Star Fall

           Star Fall (http://www.starfall.com/) is a free website that young children can use to practice and learn reading. The owner of Star Fall, Stephen Schutz, struggled with reading in his childhood. He created the website to motivate kids that reading can be accomplished and can be fun too! Star Fall promotes collaboration, wonderment, and play. Students are given positive reinforcement to become confident, motivated, and successful readers.

            Star Fall focuses on children to read with phonics. It primarily focuses on children who are in preschool, kindergarten, 1^st grade, 2^nd grade, and special education students. Resources like animated songs, mathematics, and reading activities are also included in Star Fall. In addition, Star Fall is divided into four levels based on a child’s ability to read. The levels are ABCs, Learn to Read, It’s Fun to Read, and I’m Reading. ABCs level focuses on the alphabet letters and its sounds with a matching image that relates to the letter. Learn to Read mainly focuses on CVC words and blending different letter sounds as one. As a student progresses, he or she can click on It’s Fun to Read and create a short story about different topics like All About Me and Magic. There are also mini stories about music and art, riddles, poetry, and tongue twisters that student can practice on. Lastly, the fourth level called I’m Reading provides interesting reading materials that students can read such as fiction and nonfiction books, folk tales, comics, Greek myths, and Chinese fables.

            Overall, Star Fall provides a free and interactive approach to reading. It is a great way for students to practice and improve their reading independently. Because it is also featured on mobile devices, parents can easily download the app and have their children read comfortably anywhere they feel fit. Stephen Schutz’ struggles as child made him realize that there are many children are also in the same predicament as him. He believed that by creating Star Fall, he will achieve a world where every kid can and will know how to read.