Guiding Students to Become Successful Readers
When engaging in reading instruction, many teachers tend to seek out printable kids books to provide small group and independent reading practice, but is that enough? We would like to take some time to explore the advantages of digital books in comparison to printable books and provide you with a few ideas to get started.
More than Reading the Text
The goal of the reading journey is to achieve high levels of reading comprehension, knowledge building, and understanding to analyze the text and approach new, more difficult texts in the future. However, traditional printable books tend to limit student engagement with the text. To do so, digital books are the most effective way!
Raz-Plus, for example, offers a library of hundreds of leveled texts that span across a variety of subjects and includes ebook tools to help students further understand and engage with the text:
- Record and listen function allows students to record themselves reading a book and playback their own recording, as well as send these recordings to their teachers to remedy any fluency issues.
- Notes allow students to write questions about the text that come up as they read and provide a space for them to record the main idea of the story or a summary they put together.
- Ejournal feature allows them to reflect on what they’ve read, state quick opinions, or respond to the text, demonstrating their understanding of the text and its meaning.
- Click on a word to receive phonics information, listen to the pronunciation of the word, or view information about that particular vocabulary word to strengthen student understanding.
Guiding all Phases of the Reading Journey
Outside of providing digital tools to dissect the text, digital reading solutions like Raz-Plus offer a variety of assignments, quizzes, and more! Raz-Plus helps students achieve reading comprehension and improved reading performance by offering printable and online assessments and quizzes that promote critical thinking and fully support close reading.
Selecting Reading Material without Hassle
Outside of housing hundreds of high-quality books, Raz-Plus provides personalized reading recommendations that are standards-aligned, developmentally appropriate, printable, and available online. This time-saving feature truly makes it possible for differentiated reading instruction and ensures that each student is both challenged by and interested in the material they’ve been assigned.
Digital Book Examples to Replace Printable Books
Now that you’ve seen the advantages of using digital books over printable books, we’d love to provide you with a list of the top books available within Raz-Plus, our comprehensive, award-winning literacy solution.
Abby and Zots
Genre: Fantasy (fiction)
Level: C
Abby and Zots is a story about a girl and her best friend from outer space. This simple and delightful story offers students the opportunity to practice the skill of comparing and contrasting. The colorful illustrations, high-frequency words, and repetitive sentence structure support early emergent readers. The book can also be used to teach students how to visualize to understand text as well as identify and use periods.
Let’s Carve a Pumpkin
Genre: How to (nonfiction)
Level: E
Pumpkin carving is a favorite fall tradition. Let’s Carve a Pumpkin explains the steps involved in this fun craft with simple sentences and helpful illustrations. Emergent readers can use the pictures and prior knowledge of the subject to decode the text. Students will also learn about sequencing events.
I’m the Small One
Genre: Realistic (fiction)
Level: M
I’m the Small One is the story of Sophie, a second-grader who feels frustrated because she is so small. After hating her size and failing in her attempts to grow faster, she finally learns that being small has its good points. Colorful illustrations and a funny storyline will help students learn this powerful lesson of self-acceptance–and even self-love. Students will also be able to identify the narrative point of view and retell to better understand the story. The book and lesson are also available for levels J and P.
The Cave of the Lost
Genre: Adventure (fiction)
Level: Q
Another installment of The Hollow Kids series finds Qynn, Sarah, and Jake at the mouth of a mysterious cave. This is no ordinary cave—it’s The Cave of the Lost. After hearing what sounds like crying from deep within, the friends decide to delve into the darkness. With a single flashlight, the children find themselves lost—but not alone. Who is in the cave with them, and will they find their way out? Detailed illustrations support this entertaining and suspenseful text.
As you begin to search for reading material to complement classroom instruction, we encourage you to explore the realm of digital books, as their capabilities far exceed that of printable books.