Reading Pen(4th-12th)The reading pen’s goal is to help with a student’s vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. This will help students learn from the text they are reading especially in areas such as Social Studies and Science where needed vocabulary is above struggling students reading level.
Students can scan any printed text. The pen will then read aloud the word(s) that were scanned. Students can also choose the option for a definition of a word to be read to them or displayed on the screen. It can also display synonyms for students who may be able to associate the new word with their prior knowledge. The pen looks simple to use and could provide students with a reading disability to read a text where there is unknown vocabulary or limited prior knowledge. While using the pen, students with learning disabilities would not have to slow down reading by finding a dictionary or struggling through a text with little comprehension due to the number of unknown words. The Reading Pen would not only support a student’s understanding of the text but also expand their vocabulary and confidence in reading common classroom text independently. Student has the option to use headphones with this product. Research done by Frostig Center showd that "The statistical analysis revealed significant increases in correct responses to reading comprehension questions. Students not only read the easier selections on the test more accurately, but were able to move on to read more difficult passages with good comprehension. Each selection increased approximately one grade level in difficulty as the child proceeded through each one. On average, the children obtained scores 7 points higher, more than a grade level higher when using the pen." (Higgins and Raskind, 2005) |
Starfall (K-2nd)www.starfall.com
Starfall is a great site for students K-2 who need a "systematic phonics approach, in conjunction with phonemic awareness practice" and may be reluctant to participate in other interventions. (Starfall, 2013) Starfall has a number of programs including Alphabet sound games, interactive activities, and videos. Starfall also has a number of phonograph books with support videos and games. Students are able to participate in making and breaking word activities and begin to understand to value of looking at all parts of a word to help with decoding. Starfall bases their site off of the research found by the National Child Health and Development Center in April, 2000; it states "The panel determined that effective reading instruction includes teaching children to break apart and manipulate the sounds in words (phonemic awareness), teaching them that these sounds are represented by letters of the alphabet which can then be blended together to form words (phonics), having them practice what they've learned by reading aloud with guidance and feedback (guided oral reading), and applying reading comprehension strategies to guide and improve reading comprehension." |
Storyteller pen (adult support needed, all grades)http://www.hammacher.com/product/79605
Similar to the Reading Pen above, the Storyteller pen helps the reader read unknown words. However, unlike the Reading Pen, the storyteller stories need to be pre-recorded and stickers applied to the books pages. "This is the device that enhances a child's reading experience by playing back a story in the familiar voice of a caregiver. A parent or grandparent [teacher] records passages--even entire bedtime stories--using a pen-shaped voice recorder synchronized to a series of easy-peel stickers that attach to a book's pages. Each of the 600 included stickers is encoded with a unique pattern of dots (similar to a bar code) and each is associated with a voice recording stored on the pen's built-in memory. A child simply points the pen at stickers placed throughout a book to hear recordings. Forty stickers with pre-recorded sound effects, including a laughing baby, meowing cat, ringing phone, ticking clock, fire engine, and more are included." (Hammacher, 2013) Students who struggle with decoding and accuracy are able to chose what book they read, given that their is the ability for someone (even a fluent, high reading student) to record the story onto the pen. The Storyteller pen is only $80 compared to the Reading Pen at $299. Researcher and First Grade Teacher Ginger Thompson states during her research project she found "Overall, the students’ reading skills improved and reading motivation remained high throughout the project. This study implies that text-to-speech reading intervention [through use of the text-to-speech pen] can have an impact on reading achievement."(Thompson, n/a) |
Other Tools
EXTRASHow to download ebooks on Storia
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