Critque of 5 Reading Resources

1.       Success Maker: (Pay once for a license- less than a dollar a day per student)

Welcome to Success Maker!. (n.d.). pearsonschool.com: Home. Retrieved November 26, 2012, from http://www.pearsonschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PSZk99

I found this resource while observing the students in my Practicum III mentor teacher’s computer lab classroom at Berlin intermediate School. The fourth grade students were working on their reading skills through interactive and engaging multimedia activities. The strengths of this resource include that it incorporates technology and reading development strategies to create instructional software, so that students are exposed to different methods of reading instruction. Students are also able to work on their reading grade level, but have opportunities to go above the level they are currently on. When a student gets a problem wrong the activity explains the question in another way to give them another opportunity to answer the question.

Also if students have trouble in specific areas of reading the activity finder hones in on those areas to provide more reinforcement activities to help them improve those specific reading skills. Some weakness may include that for each question the students are timed, which may help students with speed, but not accommodate students with extended time on activities. The students are also shown their grade at the end of the reading skills activity and if they get a 75% or higher that means they passed that activity. Some students might be motivated by their grade or discouraged depending upon how well they did that day. I found that most students were actively engaged in this reading program due to the game-like format because these students love to play games.

2.       Reading Fluency Flashcards:  (Price: $9.99)

(2009). Free Printable Reading Activities To Improve Reading Skills. (n.d.). Dyslexia Resource: Free Reading Activities and Help for Educators and Parents. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from http://www.readingresource.net/readingactivities-II.html#activities1

While researching teaching resources for fluency I found this resource on the website http://www.readingresource.net/readingactivities.com.  I used this resource in one of my tutoring sessions to help the 4^th grade student I work with to practice fluency by sounding words out based on what vowels were present, since these words were on a fourth grade reading level. This resource allowed the student to read sight words by knowing what sound certain vowels make. If the student did not pronounce the word on the flashcard correctly I showed him on the back the vowels in the word that determine what sound they make in the word. The student then had another opportunity to read the sight word using what sound he knows the vowels in the word make.

Some strengths of this resource include that it helps students read sight words by sound and provides a quick and easy way for students to practice their decoding skills. A weakness of this resource is that before this resource is implemented students need prior knowledge of vowel sounds, whether it has a long sound, short sound, or remains silent.

3.       Timed Reading Chart (Free)

Bosone, K., Lee, J., & Roderick, M. (2003, May 24). Reading Fluency. Utah Education Network. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=3820

I found this resource on the website www.uen.org. This resource was implemented during one of my tutoring sessions because these reading charts can be a useful resource for students in Kindergarten through 6^th grade to practice their reading fluency.  I was able to use this timed reading chart to record how many words my student can read in a minute. In fourth grade student should be reading about 93 words per minute, when I recorded the student that I work with his fluency was recorded at 43 words per minute.

A strength of this timed reading chart is that it allowed me to compare if my student improved in fluency from one reading to the next using the same fluency passage.  I didn’t find a specific weakness of this timed reading chart. It is a valuable resource that allows teachers to evaluate student progress pertaining to reading fluency.

4.       Lanternfish Phonics Worksheets and Teaching Resources (Free)

(2007). Initial Sounds: Phonics Worksheets. (n.d.). ESL Teacher Resources, Job Boards, and Worksheets. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from http://bogglesworldesl.com/initial_sounds.htm

I found this worksheet on the website http://bogglesworldesl.com/phonics.htm. This website included numerous phonics worksheets, games, and engaging activities. This resource expands students decoding skills using games, such as bingo and word searches that students find interesting. These phonics activities are used for students at a primary education level when these phonics/decoding skills are critical for reading development. Its strengths are that teachers are given a variety of materials that include many different instructional methods pertaining to improvement in phonemic awareness. A weakness would be that this resource only focus on phonics skills, but does little to improve other reading skills at a primary education level.

5.       Reading Fluency Passages (Free)

(2012). Fluency Practice - Mrs. Warner's 4th Grade Classroom. (n.d.). Mrs. Warner's 4th Grade Classroom - Home. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from http://mrswarnerarlington.weebly.com/fluency-practice.html

This resource was found on Mrs. Warner’s 4^th Grade Classroom website. This website included a variety of fluency reading passages for fourth graders ranging easy, average, and advanced. These passages help with reader fluency, as well as ask comprehension questions following the passage. The passages also range in topic, so during one of my tutoring sessions my student had a choice on what topic he was interested in reading. When a student chooses a topic they are interested about they gain a greater motivation to read.

He chose to read a story about summer camp and I read the passage first to model how the passage should be read, then he read the passage. I timed him reading the passage to evaluate his reading fluency and asked him two comprehension questions after his reading. Its strengths are that there are a variety of reading levels within each grade level and topics that interest the students. Also the reading passages are long enough so that students can’t memorize them, but not too long that they lose interest. A weakness of these reading passages is that they are aimed for students in the third and fourth grade, so they are not available on this website to all grade levels.