Fun, Effective Way to Increase Student Literacy

As August approaches (the Sunday of summer!), teachers are beginning to think about the new school year ahead and prep for those busy fall days.

With the increasing rigor of statewide tests like the STAAR in Texas, it’s good to have some apps and games in your back pocket to motivate students to keep refining their skills outside of the classroom. It can be hard to tell what apps and games are the most engaging and fun to use while still remaining highly educational, so to help you out we have included some must play games below.

Reading Eggs 

Reading Eggs is a great company that offers a variety of apps for children ages two through thirteen. They cover phonics, spelling, comprehension, and even have apps for math and science, as well. The game motivates children to explore their lessons by using fun games, catchy songs, and reward systems such as the coveted golden eggs.

Skybrary

is brought to you by the same folks behind Reading Rainbow! LeVar Burton continues to guide children through a curated library that includes hundreds of digitized books. The library includes video field trips, interactive pages, and a parent dashboard to track student use and progress.

Squiggle Park

Squiggle Park helps students ages three to eight improve their reading skills inside and outside of the classroom. The game features a group of friendly monsters who will guide your students on a fun, engaging reading journey.

The variety of short minigames available with modern eye catching graphics makes it hard to put down. Built by literacy experts and teachers to align with curriculum goals, it’s the perfect way to get your students to choose to practice their reading on their own!

Dreamscape 

Dreamscape is an app designed for students ages eight to twelve, and is the next phase of Squiggle Park. It provides a game atmosphere similar to that of Clash of Clans, with base building and battling. Along with is gamified style of play, the app is integrated with reading comprehension passages and a variety of question types. Best of all, it’s 100% free!

Download Dreamscape today using the link below to start improving your student literacy rates in the most fun, engaging way possible!

https://www.squigglepark.com/dreamscape/

Cait Levin is Director of Research and Instructional Technology at an independent school in Boston. She completed her BA at Barnard College and her MA at Middlebury. She has held a variety of roles at schools, including overseeing writing centers, advising, collaborating with faculty on instructional design and technology, and classroom teaching. She has taught elementary, middle, and high school courses in English, history, entrepreneurship, and design thinking. She also works with edtech companies to discover strategies for best practices when collaborating with teachers. You can find her on twitter @CaitLevin