2/28/2023 0 Comments Starfall website![]() ![]() There's a lot of mouse navigation to get through the site, so young children or children with special learning needs may face a few challenges. There's often a mixture of text and audio, and activities are well paced. Unfortunately, there's not an option to hear an entire passage read fluently, and some things, like songs, are missing captions. Students can make simple choices (not getting punished if they get something wrong), click on words to hear them read aloud, or click to advance videos. While the activities aren't that interactive, students do engage with the site. For example, students choose words to insert into sentences, and their choices influence the direction of the activity. The experience also personalizes as a students' reading skills progress. When they see the word "bat," students hear it sounded out ("b-a-t") several times, faster and faster, until they hear the whole word. The effective sound-it-out approach helps students identify each individual phoneme, or sound, in words. Though at times the user experience can feel a bit slow and outdated, Starfall still does a good job of offering clear and useful early literacy lessons. With Group Access, teachers can give students sign-in credentials to use at home. There are also several associated Starfall apps, including Starfall Learn to Read and Starfall ABCs, some of which are entirely free and some of which offer limited content for free. To unlock all content, teachers need to purchase a subscription. And check out the dedicated accessibility section to learn how to use Starfall to support students with special needs.Ī limited amount of Starfall's large content base is available for free. There's also a store with extras like books and stuffed animals for purchase. In addition to these interactives and activities, there's a Parent-Teacher Center that has printable worksheets, pre-K and kindergarten curricula, detailed lists of Common Core State Standards alignments, downloadable songs, and other resources for teachers. The bulk of the content is geared toward pre-K and kindergarten, but there's a small collection of activities that touch on more advanced concepts, such as grammar, and are relevant for older grades. Students can progress through these four sections however they like and move on to other sections as their reading skills improve and mature. Starfall is an early learning website featuring interactives, games, songs, and supporting resources for reading and math. The heart of the site is its reading program, categorized into four sections: ABCs, which introduces letter sounds through videos and interactive games Learn to Read, which teaches some of the more common sounds through interactive games, books, and videos It's Fun to Read, in which students learn to read in context and I'm Reading, in which students read short books, comics, and plays. Beware, however, that a lot of these extras will cost you. It is an impressive database of additional ideas, printable worksheets, downloadable songs, and pre-K and kindergarten curricula. For teachers who are ready to go all in, the Parent-Teacher Center is a must. Teachers can also project the site on an interactive whiteboard to introduce new concepts (letters, letter sounds, phonemes, blending sounds, and more) to the whole class. The It's Fun to Read section, in which students learn about how reading can help them investigate anything that interests them, offers a nice way to tie together different classroom subjects under the overarching theme of reading and literacy. They should pick these up as they go, but, of course, they'll need classroom instruction for things to stick. While there's not much feedback, students can work at their own pace and get exposure to correct answers. ![]() Students can work through simple interactives and games that help them practice addition, subtraction, measurement, and more. The earliest readers can explore well-paced videos that introduce each letter and can actively discover letter sounds and usage, while more advanced readers can enjoy the I'm Reading section, with short books on subjects from comics to Greek mythology and Chinese fables. Students from a variety of learning backgrounds (ELLs, those with language delays, etc.) can use Starfall to explore literacy concepts at their own pace, or to build basic math skills and fluency. ![]()
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