Starfall
Starfall is the fourth IRA literacy website I
wanted to explore. Starfall was founded in 2002 by the Polis- Schutz family. At
age 9, Stephen Schutz was a struggling reader. What came easily for some
children, was very difficult and challenging for Stephen. Now with a PhD in
physics and a successful publisher and artist, Dr. Schutz wanted to make sure
children in his situation today have a resource that can help them. He turned
to the Internet and conceived a program that would be available online across
the world to all children who are learning to read in English.
For
educators, the Starfall reading program is designed to make learning and
reading fun, exciting, and to instill confidence in young children as they
learn to read. The website contains interactive activities and printed
materials that are effective tools to help teachers implement teaching methods
during reading. The website is user friendly and is simple enough for students
to navigate independently. The reading materials and activities provided on the
website are modeled on the “Big Five,” which focused on areas recommended by
the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which are
phonemic awareness, systematic phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension-
as well as finding ways to keep students motivated to continue reading.
Here’s
a brief look at the “Big Five” focused areas on the Starfall website: (1)
Phonemic Awareness- children will explore and interact with speech sounds in
every book and game. Children click on the letters in any order to see, hear,
and manipulate the sounds and letters of the alphabet; (2) Systematic Phonics-
children master speech sounds and begin reading simple 2-3 words; (3)
Vocabulary- with a basic understanding of letter-sound relationships, children
can explore a variety of genres and topics, while increasing their speaking,
reading, and writing skills; (4) Fluency- Starfall reinforces high-frequency
words in sentences, rather than in isolation. This allows children to make
meaningful associations with words and commit them to memory; (5)
Comprehension- children then transition from learning to read to reading to
learn, and (6) Motivation- the activities, songs, and books create an
atmosphere of fun and enthusiasm that infuses all aspects of learning, as well
as using positive reinforcement to guide children to making correct responses
and will encourage them to continue and stay motivated to learn.
The
story of how Starfall began hits close to my heart. I have had students who
struggled with Reading and all the skills accompanied with learning how to
read. I constantly tried to find solutions on how to teach them and instill a
love for learning- while keeping them motivated to keeping trying. I turned to
games, books, and interactive websites that made learning fun, without it
feeling like work. This technique helped my students succeed and now I continue
to allow my students to learn through play, because it isn’t learning if it
isn’t fun.
The Starfall
website includes a Kindergarten curriculum, which lists the Common Core State
Standards the website meets. Our school, recently implemented the Common Core
State Standards and I’m constantly on the look-out for materials and resources
to help me implement the standards with other content areas in creative ways. This
website also allows me to integrate technology with literacy, as well as
teaching my students the basic skills of reading, writing, and speaking, which
will eventually encourage them to be lifelong learners.
I’ll keep this
tool handy for years to come!
Information Source: http://www.starfall.com/
This sounds like a really good website with a lot of great ways to help struggling students. Thanks
ReplyDeleteGreat website! I've use some of these resources before.
ReplyDelete