Internet Diary Entry 5

http://www.readingmatrix.com/directory/pages/

The Reading Matrix website is an exceptional educational website that provides links to tests, games, practice materials, and vocabulary to help with reading comprehension. This website comprises audio books for children including books that have been translated to English from other languages, holiday stories, and quizzes that accompany stories. There is a great proofreading section that allows you to choose the grade level and complete exercises with misspelled words or grammar mistakes that can help with your proofreading skills. The reading comprehension section is useful for students of all grades and reading levels as you can choose from beginner to intermediate to advanced. Vocabulary quizzes are available along with interactive flash card games.

This website would be incredibly useful for teachers who need lesson plan ideas on vocabulary. The students can practice their vocabulary with flashcards on the website before the test. Also, for students who are beginning to write a paper, the proofreading exercises would be helpful. Reading comprehension can be used daily in the classroom to improve students overall reading skills. There are games and exercises for all students so that no one is falling behind. Teachers may use this website to get ideas for their own lesson plans or simply have their students play around on the website to better improve what they are already learning during class.

This website’s purpose is to provide educational reading materials that may or may not be available to all students. Parents can implement this website at home to give their children a head start or for extra practice. The interactivity of the website makes it fun for students while enhancing their reading skills. I think the main goal is to provide free learning materials to parents, teachers, and students.

Internet Diary Entry 4

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/

BBC School ’s website, Words and Pictures is a website designed for students grades 1-3 or students who have learned their basic letters and sounds. The website incorporates games that help students practice long vowel sounds and consonant clusters. There are also fun games that let you create your own words out of random letters. This website has a poetry feature that allows children to submit their own poems that actually get published on the site. Not only can students practice their phonics but they can put it to work by writing poems and having them read by other students.

            This website would be a wonderful addition to any lower elementary grades classroom. Teachers can use this website for individual practice but they can also assign their students to write poems to be shown on the site. Students can be rewarded for good behavior with this site because it would be a fun website to play games on at school or at home.

            I think the purpose of this website is to encourage students to be creative with the basic reading and writing skills they are learning.

Internet Diary Entry 3

http://www.storylineonline.net/

Storyline Online is a video streaming website that provides videos of storytellers reading short books. The stories are anywhere from 5-20 minutes long. Each story is accompanied by activities you can complete after reading. Some of the activities include a short test or a list of questions you can answer based on what you heard in the book.

            Listening to stories can help children improve their listening skills and it will also teach them the pronunciation of words they may not have heard before. Teachers can use this website for projects inside the classroom or as homework. Children will learn to pay attention to what they are listening to if they know they will have to complete an assignment afterwards.

            I think the main purpose of this website is to provide a way for children to have stories read to them if there isn’t someone available to read to them. If a teacher doesn’t have time to have a storyteller visit the classroom, students can listen to stories on this website during free time, recess, or after school. Listening to stories will not only be entertaining but can help students learn to read.

Internet Diary Entry 2

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/play.htm?f

Starfall is a website that is designed to help children learn to read and to improve phonics. One section of the website takes children through every letter of the alphabet to learn the basic sounds of language and to learn words that begin with each letter. It also focuses on consonants, vowels, and different letter combinations.

The learn to read section helps children make word combinations on their own by providing them with small words such as ‘an’ and other letters to help them form new words such as ‘f’ or ‘c’ to make words such as ‘fan’ and ‘can’. It also has short books that are read aloud to the student so they can hear what the words are supposed to sound like. The students then have the opportunity to practice the words themselves.

Once children have learned to read, they are introduced to a “It’s Fun to Read” section where they can listen to tongue twisters and riddles and learn the names of famous people in music, art, poetry, and magic categories. Next is the “I’m Reading” section where they can choose from plays, comics, fiction and nonfiction books, folk tales, Greek myths, and Chinese fables to read.

This website would be useful in any classroom up until grades 5^th or 6^th. I believe it was designed to help children learn to read but also to enhance their reading skills as they mature. Teachers can use this website as extra practice for students having difficulty reading or as a fun activity during free time that will still be beneficial to the student’s education. Students will enjoy using this website because they will see it as a fun activity instead of an assignment.

Internet Diary Entry 1

http://www.bookadventure.com/

This website was created by Sylvan Learning Center to motivate children in grades k-8 to read. It is a free website that allows students to create their own books. After they’ve read the book, they can take quizzes on the book and earn points. Once they have so many points they can win prizes, all while improving their literacy skills. I believe that the main goal of this website is to make reading fun for students so that they will practice and hopefully develop a passion for books.

This website would be great for schools who do not have accelerated reading programs already established. During library time, or free time, the children could read books on the internet and take quizzes on them. The quizzes could count for grades in class or as a separate contest between different classrooms or grades. This would be beneficial to the students because they get to choose the books they want to read, rather than being forced to read something they are not interested in. However, if a teacher wanted everyone to read the same book, they could also do so on this website. This website also offers a teacher guide that helps teachers who want to integrate this program into their classroom. Students who are really into learning can even use this website at home, with their parents permission.

This website would be great for poorer schools because they wouldn’t have to purchase reading materials, everything is on the website for them and everything is free. As an added bonus, they will also become more familiar with using computers as they explore this website.