Istation—For Individualized Instruction

Istation, which offers individualized instruction for students Pre-K to 12, provides continuous progress monitoring for language arts and reading. All the books used in the program are original and lessons are fun and game-like. Once students are assessed to determine levels, they are given instruction in areas of need such as comprehension, phonics, and fluency. Istation can be integrated into any reading or language arts program and works well with all students, whether they are on grade level, behind in their skills, or need enrichment. The program includes Greek and Latin root words to better help students learn vocabulary and an abundance of cross-curricular elements.

You’ll want to take a look at the lessons that show students how to blend letters. In this section, there are excellent graphics depicting a student’s mouth and tongue forming blending sounds.  Istation, priced at approximately $55 a student and available for site licensing, has many other excellent components, all combined into an engaging format.

Bring Reading Alive

Read Live by Read Naturally is a unique online reading intervention program in which students model the expression of excellent narrators instead of practicing reading word by word. It targets reading accuracy, comprehension, and oral reading for Grades 1-8, and because it is a Web-based application, it can be used at school and home. Before students read their selected passages within a level, which Read Live helps teachers to select, they review keywords, examine the story title, and look at a picture to try to predict what the story is about. They read the story with and without a narrator, and as they do, they can check the meanings of words they don’t know. As students read on their own, their work is timed, which encourages them to reach goals for the speed of their reading. They can try readings over and over as they work independently to increase speed and comprehension. Online quizzes include both multiple-choice and open-ended questions. Teachers need to check final readings with the students and to evaluate the open-ended comprehension questions. This means that the program probably works best with small groups. If students are Spanish speakers, they can begin the program with native Spanish narrators and transition to English gradually. There’s a 60-day free trial available for testing the program to see if it is right for your students. Note: Without the oral reading component, Read Live is available for Grades 9-12 and adults.

Giving Students Practice in Reading

For students to do well throughout school and in standardized testing, reading well is a must. In addition to learning the skills of reading, they need to practice reading. We want to get all our students to the point where they will look forward to “picking” up a book whether online or offline.

There are online programs that can help them improve reading skill and fluency in ways designed not to embarrass hesitant readers. Even good readers can profit from such programs, since the content and encouragement they can get online will help them develop even more efficient reading skills.

Programs you may want to consider are Learning A-Z’s Raz-Kids and Reading A-Z. Raz-Kids is for Grade Levels 1-5, but older students having difficulty with reading will also benefit from using it. Raz-Kids has over 400 books, and students pick from book choices at their level. They can read the books over and over if they wish, listen to and read along with a child or adult narrator, click on words that are difficult for them, record their books so that teachers can listen to their reading, and take comprehension quizzes on their knowledge of the books. If teachers wish to expand the online library, they can make use of Reading A-Z, which includes 500 more books that do not have the recording option. Students can read the books at home or school because the programs are online. You’ll be surprised to hear that Raz-Kids is available for approximately $89 a year for a class of 36 students; Reading A-Z is the same price. If both programs are purchased together, the price is about $120.