly focuses on CVC words and blending different letter sounds as one. As a student progresses, he or she can click on It’s Fun to Read and create a short story about different topics like All About Me and Magic. There are also mini stories about music and art, riddles, poetry, and tongue twisters that student can practice on. Lastly, the fourth level called I’m Reading provides interesting reading materials that students can read such as fiction and nonfiction books, folk tales, comics, Greek myths, and Chinese fables.

            Overall, Star Fall provides a free and interactive approach to reading. It is a great way for students to practice and improve their reading independently. Because it is also featured on mobile devices, parents can easily download the app and have their children read comfortably anywhere they feel fit. Stephen Schutz’ struggles as child made him realize that there are many children are also in the same predicament as him. He believed that by creating Star Fall, he will achieve a world where every kid can and will know how to read.

Internet Tools

Learn Out Loud

            LearnOutLoud.com started in 2005 to showcase audio and video learning content on the Web. Since the growth and improvement of technology such as audio book downloads, podcasts, and Youtube, Learn Out Loud’s goal is to be the primary source of learning through audios and videos on the web. Its aim is to change an individual’s ‘dead time’ such as driving, exercising, and doing chores to ‘learning time’. Mundane activities can be changed into informative ones.

For example, the website has about 7,000 podcasts to choose from. A podcast is a digital audio file made available on the internet for downloading to a computer of mobile devices.  There are many educational podcasts that LearnOutLoud.com has to offer. Its topics consists of art history, classical mythology, poetry, personal growth, philosophy, and many more. In addition, LearnOutLoud has a collection of over 1,200 free online audio and video courses. The collections consist of free courses from top universities such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, UCLA, UC-Berkeley, and MIT. There is also a section for kids called “Kids Audio Books” that feature 2,000 audio books, podcasts, and videos. It includes sports and hobbies, self-development, literature, and traveling.

Overall, LearnOutLoud.com has an abundant of audio and video resources for all ages. It is a great way to learn different topics in the comfort of your own home, car, or anywhere you see fit. All you need is two ears to listen and an open mind to learn. I believe that this is a great tool for individuals who are always on the go, but are still eager to learn.

Prezi

            Unlike PowerPoint, Prezi is an online website that organizes and views presentation. It has different designs and options that can improve presentations visually. It creates a new way and perspective on presenting. Professors, students, and business owners can use Prezi to give meaningful and impressive presentations. Instead of presenting a topic slide by slide, like a PowerPoint, Prezi uses a single space that can be explored in many ways. It becomes visually appealing to the audience and story-telling can be conveyed nicely.

The product has many unique features that individuals can use to create a master piece. For example, it has an overview, smart structures, zoom reveal, and free movement. Overview helps a presenter see an overall idea or picture of the presentation. Smart structures make it easy to organize and arrange texts, lay-outs, and pictures without confusing the creator. Zoom reveal can focus in and unveils crucial details in the presentation, Lastly, it is easier to navigate through the presentation without having to go slide by slide, like a PowerPoint.

However, the only negative aspect of Prezi will be its monthly fee. An individual can start a 14-day free trial of Prezi but must pay after it ends. It is divided into three categories: standard for $5, premium for $15, and plus for $59 a month. A standard fee enables a person to create presentations, control privacy settings, and share links. A premium user has an additional offline access, voice-over, ability to export to PDF and upload videos. While the plus access enables its user to do programs such as advance online training, Prezi analytics, and phone support.  

Prezi is a great choice for avid presenters and individuals who love creating majestic presentations. Because of its monthly fee, it may be difficult for students to use Prezi without having to ask their parents. However, it is a wonderful program that will help transform a boring and mundane presentation into a entertaining one.

Google Earth

            Google Earth is a web browser that accesses satellite and aerial imagery, oceans, and other geographic data over the internet to represent the Earth as a three-dimensional globe. Voyager is a new feature of Google Earth that helps individuals tour the world with a touch of a button. It is a collection of map-based stories written by Google Earth partners that is weekly updated. There are many topics to choose from in Voyager such as traveling, nature, culture, history, and education.

In addition, individuals can see different places simply by typing its name on the search bar. It is a great navigational system for travelers and tourists. Locating someone has also been easier with Google Earth. People can send interesting places around the world with others and share it via Google Chrome on a computer. Altitudes and coordinates of different places are also easier to see rather than using an actual map. It can quickly give the latitude and longitude of different places around the world.

As a part of Google Earth, Geo Education was created as additional information on using Google Earth, Maps, Sky, in a classroom. Google Earth is not only used by travelers, but it can also be used in the classroom. Students who have no visual images of places such as Statue of Liberty, Great Wall of China, Pyramid of Giza, Machu Picchu, and the Eiffel Tower can use Google Earth to see it. It is an amazing tool to present historical places to students. Having a visual model can help students become more interested in content subjects such as Social Studies and Science. Enabling them to see these places or pictures will help them connect what they are learning to what they are seeing. 

Whooo's Reading

         

           Whooo’s Reading (https://www.whooosreading.org) is a higher-level thinking alternative to multiple choice in reading comprehension. Rather than choosing an answer from a word bank or an ABC choice, students will answer what they have read through writing. The quizzes given are higher-level questions and it reinforces the power of reading and writing.

            The website is easy to follow, and it can also be downloaded on mobile devices such as phones and tablets. Firstly, students are given the task to choose any reading material that interests them. After the book is read, students are given three short higher-level thinking questions about the book. Students are given virtual coins as positive reinforcement for answering the questions correctly. Afterwards, students receive customized suggestions for what book to read next. There is also an automated score for every book that is read by the students. Lastly, teachers receive reports of the progress of their students over time achievement.

            With Whooo’s Reading, students can create a calm and interesting reading environment. Students will be able to log minutes and pages that they have read. Parents can also be apart of it by ensuring that they are aware of their child’s reading performances. Parents sign off reading logs and receive progress reports. The scores given in the reports are based on the child’s strengths and weaknesses such as comprehension, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, organization of sentences, and evidence. With these data, parents and teachers can identify what aspect a child must practice and improve on.

            Overall, Whooo’s Reading has an interesting concept that enables students, parents, and teachers to see literacy progress. It is user-friendly and motivational, as well, because of the given owl avatar and coins incentives. Lastly, it enables students to think outside the box and explain their answers thoroughly through writing based on the reading that they have done. 

Reading Eggs

            Reading Eggs (https://readingeggs.com/)was created to focus on the core reading curriculums of skills and strategies essential for a success in reading. A diagnostic test and student management tools are also provided to enable teachers to place students at different reading levels. It is geared towards students who are in Kindergarten up to 2^nd grade. In addition, it also helps struggling and reluctant readers in upper grade levels and special needs students as well.

            A Reading Eggs lesson is divided into seven parts. The first and second parts are the main lessons, which consist of interactive animations led by a host or a teacher. The lessons introduce concepts that enables students to stay on-task. The news skills learned are also reinforced repeated using motivating and interactive activities. The third and fourth parts focuses on letter recognition physically, by using dots, and mentally, though memory games. Part five and six consists of vocabulary words and e-books. Lastly, part seven is the reward or incentive that a student receives when a lesson is completed. The child is rewarded with a new creature that hatches, hence the title, Reading Eggs. Eggs hatch when they are ready, which translates to children being ready to move forward and improve their reading skills.

            Although Reading Eggs is not free, parents and teachers are given a month trial to try it out. Within the time given, they can download the lesson plans and worksheets for the students. In addition, a certificate is also given along with the ‘hatched’ egg when completing a quiz in any of the lessons.

            Overall, Reading Eggs is a great website to use to push students to try their best. I believe the concept of hatching eggs is a genius, especially for students who feel that they are struggling. It is a great incentive for them to improve and strive for success. 

Story Place

            Story Place (https://www.storyplace.org/) is a free and a virtual experience of going to the library and participating in the same types of activities the library offers at its physical locations. It was launched in 2000 and been utilized to present stories and activities that are compatible with desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. In addition, Story Place includes early literacy information for parents and caregivers.

            Story Place is geared towards preschoolers. It helps children explore and experience activities that can improve their talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing. Talking with children can help them learn new words and information. Singing can help with the development of phonemic awareness, which is an integral part in reading. Reading and writing are two important parts of the success of a child. Lastly, playing help children put their thoughts and actions into words and help them physically understand what is happening around them through their own experience.

Also, it has an array of themes and activities to choose and explore from. The themes include animals, babies, bath time, colors, music, pets, and shapes. When a theme has been selected, pets, for example, the website takes you to different activities that you can do with the students. The activities include an online story that can be read out loud by a teacher or a computerized narrator, an online game activity, a video about pets, a reading list about pets, and a take home activity.

            Also, Story Place also includes a Storytime Calendar that does stories in real time. The activities include toddler, preschool, and family story time. Children and their families are greeted with activities geared to discovering the fun in books, exploring sounds and letters, encouraging language and pre-reading skill developments, supporting early literacy skill development, and help foster a love of books and reading to children.

            Overall, Story Place is a great literacy website that can strongly help preschoolers experience what happens in a library. It was designed thoughtfully, and the navigation of the website is easy and quick to understand. Although the Story Time only happens in their locations in the United States, it is something that our island can also strive to do. Children and their families should be more aware of the different activities that libraries in our island can offer to help them become successful learners of the society. But as we work on that, Story Place is a good starting point to have children experience a virtual library.