Internet Resources for Reading

 

Research	Organizations & School Systems	Resources for Kids, Parents, & Teachers	Commercial Sites
The book Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, edited by Snow, Burns, & Griffin (1999), presents the research of the National Research Council Committee on the Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children. The book can be ordered from or read online at National Academy Press.	The International Dyslexia Association website contains an update of current research on reading.	The PBL website Between the Lions contains some great reading activities for young children.	Website for Wilson Language Training, a multisensory structure language program.
The site of the National Reading Panel contains the controversial research-based findings of the panel.The panel produced two reports and a video and served as the basis for President Bush's initiative on teaching reading.	The International Reading Association website contains articles from the following journals: The Reading Teacher, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, and Reading Today. Click on Article Archive on the Navigation Bar.	LDonline has activities just for kids. Click on KidZone in the Navigator Bar and check out Read Up! and Interact Up!	Lindamood Bell website for phonemic awareness program for reading, spelling, and speech.
The article, Teaching Children to Read: The Fragile Link Between Science and Federal Education Policy, in Education Policy Analysis Archives challenges the findings of the National Reading Panel.	The National Center for Learning Disabilities website has a selection of research papers on reading. Click on Research News on the Navigation Bar.	Reading Rockets is a national multimedial project that looks at how children learn to read. In includes a 5-part PBS series called Reading Rockets: Launching Young Readers.	Scholastic's Wiggle Works is an award-winning reading software program for beginning readers. Download a free demo.
The Reading First Initiative: Cautions & Recommendations is a critique of the research findings of the National Reading Panel. One of the authors, Joanne Yatvin, was a member of the NRP. The other authors are Constance Weaver and Elaine Garan.	Reading for the Blind & Dyslexic is a 50-year-old non-profit organization serving persons with visual impairments and dyslexia. It provides audio books on a broad range of topics. There is a membership fee.	ReadingLady.com is a resource and support site for educators who want to interact with other educators in the discussion of the teaching of literacy.	Leap Frog School House offers multisensory literacy learning tools for grades PreK-8. Curriculum and assessment products available.
Reading for Understanding: Toward an R & D Program in Reading Comprehension contains the research report of the Rand Reading Study Group on reading comprehension.	The State Library of NC's Library for Blind and Physically Handicapped will provide equipment as well as audiobooks for persons with reading disabilities that are medically based.	Four Blocks was developed by teachers for teachers. It consists of 4 different approaches to teaching reading.	Great Leaps addresses reading, math, and writing fluency. Reading fluency is addressed at the phonics, phrase, and story reading levels.
Reading Software for Students with Learning Disabilities: Hypermedia-Based Children's Literature is an excellent overview of reading software programs.	Talking Tapes/Textbooks on Tape is a non-profit organization that services those who have difficulty with printed material. There is no charge to have books taped. There is no membership fee but there are rental and purchase fees (small).	Online Reading Resources contains resources for teachers, including downloadable Scaffolded Reading Experiences (SREs), story maps, and high-interest, easy reading book series.	Fast ForWord are brain research-based, interactive products for all ages that develop the language and listening skills necessary for reading.
The ldonline website contains up-to-date research articles on reading. Click on LD In Depth on the Navigator Bar and then select the topic Reading. More research can be found by clicking on For Teachers in the Navigation Bar.	Bookshare.org has membership available to those who have a visual impairment, learning disabilities, or are mobility impaired. There is a charge for membership.	On Awesome Talking Library, you can download (free) Awesome Talkster, a synchronized highlighter to use for students to improve their reading skills. The AwesomeTalkster is used with books from the Awesome Talking Library.	Read Naturally is a fluency-building program for struggling readers that includes screening and progress-monitoring tools.
The National Research Center on English Leaning and Achievement site has recent research articles on literacy. Click on CELA Research on the Navigation Bar. Effective Integrated Language Arts Instruction (Grade 1-4) and Features of Exemplary Middle and High School Instruction are of particular interest.	The Internet Public Library is a public service organization housed at the University of Michigan School of Information. It provides a wealth of information categorized by content areas. It even has audio and video files to help struggling readers.	english companion.com is high school teacher and author Jim Burke's website designed as a resource for his students as well as other teachers. The site has some good links for reading and writing.	Students receive immediate feedback on their oral reading with Soliloquy Reading Assistant which uses speech recognition technology.
	The Sarasota County Public Schools's website Meeting the Secondary Reading Challenge: Interdisciplinary Reading in the Content Areas has reading strategies for vocabulary building, graphic organizers, and note-taking, among others.	The American Library Association Resource Page contains some good links to websites and recommended reading for kids, teens, and parents.	The National Reading Style Institute has children read with audiobooks to improve fluency. Books can be purchased from the institute or recorded by the teacher.
	The Schools of California Online Resources for Education provides a teacher activity bank with lessons on phonological awareness, graphic organizers, rubrics, types of journals, and other valuable resources for teachers.	Reviewers at Children's Literature read and review more than 3,000 books annualy to help teachers, librarians, and parents make appropriate choices. Reviews are organized into such categories as women scientists, famous African Americans, and space exploration.	Tom Snyder Productions develops educational software for K-12 classrooms. A 30-day trial CD of Reading for Meaning, a program designed to improve reading comprehension, can be downloaded.
		The Content Literacy Information Consortium at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education has a wealth of information on instructional strategies appropriate for students with learning disabilities. Click on the Instructional Strategies link.	IntelliTools Reading: Balanced Literacy, a technology program designed for special education students, incorporates key elements of reading.
		Teachers looking for newspaper resources for the classroom should visit CNN Student News where they will find stories appropriate for middle and high school students. Each story has a lesson plan, a discussion topic, or an activity. Audio files are also available from http://www.cnn.com (search for audio files).	Don Johnston provides reading, writing, word study, and computer access products for struggling students and students with disabilities.
			textHELP develops PC software products to improve reading and writing skills of persons with learning disabilities. Their products include such features as speech, talking phonetic spell checker, homophones, and audible word prediction.
			Kurzweil 3000 is a scanning and reading program for people with learning disabilities or reading difficulties. It is available for PC or Mac.
			Audible.com is a commercial site where you can download audiobooks, listen to them on the computer, burn them to CDs, or transfer them to Pocket PCs or MP3s.
			AGS publishes lower reading level textbooks for struggling readers and high interest/low reading level books, including the Illustrated Classics. Teachers can request sample copies.